High Tide, Prix Marcel Duchamp

Inspired by ethological accounts of animals adopting religious behaviours, High Tide continues many of the ideas and concerns arising from Mist (2019) and features a herd of marine mammals dancing to invoke higher spirits. Turning the gallery floor into a placid plane of water, serpentine ‘dancers’ rise up, their curved, winged forms informed by anatomical drawings of lungs and the study of marine creature respiratory systems Marguerite undertook with the support of a pulmonologist. Speculating upon the existence of animal spirituality and rituals that may be triggered by the climate emergency, High Tide conjures a scene of redemption and hope or reconciliation with death. Against the backdrop of climate crisis and the mass extinction of numerous animal species in recent years, Marguerite sought the knowledges of further experts, including animal cognition and behaviour researchers, historians of mythology and religion, and conservation biologists. Calling to mind ancient tales of devastating floods, the walls of the space seem inhabited by the soul of a ‘Mythteller’ whose voice regales the visitor with a story about a deluge. Unlike those stories that find reason for the flood in the enragement of the gods, The Mythteller’s event is brought about by humankind’s presence on Earth, and the transformation of the ocean’s natural rhythms into productive, machinic ones. As if mimicking the tide, the voice of the Mythteller lapses, drawing closer only to then recede like a slowly dissipating ghost.