Nicholas Mangan on Limits to Growth and Material Histories
In a 2017 interview with George Clark for Afterall, artist Nicholas Mangan discusses his expanded practice, which gives form to complex histories of matter, energy, and value. His survey exhibition 'Limits to Growth' (2016/17) toured Monash University Museum of Art (Melbourne), Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane), and KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin). The eponymous work mines Bitcoin in a university basement to fund reproduction of photographs for the show, linking stone coins from Yap to cryptocurrencies. Mangan's earlier works include 'Ancient Lights' (2015), a solar-powered two-channel video; 'Progress in Action' (2013), about the Bougainville copper mine and coconut oil; 'Nauru – Notes from a cretaceous world' (2010), on phosphate mining and detention centres; and 'A World Undone' (2012), using high-speed footage of ancient zircon. He explores how materials and systems—thermodynamics, halving algorithms, labour—constrain and drive production.
Key facts
- Interview published 19 September 2017 by Afterall.
- Written by George Clark.
- Nicholas Mangan's survey 'Limits to Growth' shown at Monash University Museum of Art (20 July–17 September 2016), Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (29 October–18 December 2016), and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2 June–13 August 2017).
- Interview conducted 2 August 2016 in Melbourne.
- Limits to Growth features live CCTV of a Bitcoin mining rig in Melbourne University basement and GoPro footage of a Yap stone unearthed from seabed.
- Bitcoin halving occurred during installation, reducing image production by half.
- Ancient Lights (2015) is a two-channel video powered by off-grid solar energy.
- Progress in Action (2013) uses a diesel generator running on 100% coconut oil and found footage from Australian Archives about Bougainville's 'Coconut Revolution' against Rio Tinto's copper mine.
- Nauru – Notes from a cretaceous world (2010) resulted from travel to Nauru, exploring phosphate mining and the offshore detention centre under the Pacific Solution established by John Howard.
- A World Undone (2012) films a 4.4-billion-year-old zircon rock at 2400 frames per second.
- Mangan references the 1954 film 'His Majesty O'Keefe' starring Burt Lancaster about Yap's Rai stone coins.
- Quote from Bruce Schneier on Bitcoin encryption: 'infeasible until computers are built from something other than matter and occupy something other than space.'
Entities
Artists
- Nicholas Mangan
- George Clark
- Burt Lancaster
Institutions
- Afterall
- Monash University Museum of Art
- Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
- KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
- Melbourne University
- Australian Archives
- Australia Broadcasting Commission (ABC)
- Rio Tinto
- Fortune
- Telegraph
Locations
- Melbourne
- Australia
- Brisbane
- Berlin
- Germany
- Yap
- Pacific
- Bougainville
- Papua New Guinea
- Port Moresby
- Nauru
- Nauru House
Sources
- Afterall —