Dan Mills: US Future States Atlas
| “US Future States Atlas:
An Atlas of Global Imperialism” March 29-May 22, 2010 |
Brown Bag illustrated artist’s talk
Dan Mills
Tuesday, April 13, Followed by a book signing. |
 Dan Mills, US Future States ATLAS, USArctica |
Dan Mills’s atlas is a satirical and provocative commentary on American foreign policy.
Mills’s piece US Future States Atlas began as a visual-and-text response to US foreign policy in early March 2003—a time when the United States was in Afghanistan and preparing to invade Iraq. “By conceptually pushing this global stance a little further,” Mills discovered, “it was possible to justify taking over almost any country.” So he did. Through 2007 Mills created a series of 50 maps of countries the United States could invade and then annex as additional states. Starting with actual map pages, he used collage, mixed-media, and additional text outlining the economy, resources, and rationale for the takeover. Along the way he explored the bias in mapmaking, providing a visual critique of the belief that maps are accurate and objective representations. |
 Dan Mills, US Future States ATLAS, New Cuba |
US Future States ATLAS, a beautifully illustrated book, was published by Perceval Press in 2009.
Copies are available for purchase in the gallery ($35.00). The artist is available to sign copies after the talk on April 13. |
 Dan Mills, US Future States, Bushland (detail) |
Artist Dan Mills is director of the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University in Lewisburg Pa. He has long been interested in cartography, maps, and how maps present information. Mills has curated a number of exhibition that have traveled throughout the U.S and abroad. He served as guest curator for the 2008 exhibition at the Williams Center Gallery, LOOK AT ME! The Performative Aspects in Chinese Photography. |
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Reviews describes the works as “wonderfully ludicrous in its entirely… frightfully credible in its details,” and “brilliant, scary, and intelligent.” |