Michelle Marie Forrest
My practice centres around the promise of ‘a scattered methodology’; a constellation of thoughts, processes, images, objects and practices, wherein, referential relationships between things can be contemplated and worked with.
In response to the burden of infinite, industrialised, machinic connectedness {the network, social media, digital communication} which does not necessarily equal real connection, I draw attention to disconnectedness through the physicality of editing processes and seemingly random systems of human interpretation.
Reconfiguring objects and images, including, but not limited to, material from film, music, poetry, literature and theory, I am curious to see if things can be transfigured into other things, causing disruptions and new forms of connection.
I think of my approach as ‘psycho-techno-archaeological’, essentially a ‘mashup’ of technical methods and processes {active listening, remixing, association} that I use to bring together to rethink and rearrange fragments of things.
Considering matters which range from the deeply personal to the existential or the universal {broken hearts, financial instability, identity crises, our place within the cosmos, the prospect of a multiverse} I process these considerations, as a form of material to be worked with. What emerges is often simultaneously both a celebration and a shattering of the tenuous relationships between things.
Born in the North East of England, 1976
CONTACT INFORMATION
Mobile: 07810093113
Email: mmforrestbeckett@gmail.com
Website: www.mmforrestbeckett.com
EDUCATION
2017 Masters of Fine Art (Distinction & Best Student Award), University of Lincoln
2007 BA Fine Art (1st Class Hons), University of Lincoln
COMMISSIONS / RESIDENCIES / PROGRAMMES / FELLOWSHIPS / SEMINARS
2025 MICRO / MACRO. The Museum of Loss & Renewal, Collemacchia, Molise, Italy. MICRO / MACRO
2024/25 Spike Island Digital Commission: We are only Partly Real Spike Island, Bristol, UK. A virtual reality (VR) exhibition commissioned by Spike Island, in conversation with the artist Steve Dutton and in partnership with VR specialist Stephen Gray, funded by the University of Bristol’s AHRC Impact Acceleration Award.
2023/24 Critical Mass / Sculpt Programme, Mark Devereux Projects. CRITICAL MASS
2021 Lost Crisis Collective, 11th International Society Artistic Research (SAR): Care/Dare/Share, Bergen, Norway. Lost Bergen Crisis Collective
2020/21 New Talent, Artistic Researcher Data Fellow, South West Creative Technology Network (SWCTN), Bristol, UK. A £6.5 million project to expand the use of creative technologies across the South West of England, by funding and developing creative approaches and responses to data generation, and to its capture, management, retrieval and security were at the foreground of this interdisciplinary program. Data Fellows | SWCTN | South West Creative Technology Network
2021 Critical Voices in Data Symposium, Control Shift Network (CSN), Bristol, UK. An arts programme that brings creative and critical approaches to technology by artists, technologists and producers Control (╯°▽°)╯ ┻━┻ Shift
2017/18 Manifold, Quad Gallery, Derby, UK. A 12-week residency exploring the Peak District’s mythology, topography, and geographic histories, through collaborative, expressive, and experimental practice. General Practice: Manifold | QUAD (derbyquad.co.uk)
2017 The Gathering Artist Exchange, ROAR, The Factory, Rotherham, UK.
2015 Artists Access to Art Colleges (AA2A) Fellow, University of Lincoln, UK.
SOLO & COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITIONS
2025 We Are Only partly Real. Spike Island, Bristol, UK. Spike Island Digital commission: We are only Partly Real.
2017 Blind Faith. x-Church, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, UK.
2017 Kalopsia. LPAC theatre, Lincoln, UK.
2017 Rev{o,e}l{u,a}tions. Various locations in rural Lincolnshire and Derbyshire, UK.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 c0de to Home. East Quay Gallery, Watchet, Somerset, UK.
2022 Love by Proxy: Stratified Relations. Black Swan Arts, Frome, Somerset, UK.
2020 Love by Proxy: Diagrammatic Drawing Series. Kosar Contemporary, Bristol, UK. TAPS Now | Kosar Contemporary
2018 {a violent intersection}. 250th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK.
2018 Gorge: An un-mountain, Atkinson Gallery, Somerset, UK.
2018 Rev{o,e}l{u,a}tions. Yellow Belly, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe, UK. Yellow Belly 2018
2017 Rev{o,e}l{u,a}tions & The Mountain and the Cave. Manifold. Quad Gallery, Derby, UK. Manifold | QUAD
2017 {net, works}. MAtter, Project Space Plus Gallery, Lincoln, UK.
2017 Concentrate: Pistoletto's Infinity Cube. Punctuated³, Courtyard Gallery, The Collection, Lincoln, UK. Punctuated3 | The Collection
2017 The Rise of Crystal Stalagmites in Speed Processing Slowly, Project Space Plus Gallery, Lincoln, UK.
2017 Moratorium II: under weigh. Project Space Plus Gallery, Lincoln, UK. Yellow Belly 2017
2016 Gorge: un-mountain in Art Is A Lie That Makes Us Realise Truth, Project Space Plus Gallery, Lincoln, UK.
2016 inline worldview or weird love nil win in (extra)ordinary objects, St Mary le Wigford Church, Lincoln, UK.
2016 Crystalline Thinking in Home-lab, Arboretum Ave, Lincoln, UK. Home-Lab 1-2
2015 derange, Gallery at St Martins, Lincoln, UK.
2015 Moratorium I: underweight in By-product, Project Space Plus Gallery, Lincoln, UK.
2010 Cleanliness is next to Godliness. The Market Estate Project by Tall Tales, Islington, London, UK.
2009 Still Life. The Duke of Clarence, Elephant & Castle, London, UK.
2007 Still Life. Damaged in Transit, The Art Organization Gallery, Nottingham, UK.
2007 Still Life. Greestone Gallery, Lincoln, UK.
2007 Souvenir Memento Mori Collection. Open Plan, Tyler Gallery, Philadelphia, USA.
2007 Home(less). Arts in the Park, Arboretum Park, Lincoln, UK.
2005 In the Kitchen (Sculpture Award Winner). South Holland Open Arts, Spalding, Lincolnshire, UK.
Helping Artists Keep Going
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