Three years ago amateur astronomer and artist Rohini Devashar embarked on a project that looked at unravelling the hidden world of amateur astronomers in Delhi. Beginning as a form of collective investigation with ‘astro-nomads’ or amateur astronomers; stories, conversations and history came together as a chronicle of obsessive group of people whose lives are transformed by the night sky. “As part of the research, I travelled across the country chasing comets and stars. ‘Deep Time’ is a part of this ongoing project that looks to map common points between astronomy and art through the lens of metaphor,” says Rohini. It is currently at display at the Khoj Studios in the city. “The title of my show is a reference to both Geology and Astronomy, both called deep time sciences because of the huge feat of imagination on the part of their practitioners to imagine far into the past and project far enough into the future, across time scales that are beyond human comprehension,” she adds. The works in the show include, Monographed Geographies (a series of three hybrid print and drawing works), Parts Unknown (seven videos providing a window to a strangely mythical landscape) and Surface Tracking (a set of 12 hand-drawn maps depicting an aerial view of the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope Array).
