Mothership (Capsule): Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

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.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 2009
• Created by: Jefferson Pinder, American, born 1970
• Subject of: President Barack Obama, American, born 1961
• Subject of: Sun Ra, American, 1914 - 1993
• Subject of: Stevie Wonder, American, born 1950
• Type: multimedia works
• Medium: tin, wood, chrome, loudspeakers, audiovisual equipment and mixed media
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 92 1/2 × 75 × 86 in., 571 lb. (235 × 190.5 × 218.4 cm, 259 kg)
• Place made: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: African diaspora
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Funk (Music)
• Topic: Identity
• Topic: Local and regional
• Topic: Politics
• Topic: Technology
• Object number: 2013.234
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Henry Thaggert III in memory of Burnell P. Thaggert
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Jefferson Pinder Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.