Is There Emptiness Inside?
Artwork details
Polina Zhadko · 2023
Kinetic installation
79.5 × 79.5 × 17 cm
About the work
We tend to think of a vacuum as emptiness — an "absolute nothing" devoid of particles and radiation. But this is not the case. So-called "virtual particles" constantly cause fluctuations within what we perceive as empty space.
Is absolute emptiness even possible? And by analogy, what do we truly feel in our inner emotional states? Is it emptiness?
This audiovisual installation emits white noise mixed with the sound of waves — a reference to the effects generated by a vacuum that is far from empty.
Visually, the installation references Kazimir Malevich's Black Square. The canvas dimensions correspond to the size of the first version of Malevich's iconic work.
The title — Is There Emptiness Inside? — invites reflection: What meaning does this artwork carry? What mental fluctuations does it continuously provoke in the minds of viewers? And how truly valuable is it to world culture?
The work also plays with a conceptual and linguistic intersection: the Casimir effect — a physical phenomenon caused by quantum fluctuations in a vacuum — shares its name with the artist Kazimir Malevich, creating a bridge between quantum physics and art history.