Nothing protects the empty side of the bed.
Nothing protects the empty side of the bed.
A condom is an object created for protection. It protects the body from consequence, from risk, from what one person may leave inside another. Yet here, the object designed to make intimacy safer is pierced by a nail—the gesture of protection is itself violated.
The work begins with this contradiction.
Modern life has become increasingly skilled at protecting the individual. We protect ourselves physically, financially, legally, emotionally. We calculate risks. We establish boundaries. We learn how not to be hurt.
But there is one risk no technology can eliminate: the absence of another human being.
The unopened condom contains the possibility of intimacy, but no intimacy has taken place. It promises safety for an encounter that may never happen. The nail fixes that possibility permanently to the surface, transforming something intended for a living, temporary moment between two people into a dead object—preserved, displayed, and useless.
The empty side of the bed is therefore not simply about being single. It represents the distance that can remain even when another person exists: the space created by fear, separation, lost love, emotional isolation, or the inability to reach one another.
There is also an uncomfortable paradox at the centre of the work:
the more completely we protect ourselves from being hurt, the more completely we may protect ourselves from being loved.
The condom can protect the body.
The nail can hold the object in place.
The frame can protect the work.
But none of them can make someone stay.
Nothing protects the empty side of the bed.
Title: Empty Promises, Empty People, Empty Word.
Year: 2026
Series: War Series / Existential
Medium: Grafite
Dimensions: 10 × 15 cm; framed: 12.8 × 17.8 × 1 cm
Edition: Unique (1/1)
Condition: Fine
Certificate: This artwork is accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity and permanently documented in the Viktor Karpenko Artwork Archive.
Archive Number: VK-0034-0026
Status: 🟢 Available