It's painful to watch Adam Welch's video, "You can make it," and I had to steel myself to stay through the 2 1/2-minute piece that's part of his 2008 Emerging Artist of the Year exhibition at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

In it, a tall young man wearing a long-sleeved white shirt, tie and business casual slacks, trips over a large rock and tumbles hard onto the gravely ground at a field. He rights himself, moves the rock forward by rolling it tip over end, steps back, strides toward it, clips the rock and falls again. And repeat.

Whether it's life throwing the punches, or self-sabotage, the Sisyphean struggle is immediately recognizable and thought-provoking. This simple but pungent work is typical of Welch's most effective, and troubling, pieces, the best of which are distillations of the wide-ranging considerations of his vividly engaged mind.

While most viewers exhibit unease with the video, the artist says, some "laugh their heads off," a reaction that is clearly discomforting to Welch who, having learned as a skateboarder how to take falls, was scriptwriter, cameraman and actor.

The disparity of viewer response would fit the world Welch draws upon. In the same gallery, labels on a blueprint for a newborn, "Big baby, red room," imply predetermined social roles; and his pithy "Letter for today #4" ("I AM: Not healthy. Overrun by needless desire. Reflective of my surroundings.") has the impact of early Jenny Holzer, before she lost her potency.

Lest anyone think these critiques of social constructs are isolated expressions, Welch's "Self portrait as an equation (fractioned/askew)" will correct that impression. The mathematical and scientific formulae and diagrams fervently covering a blackboard wall represent an attempt to find equilibrium amid the mass of information (scholarly, cultural) that literate people are exposed to, Welch explains. But, more so, they are indicative of the complexities he both admires and struggles with.

Welch is particularly adept at installation, which he painstakingly creates -- witness the prickly seductiveness of "A paradox of comfort" and "Reference (object)," a portion of his room-sized "Biennial 2008" work that is worth repeating.

Civilization plods onward, and utopias are gained and lost by mankind's warring potential and subterfuge. Why "work so hard to find balance in a universe of entropy?" Welch asks, but the question is rhetorical. By turning what he observes into visual discourse, he is citizen philosopher, scold, perhaps sometime penitent. Mostly, he's an artist very much of his time.

The Emerging Artist as well as Artist of the Year Susanne Slavick exhibitions continue through Nov. 2 at 6300 Fifth Ave., Shadyside. Entries in illustrated catalogs expand appreciation of each exhibition. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Suggested donation is $5; 412-361-0873 or www.pittsburgharts.org.

American Shorts Reading Series and Carnegie Museum of Art pair for a "Life on Mars" program at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at the museum.

Pittsburgh artists Robert Qualters and Vanessa German will read fiction and poetry in response to the current Carnegie International, moderated by independent curator and cultural historian Vicky Clark. Following will be the Pittsburgh premiere of CI08 artist Ryan Gander's Plasticine animation film "As it presents itself -- Somewhere vague," which was produced by WONKY Films of Bristol, England.

The $15 ticket includes admission to the museum, which is open Thursdays until 8 p.m., and a drink and dessert reception. Information: 412-622-8866.

CMU is sponsoring the Society for Photographic Education Mid-Atlantic regional conference Nov. 7-8. The program includes a keynote address by 2008 Carnegie International curator Douglas Fogle, a panel discussion moderated by Andy Warhol Museum director Thomas Sokolowski and an Honored Educator presentation to Martin Prekop. The conference is open to the public; for information, visit www.SPEMA.org.