Melvin 'Milky' Way, 21st cent.

Thankfully horror vacui - or cenophobia - has been flipped to some degree as a term in current use. Ironically it has become a mere neutral description of what millennia of creators have been participating in, something extra-ordinary. This is an art that is not likely meant to resolve a direct story of the every-day, that is, objects not of worldly clarity. This is not to be confused with chaos.

The Devonshire hunting tapestries, 1430-1450

The literal translation of that term is "fear of space" but more often is characteristic of a conscious (or otherwise) nullification of as much free space as possible - often through an intense process of labor. To understand through logic alone, one may wonder what the motivation or goal of a less 'direct' or crowded space might be. For traditional peoples it may be argued that they see the world with a different perception, that they organized things on their own terms separate from what would be a 'Western' viewpoint. Going back into history it is speculated that the intention of the indigenous or the Greeks was not necessarily to explain to - or even please - humans, but to appease or produce something extra-terra or godly.

The Dipylon Amphora Funerary Urn in Geometric-Style from Kerameikos Necropolis, Athens -c-750-bc

Horror Vacui is a tradition that stretches diverse forms and media from tribal cultures to the ‘Geometric Period’ of Ancient Greece at the beginning of civilization to the present day. What seems to be at least partially 'instinctual' as well as intentional propensities of peoples remains today in contemporary culture. The desire of artists and non-professionals alike - to 'just' fill space.

Book of Kells, c. 8th century

More advanced early precedents are seen in the rich formal awkwardness of organization in medieval manuscripts that seem to embellish indiscriminately throughout the picture plane with symbols, text, and imagery. One individual, Hrabanus Maurus, a ninth century monk, invented a ciphering system for encrypted poems that interacted with the imagery that in turn had smaller poems within, making images that were often complex and yet accessible on some level to those who would search for the deeper meaning.

A Qashqai (Persian) carpet dated 1920

One could dwell quite a bit on all the ornate space filling of ancient and indigenous peoples, but fast forwarding quite a bit to the early 20th century, there existed some lesser known artists engaged in 'visual spiritualism' or 'mediumistic art'. Despite being not well known enough to have directly impacted the art that followed chronologically, these artists deserve notice for a kind of 'rebirth' of extreme spatial eccentricity in the modern Western world of that period. ..