Adam Forrester

Adam Forrester (b. 1980) is an artist and filmmaker currently based in Louisiana, where he is an Assistant Professor of Art at Louisiana Tech University. He received his Masters of Fine Arts from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, and was awarded the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Research and Performance Grant for his documentary featurette, Eat White Dirt. His work has been screened and exhibited nationally and internationally, most notably at the Contemporary Art Gallery Bunkier Sztuki in Kraków, Poland and the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta, GA. His work has been featured by NPR, The Bitter Southerner, and VICE Magazine. Forrester makes work about bizarre myths, abiding folktales, and mumbled truths.

Artist’s Statement

My video work from the series Adopted Obstructions aims to merge the distinctions between the notions of utility and futility. Within these works, I assume the role of a character presented with an obstacle or task. The character engages in tasks that become comparable with the futile and the absurd. By capturing and codifying these long-form performances, these short video works serve as fictional representations of Sisyphean acts. Through wardrobe, color schemes, set design, and tasks of labor, I assume the role of a nameless archetype scrupulously pursuing a futile endeavor. By virtue of these pursuits I have developed a strong kinship with failure and find my identity within failure and futility to be constructive. The videos paired with objects introduced as relics present these iterations of the myth of Sisyphus at the intersection of fact and fallacy. The work is grounded by the physical presence of these objects but also read as an absurd fiction performed and constructed for the camera.