Forrest Lawson
by Jenn Allen
Forrest Lawson’s series Closeted is an ongoing
sculptural body of work exploring what it is
like to come out as gay. Now more than ever,
the struggles of the LGBT community need
to be heard. Lawson uses his art as a way to
inform outsiders of the struggles faced by gay
men and start a conversation. The materiality
of his works range from sculptures made of cut
up Bible pages to collected samples of human
blood. Lawson effortlessly connects all the
pieces in his series by creating conversational
sculptures about experiencing homophobia
first hand and the insecurities that stem from it.
Jenn Allen: These pieces in your series Closeted seem very personal, did you
have reservations about making art that
can expose you as a gay male?
Forrest Lawson: I am gay and creating these
pieces is my way of coming to terms with the
way I came out of the closet and coming to
terms with my identity. The way that I did
come out of the closet was not by choice. A
lot of the pieces expose elements about showing people that it was a process and I’m okay
with it now. The first piece I ever made was
difficult because I hadn’t made a lot of friends
at UCF at that point and I hadn’t talked about
my sexuality openly. It’s not something that
just comes up in everyday conversation, but
we talked about it during the critique and I
remember at the end of it everyone patted me
on the back and congratulated me for it. At
that moment, I thought, “I don’t think I did
anything too heroic or valiant in any way.” But
it comes off that way because it is so personal.
Your piece O- is specifically your blood?
It is.
I