Clare Stimpson

We are a restless people, prone to encroachment, impatient of the ordinary laws of progress…We boast of our rapid growth, forgetting that throughout nature, noble growths are slow… It is full time that we should lay on ourselves serious, resolute restraint. Possessed of a domain, vast enough for the growth of ages, it is time for us to stop in the career of acquisition and conquest.

- William E. Channing, 1837

This work is an exploration of the repeating past of America and Manifest Destiny through direct comparison between government image archives, collage, appropriation, and by creating imagined spaces, lands, and objects.

It is inherent within human nature to explore, discover, and wonder what lies just beyond the horizon. Quickly following discovery and expansion is the desire to dominate and the demonstrate power over native landscape, people, and culture. The shape and mentality of America was built upon the ideals of the Western Frontier and Manifest Destiny.

Historically, the United States government has used science and exploration as a disguise for the harvesting and desolation of natural resources and the conquering of native people, specifically the confinement of Native Americans during the geological surveys of the West in the late 1800s. The protocols and mistakes made during the surveys are being echoed in the Space Frontier. Extraterrestrial alien life found in space is subsequently treated in a way that mirrors the treatment of Native Americans.

The fantasy space of the Universe is being harvested, commercialized, privatized, and profited on by private agencies. How does one own space that belongs to no one?