This work began with an interest in the first clouds but quickly shifted toward a deeper investigation of Earth’s earliest atmosphere. The resulting timeline—later translated into a drawing—traces the evolution of atmospheric conditions from the primordial Earth to the present, structured around the formation of Earth's surface and the layering of deep geological time.
The piece focuses on the Hadean and Archean eons, where volcanic outgassing and constant bombardment helped shape a toxic, oxygen-poor atmosphere. These early clouds, composed of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and sulfur gases, were the first visible signs of Earth’s evolving surface chemistry. The timeline is structured with scientifically accurate divisions—eras, eons, and key transitions in Earth’s geologic and atmospheric history—embedded into a visual language of directional bands, markers, and interruptions, layered over a photographic image of a volcanic landscape.
The visual fragmentation mirrors the scientific fragmentation of knowledge in this domain: much of the early atmosphere remains speculative, pieced together from isotopic evidence and mineral records. The drawing incorporates that sense of partial understanding, aligning known transitions with visual distortions, patterns, and ruptures.
This work ultimately contemplates both origin and disappearance. The timeline concludes not with a contemporary moment, but with a conceptual endpoint: The Vanishing Hour—a future beyond human presence, when Earth’s visible record begins to dissolve, like a cloud dispersing into air.
