So, we tell them we’ve got an idea for an exhibit about nothing. They say “what’s your exhibit about?” I say, “Nothing.”
Today’s show is really something, because we’re talking about nothing.
We understandably like this show to cover, well, things.
But nothing is an important concept.
After all, our numbers system includes a zero.
That’s why in the 1960s artist Robert Smithson suggested a museum where all the art reflected on the idea of nothing.
He called it a “Museum of the Void.”
There was a physical museum exhibit along these lines for the first time in 2015, and it’s turned into the traveling No Show Museum.
Its collection features hundreds of works, artifacts and documents, including some from some pretty big names, like Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp and Marina Abramovic.
But the museum can also include unpainted canvases, or frames that have no canvases, or rooms that have no canvases or frames at all.
Just as how a song can hinge not just on which notes are played but which aren’t, sometimes an art exhibit can teach you something by showing you what isn’t there.
You could say they’ve made something out of nothing.
And by the way, the “museum of nothing” does have a gift shop where you can buy actual things!
Art can sometimes come from places you might not expect. Including fowl!
Two Italian photographers have started the Chic!ken project and photobook to highlight that these birds known best for their qualities as food or their aptitude for running without heads can be the stuff of great art.
Apparently chickens are really good at posing for portraits!
A Museum of Nothing (Metafilter)
Portraits of “Most Beautiful Chickens on the Planet” Capture Their Underrated Beauty (My Modern Met)
We’ve got something special going with our Patreon backers, be a part of it
Canvas photo by Divinemissn via Flickr/Creative Commons
