Mac Adams, The Room Upstairs, 1986

I first created the installation titled, The Room Upstairs in 1986 and exhibited at the Indiana State University.

In comparison to the technological capability that exists today, we were living in a very different time period. There was less surveillance such as face recognition, no CCTV and no international data bank giving us information in seconds. In this dawning of a new era, computers were in their infancy stage of being used as a devise to track our day-to-day activities. In essence, it was a purely an analog world of human perception and conjecture.

Mac Adams, The Room Upstairs, detail, 1986

In contrast to today’s world, we are living in a period of constantly being observed both publicly and privately. The criminal aspect of this activity is central to the theme of the The Room Upstairs installation. As we are literally watching ourselves being observed, the line between privacy and public is dissolving. Whether we approve of this anonymous gaze or not, we are complicit in this invasive, solipsistic cycle.
In the role of the viewer, we are watching an anonymous figure silently and secretly recording activity which appears to be classified as illegal. We observe this person participating in voyeurism and while we watch that person watch, we too are being watched by gallery cameras or museum security personnel. Whilst the cycle continues, issues of our violation of privacy is a crime that has been overruled in the name of national and personal safety.

From this disjunctive narrative, the questions of what we conclude is happening is central to the work.The tiny hole in the floor controls what we perceive and acts like a continuous cropping devise only giving us a partial story. Our imaginations lead us through the comedic to the sinister from the perspective of who is making this video to the tenants living below engaging in a bizarre activity. The large omissions and gaps of information tease out our desire to watch and feed upon these feelings of insecurity which has become endemic in this 21-century world.

Mac Adams

Mac Adams, The Room Upstairs, detail, 1986

The photo series The Liminal Body was inspired by scrolling through images on Instagram and the act itself becomes a form of meditation on the transience of meaning.

Mac Adams, Japanese Tale, 2021

Mac Adams, Mystery, The Toaster, 1976-1977

With his Mysteries series of photographic diptychs from the 70’s showing the tragic moment either before or after an act of violence or crime, Mac Adams introduced an element of uncertainty. By virtue of his status as a false witness, its capacity to gather clues, but also because of the uncanniness it produces, photography was the ideal candidate to show crime and perhaps, too, its author and victim. Mac Adams invites the viewer to investigate, placing before them the protagonists, the murder weapon and the scene. Yet the photographic image seems utterly incapable of representing a straightforward truth. it may deliver information, but interpretation is another matter altogether.

Pascal Beausse

Mac Adams, Fragment (Behind the door), 1980-2022

Behind the Door is literally a triangular segment removed from a small bathroom where something has happened. In actuality, the room itself has been cropped like a photograph revealing only a partial narrative. The viewer must then rely on their own ability to reconstruct the narrative and resembling mystery stories, travel backwards in time.

Adams’ framing of space and time reveals the profound transformation of human and social interactions from the past to the present. His work testifies to changes over past decades between public and private spaces and the realm between reality and fiction.

Mac Adams, Placement.N.Y.C. 11.23.71, 1971

Available works

Mac Adams’ The Room Upstairs is on view at gb agency, Paris from November 26, 2022 through January 14, 2023