A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek is a solo show by Laure Prouvost. Drawing from desire, oneirism, and a fantasized depiction of nature, Prouvost’s immersive films and installations challenge the relationship between language and understanding through complex stories and surreal moments with her unusual approach to cinematic conventions and imagery. Prouvost’s attention to her environment, as well as the natural and human elements surrounding her, comprise the primary material of her work.
Exhibition A Way To Leak, Lick, Leek
Artist(s) Laure Prouvost
Venue Fahrenheit, Los Angeles
Photography Jeff McLane, and Deborah Farnault
A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek is the outcome of Prouvost’s residency at Fahrenheit completed in the spring of 2015, and is the counterpart of the artist’s project presented last year at Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart in France. The exhibition results in a site-specific installation of films, sculptures, and drawings utilizing elemental material found within Los Angeles—flora, fauna, smells, sounds, abandoned objects, and the vertiginous light of L.A.
Laure Prouvost constructs an immersive environment in which her works become central ploys in a scenario that explores the boundaries of fantastic and urban escapism. Her series of drawings and films reflect a delineated urban experience made of driving in L.A. and breathing in petrol and plastic smells.
For her main installation, Prouvost coated the floor of the gallery space with blue resin, ornamenting its surface with shattered technological junk, abandoned tropical trees, floating pineapples, and branches of tumble weeds—an apocalyptic vision reminiscent of a private pool the morning after a wild night. In her new video, Lick in The Past, filmed last spring in Downtown Los Angeles, she employs tropes both derived from and challenging the filmic languages of cinema and art. Adolescent Angelinos and their collective performance constitute an amateur form on an improvisational level, acting in a parking lot to the sound of an original hip-hop track specially composed by L.A.-based producer WYNN for the exhibition. These stars of the outtake bring corrupt reveries to life through humor and mistranslations.
Installation view, Room 2: (Foreground) A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. Vinyl tiles, resin, various electronic items, paper sheeting, iPads, iPhones, tablet screens, foliage, metal, plastic, wood, cables, polyester seats. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. Commission: Fahrenheit by FLAX. (Background) Lick in the Past, 2016. Video, Duration 8:23 min. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. Commission: Fahrenheit by FLAX. © Jeff McLane.
Installation view, Room 2: (Foreground) A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. Vinyl tiles, resin, various electronic items, paper sheeting, iPads, iPhones, tablet screens, foliage, metal, plastic, wood, cables, polyester seats. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. Commission: Fahrenheit by FLAX. (Background) Lick in the Past, 2016. Video, Duration 8:23 min. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. Commission: Fahrenheit by FLAX. © Jeff McLane.
Installation view, Room 2: Lick in the Past, 2016. Video, Duration 8:23 min. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. Commission: Fahrenheit by FLAX. A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. Vinyl tiles, resin, various electronic items, paper sheeting, iPads, iPhones, tablet screens, foliage, metal, plastic, wood, cables, polyester seats. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. Commission: Fahrenheit by FLAX. © Jeff
McLane.
Installation view, Room 2: A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. Vinyl tiles, resin, various electronic items, paper sheeting, iPads, iPhones, tablet screens, foliage, metal, plastic, wood, cables, polyester seats. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. Commission: Fahrenheit by FLAX. Lick in the Past, 2016. Video, Duration 8:23 min. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. Commission: Fahrenheit by FLAX. © Jeff McLane.
Detail, Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Jeff McLane.
Detail, Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Jeff McLane.
Detail, Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Jeff McLane.
Detail, Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Jeff McLane.
Detail, Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Jeff McLane.
Detail, Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Jeff McLane.
Detail, Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Jeff McLane.
Detail, Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Deborah Farnault.
Detail, Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Deborah Farnault.
Exhibition Overview: Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Jeff McLane.
Exhibition Overview: Laure Prouvost, A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek, 2016. © Jeff McLane.
Installation View, Room 1 (L-R): Exhausted Drawing (Zac), 2015. Pencil on paper, plywood mount. Exhausted Map, 2015. Various Materials. Exhausted Video, 2015. Video. Duration 00:51. Exhausted Drawing (Paul), 2015. Pencil on paper, plywood mount. Video projection. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. © Jeff McLane.
Installation View, Room 1 (L-R): Exhausted Drawing (Martello), 2015. Pencil on paper, plywood mount. Exhausted Drawing (Naomi), 2015. Pencil on paper, plywood mount. Exhausted Drawing (Zac), 2015. Pencil on paper, plywood mount. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. © Jeff McLane.
Exhausted Drawing (Martello), 2015. Pencil on paper, plywood mount. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. © Jeff McLane.
Exhausted Drawing (Naomi), 2015. Pencil on paper, plywood mount. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. © Jeff McLane.
Exhausted Drawing (Zac), 2015. Pencil on paper, plywood mount. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. © Jeff McLane.
Exhausted Map, 2015. Various Materials. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. © Jeff McLane.
Exhausted Video, 2015. Video. Duration 00:51. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. © Jeff McLane.
Installation View: Exhausted Drawing (Paul), 2015. Pencil on paper, plywood mount. Video projection. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. © Jeff McLane.
Exhausted Drawing (Paul), 2015. Pencil on paper, plywood mount. Video projection. Courtesy of the artist and MOT International. © Jeff McLane.