Opening: 27 April, 3–6pm
This Spring, Laure Prouvost presents her inaugural exhibition with Lisson Gallery in Shanghai, titled 'Pulled Towards You'. Showcasing a dynamic array of new works, Prouvost invites viewers into her world through paintings, a new tapestry from her celebrated series We Will Keep You Cool, and sculptures in Murano glass. The exhibition also offers a multi-sensory experience with a film installation and a hidden VR adventure nestled within a hanging basket. Prouvost's signature visual language resonates throughout, exploring themes of language, motherhood and ecological consciousness with her characteristic blend of intimacy and humour. This exhibition is an extension of Prouvost’s major solo show ‘Above Front Tears Oui Float’, presented in The Light Hall at Norway’s Nasjonalmuseet in October 2022, which subsequently travelled to the Moody Center for the Arts in 2023, and is currently on view at the De Pont Museum in the Netherlands until 18 August 2024.
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.
Read moreThe 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, destabilizing 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).
透纳奖获奖艺术家劳瑞·普罗沃斯特 (Laure Prouvost) 在里森画廊上海空间呈现一个调动多重感官体验的个展，「靠近你，一见如故」(Pulled Towards You) 带来一系列不拘一格的作品，包括全新绘画、来自《We Will Keep Cool》(保持凉爽) 系列的全新挂毯、用穆拉诺玻璃制的雕塑、一件影像装置，及一副以编织篮为外观的悬挂式虚拟现实眼镜。普罗沃斯特的展览常以幽默感和私密感为特色，本次上海个展也不例外，并贯穿了艺术家标志性的视觉语言，探索语言、母性、和生态意识的主题。这次展览是普罗沃斯特2022年在挪威国家博物馆的大型个展「Above Front Tears Oui Float」的延续，该展览于2023年在美国莱斯大学穆迪艺术中心巡回展出，当前在荷兰De Pont 美术馆呈现 (展期至2024年8月18日)。
普罗沃斯特的实践是一种持续的转译和流畅的发展。她创作的核心主题是不断变化的语意、不同语言之间的误译、定义，及将多种生物毫无违和感地汇聚成一个整体，让乌托邦与超现实主义的世界相遇。展览中的玻璃制鸟型雕塑《Jens》(延斯，2023) 于2022年在挪威国家博物馆的个展中首次展出。人类、鸟类和水生动物优雅地交织在一起，象征着气候变化和全球移民时代物种的相互联系和相互依赖。这系列雕塑中的鸟类呈各种姿势，看似为转变蓄势待发，准备好和它们的水生同伴一起开始迁徙之旅。
全新挂毯《We Will Keep Cool (Las Pozas)》(保持凉爽 (泉)，2024) 描绘的是多样化景观和常见于普罗沃斯特实践中的图像。作品以英国诗人爱德华·詹姆斯 (Edward James) 笔下的墨西哥超现实主义花园“Las Pozas”为背景，刻画了一个来自艺术家2019年影像作品《They Parlaient Idéale》中的角色，及一件创作于2018年的雕塑《Cooling system 3 (for global warming)》(冷却系统3 (针对全球变暖))，后者探讨全球变暖在未来的解决方案。转译作为普罗沃斯特实践的重要元素，不仅仅体现在语言之间，还体现在以不同媒介呈现及参考过往创作中的形象。
同时展出的还有一系列首次在中国亮相的《The Octopus Body》(章鱼之躯) 系列绘画，该系列画作此前不久在普罗沃斯特的里森纽约个展「Stranded by Your Side」中首次展出。这些玩味十足的作品描绘着不同部位的肉体，并通过画中的文字直接与观众展开对话。与在过往画作中使用的色调有所不同，这些绘画采用了柔和的色调，包括粉蓝色、灰色和肉色，让人联想到黄昏海景的阴影和海中的生物。徜徉的章鱼和游动的鱼儿反复出现在艺术家的实践中，这种描绘象征着思维与情感、人类生命与海洋生物之间的神秘界限。
在疫情的背景之下，普罗沃斯特的影像作品《Re-dit-en-un-in-a-learning》(语言的忘却与重拾，2020) 深入研究我们作为集体适应一个不断变化的世界的复杂性，探讨了语言的起源、知识的感官传授，并描绘我们前进的路向。作为艺术家2017年的影像《DIT LEARN》的延续，这件作品深刻反思了人类在学习和归属、关怀和联系方面的经历。她将单词与不同图像关联起来，挑战了我们对语言及其知识结构的理解，并探索了一个在我们获得语言能力之前的世界。作品名字彰显了普罗沃斯特典型的“文字游戏”：“dit”在法语中意为“说”或“讲”，发音与英文中带有否定意思的“de”相近；“learn”在英语中意为“学习”，代表语言发展的本质和不断重新学习的过程。艺术家表示：“你无法为你所看到的图像找到合适的语言……万物合而为一。”
普罗沃斯特在澳大利亚的首个大型展览「Oui Move In You」现正于墨尔本的澳大利亚当代艺术中心展出 (展期至2024年6月10日)，全新装置和一系列作品令展览场域化身为迷宫式的别致环境。
