Inside the boundaries

Someone once told me that English critic John Ruskin suffered from horror vacui (the fear of empty spaces) and I initially thought that I finally had a name for my taste in interior design (though soon realized this was not the case).  In philosophy, the term originates with Aristotle, who theorized that nature “fears” empty space; therefore, empty space would continually suck in liquids or gas to avoid an empty state.

In visual art, horror vacui (also known as cenophobia) is the opposite of minimalism: “the filling of the entire surface of an artwork with ornamental details, figures, shapes, lines and anything else the artist might envision.”  Many examples originate from, or are influenced by, the mentally unstable.

According to Wikipedia, the condition may have had an impact, consciously or unconsciously, on graphic designers like David Carson (see his desktop) or Vaughan Oliver, and in the underground comix movement in the work of S. Clay Wilson, Robert Crumb, Robert Williams, all of whose styles I have appreciated at one time or another.

Design by David Carson

The term is also used to refer to the paralyzing fear that some artists face when staring at a blank canvas before their first brush stroke.

The Italian critic and scholar Mario Praz used the term to describe the suffocating atmosphere and clutter of interior design in the Victorian age, an atmosphere I appreciate but would not replicate.  While I have stacks of sheet music, various small sculptures that I have made (mainly glass, clay and bronze) from classes that I’ve taken, a couple of ’50s art deco lamps, hundreds of books and lots of pillows, I generally do not like a lot of clutter in my apartment.  

Imagining the opposite of horror vacui reminds me of a holiday party that a former employer held at his Tribeca loft, which he shared with his wife and toddler son.  It was a beautiful loft, maybe 4,000 square feet, and consisted of a ‘living’ area with one couch and a table.  There were no doors separating any of the rooms (except the bathroom), the entire floor was gray, the walls were white, there were no shades on the windows and no toys or signs of a child’s life to be found. (Though a great space for bocce, big wheel races and gymnastics, I’d imagine.)   Needless to say, it was somewhat of an awkward party, what with no place to sit and one table for the entire department to gather around in this huge empty space.