Torches

Torches is the artist’s first survey exhibition, and an occasion to convene the cosmologies instantiated by Marguerite’s projects to date. Taking the form of an immersive, non-linear ‘opera’, Torches unites a multiplicity of beings and times in one location, treating the cavernous exhibition space as a resonant cave upon whose walls shadows and silhouettes play. The opera unfolds by way of five chapters, scenes which weave an elaborate, multi-modal narrative between various protagonists and moments, bringing together the death of a matriarch elephant from FOXP2 (2016), for example, with the subterranean troupe from meys (2023). Encompassing a wide array of materials – including 150-year-old walnut, hand-blown glass, alabaster, beeswax and cyanobacteria – the breadth of work speak of rich, speculative worlds enlivened by detail and the extensive material research for which Marguerite is known. Using lighting, dramaturgy and synchronised, travelling sound to illicit a sense of atmospheric continuity among the shifting presences, Torches foregrounds the figure of the guide as one of critical importance to Marguerite, as both a principle of engagement and an aid for navigating uncertain futures. Bringing together the great themes and questions driving the artist’s work – among them, metamorphosis, interconnected life and collective survival – Torches presents a chorus of beings to propose other ways of existing that may endure across space and time.