Khoj International Artists’ Association presents a solo show titled Deep Time by Delhi-based artist Rohini Devasher. Deep Time is part of an ongoing project that looks to map common points between astronomy and art practice, through the lens of metaphor.
Rohini Devasher lives and works in New Delhi. Her work has been exhibited widely in India and abroad. Two years ago, she began a project that looked at unraveling the hidden world of amateur astronomers in Delhi. Beginning as a form of collective investigation with ‘astro-nomads’ or amateur astronomers in Delhi, stories, conversations and histories came together in a slowly building chronicle of the almost obsessive group of people whose lives have been transformed by the night sky.
Says Devasher: ‘Where did I position myself within the project, or perhaps where did astronomy position itself within my practice? Beginning in July 2009 through to August 2010, I travelled back and forth across the country with amateur astronomers as part of the process, each trip focused on a stellar event or site. Similarity-based metaphors make comparisons between a source and its target based on some correspondence between both.'
'With similarity-creating metaphors, on the other hand, there is no pre-existing parallel between source and target. They create the similarities between the two. And once this metaphor has been encountered, the connection is almost obvious. The proposition, both geographic and metaphoric, offered by the works in this show is in this direction. These maps will be an attempt to imply the unobservable on the basis of what can be observed,’ added Devasher.