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Lou Lou Sainsbury (1994) is a self-described time traveller. In her work she seeks to tell stories that explore histories of resistance, transformation, and entanglement within both human and more-than-human worlds. Collaboration is key in her multidisciplinary practice, which includes film, poetry, performance, installation, and textiles. Shown at Prospects is her film it’s so wet and dark won’t you hold me here (2025), for which she collaborated with the artist Gabi Dao. Inspired by the life of Mary Magdalene, this vampiric eco horror film explores motherhood and different types of sanctuaries in times of ongoing crisis. The film is set in an empty theatre and in the Magdalene cave in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, in the south of France. It contains a vogue ballroom performance by the artist and dancer James Parnell and features a score by sound artists Elisa Ferrari and John Brennan.
The film is part of an installation together with the work FIRE FIRE PUSSY CHANEL NO.5 (2025). This work explores shapeshifting as well as histories of animality and femininity and was made at the EKWC (European Ceramic Work Centre). In a set-up resembling a shrine, three ceramic civets find themselves in various states of transformation: sleeping, bursting open, and self-castrating. The work is based on the colonial history of civets in the Netherlands. These small mammals were bred for a substance extracted from their anal glands, which was used in luxury perfumes. Its animal scent was associated with sex workers and the substance was later used as an erotic base for the famous perfume Chanel No.5.
Text: Esther Darley
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)