Laure Prouvost
Jun 18–Jul 16, 2021
French, b. Lille, 1978
Swallow
2013
Single-channel video; color; sound; 12:06 min.
Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2018 (2018.019)
Swallow blends imagery of fruit, nude figures, and the Italian countryside into a lush collage interrupted by periodic flashes of an open mouth and the sound of inhaled breath. Laure Prouvost created the video during a residency in Italy in response to the Grand Tour, a historical rite of passage that exposed wealthy young men to Europe’s classical art and architecture. Focusing on idyllic images of nude bathers in a stream, Prouvost considers how we produce romantic ideals of place that diverge from reality. Her visual collage and soundscape pull the viewer into a world of intense sensation: a rush of images of flopping fish, crushed berries, and exposed flesh that hovers between earnestness and absurd humor.
Watch Laure Prouvost in conversation with Hirshhorn assistant curator Betsy Johnson in 2019
Past
May 14–Jun 11
May 21–Jun 18
May 28–Jun 25
Jun 04–Jul 02
