_the california sun was all i had for breakfast and it burned my eyes
-
Invisible Cities
24x36 inches. The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on paper
-
In The Heart Of Light A Silence
24x36 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on paper
-
Valerie
24x36 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on paper
-
Deserter Song
24x36 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on paper
-
Burning The Years
24x36 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on paper
-
Change of Heart
24x36 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on paper
-
Dawn, 14x18 inches
14x18 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
A Moment of Forever
14x18 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs shot in Claude Monet's Garden in Giverny and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Los Angeles After The Rain
14x18 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs shot in Downtown Los Angeles and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Afterhours on Sunset
11x14 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs shot on the Sunset Boulevard on canvas
-
Borders of Heaven
11x14 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Empty Eden, 11x14 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs shot throughout Los Angel
11x14 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
La Secrets de la Lune
11x14 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Last Call At The Rainbow Room
11x14 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Night Swimming At Hotel Eternity
11x14 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Ghosts on Pink Street, 9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs shot in Lisbon
9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs shot in Lisbon and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Last
9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
April in Lisbon, 9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic frag
9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Cocaine Sunrise
9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs shot on Hollywood Boulevard and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Afterlife (for Hirokazu Kore-Eda)
9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Fragments of Youth
9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
The Only Moment We Were Alive
9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Carnation Revolution
9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs shot in Lisbon on Freedom Day and photographic fragments on canvas
-
The Lost Weekend
9x12 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Moving to California
14x18 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs shot in California's Central Valley and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Fall To Winter, 14x18 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic frag
14x18 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Winter Sea
11x14 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Spring Snow
11x14 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Trash In Heaven
30x50 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
Where The Sea Pours Into The Stars
16x24 inches, The backs of weathered and destroyed photographs and photographic fragments on canvas
-
The Bad Years
36x54 inches, Photo transfers and photographic fragments on book cloth
-
Los Angeles Wildfires
36x54 inches, Photo transfers and photographic fragments on book cloth
Jordan Sullivan’s upcoming exhibition, ”The California Sun Was All I Had For Breakfast, And It Burned My Eyes”, is composed of redemptive pieces; things made from failures through a process open to destruction and mistakes. Jordan prints each photograph on a basic office printer, the lo-fi nature of the prints is a decisive gesture against the image as a precious object. Each print is then saturated with chemicals, left in the rain, and manipulated by hand. This cumulative process results in the colors of the images seeping into the backs of the prints. The images are then flipped over, cut-up, and reassembled. From these photographs of physical landscapes, psychological spaces begin to emerge. Abstract fragments and scraps of opaque evidence recall open-ended moments from Jordan’s lived experience. All that is seen of the original photographic base is the hazy nebula of colors that have bled onto the backs of each print.
Drawing from a lost and destructive time in Los Angeles, Jordan reshapes traditional diaristic photographs and representational moments in a linear format into revisionist abstractions. The bleeding assemblages preserve Jordan’s personal experience within cities and landscapes, allowing for concrete moments and memories to become the origin points for the resulting abstractions. The highly performative, action-based process of destroying images to create new ones mirrors the failures of his own life. In a sense, the creation of each work is an attempt by Jordan to grant himself a second chance or to mine for meaning and clarity from a series of broken moments.
The landscape image has become a banal trope in contemporary visual culture, functioning as a backdrop for the performative self. Not unlike constructed studio sets, landscapes have taken on a malleable quality rendering them surreal and repetitive. Jordan explores the latent meanings, both historical and personal within his own archive of landscape photographs. The mythical Monet’s Garden is tempered by the modesty of Jordan’s backyard in Ohio, while the murky surface of the Detroit River with its storied history is presented alongside domestic and nocturnal scenes from LA. This fluid interchange and collaging of sites invites a spiritual examination of a landscape as a mediated space where one becomes a mental visitor not only to a place but to the fragmented moments of a life.