Map of Horror Vacui

To conclude the heuristic approach embedded in my autoethnographic project, in the last phase of my (Master’s) study, I presented my accumulated studio trials in a single artwork, Map of Horror Vacui (meaning the fear of emptiness). This map can be viewed as the embodiment of my reflexive research project. As I reflect on the personal and creative journey undertaken in the course of my Master’s study, I realise that the central concern behind this project has always been my fear of emptiness and annihilation arising from my experience of the desert.

Assembled tightly in the geographical form of the desert province of Kerman, this collection of daily trials and studio studies reflects my explorations into personal, cultural and historical experiences of environmental barrenness. My aim with Map of Horror Vacui (2021) was to compensate for the vacuity that derives from the paucity of pattern and wildlife in the geography where people are obsessed with both. This symbolic map charts the geographical misfortunes of the region, as well as my psychological encounters with loss.

Fear of a vacuum manifests in early examples of cartography which see maps overcrowded with unnecessary motifs. Professor Chet Van Duzer observes that, from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, a large proportion of European maps are filled with what seems to be simply ‘decoration’. Van Duzer proposes that this practice arises from the cartographer’s horror vacui, leading to a compulsion to fill in the blanks (Labra Odde, 2018). Similarly, in Map of Horror Vacui, my attempt was to fill the bare map of Kerman with natural forms and patterns and to create an aesthetic environment in compensation for the region’s featurelessness. At the same time, I tried to embody my personal experience of horror vacui and acknowledge the reality of the geography that triggers this psychological phenomenon. With Map of Horror Vacui, I further allude to the geological history of the Kerman region through the application of the pieces that visually correspond with the aerial view, body of water and fossil record of the province.