Something Deeply Hidden, 2-Panel Engraving on Glass:
The title references Einstein’s phrase “something deeply hidden,” which refers to the idea that there are fundamental, often invisible, forces or principles governing the universe that are not immediately apparent from surface-level observations. This engraving, like the phrase, acknowledges the limits of current knowledge—while attempting to chart what is known, what is preserved, and what may remain forever beyond reach.
This engraved glass timeline visualizes the history of the universe—beginning with the speculative “before” that precedes measurable time, and unfolding through the Big Bang, cosmic expansion, and the emergence of structure in the known universe. The far left of the panel marks the unknowable: conditions prior to space-time, represented through densely rendered visual fields that suggest compression, instability, and the threshold of physical law.
Spanning approximately 13.8 billion years, the timeline traces major cosmological transitions—stellar formation, planetary development, and the evolution of life on Earth—before narrowing toward a thin band representing the present. Rather than extending far into the future, the piece stops just beyond the current moment, acknowledging the limits of what can be projected. A small “you are here” marker, modeled after those used in maps, locates human presence within the vast arc of deep time.
Embedded within this structure are references to the Voyager Golden Record, the message sent aboard NASA’s Voyager spacecraft in 1977 to communicate the existence of intelligent life on Earth. The diagrams engraved into the record—showing hydrogen atom transitions, the location of our solar system relative to pulsars, and a schematic of the spacecraft—were designed to be universally legible to an unknown observer. These elements are included here not only as historical data but as a meta-visual system: a map within a map. Their inclusion mirrors the intent of the original—a gesture toward orientation, identification, and the hope of being understood—and within this work, they serve to plot the brief appearance of human culture within a much longer, largely unmapped continuum.
