Terrasphere, 2015

Terrasphere builds on the idea of terrariums, a form of miniature ecosystem for plants usually contained within glass containers that evoke qualities of fragility and buoyancy. Embracing concepts of biospheres and self-sustaining ecosystems, this work is created by the stacking of 59 still images in a timeline. Each image is a construct of many layers of photographs and drawings, both from the artist’s collection of images taken on visits to botanical gardens, nurseries, and parks, and images sourced from the public domain.

Terrasphere also references an eighteenth-century apparatus, the Tellurion, a three-dimensional model which describes the movement of the Earth and Moon, the seasons and the cycle of day and night. A cycle of darkness, clouds, and light also takes place in the miniaturized forest sphere depicted here: the world of the forest disappears under the clouds, only to reappear again.