Do you run away from feelings of emptiness? It’s time to face them head-on

‘Running away from the emptiness makes it far more terrifying, like the monsters that chase us in our dreams.’ Composite: Guardian Design; Oscar Wong/Getty Images (posed by a model)

I just read an extraordinary article by Anna Parker for this website, and it set my mind on fire. Parker interviewed Yannick and Ben Jakober, whose daughter died at 19. In their grief, they began building a unique, 165-strong portrait collection of children from the 16th to 19th centuries, many of whom did not survive to adulthood. The paintings are devastating, captivating, at times disturbing; I was moved and unsettled by this unusual monument to parental grief.

There was one particular line in the piece that floored me. Exploring the drive to continue adding painting after painting to the gallery they had built, Ben spoke of “kenophobia, the fear of empty rooms or voids: ‘When there was a space there, we had to fill it.’”