Polestar portraits with cultural tastemaker Jordan ‘Watts’ Watson
That digitalisation has fundamentally changed our culture has escaped few. With the rise of social media came new mediums, new rules, and new topliners. Through social media, Jordan "Watts" Watson has reshaped the way we consume art in the digital age, gaining cultural phenomenon status along the way. This is his story.
And also, things that not all people would consider art, like memes. But I do.
Love, Watts
Digitalisation has enabled things we never thought possible just a few years ago. It’s opened doors while closing others. It has flipped established concepts on their heads and changed power dynamics, affecting everything from the way we produce cars to how we consume news, art, and spend our free time.
For Jordan – artist, cultural tastemaker, creator and curator of the immensely popular Instagram account Love Watts – the introduction of social media opened up a new world. In this world, he could communicate his views on art and design, eventually reshaping the way we appreciate and redefine what art is.
When Jordan started his project Love Watts over a decade ago, Instagram was a place filled with images of dog walks, plates of food, and coffee cups with friends –– all with a slightly mismatched sepia-tinted filter on top. Being a private person, Jordan felt no desire to share his life in this way. It just didn’t interest him. What did interest him, then and now, was artistic expression in all its forms.
Jordan would soon start using the platform in what was then an unconventional way––sharing other people’s works. He’d use his account as his own personal mood board, posting other artists’ art and creations, doodles, and anything else he found inspiring. “I’d post anything that I thought was interesting – things that made me smile, things that made me cry. Just the whole spectrum,” Jordan comments. “And also, things that not all people would consider art, like memes. But I do.”
Jordan’s taste clearly resonated with his followers, who would encourage him to keep sharing his views on art and design through this new digital medium. Since then, his account has grown into one of the largest of its kind with a staggering 2 million followers.
It's about how it makes you feel. It’s about comfort and functionality. It’s the way that shapes are put together. Polestar 3 is just a beautiful car. It’s like I’m driving a sculpture.
The cultural melting pot that is New York City
Jordan is a native New Yorker, born and raised in Queens, who has lived in most of the city’s boroughs along with spending a large portion of his life abroad. Last year, after a 15-year break from the city of great cuisine and traffic-induced shouting matches, Jordan finally decided to move back to his birthplace. Jordan admits that a lot has changed while he’s been away, but he also points out that the city from two weeks ago won’t look the same as it does today, or two weeks from now. “I happen to love change. It just feels like the city is always evolving in one way or another. This, right now, is just another chapter – and it's just as exciting as it was when I was 10 years old.”
Ask anyone, and they’ll have an idea of what the New York City scene is like, whether they’ve visited or not. Since the dawn of time, we’ve been fed the idea of New York as a city filled with the greatest fashion and art, the best bars, the coolest restaurants, and a continuous stream of people hurrying along the city’s sidewalks. And because of it, many of us have a romantic idea of the city. In essence, it’s the big city of big cities.
Instead of assuming, we wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth, and Jordan would instinctively confirm that the city is all that – and more. “New York is a very special place. You just need to walk outside to see every nationality. Cruising the streets, you’ll hear every genre of music on any given day. You’re just overloaded with creativity on a daily basis,” he confirms.
Just like the Love Watts feed is a mix of all corners and tiers of culture with everything from digital art, memes, and doodles to oil paintings and performance art, so too is New York City’s cultural scene. And just like scrolling for inspiration is a big part of Jordan’s process, so too is moving around the city. “One of my favourite activities is hopping in my car and just hitting the streets for new inspiration, whether it's graffiti, street art, street performances – one of my favourites – I’ll be buzzing around town to get inspired. The talent is just endless in New York City,” Jordan declares.
His trusty companion on these inspirational road trips? The sleek electric performance SUV, Polestar 3. For Jordan, good design is about more than just aesthetics (although that’s not unimportant either). “It's about how it makes you feel. It’s about comfort and functionality. It’s the way that shapes are put together. Polestar 3 is just a beautiful car. It’s like I’m driving a sculpture,” Jordan declares.
Painting visions of the future
Jordan considers himself a “tastemaker for tastemakers.” But beyond creating a new space for enjoying others’ art, Jordan himself is also an artist. And when it comes to creating himself, he’s a traditionalist, working mostly with oil paints on large canvases.
When he paints, he always strives to create something the world has never seen before, which is no easy thing to do within a millennia-old tradition. Jordan has nevertheless found his niche. “I try to paint the future that I would like to see. One that I haven't seen before,” he explains. “I would like the viewers and admirers of my artwork to be like, ‘OK, it’s a simple image, it’s colourful. It feels familiar, but at the same time I’ve never seen anything like this, and these images really don’t exist in society.’” If you’re interested in learning more about Jordan’s journey, join the Love Watts community on Instagram. For those who are interested in exploring Polestar 3, find everything you need to know here.
