The Unit

Are we seeing what we’re supposed to see? What clues are being hinted at and how are we, the viewer or reader, caught up in the narrative? This new work by Glasgow-based artist Sarah Forrest took on the detective novel as its starting point in order to unravel how our attention is shifted when we are on the trail of a sleuthing mystery.

In detecting, the act of inquiry means that our senses become heightened as every object encountered could be laced with apparent or hidden meanings. The detective novel supposes that logic will ultimately triumph over dark forces. We are led from A to B to C in a sequence that foregrounds rationality and precision. It is the triumph of close looking. And yet in many instances the detective is male and presented as a kind of rational saviour. This patriarchal trait is subverted and problematised in Forrest’s tightly wrought new work.

Supported by Glasgow School of Art (GSA) and Maryhill Burgh Halls