Upcoming
August 6 - September 6, 2024
Lullaby
Brittany/Andrew Forrest
Brittany/Andrew Forrest, Luster (Regression) (detail) 2024. Silicone and found object.
…A delirium that literally prevents one from going mad, for it postpones the senseless abyss that threatens the passing…
— Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An essay on abjection, 1982.
What are our soundless lullabies? The berceuse that swaddles our inner contentions, lulling them to sleep. Activated by layers of consciousness at odds with one another. Reverberating psychological and sociological disruptions, coercing the inner antagonist within our singular narratives.
The insignificant yet overpowering and oppositional entity that disturbs our consciousness can be explained by the vital forces that embody the weight of the meaningless. Both spotlight the sensical and the non-sensical, intention and outcome, and subjective assessment and objective worth. Brittany/Andrew Forrest seeks to resolve the conjecture of defense mechanisms that fuel the alienation symptomized by absurdity. Questioning, how this fragmented discord influences our psychology. Foregrounding the seriousness invested, yet misplaced, in an arbitrary world.
The following rendering is demanding. We will abide by each chosen word and gestural form, slinked from memory to metaphor through the trajectory of our imagination. Our thoughts will wander through perception ciphering, seeking purpose. Caught between illusion and absurdity, the wording will anchor us through vulnerable gravity. The composed will transpire the conscious mind's rumination, the subconscious's protective volume, and the otherwise. Lullaby's proposal for change lies within the triangulation of these entry points and the autonomy of our imaginations. Find your denouement.
About the artist
Brittany/Andrew Forrest (she/her or he/him) is a queer Ontario-based surrealist artist and author. She focuses on character development through drawing, sculpting, mold-making, and wording that stretches away from traditional approaches to represent the tale of her estranged identity. Her study of the body began as a young child through performing arts. Rigorous observational skills transitioned into a thriving art and writing practice penetrating all facets of the being. Forrest now focuses on dissecting human exchange and perception to find correlations within the interplay between bodies by accessing memories, dreams, the imagination, and layers of consciousness. The material selection employs various studies that engage in theoretics linked to her practice that anatomizes the intricacies of psychological defense mechanisms. She does this by researching the functions, associations, and interactions between materials – essentially psychoanalyzing the medium – to propose the body as animate and inanimate.
Forrest graduated with honors from McMaster University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts, minoring in Art History. There, she was awarded four academic scholarships, voted class choice, and earned the faculty award. During her subsequent Master of Fine Arts candidacy at Western University, she was accorded the Graduate Thesis Research Award and Graduate Travel and Research Grant. She will continue her graduate research at Western in the PhD Art and Visual Culture program beginning in the Fall, 2024. Her work was recently selected for the International Art Fair Mixing Identities (London, UK and Rome, IT), the New Realism/Altered Reality exhibition (New York City, NY), and was published in the ARTSIN SQUARE magazine. Forrest published her first autobiographical book, The Imaginary Imagination; a science fiction short story, Chair, in the art collective book titled Dystopia: A Visual Anthology; and curated her solo exhibition, gasp, at Satellite Project Space (London, ON) in 2023. A prolific author, Forrest also completed short story The Room, and books Dream Space and Velvet Ear in 2024. Lullaby is her MFA thesis exhibition.
Related Programming
Closing Reception and Student Meet & Greet
Friday, September 6, 5-7p.m.
Free parking available at Middlesex Lot (G)
Free | Open to the public
Graduate student exhibitions at McIntosh Gallery are presented in memory of King's College alumnus Gregory Franklin Child through the generous support of Western University Arts and Humanities alumni Paula Case Child and Timothy Child.
