Client: Yerkes Future Foundation

Overview

2023
5ft x 5ft x 3ft
Marble, quartzite, granite, bronze

This commissioned work was created for Yerkes and visualizes the curvature of the fabric of space-time around celestial objects, as described by Einstein, who visited Yerkes in 1921. A planet and its moon, a star modeled from NASA scans of our own sun, and a black hole are represented, each bending space-time in different ways.

The curvature of the white marble grid visualizes the very fabric of spacetime itself – the cosmic tapestry that permeates the universe. The marble bends and twists, responding to the gravitational influence exerted by the celestial bodies it cradles.

Goals

Goals for this project were including the rich history of the building and the research done there. I spent several weeks on site learning as much as I could as well as gaining inspiration from stargazing events, library visits, and meeting staff astronomers. It is very important to me to incorporate a message in my work and partner them with appropriate materials to best illustrate the concept and match the on site setting.

Process

The work is crafted from Olympian Pearl and Strom Grey marble from Vermont, striking blue Azul Macaubas quartzite from Brazil, Quarra Black granite from Quebec, and locally cast bronze.

We used large robotic CNC mills to create the stone and worked with a local foundry to produce the star which is made up of 3D scans of our sun from NASA's archives.