Strange Attractions
April 2011
Artist: Jordan Martins
Strange Attractions is a window installation that continues to explore Jordan’s interest in the Chicago tradition of hand-painted, block-letter grocery signs which have come to be associated with Hispanic markets. As in previous installations with this source material, Jordan constructs patterns that simultaneously attract (through expressive gestures and fluorescent colors) and conceal (by extracting the rhythmic patterns from any content). In this sense he sees them relating both to natural camouflage and bright plumage used by animals to attract mates, or broader notions of visual stimuli to affect or sculpt behavior.