The Hive Hums With Many Minds

Monique Jansen

Te Tuhi Gallery
Auckland, Aotearoa/NZ
2016

‘A Length without Breadth’*

pencil on paper, 4200mm x 2000mm

*a length with out breadth is, of course, a line.

“In this work, thousands of individually hand drawn pencil lines are combined to create a hive of optical murmuration and the appearance of a matrix folded in on itself. Jansen’s intricate mark-making could be compared to many things, from the weave of textiles to the mapping biological emergence or the representation of ‘big data’ harvested from the countless clicks we make over the internet. Whatever association you prefer, it is clear that the work depicts a rational but complex system of many individual units that make up a whole, not unlike the many minds that make civilisation tick.”

- Bruce E. Phillips, curator of The Hive Hums With Many Minds, Te Tuhi Gallery.