Laure Prouvost’s immersive solo exhibition on display at Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts | Rice News | News and Media Relations

Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts is now appearing the paintings of Laure Prouvost, an award-winning visible artist who has created an immersive revel in as her first solo exhibition in Texas. The exhibition, “Above Front Tears Nest in South,” is on display via Dec. 14.

“Laure Prouvost is a well-known international artist who has had major exhibitions around the world,” mentioned Frauke Josenhans, curator at the Moody. “The impetus for this exhibition is to introduce Houston audiences to her work — to her imaginary world — and it seemed like an excellent fit given the different topics she engages in within her work.”

The disruptive presence of truth is offered via an set up that inspires oil spills and their catastrophic penalties for the surroundings. Prouvost’s imaginative and prescient highlights present crucial problems as observed via the lens of eco-feminism and at the similar time asks the customer to forego set expectancies and let the thoughts levitate in an area of boundless freedom.

In the exhibition, the customer embarks on a symbolic adventure, flying south then nesting at the Moody, referencing Houston’s distinctive location in the North American migratory trail for birds.

Welcomed by way of a sprinkling indoor water fountain, guests input Prouvost’s bizarre global to straight away revel in the evocative energy of nature, our bodies and language guided by way of a big tapestry. The first come upon contains the video “Every Sunday, Grand Ma,” projected in the Media Art Gallery. A recurrent protagonist in Prouvost’s inventive universe, Grand Ma transforms right into a human hen on this video, leaving the darkish grounds in the back of her to fly over the clouds, unbound and weightless like a celestial creature, taking a look at the global from a hen’s eye view.

As the customer proceeds via the Brown Foundation Gallery, a bleak symbol of the Anthropocene unfolds with its gloomy surroundings occupied by way of pipes, oil leaks and detritus of our client society. Virtual truth parts and movies introduce facets of our virtual age, and but strains of nature are provide, developing delicate issues of connection as guests to find their approach via oil puddles, dunes and soil.

“The Nest,” a enormous construction between the two major exhibition galleries, inspires a herbal hen habitat whilst functioning as a transitional area that guests input and pass sooner than arriving at a utopian panorama that occupies the Central Gallery full of fog, a cushy mountain to climb and relaxation upon and levitating items. Overall, the exhibition conjures a compassionate, hopeful long term the place people are living as a part of nature moderately than running towards it. Every part, be it massive or small, herbal or manufactured, performs a task in serving to guests believe a extra productive and certain strategy to inhabit this global.




“Laure Prouvost has a fascinating approach. She draws from artistic traditions such as surrealism, Dadaism and other early 20th-century art movements, but she looks at them from a contemporary perspective and combines these references with very topical issues like the degradation of the natural environment and questions around feminism,” Josenhans mentioned.

The exhibition was once at first commissioned in Norway for the National Museum in Oslo. When the display closed, Josenhans labored with Prouvost and her workforce to convey the works without delay to Texas. In doing so, the curator and artist collaborated to reimagine the exhibition to suit the Moody’s areas.

“The finished installation really speaks to Prouvost’s artistic vision, which is always playing with what is real and what is imagined,” Josenhans mentioned. “There’s a constant shift between what we see and what we imagine and deciding what is our reality. Human perspective is subjective, so there are constant surprises in the exhibition as you walk through different spaces.”

The across the world famend Prouvost is understood for works like “Above Front Tears Nest in South” — immersive installations full of paradoxical parts and sudden juxtapositions that blur the line between artwork and on a regular basis items. Visitors turn out to be lively individuals in her exhibitions as they navigate the environments she imagines. From moderately produced textiles, glass sculptures and experimental movies to strong steel buildings, ready-mades and discovered items (some from the surrounding Rice campus), Prouvost’s newest paintings conjures lasting reminiscences and sparks bright feelings.

The Moody will host a chain of occasions to highlight “Above Front Tears Nest in South”:

Saturday, Oct. 21, 8-10 a.m.
Bird Walk with Cin-Ty Lee
Join the Moody and Houston Audubon for a unique hen stroll via Rice’s campus led by way of Rice professor Cin-Ty Lee. The match results in the Moody’s galleries the place guests will spot extra flying creatures in the fall exhibition.

Friday, Oct. 27, 6-8 p.m.
Dimensions Variable: Oliver Halkowich
Enjoy an unique dance efficiency impressed by way of the exhibition choreographed by way of Oliver Halkowich, former Houston Ballet Soloist and now choreographer at the New Orleans Ballet Theatre. Guests will traverse the galleries with the dancers, accompanied by way of are living tune.

Saturday, Nov. 4, 3-5 p.m.
New Art/New Music
Take in a presentation of unique ratings composed based on Prouvost’s set up created by way of Rice’s Shepherd School of Music scholars and carried out in the galleries.

The exhibition “Laure Prouvost: Above Front Tears Nest in South” is curated by way of Josenhans and designed by way of Diogo Passarinho Studio. A collection of works and exhibition parts had been at first produced for the exhibition, “The Fredriksen Commission: Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float,” at the National Museum in Oslo, Norway, in 2022.

The exhibition is made imaginable by way of the Moody Founder’s Circle and the Elizabeth Lee Moody Excellence Fund for the Arts. “Above Front Tears Nest in South” is supported by way of Etant donnés Contemporary Art, a program of Villa Albertine.