I try to keep it upbeat here at the Salad–offering suggestions for positive changes and new ways to imagine raw materials for arts and crafts. Then I come across something that just has to be shared, something I find scary and shaming. Photographer and artist Chris Jordan’s work “Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait” is a series of pieces depicting what we use and buy. Like this photo of the 2 million plastic beverage bottles we use every 5 minutes in this country. Every 5 minutes. It depicts a sea of plastic–a sea that is re-created 12 times every hour.
Or this piece that shows the 1.14 million brown paper bags we use every hour.
Here’s what Chris Jordan, the artist, told The Global Intelligencer: “My underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.”
All I can think is, “Why do we do this and how can we stop?”
