Abigail DeVille’s "Lunar Capsule" Lands in Maine

An international array of spectators—from São Paulo, Brazil, to Seattle, Washington, to Boston, Massachusetts—made their way to Northern Maine to witness the recent solar eclipse. In Houlton, Maine at the Houlton Higher Education Center, now under the auspices of the University of Maine Presque Isle, over 300 visitors encountered Abigail DeVille’s Lunar Capsule (2023). The interactive object, which recalls through its form and scale the lunar lander that first brought human beings to the surface of the moon, also functions as a time capsule, inviting visitors to record their stories.

While harkening back to the futuristic dreams of space travel that have animated popular culture for over a century and a half, DeVille’s Lunar Capsule also draws inspiration from the culture of antiquity and particularly the pyramids of ancient Egypt. The interactive sculpture’s interior is coated in gold leaf and features a throne-like chair in which visitors recording their reflections can sit.

Perhaps most importantly of all, the Lunar Capsule emphatically marks the intersection between past and future: the present, in which each of us exists, a combination of the forces that have shaped us and our dreams of what is to come. It also testifies to the connection—real and imagined—between terrestrially bound human beings and the cosmos that envelops them. As DeVille reflects: “Human beings are time capsules of all of human history. Our genome contains the coding of the last 500 years of ancestry imprinted upon us. We silently traverse centuries in our daily perceptions of self. Are there ways we can travel through immediate and recent events with the inherited knowledge contained within us? What are the unanswerable questions of our existence, and what binds us together inextricably? In the Full of Time seeks to collect, examine, and disseminate the ruminations and stories that tie together a local region with diverse perspectives. The same elements of stardust, the universe's building blocks, are in our bodies. We are little lights, dimmed, concealed, flickering, and shining brightly through the darkness of everyday living.” 

Sensitive to the mechanisms through which personal narratives become part of recorded history—or fail to—DeVille encourages her viewers to become active participants in sharing their own stories. First installed at the The Bronx Museum, the work will be exhibited this summer at the Museum in Abigail DeVille: In the Fullness of Time (Saturday, June 29 through Sunday, November 10). There visitors will be able to record further reflections and to hear those of other Mainers in a related artwork, The Black Monolith, to be installed nearby. There exhibition goers will be able to listen to a sampling of the stories woven by the artist into an audio installation.

Before settling in the BCMA’s rotunda as part of Abigail DeVille: In the Fullness of Time, the Lunar Capsule will continue to be shared with Maine audiences. This coming Saturday, May 4^th it will be on view at the BCMA in connection with Bowdoin College’s first Powwow.

Please stay tuned for information about other upcoming installations. We invite you to experience this exciting work of art and to share your story!

Anne Collins Goodyear
Co-Director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art