The Taoist notion of emptiness is one that never ceases to fascinate me and one that I have been able to apply to art analysis with awe-full results. Lao-ztu in the Tao Te Ching chapter 11 says its best.
We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that gives us use.
We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.
With things we find benefit.
But with emptiness we find use.
Some Words – lack, nothing, zero, void, vacuum, absence, hole, silence, lacuna, hiatus, missing, enigma, bowl – Sometimes it is silence that makes the most beautiful sounds.
And sometimes it’s silence that makes the most beautiful sounds.