“I wish somebody would go up there and clean it up,” Neil Armstrong said of the footprints left in perpetuity on the Moon.

A visual erasing of human conquest to colonize Earth’s moon and Mars as told by National Geographic. A series of large format prints, cyanotypes, and sculptural collages that focus on a fictional history in which we went to the moon not to conquer, colonize, and extract but to observe and contemplate. 

We thought about surrender. Surrendering to Nature, to the cosmos. All astronauts have been altered by their ability to have the in-body experience of seeing the planet from greater and greater distances and horizons. Scientists and popular culture have also expanded our universal position in space-time. We thought about the excitement that used to surround humanity, understanding and exploring deep into the origins and nature of our current model of the universe. Inspired by thinkers and writers who re-envision our grinding drive to extract and perpetuate the disease of inequality and harm to each other, our planet, and more than human kin. Surrender. What of our progress? Many are of the moon and of humans' exploration of it as we find ourselves in the grips. We give pause to the reflection on our ideas of heroism. What of the kindness of a stranger?


The Exactitude of Sciences

2025
Limestone, clay, silica sand, magnetite, chromium, magnesium oxide, found images, lunar regolith, Martian regolith simulant, silicone, meteorites, found images, graphite, colored pencil, bismuth, resin, archival digital prints, wax pastel, and powder coated steel
10 IN X 7 IN





Installation for Chicago Cluster Project @ former Hedrich & Blessing Photographers, 400 N. Peoria. 2025


Sarah and Joseph BelknapWe eat the moon2025