To us grandchildren of the moon landing, who grew up with dreams of becoming astronauts, the new wave of privately financed space travel is both thrilling and troubling. When riding a rocket becomes an experience you can pay for rather than an honor earned through virtue, will we dream of wealth in place of excellence? Will we still imagine of ourselves as a community joined to aim at the stars? Taking the form of a quilt of hand-dyed, printed, and painted felt, Privatize the Dream draws on legends of the space race, the snuggly tangibility of warm and welcoming sheets, and the anxieties of nationalism, charismatic capitalism, and the lure of the void to provoke a layered reflection on the future of our aspirations and the nation we’ve imagined ourselves to be. What happens when we sell the stuff of our dreams?
— Lane Sell, 2017
Quilt of indigo-dyed and painted felt panels, etching printed on muslin, hand and machine stitching. 48” x 40”
Two-color etching with aquatint. 15” x 9”.