Rohini Devasher

Ten years ago, I began a project with amateur astronomers in Delhi—a patient chronicle of this obsessive group of people whose lives have been transformed by the night sky. As this work developed, I became increasingly conscious of the role of “observation” and the “field” or “site” in my practice. Over time, I engaged with the field both as a series of physical sites—skies, sea forts, observatories, telescopes—but also as a methodology, a space for investigation that allows one to explore something unfamiliar, an opportunity to observe relationships between the human and non human.

In the summer of 2018, I spent 26 days on board the High Trust, an oil tanker, as part of an artist’s residency program called the “Owners Cabin.”  May and June are the Milky Way season in the Southern Hemisphere. My voyage on the Pacific Ocean during this time meant that every night the Milky Way arched overhead. Added to this was the fact that by international shipping rules all vessels operate in complete darkness. The result is zero light pollution.  Every night I documented the night sky. The voyage from Suva (Fiji) to Singapore brought into sharp focus something I have been engaged with for some time: How do we construct the environment and how does the environment construct us? This ongoing project offers various readings of the categories of object and site and how they might open up ways of thinking about time, motion, and the space of humanity within the solar system.