Mothership (Capsule)

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

An abstracted replica of the NASA Mercury space capsule. The sculpture is made from pieces of tin that were salvaged from structures in and around Baltimore, Maryland, and re-purposed lumber gathered from President Obama’s 2009 inaugural platform. The sculpture is displayed angled onto its side. Inserted into the top of the sculpture is an Altec (R) model 416-8A sub-woofer speaker, and the base of the sculpture is a 24" chrome alloy (wheel) rim. In the interior of the sculpture is a Philips DVD player (HTS3371D), with a Philips audio cable connecting the player to the speaker, and a remote to control the player externally. A DVD plays from inside the sculpture on a loop, bass tones only: “Space is the Place” by Sun Ra and “Living in the City” by Stevie Wonder.

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