The Whole Entire Universe (graphic version) sides 1-3 by Anik Malcolm

Artist Name and Artwork Title:

The Whole Entire Universe (graphic version) sides 1-3 by Anik Malcolm

Description:

‘The Whole Entire Universe (graphic version)’ – The first ever depiction of 21 million, and one of the most literal Bitcoin artworks that can be made. The first iteration of a larger series that includes the oil painting version recently shown at B26, digital prints, forthcoming sculptures, a planned large public installation in Roatán, and other media. This is the first iteration, meticulously hand-drawn over hundreds of hours, and first exhibited at Plan B Lugano in October 2025.

Anik wanted to make an artwork showing ’21 million of something’, and his wife, herself an artist and jeweller, suggested a cube of beads, as they were one of the first forms of currency to be used.

21 million was clearly not a number that would fit neatly into a cube, so Anik looked for a way by which they could. He found that a cube of 276x276x276 would give a number of 21,024,576 – 24,576 too many. 

However, this excess number coincidentally divided exactly by 6, allowing him to remove 4096 beads from each of the cube’s six sides to achieve the exact 21,000,000.

The number 4096 seemed familiar.

Ideally, as this was a cube, each area of removed beads would be a square for aesthetic elegance, so he checked to see whether by any chance 4096 had a square root.

Not only did it have a square root, but that square root was 64 – a power of 2, meaning he could allow those ‘removed square areas’ to simultaneously halve in size while exponentially growing in number.

To him, this conveyed an incredible hidden mathematical elegance within the number 21,000,000 and the cube image which is so ubiquitous to Bitcoin, visually portraying not only the halving process, but also the exponential growth which the halving mechanism enables.

Anik is not a mathematical philosopher, but he hopes that someone who is can extract the meaning that seems so clearly implied.

Materials:

Graphite on Italian Fabriano Accademia paper 

Dimensions:

128x128cm 

Shipping Info:

Shipping is calculated once we have your mailing address. A shipping deposit is collected with your winning bid. The balance due (or to be refunded) will be collected prior to shipping. You can use the below package description to estimate shipping to your location from Prague.

€250, whether together or each.

Save all shipping costs by taking the art with you from the event! Just select that option for shipping at checkout and all shipping charges are waived. Art needs to be picked up at the gallery before 5PM Saturday June 13th.

Artist Bio:

Anik Malcolm is a trained conceptual artist raised in England and Germany, and currently residing in Italy.
Anikmalcolm.com

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