Sandra Jordan
Sandra Jordan explores beauty through the device of architecture. Although her subject choices are based upon a gut reaction, the proliferation of Brutalist and Modernist buildings carry a special attraction to Jordan – whose notions of beauty could be described as unconventional. Responding to the societal median of aesthetics whereby magazines retouch women to unnatural and often unachievable ‘ideal’ valuing only the external above all else. Society’s obsession with the surface valued above all else is a skewed norm – one that ignores the character and strength of people to its detriment. Jordan is concerned with what lies beneath, delving deeper and reaching beyond the accepted standardised prettification.
Her buildings are those that are often ignored - although lived in by many – however, barely noticed at all, for many just big slabs of concrete in their own natural urban habitat. In Jordan’s eyes they are full of enticing repetitive shapes within shapes, different units with their own individualities, almost human-like, akin to the details perceived when looking more closely at a crowd. What originates simply as a mass then becomes an assemblage of elements all with their own intricacies and details. To Jordan, ‘they communicate strength, honesty, rawness, rebelling against the norm, not pandering to society, quietly dominating the sky patiently waiting to be seen'. There is boldness to Jordan's choices as well as the buildings themselves, often muted, always uncompromising. Her stark unflinching façades against grey expanses of sky sets each ‘character’ apart. In doing so Jordan creates space for her buildings to breathe in their environment, reflecting her belief that we all need space to ‘just be’.