Marguerite Humeau, a French artist, primarily works in sculpture and installations that focus on extinct animals and other supernatural beings and ideas, creating intriguing biomorphs. Humeau thrives on uncertainty and possibility, which reminds me of dream scapes painted by surrealist artists and how they didn’t make sense to the fresh eye, but with deeper thought and inspection, the ideas portrayed create a cohesive train of thought. Like the surrealists, Humeau wants to captivate her audience with the “what if” of nature, and how species and/or natural events could’ve ended up, creating a narrative to constantly keep her viewers on their toes.
The article talks about how the recent pandemic has created a time of uncertainty, and how there is no distinct endpoint. It also mentions how Humeau has worked with scientists to create works based on historic and scientific findings, and that scientists sometimes struggle to see the bigger picture. Humeau is the kind of artist who can thrive in these conditions because she doesn’t need an endpoint and has the ability to formulate narratives off of one idea. She takes the finite knowledge of science and expands it into her art, creating a world of possibilities and opportunities to stimulate conversations about science and different narratives.
Based on Humeau’s interests in science, conspiracies, spirituality, and the inner workings of the universe, her work can be considered timeless to a degree. In the beginning of the article, it’s mentioned how Humeau saw a sculpture of an interpretation of prehistoric animals from 1854 and how they seemed so sure of this interpretation, only for it to be horribly incorrect years later. Humeau isn’t using prehistoric beings or technology and saying her interpretations are the only correct forms, or are exact representations of what things should be; she uses these beings to convey ideas, possibilities, and questions. There are still questions that scientists had about these prehistoric beings that we still have today, so the narratives that Humeau presents in her work can represent conversations and questions that could still be relevant or talked about for years to come.
Since Covid-19 hit, Humeau has reconsidered her medium of sculpture and has tried to make her work more virtually versatile through film, but still finds it important to “live in the now” and create sculpture to give physical presence importance again. Even though she recognizes how the importance of sculpture and its relevance could change due to the bounded society we are all currently living in, she isn’t waiting for the pandemic to have an endpoint, and is still creating physical spaces for her intangible narratives. She is giving her viewers the opportunity to live in the physical present by examining the possible past, which I find to be very important in a time like this because society is relying on the virtual world to create the most “normal” experience possible, but it unfortunately has finite capabilities to express ideas and questions. Artists like Marguerite Humeau are harnessing the potential of the situation at hand and are finding ways to create impactful art.
