Linda Marcus
Playing and exploring is what Jordan Martins wants viewers to do when they encounter his work. The Chicago based artist, curator, musician and educator works in collage and pushes photography and painting in unexpected ways to propel collage in new directions. Martins says, “I wanted to create a painting that is on the brink of collapse or the brink of form but sort of evading form at the same time.”
Martins interest in camouflage and concealment began during his pursuit of BFA in painting at the Universidad Federal da Bahia in Salvador Brazil. He was frustrated by the constraints of painting and that’s when he added photography to the process. ”There was a symbiotic relationship with what I wanted to do with painting and what I was doing with photography,” according to Martins.
Rather than working with appropriated books and magazines for his work, Martins made his own photographs and then appropriated them from himself. Martins then rips up the printed photos, scans them into a scanner and paints over the printed result or prints them on a canvas and paints over them. “You can make camouflage patterns by making otherwise somewhat bold marks that allow the camouflage to blend in with a background or integrate with a background and destroy the outline of the form”, according to Martins.
His most recent body of work came after spotting handmade signs outside several Latin grocery stores around Chicago. Martins says the small outdoor sandwich board signs are very specific to the area. “I was impressed by the mark making, the personality and expression. There were so many painterly qualities drawn as a collage material. If you didn’t read the information you sort of knew what they were communicating and I took them and made a camouflage.”
Much of Martins inspiration comes from intricacies of nature and genetics. “I see the patterns and colors akin to nature where bold color or patterns are used to signal things, either suitability for mating or being poisonous or beautiful”, says Martins. It’s a constantly evolving process. “I’m very interested in this idea of a reiterative loop , something that gets created and funneled through the process and gets split back out and then funnel back in. I’m also interested in repetition of these forms popping up in multiple places with slight variations.”
These works called “Phenotypes”, taking after the literal meaning of the word which is ‘a set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment’. Looking at them one can see the relation says Martins.” I use the term ‘promiscuity’ to describe it. The images kind of cycle around and get used in a bunch of different processes. ”A scanned collage might show up in 5 paintings and the colors in a scanned collage might shift.”
Martins says viewing his work creates a kind of dance between the viewer and the art. Martins say it can be tough for the viewer to decipher because the imagery isn’t easily resolved. Martins says it’s like what happens in nature. “ I like to imagine that painting is also a species.” And with each iteration of Martins’ collages he challenges the brain to think differently. “I hope for some sense of recognition for the visual senses operating. We tend to think in our daily lives that vision is neutral or passive, but in reality our brains are constantly listening to structures and visual experiences to throw things out and to recognize patterns.” Martins himself keeps evolving and curating and working on new work and showing in previously unthinkable spaces like that of a curator’s back porch. Martins says all of these different outlets keeps his mind engaged with the work. He says that kind of engagement is what is art is all about. “ All visual art is a moment for us to feel that process consciously.”
Visit www.jordanmartins.com to see more work and connect on Instagram at @jordandmartins