"When I think about my life source, I think about my heart bursting from my chest," said artist Jordan Eagles in an interview with The Huffington Post. "That's what I wanted to capture with my work."
In his new exhibit "Haemoscuro," showing now at Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, Eagles uses animal blood to create vibrant, abstract panels that appear to glow from within. (Fret not, PETA: all blood used in his art is procured from a slaughterhouse.)
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"The project started in college," explained Eagles to HuffPost. "I was experimenting with philosophical questions about spirit and mortality." In his experimentation, Eagles made four pieces using blood, but found that the color faded over time.
"I wanted to find a way to preserve it," he said. "Which opened a new set of questions about preserving one's spirit." Through years of trial and error, Eagles finally created a method to permanently encase blood in plexiglass and UV resin. The result: a dazzling collection of vibrant and haunting glass works nearly exploding with light.
In some pieces, blood is smeared across towering panes of glass. In others, medical gauze painted across the canvas causes blood to soak and separate. And in some, blood infused with copper makes the medium even more electric.
But perhaps most fascinating is the revelation of blood's obscure properties within each piece: its woozy ripples, its dried crackles and chips and its dazzling spectrum from rusty browns and oranges to pulsating crimson reds.
"When lit, the works become translucent, cast shadows and project a glow, appearing as if they are illuminated from within," said Eagles. "The materials and luminosity in these bodies of work relate to themes of corporeality, mortality, spirituality and science – invigorating blood as sublime."
Check out some of Eagles's works in the slideshow below, and see the exhibit in person at Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art through May 25:
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