Conrad Freiburg at the Hyde Park Art Center

Artist Conrad Freiburg destroyed many of the works he created during his six-month residency at the Hyde Park Art Center—not because they were bad, but to learn from absence.

The artist channeled those lessons into this playful but contemplative investigation of nothingness. The Self-Contained Unit of Entropy, which smells of freshly cut wood, enables visitors to build their own sculptures out of scraps from Freiburg’s past artworks—then smash ’em to bits.

The impressive centerpiece of the show is a 12-foot-tall, pendulum-driven wooden harmonograph, or drawing machine (pictured). On Sunday afternoons, Freiburg climbs on the apparatus and adjusts the pendulums’ heights according to different harmonic intervals (the distances on the scale between notes played simultaneously). When swinging in different directions, the pendulums control the lateral movement of a pen and drawing surface, producing geometric designs that are added to the installation. While the SCUE is destructive, the harmonograph generates new work, illustrating the exceptional creation of Something in a mostly Nothing-filled universe. It’s a reverent activity. Occasionally, Freiburg pauses and plucks quiet ukulele tunes atop his perch, singing in a tone of wonderment.

The artist organizes the exhibition according to a complicated system based on the seven-note harmonic scale and various symbols, shapes and motifs representative of “The Void.” Fortunately, grasping these layered meanings isn’t essential to enjoying his work. In a clever, less heady gesture, Freiburg positions a handcrafted telescope on the catwalk overlooking the gallery. Visitors can use it to view the small harmonograph-made drawings mounted, like stars, near the ceiling, reminding us that exploring Nothing from different perspectives yields fresh discoveries.