CAPSULE MACHINE

My Floating World, by resident Thomas Spradling will be on exhibit at the Center until mid-July and is located on the first floor beside the welcome desk, and if you bring 4 quarters, you can leave with your own capsule!  

Words from the Artist:
Locating the self in our current Internet age has become increasingly difficult.  Social networking, online video games and virtual worlds have changed the way in which we interact on a global scale.  Personal identifiers are breaking down as physical and national boundaries dissipate in the virtual space.Thus, many of us struggle with the ability to formulate a succinct definition of our identities.  While the aforementioned boundaries have broken down, it is no less difficult to understand another culture; it merely allows us to explore cultural interests that were previously unavailable.  In My Floating World, I depict many versions of myself within the context of a culture that is not my own.  By assuming the identities of popularized icons from Japanese culture and history, I attempt to navigate Japanese identity but only through the limited perspective of popular media. Using the medium of the popular Japanese capsule toy machine, my work attempts to ask the question: “How can we locate and define ourselves in an increasingly global and virtual culture?”