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Rather than treating bodies, thoughts and materials as separate entities, Marlot Meyer (1997) views them as frequencies and sources of energy. In her work, she explores how these energies can be gathered, cultivated and influenced, with the aim of dissolving the division between the self and the environment.
During a residency in Friesland, Meyer explored how the body might be made aware of the tides of the Wadden Sea. By linking sensors placed in the surf to an inflatable vest that she wore day and night, she created a physical, intimate connection with the rhythm of the sea. For the installation Pneuma (2025), she drew inspiration from microalgae in marine silt. Invisible to the naked eye, these tiny organisms burrow into the sediment at high tide and re-emerge at low tide – a cadence they retain even in laboratory conditions. They also play an essential role in many ecosystems, and produce much of the Earth’s oxygen.
The form and movement of the large sculptures in the installation are based on these algae. Meyer invites visitors to care for the smaller beings. When embraced, they register breathing, which in turn resonates within the larger forms. In this way, Pneuma draws visitors into a quite exchange between body and world, between breath and tide. The work serves as a reminder that everything breathes and moves: life unfolds in relation to others and to the Earth, in a polyphony of pulses. Breathing is being together.
Written by Esther Darley