Additive subtraction

John David, 2022
CSM GCD Unit 5
Word count: 1092

1. Void

Nothing really matters. It is the important space, the void that represents a lack of content, emptiness. But the moment you mention the non-existent it becomes something. ‘We can perhaps imagine that no material exists, maybe even that no laws of Nature exist, but nothing at all is unimaginable for us because it would mean no facts could exist - not even a fact like the statement that nothing exists, in fact’. Nothing has been there always. In both fascinating and terrifying ways, it has preoccupied astronomers, mathematicians, theologians, philosophers, scientists and artists. It is possible that eastern religion and culture accepts the concept of nothing more easily. What I focus on here is the problems with its acceptance in western culture, and in particular in visual culture. Western art has struggled with the idea of nothing.