What elevates a thing to an object? Eugene Thacker’s Dark Media argues that “objects act on us and condition our own actions just as much as we act on them.” By placing childhood toys with antiques, I wanted to create a juxtaposition in the hierarchy of objects, blurring the line between toy and antique. Through the passage of time and our collective memories, these toys are beyond mere things, they are totems, and they channel a kind of power, a sense of hope and wonder. They are beyond the readymade as they have history and belonged to a specific time and space. In a way, I was inspired by Vik Muniz’s deconstruction of semiotics, how he broke down the arbitrary rules that are imposed upon art. In the same way, I wanted to deconstruct the boundary between the low culture of toys and the high culture of antiques. As Thacker points out, objects have a transcendental function. In a sense, all of these objects function as apparatuses. One could argue that while antiques are apparatuses to channel the past, these toys are apparatuses to channel the future, or a desired future. In both cases, these objects aid in our quest to connect with the unknown. What separates them is time. But beyond the gap in time there is also a gap in geography and in culture, a dichotomy between old and new, East and West, first generation and second generation. What is it that we revere? What is it that we hold dear? Compared to the generation before us it is almost as if these characters and these shows which inspired the toys represent a childhood optimism.