"Although Jordan Eagles has been creating works using donated blood and medical waste since the 1990s, his interests counteract the shock-baiting machismo one might expect from that description. Eagles has long centred blood's life-giving properties, spiritual dimension and symbolism of US health policies that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people."
"Three bodies of work emerged from his exploration: riffs on large-scale reproductions of New York Post covers about the team; cast-resin sculptures in the shape of home plate loaded with blood, family artefacts and clinical scraps; and T-shirts given to blood donors at the Mets ballpark that Eagles cropped, splashed with blood from HIV-positive gay men and arranged by colour into orange and grey factions. The results infuse stadium-sized themes with a new intimacy."
"I was biking in summer 2023, and I saw someone in the opposite bike lane wearing a shirt that said: "The Mets are in our blood." I was like: "Oh my God, what is that?" So I turned my bike around, chased this person down and asked where he got the shirt. He was like: "They were giving them out at Citi Field when I gave blood.""
"I went on eBay that night and bought a shirt, innocently thinking I would cut it up into a studio workshirt. But I ultimately threw it in my closet and forgot about it until opening day of the 2024 season. The Mets got rained out, so their first game ended up being on Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified. Previous projects I've done revolved around Salvator Mundi and Jesus as the world's greatest blood donor. I realised this was meant to be an artwork."
Jordan Eagles has created works using donated blood and medical waste since the 1990s, focusing on blood’s life-giving properties, spiritual dimension, and the symbolism of US health policies that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. In Bases Loaded at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, he connects personal history and American cultural polarization through lifelong fandom of the New York Mets. The exhibition includes works based on large-scale reproductions of New York Post covers about the team, cast-resin sculptures shaped like home plate filled with blood, family artifacts, and clinical scraps, and cropped Mets blood-donor T-shirts splashed with blood from HIV-positive gay men and arranged by color into orange and grey factions. The resulting pieces combine stadium themes with personal intimacy.
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