' I’m not ready!’
Turner Prize Winner
Laure Prouvost
On the day they announced the Turner Prize winner, I went to the betting shop and bet on Laure Provost to win 4/1, she was ranked outside the favourite Tino Seghal. I was fully confident in my bet and I am happy to say this year’s winner of the Turner Prize is French, female and the mother of a two month old girl, Celeste. She is the fifth female to win the prize since the award began in 1984. Twenty-four men have won the prize. This years four nominees comprised of two men and two women- Tino Seghal, David Shrigley, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Laure Prouvost. On the eve of the announcement, alongside Irish Hollywood Saoirse Ronan, Laure Prouvost stood on stage while Saoirse sweetly held her baby as she tried to find the words to express her obvious joy, excitement and complete surprise at winning the Turner Prize 2013. Obviously not expecting it she exclaimed ‘I’m not ready’ but the art world think she is and there has been a positive 'thumbs up' with unanimous show of support for her work on show in Derry.
Turner Prize Winner
Laure Prouvost
On the day they announced the Turner Prize winner, I went to the betting shop and bet on Laure Provost to win 4/1, she was ranked outside the favourite Tino Seghal. I was fully confident in my bet and I am happy to say this year’s winner of the Turner Prize is French, female and the mother of a two month old girl, Celeste. She is the fifth female to win the prize since the award began in 1984. Twenty-four men have won the prize. This years four nominees comprised of two men and two women- Tino Seghal, David Shrigley, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Laure Prouvost. On the eve of the announcement, alongside Irish Hollywood Saoirse Ronan, Laure Prouvost stood on stage while Saoirse sweetly held her baby as she tried to find the words to express her obvious joy, excitement and complete surprise at winning the Turner Prize 2013. Obviously not expecting it she exclaimed ‘I’m not ready’ but the art world think she is and there has been a positive 'thumbs up' with unanimous show of support for her work on show in Derry.
I had never been to Derry so when it was announced that it would present the prestigious Turner Prize, now the first UK City of Culture, in partnership with the Tate, I was thrilled as I could now drive from the South to the North to see the Turner Prize rather than flying to London. This is a very big deal for the entire isle of Ireland and it has to be said they have out done themselves with the transformed British Army Ebrington barracks, the magnificent Peace Bridge, the friendly café and of course with the four nominees of this years Turner Prize. We walked from the town center over the bridge to the main entrance of the space. A transitional feeling from old to new plus a feeling of regeneration could be felt we both agreed. The staff were super friendly, eager to make your visit unique and successful. The gentlemen in the cloak room were forthcoming with local knowledge about the area and eager to talk to you. When asked what the plan will be for the space once the Turner Prize finishes, they could not answer but hinted that perhaps it will remain as a cultural hub for Derry. Who knows ?
Even though she has now won, the artist that genuinely struck me the most during my visit to this new space was Laure Prouvost well before she was announced the winner. Born in 1978, Croix-Lille, France, she now lives and works in London and has done for the past 17 years. She studied at Goldsmiths College and Central St Martins, London. Her work struck me because it is a celebration of muck, dirt, video, collage, fact and fiction, installation, video, art in the round, emotion and intrigue. The piece had transfixed for the entire duration of the video works and even the mass of school children who entered the installation, were undoubtedly spooked, yet they did not interrupt the viewing experience. We, the audience populated the installation because we all sat around the table full of cups and bottom shaped teapots as participants in this Laure Prouvost mad epic tea party. We were surrounded and immersed in the objects that featured in the video which added a surreal theatrical stage set feeling to the work. We were guests at the tea party, actors in the play den of this artwork as it unfolded. She has exploded video onto a new level and I was secretly pleased that all of the cleanliness and pristine quality associated with contemporary art was removed. Art is now dirty again and allowed to be in this tea cosy of an art installation.
Her piece Wantee 2013 is an ambitious 50 minute layered video,sculptural installation. Commissioned by Grizedale Arts for inclusion in Schwitters in Britain at the Tate Britain and for her two part installation for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women presented in collaboration with the Whitechapel, Prouvost built a mucky cabin in the Lake District, where her ‘fictional’ granddad lived, jam packed with junk almost documentary in style or an archive of this space. Grizedale Arts and Tate Britain invited Prouvost to respond to the last few years of the life of the German Artist Kurt Schwitters where he spent in the Lake District. Schwitters, the exiled German collagist and performance artist lived in a cabin like house trying to be a conceptual artist. The set is muddy as the earth is reclaiming the space and the artist has reclaimed this wooden cabin as the art object now full to the brim with works of art by her ‘fictional’ grandfather, a conceptual artist who was friends with Schwitters. The couch has mud on it, the table has been sprawled with mud and you can see the hand prints left by the artist on the walls. It has been stripped back to basics and this creates a primitive childlike play den and it is here that Prouvost plays out on the fictional or factual reality of her grandad.
The title of the show and teapots in Wantee are in remembrance of Schwitters girlfriend, nicknamed Wantee because she continuously asked everybody if they ‘Want tea?’ The narrative is an imaginative surreal language. Willie O’Doherty, nominated twice for the Turner Prize, said at the recent prize giving reception, Prouvost has reinvented the video art wheel with the result of a new video aestheticism that takes video to a new realm by inviting the audience into the room installation where her grandparents lived within the gallery space through video. You recognise the teapot in the video because it is sitting in the table in front of you, the curvaceous mugs and pots, the painting of her Granddad on the wall and the eyeballs on the shelf are all key features in the video and the installation. Prouvost stated that her granddad "didn't really like conceptual art – he liked making bottoms”. So he spent a long time making these rounded shaped teapots . The room is lit with an old fashioned light which suggests we the audience are sitting in a stage set watching the video. This creates a comfortable familiar, cosy experience interrupted with moments of high emotion. The video sucks you in as you try to keep up with the speed of the moving layers, the montage of images and the grainy effect of the film which is narrated and punctuated by the artist exotic and intoxicating French accent. Wantee begins with the question ‘Would you like some tea ?’ She tells us how the grandparents would have loved your visit as the films invite us to enjoy this visual visit with a hint of visiting a museum of remembrance.
The video brings you on fast moving tour of every nook and cranny of this mucky cabin and the artist’s legacy of her fictional grandfather and her grandmother’s physical impression left on the couch with the packets of crisps, the hidden trap door and the tunnel to Africa concept are laid bare. There are no real figures present in the video but their presence is all over the place. We, the viewers, are looking at the idea of their factual/fictional life overshadowed by a strong desire to go to Africa at a last ditch expedition to leave their mark on the world. This is her granddad’s frustration as well as his wife’s who is at her wits end with his chosen career and with his art objects now inhabiting the cabin as reclaimed domestic non-art objects. The art world and the domestic world are intertwined in this cluttered cabin which is reflective of life as an artist. If there is one thing any artist needs it is a massive storage area to store all the work produced over time. The art world and the domestic world inhabit one world in this cabin. What happens to the artwork when it is taken out of the gallery/studio context ? The clichés artists need to deal with everyday and how artwork is received by the public is a constant tension between the artist and society. You can visually see them actively inhabiting the cabin, talking to each other, her granddad stopping his digging to have a cup of tea now and again. It is rich and full of imagination with a sense of the left over, of what remains when we are gone, the cast aside objects and the abandoned house and the disappointment that prevails. The ‘leftover’ is the result of this interrogation by Prouvost into the relationship among reality, symbols and society like Jean Buadrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation philosophical writings, misinterpretation and translation in Prouvost work is a key subject in the life of the granddad and the creative possibility of miscommunication and translation between art forms and languages. She layers images alongside each other that don’t fit to provide a world of chaos which provides truth for her as an artist. Therefore, her granddad appears very real to me and the relationship between the two-the granddad and the grandmother depict the artist’s relationship with society and the constant misinterpretation, frustration, lack of understanding that can exist.The grandmother (society) needs normality, economic stability, order and logic while her granddad (the artist) does not. The reality of an artist life is chaotic in the mud cabin of their studio but represents a truth in this chaos. There is a desire to make, to seek out new ways of thinking which may be recognised one day. This constant rubbing each other up the wrong way, is a reflection of the relationship between the artist and society as a whole. The result- a new representation of reality. The artist is an aggravator who creates miscommunications between the art world and the non-artworld.This aggravation should not stop. Prouvost lays things alongside each other that should not sit well together ‘ What happens if I lay this image alongside that image, that object alongside that object….’ This is transfixing and captivating which is highly successful because you are constantly looking and guessing which is which and what means what?
Wantee Pink room installation presented in a side room off the main tea party installation.It is homage to her Grandmother and all her beliefs desires and frustrations living with an artist. So what are we looking at here, an old man who sat down beside me asked? A pink cheap carpet has been installed in the space with a makeshift carpet bench in the center to sit on. Was this purchased in carpet shop in Derry? I ask this because the notion of Derry coming into the space adds a further extension to the piece. As I was watching this fragmented dreamlike documentary with speed video of clouds, water, trees and an image of a crowd dancing I suddenly see an old man dancing with some young people in the middle of a square in slow motion. The video could have been taken by anyone and has this festival celebratory feel to it. The clip is in slow motion and it is here you can have time to observe. The music is modern and contemporary. Is this where Granddad went? Laure Provoust cries out Granddad from the other room and the piece is highly charged and you see this old man dancing rhythmically in the square, is this where he has ended up once he escaped down the Tunnel en route to Africa? The life of her artist granddad is encapsulated in this one clip and I believe Granddad represents the Artist in society for Prouvoust in this installation while she is mourning the death of the old artist in this figure of the old man dancing in the square. Wantee 2 installation contains a film about the grandmother’s dreams ‘I made this to show the female side to the story “She shouldn't always be hidden behind this master artist’ This has feminist undertones, they, the female artists, should not be hiding behind the male artist anymore perhaps? The Grandfather and grandmother relationship is a love/hate relationship like art within society- chaos, annoyance, and non-artist meets artist, lack of sympathy or understanding functionality and dysfunctional all in one and the male/female artist role in society. The atmosphere is documentary, sad and full of fragmented fictions and realities with fast pace edits to keep you on your toes while your head fills up with new inventions and concepts.
‘The artist is someone who misunderstands what conceptual art is and what the perception of it is. I am interested in how artists can ultimately lose control over what is produced.’ And this loss of control gives rise to something new within the factual and fictional art world and reality that continually renews itself when one holds a mirror up to society. This tearoom installation is a lot to do with the translation of a feeling which can’t be expressed, playing with two different images, how does this image look alongside this image. We the viewer can now produce the reality and meaning behind the concept of this show. And for me, the granddad is dancing in the square in the middle of a young group, the legacy of the legendary artist is the granddad of the art world with all the leftover art dancing and playing with the contemporary art world.
Even though she has now won, the artist that genuinely struck me the most during my visit to this new space was Laure Prouvost well before she was announced the winner. Born in 1978, Croix-Lille, France, she now lives and works in London and has done for the past 17 years. She studied at Goldsmiths College and Central St Martins, London. Her work struck me because it is a celebration of muck, dirt, video, collage, fact and fiction, installation, video, art in the round, emotion and intrigue. The piece had transfixed for the entire duration of the video works and even the mass of school children who entered the installation, were undoubtedly spooked, yet they did not interrupt the viewing experience. We, the audience populated the installation because we all sat around the table full of cups and bottom shaped teapots as participants in this Laure Prouvost mad epic tea party. We were surrounded and immersed in the objects that featured in the video which added a surreal theatrical stage set feeling to the work. We were guests at the tea party, actors in the play den of this artwork as it unfolded. She has exploded video onto a new level and I was secretly pleased that all of the cleanliness and pristine quality associated with contemporary art was removed. Art is now dirty again and allowed to be in this tea cosy of an art installation.
Her piece Wantee 2013 is an ambitious 50 minute layered video,sculptural installation. Commissioned by Grizedale Arts for inclusion in Schwitters in Britain at the Tate Britain and for her two part installation for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women presented in collaboration with the Whitechapel, Prouvost built a mucky cabin in the Lake District, where her ‘fictional’ granddad lived, jam packed with junk almost documentary in style or an archive of this space. Grizedale Arts and Tate Britain invited Prouvost to respond to the last few years of the life of the German Artist Kurt Schwitters where he spent in the Lake District. Schwitters, the exiled German collagist and performance artist lived in a cabin like house trying to be a conceptual artist. The set is muddy as the earth is reclaiming the space and the artist has reclaimed this wooden cabin as the art object now full to the brim with works of art by her ‘fictional’ grandfather, a conceptual artist who was friends with Schwitters. The couch has mud on it, the table has been sprawled with mud and you can see the hand prints left by the artist on the walls. It has been stripped back to basics and this creates a primitive childlike play den and it is here that Prouvost plays out on the fictional or factual reality of her grandad.
The title of the show and teapots in Wantee are in remembrance of Schwitters girlfriend, nicknamed Wantee because she continuously asked everybody if they ‘Want tea?’ The narrative is an imaginative surreal language. Willie O’Doherty, nominated twice for the Turner Prize, said at the recent prize giving reception, Prouvost has reinvented the video art wheel with the result of a new video aestheticism that takes video to a new realm by inviting the audience into the room installation where her grandparents lived within the gallery space through video. You recognise the teapot in the video because it is sitting in the table in front of you, the curvaceous mugs and pots, the painting of her Granddad on the wall and the eyeballs on the shelf are all key features in the video and the installation. Prouvost stated that her granddad "didn't really like conceptual art – he liked making bottoms”. So he spent a long time making these rounded shaped teapots . The room is lit with an old fashioned light which suggests we the audience are sitting in a stage set watching the video. This creates a comfortable familiar, cosy experience interrupted with moments of high emotion. The video sucks you in as you try to keep up with the speed of the moving layers, the montage of images and the grainy effect of the film which is narrated and punctuated by the artist exotic and intoxicating French accent. Wantee begins with the question ‘Would you like some tea ?’ She tells us how the grandparents would have loved your visit as the films invite us to enjoy this visual visit with a hint of visiting a museum of remembrance.
The video brings you on fast moving tour of every nook and cranny of this mucky cabin and the artist’s legacy of her fictional grandfather and her grandmother’s physical impression left on the couch with the packets of crisps, the hidden trap door and the tunnel to Africa concept are laid bare. There are no real figures present in the video but their presence is all over the place. We, the viewers, are looking at the idea of their factual/fictional life overshadowed by a strong desire to go to Africa at a last ditch expedition to leave their mark on the world. This is her granddad’s frustration as well as his wife’s who is at her wits end with his chosen career and with his art objects now inhabiting the cabin as reclaimed domestic non-art objects. The art world and the domestic world are intertwined in this cluttered cabin which is reflective of life as an artist. If there is one thing any artist needs it is a massive storage area to store all the work produced over time. The art world and the domestic world inhabit one world in this cabin. What happens to the artwork when it is taken out of the gallery/studio context ? The clichés artists need to deal with everyday and how artwork is received by the public is a constant tension between the artist and society. You can visually see them actively inhabiting the cabin, talking to each other, her granddad stopping his digging to have a cup of tea now and again. It is rich and full of imagination with a sense of the left over, of what remains when we are gone, the cast aside objects and the abandoned house and the disappointment that prevails. The ‘leftover’ is the result of this interrogation by Prouvost into the relationship among reality, symbols and society like Jean Buadrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation philosophical writings, misinterpretation and translation in Prouvost work is a key subject in the life of the granddad and the creative possibility of miscommunication and translation between art forms and languages. She layers images alongside each other that don’t fit to provide a world of chaos which provides truth for her as an artist. Therefore, her granddad appears very real to me and the relationship between the two-the granddad and the grandmother depict the artist’s relationship with society and the constant misinterpretation, frustration, lack of understanding that can exist.The grandmother (society) needs normality, economic stability, order and logic while her granddad (the artist) does not. The reality of an artist life is chaotic in the mud cabin of their studio but represents a truth in this chaos. There is a desire to make, to seek out new ways of thinking which may be recognised one day. This constant rubbing each other up the wrong way, is a reflection of the relationship between the artist and society as a whole. The result- a new representation of reality. The artist is an aggravator who creates miscommunications between the art world and the non-artworld.This aggravation should not stop. Prouvost lays things alongside each other that should not sit well together ‘ What happens if I lay this image alongside that image, that object alongside that object….’ This is transfixing and captivating which is highly successful because you are constantly looking and guessing which is which and what means what?
Wantee Pink room installation presented in a side room off the main tea party installation.It is homage to her Grandmother and all her beliefs desires and frustrations living with an artist. So what are we looking at here, an old man who sat down beside me asked? A pink cheap carpet has been installed in the space with a makeshift carpet bench in the center to sit on. Was this purchased in carpet shop in Derry? I ask this because the notion of Derry coming into the space adds a further extension to the piece. As I was watching this fragmented dreamlike documentary with speed video of clouds, water, trees and an image of a crowd dancing I suddenly see an old man dancing with some young people in the middle of a square in slow motion. The video could have been taken by anyone and has this festival celebratory feel to it. The clip is in slow motion and it is here you can have time to observe. The music is modern and contemporary. Is this where Granddad went? Laure Provoust cries out Granddad from the other room and the piece is highly charged and you see this old man dancing rhythmically in the square, is this where he has ended up once he escaped down the Tunnel en route to Africa? The life of her artist granddad is encapsulated in this one clip and I believe Granddad represents the Artist in society for Prouvoust in this installation while she is mourning the death of the old artist in this figure of the old man dancing in the square. Wantee 2 installation contains a film about the grandmother’s dreams ‘I made this to show the female side to the story “She shouldn't always be hidden behind this master artist’ This has feminist undertones, they, the female artists, should not be hiding behind the male artist anymore perhaps? The Grandfather and grandmother relationship is a love/hate relationship like art within society- chaos, annoyance, and non-artist meets artist, lack of sympathy or understanding functionality and dysfunctional all in one and the male/female artist role in society. The atmosphere is documentary, sad and full of fragmented fictions and realities with fast pace edits to keep you on your toes while your head fills up with new inventions and concepts.
‘The artist is someone who misunderstands what conceptual art is and what the perception of it is. I am interested in how artists can ultimately lose control over what is produced.’ And this loss of control gives rise to something new within the factual and fictional art world and reality that continually renews itself when one holds a mirror up to society. This tearoom installation is a lot to do with the translation of a feeling which can’t be expressed, playing with two different images, how does this image look alongside this image. We the viewer can now produce the reality and meaning behind the concept of this show. And for me, the granddad is dancing in the square in the middle of a young group, the legacy of the legendary artist is the granddad of the art world with all the leftover art dancing and playing with the contemporary art world.
