We Choose the Moon | 2020
Office paper, acetate vitrine cover, plywood, paint, tape
This work was created by printing out JFK’s 1962 speech “We Choose to go to the Moon” in 12pt Helvetica and cutting it out letter by letter with an Xacto knife. The work took approximately six months to complete. I'm interested in the concept of a speech as an intangible thing that holds immense cultural weight, can create reverberations of power and political ideologies, and yet is so ephemeral.
This particular speech successfully played a crucial role in persuading Americans to support the Apollo space program and its effort to land a man on the moon before the Soviet Union. In it, JFK rhetorically characterized space as a beckoning new frontier, tapping into Americans’ “pioneering spirit” and echoing colonial sentiments of 19th century manifest destiny. The speech may be listened to here.