The Exactitude of Sciences, 2025
Limestone, clay, silica sand, magnetite, chromium, magnesium oxide, lunar regolith, Martian regolith simulant, silicone, meteorites, found images, graphite, colored pencil, bismuth, resin, archival digital prints, wax pastel, and archival digital prints on silk
SAIC Flaxman Library collection
“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?
Sarah Belknap and Joseph Belknap are partners, interdisciplinary artists and educators. Stretching and playing with pareidolia and mythology, their work draws on the cosmos, deep time, conspiracy theories, science, and speculative fiction.
Working as a team since 2008, their art has been exhibited in Chicago, San Franscisco, LA, Brooklyn, Detroit, Columbus, Minneapolis, Kansas City and St. Louis. In addition, they have presented performances, public programs and workshops at institutions throughout Chicago, including the Chicago Cultural Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Links Hall, and the MCA. Their work has been shown in many group exhibitions and solo shows including: SFAI Galleries,the Columbus Museum of Art , The Arts Club of Chicago, the Chicago Artists’ Coalition, Western Exhibitions, Comfort Station, and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Their work has been published in many journals including ‘After Image’ and the Chicago Tribune and books; most recently, ‘Weather as Medium’ by Janine Randerson, in the Leonardo Series through MIT Press.