Chris Jordan: 'In Katrina's Wake' photography opening at Kopeikin Gallery

 

For those interested in art, in social issues, in the rapid decline of the American empire, and in pretty (though sad) photographs -- oh, and free cheap booze -- check out the opening this Saturday evening at the Paul Kopeikin Gallery, located at the 6150 Wilshire Blvd. gallery complex.

Photographer Chris Jordan's previous work dealt with manmade landscapes composed of urban detritus and the vestiges of mass consumption, with haunting images of unimaginably large piles of discarded cell phones, crushed cars, recycling yards filled for infinite distances with broken glass; objects we probably throw away on a daily basis without a thought or care.

In his latest show, however, we see something different: photographs of the remnants of homes, of belongings, of things left behind unwillingly by the victims of hurricane Katrina, not because they were trading up, but because they had no choice. In their state of decomposition and abandonment, these weathered objects and places tell the story of the have-nots, of people who can't simply consume and discard, but who might have had very little to begin with before the tragedy of losing not just their possessions or heirlooms, but their entire communities.

It would be nice to think that a few years from now we might see another set of photographs, from Jordan or others, showing a rebirth of New Orleans -- not in a Disney/42nd Street/ersatz kind of way, but in those small details Jordan captures so strikingly -- just as we're sure to see images of Lower Manhattan coming back to life (replete with a Starbucks and Banana Republic on every other block, and the requisite bronze statues commemorating firefighters or Giuliani). But since investment banks and the NYSE were not the main residents of the Lower Ninth Ward or Jefferson Parish, among other Leftie reasons I will refrain from spouting here, I suspect that things might look like they do in Jordan's images for quite some time.






In Katrina's Wake: Photography by Chris Jordan
Paul Kopeikin Gallery
6150 Wilshire Blvd.
September 9th, 2006, 8PM