GALLERY REPRESENTATION

Nicholas Mangan

For as long as I can remember, I have been pulling things apart – attempting to understand them – and then putting them back together (but not always in the same way). My practice is driven by the desire to make sense of the world by unpacking histories and possible narratives that surround specific contested sites and objects. This investigation explores the unstable relationship between culture and nature, evidencing the flows of matter, energy and ideologies that are produced through the tension of these two realms. A disputed tropical mine, a bankrupted island nation, a geological sample of the earliest earth crust, discarded tourist souvenirs and the remnants of a demolished architectural icon have each lent material to this process of dissection and reconfiguration. By rerouting these events, stories and objects, new forms and latent narratives are unearthed. Recent projects have utilised a confluence of film and sculpture as an agent for both formal and metaphorical excavation.

Born 1979 Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
Lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.

Education

2015–Current
Senior Lecturer, Higher Degree Research Supervisor & Honours Coordinator, Monash University,
Department of Fine Arts
2015
PhD in Fine Arts, Monash University, Melbourne
2007–2008
UDK, Berlin, Germany
2001
Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art), Victorian College of the Arts

Selected Solo Exhibits

2020
Termite Economies: Phase 3, Labor, Mexico City, Mexico
Termite Economies: Neural Nodes and Root Causes, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2019
Termite Economies, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), Perth, Australia
2018
Termite Economies: Phase 2 (Metabolic Shift), Mossman, Wellington, New Zealand
Termite Economies: Phase 1, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2017
Limits to Growth, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Limits to Growth, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
2016
Limits to Growth, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia
Brilliant Errors, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Ancient Lights, Labor, Mexico City, Mexico
2015
Other Currents, Artspace, Sydney, Australia
Ancient Lights, Chisenhale Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2012
Some Kinds of Duration, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia
2011
Let’s Talk about the Weather, Y3K, Melbourne, Australia
2010
Nauru, Notes from a Cretaceous World, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2009
Between a rock and a hard place, Level 2 Project Space, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2008
Misplaced / Displayed Mass- A1 Southwest Stone, Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, Australia
A1 Southwest Stone, Sutton gallery project space Melbourne, Australia
2007
Comparative Material, Projects @ 230 Young Street Fitzroy / Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2006
The Mutant Message, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2005
The Colony, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, Australia
 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022
MCA Collection: Perspectives on place, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
2021
This brittle light: Light Source commissions 2020-2021, Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
A Biography of Daphne, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
trust & confusion, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
Eucalyptusdom, Powerhouse Museum, Ultimo, Australia
2020
TOWARDS REGROWTH, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
On Celestial Bodies, Arter, Istanbul, Turkey
The Penumbral Age: Art in the Time of Planetary Change , Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
2019
The Posthuman City, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore
Antipodean Stories, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy
Werethings, Galeria Plan B, Berlin, Germany
D.E.E.P. (Disaster of Extra Epic Proportions) in The Mesh, an exhibition coproduced by chi K11 Art
Museum and NOWNESS, Shanghai, China
Capital, National Centre for Photography as part of the Ballarat international Foto Biennale, Ballarat, Australia
Pictures and Words, Bus Projects, Melbourne, Australia
2018
Let’s Talk About the Weather: Art and Ecology in a Time of Crisis, Guangdong Times Museum,
Guangzhou, China
74 million million million tons, Sculpture Centre, New York, USA
A World Undone, 21st Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Unthought Environments, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
2017
être pierre, Musée Zadkine, Paris, France
Manipulate the World, Morderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
The National 2017: new Australian art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Out of the ordinary, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Human/Animal/Artist, McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
4.543 BILLION. The Matter of matter, CAPC, Bordeaux, France
2016
Imagine the Present, curated by Abby Cunnane, St Paul St. Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Riddle of the Burial Grounds, curated by Tessa Giblin, Extra City, Antwerpen, Belgium
Let’s Talk About the Weather: Art and Ecology in a Time of Crisis, Curated by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez and Nora Razian, Sursock Museum, Sursock, Beirut, Lebanon
Neriri Kirurur Harara, SeMa Biennale Curated by Beck Jee-sook, Mediacity Seoul, South Korea
Gwangju Biennale: the Eight Climate (What Does Art Do?), Gwangju, curated by Maria Lind, South Korea
Beyond 2 degrees, curated by Brooke Kellaway, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA
2015
The Biography of Things, Curated by Hannah Mathews and Annika Kristensen, Australian Centre of for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
Riddle of the Burial Grounds, curated by Tessa Giblin, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
Surround Audience, New Museum Triennial, Curated by Lauren Cornell and Ryan Trecartin, New York, USA
Concrete, Curated by Geraldine Barlow, Tophane-i Amire, Culture and Arts Center Mimar Sinan Fine Art University, Istanbul, Turkey
Rocks, Stones, and Dust, Curated by John G. Hampton, University of Toronto Art Centre, Canada
Art in the age of… curated by Defne Ayas, Natasha Hoare, Samuel Saelemakers, With De withe, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2014
Octopus 14: Nothing Beside Remains, curated by Tara McDowell, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
Concrete, curated by Geraldine Barlow, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia
Thinking About Building, Curated by Melanie Oliver, The Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand
Creative Suite, Square2, Curated by Andie Bell, City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Anthropocene Monument, curated by Bruno Latour and Bronislaw Szerszynski, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France
2013
Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Weather Permitting, 9th Bienal do Mercosul, Curated by Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Mom, am I a barbarian?, 13th Istanbul Biennial, Curated by Fulya Erdemci, instabul, Turkey
Living in the Ruins of the Twentieth Century, curated by Adam Jasper and Holly Williams UTS Gallery, Sydney
Courtesy of the artist, curated by Alexandra Baudelot, CNEAI, Paris, France
Regimes of Value, curated by Elizabeth Gower, Margaret Lawrence Gallery and The Substation, Melbourne, Australia
Third/Fourth: Melbourne artist facilitated Biennial, Curated by Christopher L.G Hill, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, The University of Melbourne, Australia
2012
Art & Australia Collection 2003–2013, Newcastle Art Gallery, New South Wales, Australia
Negotiating This World: Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Running on Pebbles: through-lines with incidents and increments, Curated by Allan Smith, The Snakepit, Auckland, New Zealand
Sinking Islands, Curated by Vincent Normand, Labor, Mexico City, Mexico
2011
Talking Pictures, Curated by Melanie Oliver Artspace, Sydney, Australia
The Edge of the Universe (Part II), Curated by Danny Lacy, Shepparton Art Gallery Victoria, Australia
Networks (cells & silos), curated by Geraldine Barlow, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia
2010
2010 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Before & After Science, curated by Charlotte Day and Sarah Tutton, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Event Horizon, curated by Mark Feary, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia
The woods that see and hear, Curated by Sarah Farrer, Dertien Hectare, Heeswijk, The Netherlands
2009
West Brunswick Sculpture Triennial, Ocular Lab and various venues around Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia
2008
Y2K Melbourne Biennial, TCB art inc., Melbourne, Australia
The Ecologies Project, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia
Fictions, curated by Kirrily Hammond, Monash University, Museum of Art touring exhibition, Switchback Gallery, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, Australia
TarraWarra Biennial 2008: Lost & Found, an Archaeology ofthe Present, curated by Charlotte Day, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Australia
Lucky Number Seven, SITE Biennial 2008, Curated by Lance Fung, SITE Santa Fe, USA
Revolving Doors, an exhibition in memory of Blair Trethowan, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
The Shadow Cabinet, the second phase of ‘Master Humphrey’s Clock’, curated by Yulia Aksenova, Jesse Birch, Sarah Farrar, Inti Guerrero and Virginija Januskeviciute, de Appel Arts Centre, The Netherlands
2006
Super Natural, Curted by Emily Cormack, The Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand

Adventures with Form in Space, The Fourth Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project, Curated by Wayne Tunnicliffe, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Uncanny Nature, Curated by Rebecca Coates, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
2004-2005
Molecular History of Everything, curated by Juliana Engberg, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
2004
Australian Culture Now, The Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Primavera,curated by Vivienne Webb, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Work in progress, curated by Hannah Matthews, Spacement, Melbourne, Australia
Carbon Copy and Giant Molecules, curated by John Nicholson, Penthouse and Pavement, Melbourne, Australia

Pure Negativity, Westspace, Melbourne, Australia
: Mutable Spaces, curated by Josh Milani, Metro Arts, Brisbane, Australia

Limits to Growth

(2016 – )

Miss Verna Long poses with a 12 pound Rai stone from the island of Yap at the Chase National Bank exhibit, 1935. Cut-line reads “Miss Verna Long, who is a typical consumer at the Industrial Arts Exposition, learns that a 12 pound stone coin from the island of Yap will buy 500 coconuts but is a bit awkward for pockets and purses, while she inspects specimens of curious and historic monies at the Chase National Bank exhibit in the Exposition.” Photographer unknown. Collection of Nicholas Mangan.

Miss Verna Long poses with a 12 pound Rai stone from the island of Yap at the Chase National Bank exhibit, 1935. Cut-line reads “Miss Verna Long, who is a typical consumer at the Industrial Arts Exposition, learns that a 12 pound stone coin from the island of Yap will buy 500 coconuts but is a bit awkward for pockets and purses, while she inspects specimens of curious and historic monies at the Chase National Bank exhibit in the Exposition.” Photographer unknown. Collection of Nicholas Mangan.

Chief Magistrate Anghel Gargog in costume wearing basket near two coral money discs, 1962. Photographer: Roy H. Goss. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Chief Magistrate Anghel Gargog in costume wearing basket near two coral money discs, 1962. Photographer: Roy H. Goss. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

O'Keefe stones aboard SV Mnuw junk ship, Colonia, Yap, Micronesia, 2016. Photo: Nicholas Mangan.

O'Keefe stones aboard SV Mnuw junk ship, Colonia, Yap, Micronesia, 2016. Photo: Nicholas Mangan.

Bank of Detroit Museum of Money guide Lynn Wesson explains Yap money to museum visitors, 1960. Photographer unknown. Collection of Federated States of Micronesia Library of Congress.

Bank of Detroit Museum of Money guide Lynn Wesson explains Yap money to museum visitors, 1960. Photographer unknown. Collection of Federated States of Micronesia Library of Congress.

Limits to Growth (Part 1) begins by staging a comparison of two virtual monetary currencies: the contemporary cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and the more ancient Yapese currency, Rai. While bitcoins are virtual, and in a sense immaterial, Rai are made of stone and are often very large, weighing several tonnes. Bitcoins are minted by computers solving complex algorithms, often collectively – working in a ‘blockchain.’ In order to ‘mint’ Bitcoins, however, vast quantities of energy are consumed by the computers processing the algorithms as they labour to verify and record transactions. Processor farms must labour day in, day out to keep the network alive. So although Bitcoin’s medium of exchange is virtual, it remains – like Rai – bound to the physical world.

To make the first iteration of Limits to Growth, A Bitcoin mining rig was installed in the Museums basement. Money mined by the rig has been used to pay for the production of the large-format photographs of Rai stone coins included in the exhibition. This series of photographs have an indexical relationship to the value created and energy consumed by the Bitcoin mining taking place below. They will continued to accumulate over the exhibition’s duration as the rig mined for Bitcoin.

My interest in Bitcoin was piqued by the use of terminology such as ‘mining’ and ‘workers.’, trawling through various online forums I found someone in Australia who was actually mining bitcoin, despite the fact that the country’s high electricity costs render it unprofitable. I came across a discussion taking place within a remote community in Western Australia that was established by a mining company to service an actual mine. As is common practice, the company provided free housing and electricity to workers, as well as much needed air-conditioning in the hot climate. In the online thread, a worker from the mine suggested that a Bitcoin rig could be set up at his company-funded housing in order to take advantage of this free electricity and cooling. This physical mine could indirectly provide the climate for profitable virtual mining in Australia. This situation of a parasitical economy and how the potential overlay of the physical and the dematerialised might function in relation to resource extraction was of particular interest.

Limits to Growth includes an underwater video of a Rai stone lying on the bottom of the Miil Channel off the northwest coast of Yap. The sound of a human breathing through a scuba apparatus is taken directly from the video. The accompanying live stream of several CCTV cameras linked the gallery to the activity of the Bitcoin mining rig in the basement. The sound that the Bitcoin miners produce mixes with the noise of the building’s air-conditioning system, which provides ideal temperature and airflow control, keeping the miners from overheating. as such I wanted to integrate a sense of the Museum’s existing air circulation infrastructure with the body of the diver in the video. Both allude to the presence of closed systems and the notion of the necessity of circulation in any currency.

Nicholas Mangan, *Limits to Growth*, 2016, hand-printed C type photographs, 120 x 120 cm each. Installation view, Monash University 
Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photographer: Andrew Curtis.

Nicholas Mangan, Limits to Growth, 2016, hand-printed C type photographs, 120 x 120 cm each. Installation view, Monash University
Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photographer: Andrew Curtis.

Nicholas Mangan, *Limits to Growth*, 2016, 9 terrahash Bitcoin ASIC mining rig. Installation detail, basement boiler room of Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photographer: Andrew Curtis.

Nicholas Mangan, Limits to Growth, 2016, 9 terrahash Bitcoin ASIC mining rig. Installation detail, basement boiler room of Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photographer: Andrew Curtis.

Nicholas Mangan, *Limits to Growth*, 2016, 9 terrahash Bitcoin ASIC mining rig. Installation detail, basement boiler room of Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photographer: Andrew Curtis.

Nicholas Mangan, Limits to Growth, 2016, 9 terrahash Bitcoin ASIC mining rig. Installation detail, basement boiler room of Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photographer: Andrew Curtis.

Nicholas Mangan, *Limits to Growth*, 2016. Installation view, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photographer: Andrew Curtis.

Nicholas Mangan, Limits to Growth, 2016. Installation view, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photographer: Andrew Curtis.

Nicholas Mangan, *Limits to Growth*, 2016, single channel HD video, sound, colour, 7:56, continuous loop. Installation view, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photographer: Andrew Curtis.

Nicholas Mangan, Limits to Growth, 2016, single channel HD video, sound, colour, 7:56, continuous loop. Installation view, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2016. Photographer: Andrew Curtis.

Limits to Growth (Part 2) – Numismatics: a study of dead and dying currencies and the true value of waste.

_Limits to Growth [Part 2] – Numismatics: a study of dead and dying currencies and the true value of waste._ 5 x Antminer S7 ASIC miners, 2 x fans, HP 44” plotter printer, 55” LED  Monitor, HD Video, Sound - Duration 7:56, Digital prints. 11th Gwangju Biennale, The Eighth Climate, South Korea, 2016.

Limits to Growth [Part 2] – Numismatics: a study of dead and dying currencies and the true value of waste. 5 x Antminer S7 ASIC miners, 2 x fans, HP 44” plotter printer, 55” LED Monitor, HD Video, Sound - Duration 7:56, Digital prints. 11th Gwangju Biennale, The Eighth Climate, South Korea, 2016.

Limits to Growth (Part 3) – Letter to Rai