Terrasphere, Rohini Devasher

Although Terrasphere appears to be a glass enclosure containing live plants, it is actually a collection of projected images that Devasher conceived as a kind of instrument. Fifty-nine still images are projected from above onto a polycarbonate mirrored dome that simulates the daily shift from day to night, as if the device was synchronized to the rotation of Earth on its axis. In this way, Terrasphere operates as a tellurion, a type of astronomical clock that depicts the progress of not only day and night, but also the seasons caused by Earth’s movement around the sun. This work is part of Devasher’s series Archaeologies of the Future, in which she creates experiments designed to “interrogate the contemporary condition of ‘wonder.’”