LAURE PROUVOST

Prouvost’s practice is one of continuous translation and fluid evolution. Central to her work are the themes of shifting meanings, mistranslations across languages, definitions, and the seamless fusion of creatures into a unified whole, where utopia meets surrealism. The exhibition features a glass bird, Jens (2023). This is from a series of hand-blown Murano glass creatures that Prouvost debuted in her exhibition at the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo, 2022. Human, avian, and aquatic forms gracefully intertwine, symbolising the interconnectedness and mutual reliance of species in the age of climate change and global migration. Birds, captured in various poses, appear on the brink of transformation as if embarking on a migratory journey alongside its aquatic counterparts.

The new tapestry We Will Keep Cool (Las Pozas) (2024) depicts diverse landscapes and familiar motifs in Prouvost’s oeuvre. Set in British poet Edward James’ surrealistic garden ‘Las Pozas’ in Mexico, it depicts her own work Cooling system 3 (for global warming), 2018 which offers up a future proposition as a solution to global warming, as well as characters from her film They Parlaient Idéale. Translation becomes a central theme not only through language but also through converting motifs into different mediums and referencing previous artworks.

Further into the space, a series of paintings The Octopus Body make their debut in China following an initial presentation in ‘Stranded by Your Side’ (Lisson Gallery, New York, 7 September – 14 October 2023). Each canvas, blending playful allure and sensual intrigue, is adorned with Prouvost’s characteristic imagery and text that directly addresses the viewer. Going beyond her customary palette, these works embrace softer tones — pastel blues, greys, and flesh hues — conjuring the shades of a twilight seascape and the ethereal life beneath its surface. A motif that frequently inhabits Prouvost’s creative realm, depictions of swirling octopi and swimming fish symbolise the enigmatic threshold between thinking and feeling, human life and sea creatures.

Amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prouvost delved into the intricacies of our collective adaptation to a world in flux, probing the origins of language, the sensorial imparting of knowledge and charting our trajectory forward through her film Re-dit-en-un-in-a-learning (2020). The work serves as a poignant reflection on the human experience on learning and belonging, care and connection and is a sequel to Prouvost’s 2017 work, DIT LEARN. She associates words to different images, destabilising our understanding of language and its structure of knowledge, and exploring a pre-lingual world. The title itself, a play on words combining ‘dit’ (a verb meaning ‘to speak’ or ‘speaking’) and ‘learn,’ encapsulates the essence of linguistic evolution and the perpetual process of relearning. Prouvost explains, ’You cannot find the words for the images you see... All becomes one.’

Prouvost’s first major exhibition in Australia, ‘Oui Move In You’, runs from 23 March to 10 June at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, encompassing new installations and a survey of existing work to transform ACCA’s architecture into a labyrinthine and other-worldly environment. Concurrently to the show in Shanghai, Prouvost will present a solo exhibition at Fosun Foundation in Chengdu, showcasing two films including Re-dit-en-un-in-a-learning (2020).

Press release courtesy Lisson Gallery