Marguerite Humeau in Helsinki Art Museum HAM

The exhibition of Marguerite Humeau, a French artist based in London, is located upstairs at HAM, next to the Ars Fennica exhibition. The space is defined by a square-shaped white canvas. In my opinion, Humeau’s works require a fairly intimate and enclosed setting in order to be presented in the best possible way. The canvas encloses some of the pieces and perhaps transforms the stark, lofty exhibition space into something more human in scale. The light globes near the ceiling, somewhat reminiscent of rice paper lamps, serve a similar purpose. The soundscape of the space is pleasant

The floor-standing works are not cordoned off with ropes or marked in any way. This is undoubtedly the best solution for how the works are experienced. Of course, I also understand why the museum attendants wandered through the space looking alert. The materials of the artworks, often wax and glass, are not particularly impact-resistant.

Humeau’s art requires a certain amount of contemplation. The layered wax surfaces and organic forms, the bubbling spore mass – it seems to be about nature and its cycles. It brings to mind an autumn mushroom forest: above the moss, chanterelles and porcini, and below, vast underground networks of myselium.

The Guardian of the Fungus Garden 2023. Terracotta, pigments, 150-year-old walnut (cause of death: unknown), handblown glass, culture of termite mushroom (Termitomyces) and bronze. Original Sound: Bendik Giske

And why is the exhibition called Torches? Museums explanation is that ”Torches, evokes the idea of artworks as beacons across time. Like torches, Humeau's sculptures illuminate the complex layers of the past, revealing worlds already lost, while also pointing the way toward the future.”

Echo, A Matriarch Engineered to Die. 2016. Polyurethane foam, white paint, acrylic parts, latex, silicone, nylon, glass artificial heart, water pumps, water, potassium chloride, powder-coated metal stand, sound. Sound design, orchestration: MARUSKES (Lida Brouskari and Tania Zountsa) Dramaturgy: John O'Rourke. Private collection, loan of Nixon Chustz Houston, TX USA on deposit at les Abattoirs, Musée Frac Occitanie Toulouse

*stirs. 2024. Installation: Cast rubber, sediments, pigments, acrylic vessel (containing microbial ecosystem of cyanobacteria and other photosynthetic micro-organisms, filtration and heating system, turbidity and pH sensors, LEDs synchronized to the daily path of the sun), handblown glass bubbles with inclusions of biological and synthetic filaments, ash, stainless steel, aluminium, copper, sensor-activated speakers. Voice, original score composition and recordings: Kwon Song-hee. Percussion: Sim Woonjung Sound design, orchestration: MARUSKES (Lida Brouskari and Tania Zountsa) Dramaturgy: John O'Rourke. Courtesy of the Artist

"I'm interested in presence the worlds I (re)create have ceased to exist, they don't exist yet, or they exist in parallel presents. I don't see my artworks as artworks; I see them as real-life forms. They have a voice. They have a pulse. They have a heartbeat. They have a rhythm. They are very much alive."

Marguerite Humeau, 2022

Torches 21.11.2025–15.3.2026

Photograps by the author 14.12.2025

Ars Fennica 2025 in HAM

Helsinki Art Museum HAM webpage