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Highland fling >> Nikki Forrest heads from Scotland to Africville by KEITH MARCHAND
The past year has been a busy one for Forrest. In September, she held an artist's residency at Daimon Video in Hull. In November, she showed a video installation at Vidéographe gallery in Montreal. Titled Stravaig (Gaelic for wandering or errance), the show featured themes that have become signatures of her work: travel, place, identity and her experience of migration from Scotland to Canada. As curator of a recent show at Articule called Video From Scotland, Forrest put together an excellent program of video art showcasing the work of the burgeoning Glasgow video-making scene. She plans to bring the Video From Scotland series to Toronto, Halifax, Winnipeg and Vancouver this year. She will also take on the mantle of artistic director for a film called Welcome to Africville. This story is set in the black suburb of Halifax in 1969, just before the community was demolished. It will feature original music by Me'Shell NdegéOcello. In the summer of '99, three of Forrest's video works will be featured at the Glasgow Film and Video Workshop in Scotland.
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Like many other noisemakers, Nikki Forrest likes to keep a bit of variety in her life. She is a video artist, a curator and a rock 'n' roll guitarist. Her works have been purchased by the National Gallery of Canada, shown internationally at galleries and festivals, and broadcast on the American cable program, Free Speech TV. She has just curated an exhibition at Galerie Articule. And her band, Ham Gnaw, will be playing at Blue Dog on St-Laurent later this month.