Making Something From Nothing

Today I’m writing about nothing. I feel as if I have nothing to say. But it’s time to write this blog, so here are a few meditations on the meaning of nothing.

By Definition

noth·ing/ˈnəTHiNG/pronoun

1. not anything; no single thing.”I said nothing” Similar to: not a thing, not a single thing, not anything, nothing at all, nil

adjective INFORMAL

1. having no prospect of progress; of no value.”he had a series of nothing jobs”

adverb

1. not at all.”he looks nothing like the others”

Quoting Nothing

“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
― Plato, The Republic

“To do nothing is the way to be nothing.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne

“I love to talk about nothing. It’s the only thing I know anything about.”
― Oscar Wilde

Artistic Nothing

In the 1950s French artist Yves Klein, who was interested in Zen Buddism created invisible art. He said it showed the architecture of air. For one exhibition he removed everything from the gallery space except a large cabinet, painted every surface white and painted the gallery’s window blue and hung a large blue curtain in the entrance lobby. Republican guards stood guard and 3,000 people waited to be let into the empty room.

Andy Warhol also created an invisible sculpture in 1985 to show that the absence of something could be art. After standing briefly on a pedestal in a nightclub he stepped off and walked away. Only the pedestal and a small wall label reading Andy Warhol, USA, Invisible Sculpture, Mixed Media, 1985.

And finally, in the words of Billy Preston.

Andy Warholartnothingquote