Photosynthetic Orrery at the Chlorophilia exhibition. Dibond, roofing sheet, astroturf, 00 scale model railway trains and fixtures. Approx 350 x 250 x 200 cms. 2020

There are many mysteries about how the Earth and the Sun interact and how the radiance which shines down creates the mechanism for life here. This artwork explores that relationship. It models of how the radiance of the Earth itself and how its carpet of life returns and recycles that radiance back to the Sun.

Intrinsic to that process is the presence of a universal charge field. By that, what is meant is the 'ether' of base level photons that support the manifestations of the electro-magnetic field and other phenomena.

These photons are clustered in the infra-red part of the spectrum and are that which we experience as heat. They are constantly recycled at all scales and with increasing complexity, from the sub-atomic to the galactic scale. Midway in this recycling are the processes that we understand as life.

Movie of the Installation

The work is composed of eight tubes forming the structural element of the piece. These are, in their cross-section, made into waves of 21 cms diameter. This is the radio signature of hydrogen, the basic material of the Universe. Two model railway orreries are supported by this structure the top one represents a model of the Sun's photosphere and its golden light.

The lower one orbits within the realm of the Earth and models the transformation of the light above into vegetation. Scattered through the piece are fragments of gold leaf in emulation of the Medieval concept of the celestial sphere.

The wagons on the trains carry equations of transmutation, the above of the nuclear processes taking place in the photosphere and the lower of transmutations of photosynthesis.

Onboard Movie