Lucy from Back, Herebelow, Formidable (the rebirth of prehistoric creatures)
Marguerite Humeau (French, born 1986)
2010-ongoing
Metal, plastic tube, and air compressor
45 5/16 x 19 11/16 x 59” (115.1 x 50 x 149.9 cm)
In this series Humeau attempts to revive
the sound of extinct animals by reconstructing
their vocal tracts, soft-tissue
organs that are not preserved in the
fossil record. Here she presents the voice
box of Lucy, a famous Australopithecus
afarensis—an early hominid whose fossilized
remains were discovered in Ethiopia
in 1974. To simulate the sounds Lucy
made, in reconstructing her voice box
Humeau examined the soft tissues of
Lucy’s closest modern relatives, humans
and chimpanzees, modifying them to fit
the fossils of the extinct animal. The
newly constructed parts are connected to
an air compressor that simulates breathing
and the mechanics of vocalization.
Category: Double Entendre
Tags: Mutants and Fairy Tales / Communications / Liminal Spaces
