Arts Features
Art in the blood: Jordan Eagles' unconventional medium
By April MacIntyre Jan 3, 2012, 21:21 GMT
Eagles has been using and preserving animal blood in his multi-media portfolio, using artistic expression to explore themes of life, regeneration and the metaphysical connections between body, mind and environment.
New York City artist Jordan Eagles creates stunningly vivid and arresting art, using a medium that is unconventional to say the least.
Eagles has been using and preserving animal blood in his multi-media portfolio, using artistic expression to explore themes of life, regeneration and the metaphysical connections between body, mind and environment.
Eagles' technique is unusual, in that he preserves the blood on Plexiglas within layers of resin, suspending the organic medium’s fluid forms under the resin’s glass-like surface.
The ranges of all the reds, from cool wine tones, vivid Cadmium, to red-orange tones are framed with earthen tones, neutral blacks in an energetic presentation.
Quoted by Patrajdas.com, Eagles says: "In the presence of light, the translucency of the blood is revealed under and between multiple layers of clear resins. An additional UV coating is applied to each piece to ensure the archival life of the organic material. The multi-dimensionality of each piece retains and vibrates the light, illuminating pools of reds/blacks and proteins with sealed-in air bubbles; simultaneously one could be viewing microscopic, cellular details as well as large scale photographic images of planets."
A New York Times' Critics' Pick, Jordan says, "I have been using blood in my work for almost a decade. Although my techniques and aesthetic are continuously evolving, the underlying themes remain constant and continue to inspire me in fresh directions. In this new series, I allow the forms and materiality to stand at the forefront, presenting an unbiased reflection of mortality, spirituality and infinity, while still offering the viewer space for a visceral and primal response."
The usage of blood was a symbolic choice of medium that suited Eagles' style. "By using and preserving blood from an expired source in a new, regenerative context, my works celebrate the rebirth process that I believe the body-spirit undergoes once life, as we know it, has ceased. The resulting works become moments frozen in time, suggesting that our body-spirits exist in a multitude of physical and spiritual forms – continuums that transcend our individual lives only to be reborn as something different, something new, something that is part of who we already were."
