Detail of panel V
Overview installation Threshold of Complexity, 2024, at Kunsthal KAdE, seven panels, 2,5 x 7m.
Overview installation Threshold of Complexity, 2024, at Kunsthal KAdE, seven Dibond panels, each 140x100cm, black paint
Threshold of Complexity
For the exhibition Sleep! at Kunsthal KAdE, Harm van den Berg created a large drawing installation—an elongated drawn network on panels with a total length of seven meters. For this artwork, he developed a special technique in which, using a needle, he meticulously removes black paint from the surface, revealing a delicate white web.
The title of the work, Threshold of Complexity, refers to the point at which components in a network reach a certain level of organization, resulting in the spontaneous emergence of new properties. This phenomenon can be seen in ants, which as a colony build ingenious structures, in birds that form unique shapes in the air as a flock, or in the human brain, where consciousness and emotions arise from the highly complex neural network.
Van den Berg's intricate, network-like drawings are created in a similar way. During the drawing process, new forms spontaneously emerge by repeatedly making minute graphic marks. For the artist, this is a way to visualize the dynamics of complex organizational processes that often lie hidden beneath the surface of reality.
Within the context of the exhibition's theme of sleep, the deep black background of Threshold of Complexity can be seen as the sleep state, while the white drawn networks evoke associations with brain processes during various sleep stages. In this way, the installation can be read as a representation of the complexity and imaginative power of the human mind during sleep.Click on thumbnails and (double) click on picture to zoom:
Detail of panel V
Detail of panel IV
Detail of panel III
Special edition of small original study drawings, available for purchase at the museum shop at Kunsthal KAdE. Each drawing comes in a small box with a hand-signed certificate of authenticity. These works are available in a limited quantity.
sTOC #19, 2024, 12x10cm, black paint on Dibond, partly removed with a fine needle.
Private collection
sTOC #32, 2024, 40x30cm, black paint on Dibond, partly removed with a fine needle.
Private collection
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Digital inversion of Untitled, 2017, 77 x 53,5 cm, piezo Print on Hahnemuhle Ultra Matt paper, 2021
A digital inverted version of drawing Untitled (2017) features now on the cover of Eric Schliesser's new book Newton's Metaphysics: Essays (2021), published by Oxford University Press.
C_tvN01, 2021, pencil on paper (detail)
The drawings I make are based on the principle of self-organisation. A term derived from network theory. Intuitively I have found a procedure in which the process of drawing is self-organising. When I first made this kind of drawings, I knew little about phenomena such as self-organisation, complexity or emergence. That changed four years ago, when I started reading scientific literature about these topics in preparation for two residencies. Also because of conversations I had with philosopher Eric Schliesser about self-regulation and a lecture by physicist Erik Verlinde about emergence, I understood that an emergent phenomenon occurs during my drawing process. From that moment on I started to delve into this subject. It has led to a turnaround in my work, in which processes with emergent properties are now central.
Emergence means: appearing spontaneously. Emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviours which emerge only when the parts interact. It is a phenomenon that occurs frequently in nature. For example, a flock of birds in the sky showing the most fantastic shapes, a colony of ants collectively creating the most stunning building structures, or thousands of fireflies that blink in perfect synchronisation. This is swarming behaviour which is not much different from how atoms and small particles collectively behave. Colour, for example, is also an emergent phenomenon: atoms have no colour, colour only appears when a large number of atoms are in a certain arrangement. Culture can also be regarded as an emergent phenomenon, just like artificial intelligence, to name a few examples. By reading science books on physics and biology among others, I try to understand how emergent processes work, in order to be able to feel how everything is connected; how countless elements in a hidden order form reality; how chance and increasing complexity can lead to complex adaptive systems which lead to new phenomena, such as life and consciousness.
TL_01, 2019, 35x25cm, aluminium frame with non-reflective museum glass.
Drawing process: the drawings consist of minuscule shapes and forms. During the drawing process new forms emerge.
DI_Ls01, 2022, 35x25cm, digital inversion printed on Hahnemuhle Ultra Matt paper, edition 5+2AP
DI_Ls07, 2022, 35x25cm, digital inversion printed on Hahnemuhle Ultra Matt paper, edition 5+2AP
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Installation view The Invisibility of Colour, 2023 at galerie SANAA, Utrecht, NL
C_tvL02, 2021, Potlood op papier, 63x47cm
C_tvL02 (detail)
Drawings at Art Noord IV, Museum Belvédère (06.10.22 - 09.10.22)
Cvl_02, 2022, pencil on paper, 63x47cm
Drawings at Punt WG, Amsterdam (21.12.21 - 09.01.22)
group show with Marieke Zwart, Jasper Coppes, Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec
Publication Emerge
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Geestdrift festival, Pieterskerk, Utrecht
Installation view of new drawings at Kunstrai 2021
Installation view Drie Musketiers at Galerie Sanaa, 2020, with Roland Sohier and Uli Kürner
Installation view Emerge at Galerie Getekend, 2019
Publication Emerge 2019/2020
Tekst van Len Borgdorff in het literaire tijdschrift LITER
Drawings at Liter magazine
