Who is B/AF?
Brittany/Andrew Forrest (she/he or her/him) is a queer Ontario-based International surrealist artist and author. Art began for her when she discovered her shadow, the perspective of her body in relation to other bodies. Forrest did this by observing dualities of the vulnerable and the invasive, the comfortable and the grotesque. Where she is now is a response of compulsive lucidity, cognizance of the imperceptible twin reality of our silent perceptions propagating within the human condition. Didactic refusal is within the here and now of her work, unwritten lessons unfold when tethering the indomitable autobiographical tales.
​
Brought forward in destabilizing family dysfunction, and later estranged, Forrest's discernment of the self was fermented. Peculiarities were tapered into her environment. Layers of sound and soundless trauma-coated impressions were left as refuse. These repeated disturbances fortified her alienation which enhanced her urgency to consider the experiences of others to find interrelation and resolve despondency. Now, Forrest acknowledges the terror within sociological inheritance that opposes and suppresses the psychology of individuality. The false sense of indemnification prompts redefining the 'norm' as being an abolishment of normalization.
Forrest endorses queerness as the uninterrupted imagination.
​
Forrest graduated from McMaster University with honors in Bachelor of Fine Arts, minoring in Art History, in 2021. She is presently retaining the Master of Fine Arts candidacy at Western University, where she received the Graduate Thesis Research Award in 2023. This posting has given Forrest the privilege to engage in a thriving relationship with her supervisor Christof Migone and mentor
Jessica Karuhanga, as well as many other talented practicing-artist professors.
Thematic Study
Psychology
Mnemonic Memories Retrieval
Sensory Perception
Perception Fabrications
Defense Mechanisms
Conscious vs. Subconscious
Self vs. Environmental Impressions
Mental Illness
Intuition vs. Subconscious
Trauma
Attachment Theory
Free Association
Decompressing Dream Behavior
Art vs. Dreams
Subconscious vs. Human Intuition
Preconscious
Adaptive vs. Maladaptive behavior
Psychoanalytic Theory
Object Relations
Ambivalence
Are "forgotten" memories real or proposed?
Sociology
Predetermined Social Structures
Families and Stranger Relations
Alienation
The Unconventional
Concentrated Social and Sexual desires
Sex Education
Monogamous vs. Non-Monogamous Relationships
Power Dynamics
Morality Contradictions
Authority
Victim Shaming
Identity
Authenticity vs. Pseudonym
Gender Disorientation vs. fluidity
Gender Performance vs. Abstraction
Gender Conformity vs. Relevance
Femininity vs. Masculinity
Sexual Dysphoria vs. Curiosity
Systemic Sexual Aversion vs. Oppression
Gender Fluid Motherhood
Dysfunctional Identity Interactions
Contemporary Relevance
Ethics of Mental Re-enactments
Post-Trauma within Decolonization
The Battle for Human Rights
Racial Equality
The Fourth Wave Feminist Movement
Mental Health Marginalization
Philosophy
Abject Theory
Absurdism
Existentialism
Affect Theory
Methodology
Beginning with a mechanical pencil that persuades the mark-making of the ink that follows. Forrest adopted the concept of free association, within the preliminary stages of lead-use, to access dreams, memories, the imagination, and the subconscious. She uses Dali-ism strategies that deliberately disorient her viewer, to highlight the competing nature of obscurity, overtness, and absurdity.
​
The two-dimensional drawings are then translated into three-dimensional forms with oil-based clay and found objects. Forrest devises idiosyncratic processes of mold-making that encourage impromptu, and yet confrontational, outcomes. The seemingly organic markings on the contours of the form reflect evidence of mutiny concerning the conformities witnessed within the arresting behavior of traditions, that extend beyond the formalities of artmaking. The material selection for casting employs various concepts pertaining to the artist's theoretical perspective, by investigating the functions, associations, and interactions between materials – essentially psychoanalyzing the medium.
​
Following this, typically, the written composition is orchestrated. A merging of ambiguous elegy and free verse poetry in the form of stylized information and opinion is determined. The series of writings independently links to the abstract forms of Forrest's sculptures and drawings. As breadcrumbs are dispersed, the viewer begins to understand the story behind the artist but whether they will ever know the entirety is constantly in question. This confusion mirrors the artist’s perpetual state of confusion. Through a trans-queer biological female lens, the vulnerable tone of the author invites the reader into the wording that describes matters they will care for on a humanistic level. This encapsulates warily selected words that embody the perspective-focused fossilization of trauma
and respective defense reverberations.