Laure Prouvost
Looking at you looking at us
2023
Silkscreen on mirror, in an American frame
57 x 45 cm
Edition of 30 copies, signed and numbered by the artist
Out of stock
about this work
Laure Prouvost is a very activist artist, and with this edition she takes a decidedly feminist stance. Two women’s breasts fill the mirror, with the text ‘Looking at you looking at us‘ underneath. These breasts are not objectified as in advertisements or many other images of women’s bodies . On the contrary, they are the subject and they are looking at us – literally, like eyes. The text below makes you feel momentarily diffident as a viewer, you are caught off guard. But as always, the tone is playful. Breasts, buttocks and other female forms do appear frequently in Prouvost’s work. They represent a soft power: natural, feminine and inclusive.
about Laure Prouvost
Laure Prouvost’s work often engages with language through installation and film, creating an unexpected and often humorous detachment between image, language, and the perceived meaning. Her juxtaposition of images and texts prompt an exploration of the imagination and the surreal that immerses the viewer in a playful questioning of experience and meaning.
Laure Prouvost’s artistic output consistently returns to themes of escape into unfamiliar worlds or imaginings of unexpected alternative environments. A strong narrative impulse propels her practice, resulting in immersive, transmedial installations with interwoven storylines that combine fiction and reality. Her videos, installations, paintings and tapestries unhinge commonplace and expected connections between language, image, and perception.
Stepping away from traditional linear narratives, the artist crafts sensual environments laden with playful mistranslation that open a space for the viewer to grapple with the unstable relationship between imagination and reality. The elasticity of the written word comprises a central element of Prouvost’s practice, stating: “Words for me are very visually powerful because with words people create their own vision. I am just hinting and suggesting possibilities, the audience is making its own image in its head. It is also about misunderstanding, misinterpreting, miscommunicating – words also suggesting failure and other senses.”
(courtesy of Carlier Gebauer)
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