Ineffable Wonder

Ineffable Wonder brings together four artists from LAMINAproject—Jody Rasch, Shanthi Chandrasekar, Michal Gavish, and Ann Parkin, curated by Hayley Ferber—whose work transforms the imagery of science into poetic metaphors for human experience. The visual language of particle physics, cosmology, and cellular biology becomes a mirror through which we glimpse not only the structure of the universe, but the architecture of our own perception and being. Science, in this context, is not merely a method of knowing—it is a metaphor for the inner processes of discovery, transformation, and awe. 

Jody Rasch’s paintings, drawings and sculpture reveals how scientific imagery can serve as both evidence and allegory. Drawing from imagery in electron microscopy, particle accelerators, and radio astronomy, his art transforms scientific data into visual metaphors for perception and belief. Rasch bridges the microscopic and the cosmic, the empirical and the spiritual, suggesting that the pursuit of knowledge stems from the same human longing to find order in the unknown. 

Shanthi Chandrasekar fuses physics, philosophy, and Indian visual tradition to explore how the patterns of the universe echo within the mind. Her drawings and paintings visualize the invisible—fields of energy, the pathways of thought, the fabric of space-time—as extensions of consciousness itself. Through her intricate and meditative installation, handmade paper and mark-making, Chandrasekar dissolves the boundaries between the inner and outer worlds, revealing that the search for cosmic truth is inseparable from the search for self-understanding, 

For Michal Gavish, the molecular world becomes a metaphor for memory and intimacy. A former research scientist, she translates the delicate structures of proteins, viruses, and DNA into layered, translucent installations and drawings that breathe with human fragility. Gavish’s work transforms scientific data into sensorial experience, affirming that what we see under the microscope is a reflection of the living systems that compose our own bodies and identities. 

Ann Parkin’s work explores science as a lens for understanding the poetry of existence. Inspired by electron microscopy, nuclear imaging, chaos physics, and subatomic particle research, her work is based on the tracks left by particles in the bubble and cloud chambers once used by physicists. These fleeting marks become symbols of the hidden forces that shape reality. Parkin translates these scientific traces into layered mixed-media compositions reminding us that much of what we know is, in essence, “made by shadows”—illuminating the unseen structures that underlie visible life. 

Each of these artists engages the tools, data, and imagery of scientific observation not to illustrate, but to interpret—to translate the empirical into the emotional. Their works remind us that scientific inquiry and artistic imagination share a common desire: to illuminate what lies beyond the visible, to render meaning from mystery. The microscopic and the cosmic become parallel realms through which we contemplate our place within the vast continuum of existence.