Lisson Studio: Learning Laure Prouvost's lexicon

6 October 2020

In an attempt to rediscover the basics of human connection in these isolated times, Laure Prouvost has developed a new ideographic language, to promote the un-learning of language, the re-learning of words and the de-learning of previously associated meanings. The roots of this new crypto-classification system, or Legsicon, are to be found on this Studio page, which allows you to test your knowledge of painted object-words, all of which relate to her latest exhibition at Lisson Gallery London, where she has installed an entire Re-learning Center (6 October – 7 November 2020), offering willing visitors the opportunity to newly acquire this language of her own devising.

Challenging the conventional systems of linguistics and representation, Prouvost replaces emotive word and concepts with anthropomorphized objects, here represented by her watercolour drawings, which are then transcribed and translated into progressively complex lexical and linguistic tests and eventually entire narratives that require the audience to de-code and re-interpret them, in order to progress. A series of new stories and texts using this object alphabet, commissioned from various authors by the artist, will feature on this Studio page every week, in advance of a forthcoming publication.