This publication assembles three phases of Termite Economies, a major series of artworks produced between 2018–2020 by the Australian artist Nicholas Mangan.

In Termite Economies (Phase 1) Mangan researched an anecdote that termite abilities might one day lead humans to gold deposits. Phase 2 explored termite eusociality, pheromonal communication, building behaviour, biomimicry, super-organism and swarm intelligence. Phase 3 deployed termite collectivism as a speculative model for rerouting human neural pathways. Within each phase, Mangan developed specific methods to explore these phenomena formally, spatially, and through moving images.

The book presents each phase in the order of the exhibition series. It includes process and research photographs, diagrams, installation and detailed imagery. It includes an essay by Artist Mariana Silva, a fictional text by writer ST.Lore, a conversation between Mangan and cultural theorist Ana Teixeira Pinto, and a republished essay by Dr. Guy Theraulaz. Designed by Žiga Testen.

Produced on the occasion of Nicholas Mangan – Termite Economies, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 4 August–1 September, 2018. Unbound section of proposed forthcoming publication. Text by S.T Lore and designed by Ziga Testen.

The starting point of Mangan’s exhibition, Termite Economies (Phase 1) is an anecdote that the CSIRO researched termite behaviour in the hope that the insects might one day lead humans to gold deposits; a proposal to exploit the natural activity of termite colonies for economic gain. In this exhibition, Mangan combines footage he filmed on location in Western Australia, alongside archival video and table-mounted sculptures, to speculate on the use of termites as miners and to construct a narrative that parallels human, social, ecological, and economic activity. At the core of this investigation, Mangan ruminates on how capitalism puts nature to work. Using a 3D printer, plaster and soil, Mangan has created models that hybridise mining infrastructure with termite architecture to form speculative termite mining infrastructures.

Edited by Aileen Burns, Charlotte Day, Krist Gruijthuijsen, Johan Lundh. Texts by Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna (Latitudes), Helen Hughes, Ana Teixeira Pinto.

This publication accompanies Australian multidisciplinary artist Nicholas Mangan’s survey exhibition Limits to Growth. The exhibition and book bring together four of Mangan’s most significant works of the past seven years, alongside a new commission. The works in the show tackle narratives from his own geographical region—Asia Pacific, in which his home country of Australia plays a colonial role—and weaves them into a bigger picture to take into account the global economy, resource extraction, and the ultimate power of the sun. Featuring an in-depth series of conversations between the artist and the Barcelona-based curatorial collective Latitudes, and essays by Ana Teixeira Pinto and Helen Hughes, this publication is richly illustrated with documentation of Mangan’s artworks and historical source material.

Copublished with the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; and Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne. Design by Žiga Testen.