Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Text by Mary Birmingham

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, Jordan Eagles explores ideas about transformation, death and rebirth. Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels to permanently fix its natural colors, patterns, and textures, and often adds copper to impart a fiery energy. When lit, the translucent works seem to glow from within, and as a group they create a sublime environment that envelopes and engages the viewer.

The exhibition title refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works suggest solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites and celestial explosions, as well as organs of the body. Red Giant draws an effective parallel between the inner and outer worlds of human bodies and heavenly bodies, and invites each of us to contemplate our own place in the Universe.