Tom Forsythe Artsurdism

Tom Forsythe's Food Chain Barbie series taps into the twin currents of jaundice and hilarity that characterize his sometimes simple and sometimes maddeningly complex view of the world. In this series, the idealized commodity - Barbie - becomes our food, our nourishment. We blend, mix and confuse the ideal fantasy with the essence of our existence. Barbie may be only one of a great number of products contributing to a false sense of inadequacy, but in many ways, this product is the most potent single representation of the ubiquitous beauty myth. As a part of our cultural identity since being introduced in 1958, Barbie reveals the continuity of the commodity machine. In the same way, the doll retains its glazed, blissful smile regardless of its impending fate. While most of us at least start to grimace when we smell the heating oil that signals our demise, Barbie keeps a happy face courtesy of the image-makers who hope beyond hope that those of us on the receiving end will continue to do the same.

What started as a seemingly simple effort to create talismans to encourage people to recognize a banal product when they see one, turned into a nightmare of quite literally federal proportions when Mattel served Forsythe with a Federal lawsuit on August 24, 1999. Mattel sued Forsythe for displaying Barbie as the piece of plastic she really is rather than as the role model that Mattel has marketed. After 2 years of emotional turmoil, the US District court in Los Angeles granted Forsythe’s motion for summary judgment on August 13, 2001. Mattel appealed and on December 29, 2003, the Ninth Circuit Court resoundingly vindicated Forsythe, upholding the District Court's Summary Judgment and ordering the District Court to reconsider its denial of fees. On June 24, 2004, the District Court ruled that Mattel's case was 'frivolous' and ordered them to pay $1.8 million in fees and expenses. This was the best possible result. It may make bullying corporations think twice before suing critical artists and it should make it easier for artists who do get sued to find attorneys willing to take their case.

As a successor to the Food Chain Barbie series, Forsythe is making the Personal Illusions series of photographic portraits. These 20x30 inch Lambda prints result from collaborative photo sessions where Forsythe takes his subjects into his studio with props, costumes or just attitudes that they think define how the world sees them - or how they would like to be seen. He then distorts the images and photographs the distortion. It’s a real world distortion, not a computer manipulation, designed to reveal the inevitable distortion everyone faces even if they try their best to honestly face the world. Personal Illusions alternately reveals a multiplicity of images, a blending of edges and some distinctively clear insights.

He is also making a series called Watching TV. These somewhat eerily filtered photographs depict the rooms where we spend more time at home than anywhere else and they show it from the perspective of the seductive machine that draws us there.

While still photography makes up the bulk of Forsythe’s artistic milieu, he has continued to work on parallel projects that reflect his Taoist inspired philosophy of going with the flow. His Healing Visions series of relaxation videos is meant to act as an antidote for the frenzy of modern existence. These slowly edited scenes of nature in motion provide a meditative background that can enhance or induce the relaxing states that we all need to enjoy inner peace.

Forsythe’s ability to express from his gut can be seen as one of the fruits of Tai Chi Chuan practice. Practicing this meditation in motion helped him realize the difference between his true nature and the social influences that attempt to subsume that nature. It provided the confidence to trust his instincts, to accept his thoughts rather than analyzing them until they didn't have a life of their own. One of the gems of Tai Chi Chuan practice - the physical manifestation of Taoist philosophy - is recognizing that we're all products of our environment, that we can't escape it, but that we can laugh at it.

Some years ago, Forsythe traded a life of literal sensory overload in Los Angeles for the relative quiet of the country outside of Kanab, Utah where he enjoys the grandeur of the red rock and open expanses that surround him. In this environment, he can open his senses fully to experience the splendor of an environment that has not been developed to death.

Forsythe’s work continues to be shown in Illegal Art, a traveling show appearing at the Pacific College of the Arts, Portland, Oregon in spring of 2005. Illegal Art was previously at CBGBs in New York and SFMOMA in San Francisco as well as in Chicago and Philadelphia. He will be in Interventionist Collage at the University of Iowa Museum of Art opening February 2005 and the .Montserrat College of Art Gallery, fall 2005. Forsythe has been juried into Through the Looking Glass at the Art Center at Fuller Lodge by Scheinbaum & Russek (reps for Eliot Porter's estate); The Barrett House Galleries Photoworks 98 by Lisa Dennison, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan; The Dishman Competition at Lamar University by JamesYood of Northwestern University; This is the Place, MetroArts; Park City Art Festival, 1998/1999; Plaza Art Fair, 1998, and New Photography 97 at Millard Sheets Gallery, Los Angeles County Fair.