Work from the Collection

Nauru, Notes from a Cretaceous World

Artist: Nicholas Mangan
Date: 2009-2010
Medium: Video
Materials: Limestone and coral table from the island of Nauru., HD Video
Collection: Lafayette anticipations - Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin
The idea that “the middle of nowhere is the centre of everything” provides the starting point for Nicholas Mangan’s installation Nauru, Notes from a Cretaceous World, consisting of a film and a limestone table. Here, the Australian artist orchestrates the meeting of long and geological time with the ephemeral nature of human activity. He travelled to the island of Nauru, which, at 21 square kilometres, is the smallest republic in the world, to film the now desolate landscapes of this country with a singular history. Nicholas Mangan presents these images alongside a strange table, a relic of the island’s extractive—and prosperous—past. In order to save the country from imminent bankruptcy, its president had imagined trading in coffee tables made of limestone from what was once a financial windfall—phosphate mining—by presenting them on the American market as made of ancient coral. Nicholas Mangan uses this anecdote to represent the historical and environmental upheavals of this republic, whose economy was based on the extractive industry and which became a tax haven in the early 2000s. Nauru presents the ultimate, delirious escape from decay—or how nature would, with its final breath, happily save its inhabitants from their digressions, mistakes, and predatory activities.

Exhibitions

New Museum Triennial : Surround Audience
New Museum, New-York (États-Unis)
from 25 Feb to 24 May 2015
Nauru, Notes from a Cretaceous World
Sutton gallery, Fitzroy (Australie)
from 29 Jul to 28 Aug 2010
Adelaide Biennial : Before and After Science
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Adelaide (Australie)
from 27 Feb to 02 May 2010
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