An exhibition at White Cube’s gallery by Marguerite Humeau transforms the space into a bat cave, inspired by one the artist visited in West Papua in 2025.
Art Inspired by a Bat Cave
When Humeau explored the cave, she noted its vastness. In fact, these cave systems are so large that oftentimes even geologists can’t study their entirety. She also noticed that, though the cave may be expansive, there was a way out marked by a scintilla of light. This observation inspired the title of the exhibition.
Humeau works through multidisciplinary practices, including drawing, sculpture, sound, and research-driven collaborations with scientists. Not a stranger to speculating on sensory and linguistic limits, Humeau was unable to find words to capture her emotions in the cave. She created new terms, which she used as titles for the artworks.
The gallery is filled with a variety of unique pieces inspired by the structure of the cave. For example, light fixtures are filled with confetti to resemble bat wings.
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Two large sculptures titled Softament (The Guardian of Mineral Memory) and Stillenary (The Guardian of the Emergence) resemble stalagmites and stretch almost to the gallery’s ceiling. The pieces twist upwards and are topped with glass orbs that represent water droplets mid-mineralization.
Softament (The Guardian of Mineral Memory) is made with materials such as mineral aggregates and painted felt, giving the work a dewy effect. Stillenary (The Guardian of the Emergence), by contrast, has a rough grey surface that resembles a rock formation developed over thousands of years.
In the upstairs section of the exhibit, a suite of bat sculptures whose bodies are mid-metamorphosis appear to be fusing with each other and the cave walls. This portion of the exhibit gives the illusion that you’re moving deeper into the cave, with a low ceiling that represents a narrow passage. Each sculpture in this section is titled based on a different role performed by the animals to support the colony.
Marguerite Humeau’s ‘scintille’ is on view at White Cube, New York, until February 21, 2026.
