From fungi and honeycomb to buds and coral, Marguerite Humeau's latest exhibition is a world of multi-sensory delights.
The French artist's first show at White Cube Bermondsey, London is entitled meys (5 April–14 May 2023). It unfolds her highly imaginative oeuvre in sounds, moving images, and sculptures.
Entangled in narratives surrounding human and insect societies, Humeau's sculptures are intricate and tactile. They pose and balance in the gallery's softly lit rooms, a far cry from the White Cube's typically clinical atmosphere.
Her sculptures are accompanied by looped breathing sounds interrupted by percussive reverberations. When journeying through the works, it becomes easy to lose oneself in Humeau's eerie but bewitching world.
Her works evoke a sense of growth. In several sculptures, Humeau replicates the gills of mushrooms and the structure of honeycombs from materials such as bronze, handblown glass, natural beeswax, and wood eaten by forest creatures.
Humeau's work re-imagines familiar, natural textures and places them in a low lit alien land. It feels as though we have entered the hive of an insect society, a place that is at once recognisable and peculiar.
meys coincides with solo presentations by Mimi Lauter and Samuel Ross at White Cube Bermondsey, all on view until 14 May 2023.
Images: Exhibition view: Marguerite Humeau, meys, White Cube, Bermondsey (5 April–14 May 2023). Courtesy White Cube, London.
