The Dead, RIBOCA2: and suddenly it all blossoms

Returning to ideas of mass extinction and animal spirituality are two site-specific re-stagings of The Dead (2019), a sculpture first featured as part of Marguerite’s exhibition Mist (2019). Installed on both occasions in dark warehouses devoid of natural light, The Dead – a partially-submerged marine mammal in its death throes – was intentionally kept out of sight and obscured by the dark. In Sydney, visitors experienced the artwork by way of a guide, who was equipped with a microphone and a low-light torch. A sound piece titled The Mythteller (2019) rung out into lofty space; narrating the events of a terrible deluge, its voice circled the warehouse as if it were the speaking soul of The Dead.

In Riga, The Dead was experienced solely through the words of a poet: ‘Here at the surface of the ocean / floats the heavy, deflated flesh of a marine mammal / upside down, half submerged / its fins: wide open, facing up’. Lying lifeless at the rear of the space, The Dead by mere presence evoked the immense, stolid form of a majestic creature with swooping, outstretched fins. In lieu of seeing The Dead, the recited poem conjures visualisations of a suffering and distress that cannot be accessed nor fully grasped: ‘The body has the translucence of human skin and, / at the bottom, where it touches water, / a spreading bruise of purple shades.’