Planitesimal imagines witnessing the movement of light and shadow across the Rheasilvia crater as asteroid 4 Vesta silently tumbles through space.

Protoplanet Vesta formed at the same time and in the same way unique to only earth and our moon. Dust and gas from the early planetary disk coalesced to form thousands of planetesimals when our solar system was still a nebula. Orbiting our sun within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Vesta represents a snapshot of the early formation of a planet in our solar system.

Surface topography data gathered by instruments onboard NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft in 2012 is mechanically sculpted into a primitive surface, while hundreds of individual lights hidden within the artwork orchestrate shadows revealing millions of years of impact events.

Planitesimal invites us to stand in its presence and witness time while the texture transports us to a familiar landscape adding another dimension to an otherwise digital view.

A sculpture where the outer surfaces comprise a glass bell jar sat atop a white spray painted polycarbonate plinth. Housed within the plinth are scientific apparatus to create a high vacuum within the glass, and high voltage transformers that work together producing the conditions for extremely localised particle acceleration, resulting in the collision of nitrogen ions. A photon is emitted as the nitrogen ions collide with each other, varying between purple and white depending on the precise conditions within the glass.

The piece brings the viewer down to the inconceivable realms of the particle world, revealing a perspective on the violence and mystery of our reality that is usually concealed.