Hanna Bratlie

What is lacking cannot be counted. - Ecclesiastes 1:15

"Concentric Collisions" is the remnants of a paradox. By casting the void, collecting the lack and cataloguing the unattained, the work seeks to measure the thingness of nothingness. The questions I am asking amongst fossils and detritus are: what is the radius of nothing and the weight of an absence?

The circle is the conceptual medium for my work. The shape functions as a language to explore nothingness because it represents the shapeless. With circles I am creating holes in a process I call (Z)erosion. This process is the most effective method for chasing nothingness, since it does not distinguish between presence and absence, inside and outside, or positive and negative. Rather, it operates in between and enables a space for matter to appear and disappear simultaneously. For example, I have used this method for sculpting 1638 holes in clay.

In addition to (Z)erosion, my tools for excavating nothingness are repetitive labour, calculations and philosophy. The work is influenced by Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitarō´s concept of "absolute nothingness", which is a place beyond determination, and American physicist Karen Barad´s concept of "diffraction", which focuses on the differences within phenomena. With these methods and theories in mind, "Concentric Collisions" is exploring nothingness as a measurable mystery of the middle.