Sarah Forrest is an artist based in Glasgow who works across film, sculpture, installation and text. Following her undergraduate degree in Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone (2003), Sarah received her MFA from Glasgow School of Art (2010) as well as her PhD titled, What is Seen, What is Said to be Seen: Exploring Doubt as a Critical Tool within Artists’ Moving Image Practice (2022). Her work has been presented widely in galleries, film festivals, publications and screening events. She was recipient of the Margaret Tait Award in 2017/18.
For the RSA, Sarah is presenting HTSUOGHT, a short film made in collaboration with her nephew Ruairidh that asks, ‘how can we be sure that we’re seeing the same things as each other?’ Drawing from Ruairidh’s experience of ADHD, the film brings together individual and collaborative footage, montaged head sequences and interviews with family and friends to consider ideas of visibility and invisibility with regards to our mental health. HTSUOGHT was commissioned for the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2024, exploring the theme In/Visible.
In 2003 I participated in the student exhibition at the RSA and was delighted to be selected for the Pillans and Wilson and Waddies award. As an undergraduate, the exhibition was a rare opportunity to present work publicly alongside my peers that offered all of us in the exhibition a supportive situation and fresh context in which to show new work. The painting that I exhibited was fresh from the studio, most likely still wet, an abstract figurative work that was a bit of a departure from what I had been doing previously and so to receive the Pillans and Wilson and Waddies award at that stage really boosted my confidence in the lead up to the degree show.
