By Leah Ollman
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Why stop at 50? As Dan Mills points out in the mock manifesto accompanying his terrific show at Sherry Frumkin, these United States of ours cohered over time—starting with 16 territories in the 18th century, adding 29 in the 19th, and five more in the 20th. "As we consider U.S. history," he writes, "a pattern of expanding by at least five states every fifty years exists, with the exception of the last fifty or so. We clearly having some catching up to do.
Wonderfully ludicrous in its entirety, the project is frighfully credible in its details. Mills exaggerates to the point of parody opportunistic foreign policy doctrines already in place—at least those that prevailed during the dark, greedy heart of the Bush era PARTISAN POLITICS, the years Mills compiled this “Atlas of Global Imperialism.” The work reeks of truth and shimmers with humor.
—Leah Ollman
