Using approaches that draw on aspects of surrealism and abstraction, the exhibition Flip / Bend proposes situations where it’s possible to glimpse perception in action within an atmosphere that is simultaneously familiar and unsettling.

We live in a moment when fixed ideas and belief systems of the past no longer make sense. Reality is continuously being innovated and remarkable as well as destructive possibilities for invention, transformation and mutation surround us. My work attempts to evoke this sense of instability through a materially based process that combines chance and intention to produce results that are never entirely foreseeable.

The installation at La Centrale is rooted in a fascination with certain aspects of phenomenology and perception, which interest me in relation to how we construct knowledge and our sense of reality. Working with approaches that draw on surrealism and abstraction, the installation at La Centrale will feature two related video components.

Both videos suggest a sense of uneasiness or apprehension as well as a kind of formal aesthetic and both attempt to create situations where it’s possible to glimpse perception in action, oscillating between knowing and un-knowing.

My hope is that the videos create perceptual loops that destabilize the viewer’s sense of certainty about what is being seen.

With improvised choreography by Sarah Williams

Nikki Forrest is a Montreal based artist whose practice includes video, installation and drawing projects. Her recent work explores ideas about phenomenology and perception in relation gravity and scale.

listen to the audio interview with the artist here! (Duration 5 minutes)

The artist would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.