P is for PROTAGONIST

1 – 17 December 2011

P is for Protagonist, a time based installation that is the culmination of Sarah Forrest’s one-year Gordon Foundation Graduate Fellowship at Glasgow Sculpture Studios. This major new solo exhibition brings together newly commissioned video, sculpture and creative writing.

In P is for Protagonist Forrest draws upon certain sensibilities found within gothic literature, paying particular attention to what is not seen. Forrest places her protagonists at the edge of visibility, presenting them in the text as a subject who comes in and out of focus or as a spectral presence within the video work.

The work presents two concurrent narratives that unfold and overlap, putting into play as they do so, her ongoing exploration of the interrelationships between maker, work and viewer.

In her recent video and installation work, the voice has continually surfaced as both a material that Forrest works with and as a conceptual concern. At times, this has simply been through the performance of a text, with the voice being embodied by a sculpture in an act of ventriloquism, or in other works Forrest has attempted to deal with the voice directly, as an object that could be encountered physically.