"Prouvost cultivates an autobiographical narrative that mixes fact and fiction. This literary dimension is based on a family story that has evolved over time and continues to develop. The central figure in this story is Laure Prouvost's grand­ father, Grand Dad, a prolific conceptual artist and close friend of the German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948), who lived for a period in the Lake District, England, where Grand Dad lived. As a protagonist, Grand Dad first appeared in 2010, when he figured in the video I need to take care of my conceptual grandad and The Artist. Grand Dad's major conceptual project was to dig a tunnel from his studio in England to Africa, during which work he disappears. His beloved wife Esmee Lyington, Prouvost's Grand Ma, is left behind to take care of his legacy and
art.

As someone who devoted herself to her husband's career as an artist, one of Grand Ma's most important tasks is - like Edith Thomas - to serve tea to visitors and her husband. Laure Prouvost's exhibition GDM Grand Dad's Visitor Center in Milan (2016) represents a crucial turning point in Grand Ma's work and function. The idea behind the latter exhibition is Grand Ma's project to create a museum dedicated to Grand Dad's art, in the hope that this might bring him back and secure his legacy. Her aim is to improve his works by adding elements such as light, movement, sun, sea, birds. She also makes his artworks functional, for example by using his paintings as serving trays for tea. Here Prouvost makes an indirect reference to the surrealists' interest in the relationship between art and function. The story of Grand Dad and Grand Ma gives a humorous twist to the feminist commentary on the canonisation of men' artistic careers at the expense of women's development."

Eva Klerck Gange, "To a Weightless Shadow Behind Your Foot", in 'In Your Hands We Levitate. Laure Prouvost', Nasjonalmuseet, 2022

In Deepth, 2023 depicts two pairs of perky breasts painted onto a black backdrop with the sentence "In Deepth" inscribed below.

A continuation of a series of smaller works (oil paintings on board also portraying body parts with text), this painting anthropomorphises the anatomy it depicts. Meaning manifests as a flirtatious absurdism. The painting also seems to be jumping out in defiance of a form of censorship and an underlying feminist psychology ensues.

“Breasts are a dominant motif in Prouvost's work, appearing in surprising, absurd, humorous, and sensual combinations. In terms of their design, they echo the iconic Madonna Lactans, a popular theme in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as exemplified by Madonna and Child (ca.1510-20) by the Dutch artist Gerard David (ill. 21). The breast is exposed and clearly full of milk for the suckling baby. Laure Prouvost often presents the breast as an object detached from its usual context, sometimes in burlesque fountains with water flowing from the nipples, as in We Will Feed You Big Time (2018) and We Will Feed You Together Fountain (For Global Warming) (2019). Breasts were also a significant motif for the surrealists.”

Eva Klerck Gange, "To a Weightless Shadow Behind Your Foot", 2022

"Prouvost cultivates an autobiographical narrative that mixes fact and fiction. This literary dimension is based on a family story that has evolved over time and continues to develop. The central figure in this story is Laure Prouvost's grand­ father, Grand Dad, a prolific conceptual artist and close friend of the German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948), who lived for a period in the Lake District, England, where Grand Dad lived. As a protagonist, Grand Dad first appeared in 2010, when he figured in the video I need to take care of my conceptual grandad and The Artist. Grand Dad's major conceptual project was to dig a tunnel from his studio in England to Africa, during which work he disappears. His beloved wife Esmee Lyington, Prouvost's Grand Ma, is left behind to take care of his legacy and
art.

As someone who devoted herself to her husband's career as an artist, one of Grand Ma's most important tasks is - like Edith Thomas - to serve tea to visitors and her husband. Laure Prouvost's exhibition GDM Grand Dad's Visitor Center in Milan (2016) represents a crucial turning point in Grand Ma's work and function. The idea behind the latter exhibition is Grand Ma's project to create a museum dedicated to Grand Dad's art, in the hope that this might bring him back and secure his legacy. Her aim is to improve his works by adding elements such as light, movement, sun, sea, birds. She also makes his artworks functional, for example by using his paintings as serving trays for tea. Here Prouvost makes an indirect reference to the surrealists' interest in the relationship between art and function. The story of Grand Dad and Grand Ma gives a humorous twist to the feminist commentary on the canonisation of men' artistic careers at the expense of women's development."

Eva Klerck Gange, "To a Weightless Shadow Behind Your Foot", in 'In Your Hands We Levitate. Laure Prouvost', Nasjonalmuseet, 2022

In Deepth, 2023 depicts two pairs of perky breasts painted onto a black backdrop with the sentence "In Deepth" inscribed below.

A continuation of a series of smaller works (oil paintings on board also portraying body parts with text), this painting anthropomorphises the anatomy it depicts. Meaning manifests as a flirtatious absurdism. The painting also seems to be jumping out in defiance of a form of censorship and an underlying feminist psychology ensues.

“Breasts are a dominant motif in Prouvost's work, appearing in surprising, absurd, humorous, and sensual combinations. In terms of their design, they echo the iconic Madonna Lactans, a popular theme in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as exemplified by Madonna and Child (ca.1510-20) by the Dutch artist Gerard David (ill. 21). The breast is exposed and clearly full of milk for the suckling baby. Laure Prouvost often presents the breast as an object detached from its usual context, sometimes in burlesque fountains with water flowing from the nipples, as in We Will Feed You Big Time (2018) and We Will Feed You Together Fountain (For Global Warming) (2019). Breasts were also a significant motif for the surrealists.”

Eva Klerck Gange, "To a Weightless Shadow Behind Your Foot", 2022

"Prouvost cultivates an autobiographical narrative that mixes fact and fiction. This literary dimension is based on a family story that has evolved over time and continues to develop. The central figure in this story is Laure Prouvost's grand­ father, Grand Dad, a prolific conceptual artist and close friend of the German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948), who lived for a period in the Lake District, England, where Grand Dad lived. As a protagonist, Grand Dad first appeared in 2010, when he figured in the video I need to take care of my conceptual grandad and The Artist. Grand Dad's major conceptual project was to dig a tunnel from his studio in England to Africa, during which work he disappears. His beloved wife Esmee Lyington, Prouvost's Grand Ma, is left behind to take care of his legacy and
art.

As someone who devoted herself to her husband's career as an artist, one of Grand Ma's most important tasks is - like Edith Thomas - to serve tea to visitors and her husband. Laure Prouvost's exhibition GDM Grand Dad's Visitor Center in Milan (2016) represents a crucial turning point in Grand Ma's work and function. The idea behind the latter exhibition is Grand Ma's project to create a museum dedicated to Grand Dad's art, in the hope that this might bring him back and secure his legacy. Her aim is to improve his works by adding elements such as light, movement, sun, sea, birds. She also makes his artworks functional, for example by using his paintings as serving trays for tea. Here Prouvost makes an indirect reference to the surrealists' interest in the relationship between art and function. The story of Grand Dad and Grand Ma gives a humorous twist to the feminist commentary on the canonisation of men' artistic careers at the expense of women's development."

Eva Klerck Gange, "To a Weightless Shadow Behind Your Foot", in 'In Your Hands We Levitate. Laure Prouvost', Nasjonalmuseet, 2022

In Deepth, 2023 depicts two pairs of perky breasts painted onto a black backdrop with the sentence "In Deepth" inscribed below.

A continuation of a series of smaller works (oil paintings on board also portraying body parts with text), this painting anthropomorphises the anatomy it depicts. Meaning manifests as a flirtatious absurdism. The painting also seems to be jumping out in defiance of a form of censorship and an underlying feminist psychology ensues.

“Breasts are a dominant motif in Prouvost's work, appearing in surprising, absurd, humorous, and sensual combinations. In terms of their design, they echo the iconic Madonna Lactans, a popular theme in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as exemplified by Madonna and Child (ca.1510-20) by the Dutch artist Gerard David (ill. 21). The breast is exposed and clearly full of milk for the suckling baby. Laure Prouvost often presents the breast as an object detached from its usual context, sometimes in burlesque fountains with water flowing from the nipples, as in We Will Feed You Big Time (2018) and We Will Feed You Together Fountain (For Global Warming) (2019). Breasts were also a significant motif for the surrealists.”

Eva Klerck Gange, "To a Weightless Shadow Behind Your Foot", 2022