april forrest lin 林森

Syllabus Artist highlight: april forrest lin 林森 ✨ april forrest lin 林森 is an artist, curator, and film programmer investigating image-making and world-building. They traverse artist moving image, writing, installation, and performance, creating art as a container for conversation and to constellate relations. In their projects, programmes, and work, they invoke thematic portals such as multispecies epistemologies, the archival and the anti-archival, trans embodiment, and the bridge between science and magic, research and speculation. Since spring 2025, april has been making a short film about a room they used to rent in Deptford in southeast London, approaching the room as a case study to examine the rental experience, the material conditions that underpin housing, and the gaps inherent in the archive. “Through visiting the local archives, I have learned of two diverging theories on the neighbourhood the room is in. Some sources claim it was built using wealth from exploiting enslaved labour in the US, while others suggest that the wealth came from the whaling industry. For this project, I am more intrigued by how history becomes written and by whom, rather than an investigative pursuit of truth. I have been developing this work as part of Syllabus VIII through our self-organised Peer2Peer sessions, newsletter and my 1:1 sessions. I never went to art school, so a space to share work-in-progress with others who are familiar with artist moving image, and to learn about and from my peer’s practices and ways of making-thinking-feeling has been invaluable to the process.” Find out more about april’s work at aprilforrestlin.com. 📸 16mm camera: Chiemi Shimada — filmed during april’s last week in the room.

thanks to everyone who came out for { guttural },,,{ fleshless } !!! thanks to the artists @bontyanak @oscarchanyiklong @yungkeeshoes @multigalactic @zulaa.fleming for ur trust presence & openness !!! thanks to @byhand.ldn and @yu.m_ink for ur transformative activations of the exhibition space !!! thanks to @queereast for inviting us back for another year !!! thanks to @queercircle for giving us this space to play with !!! thanks to all invigilators and volunteers for helping take care of the works !!! thanks to @feverfewjl for all ur backup!!! thanks to @akihassans for all the conversations giggles and problem-solving !!! &&& thanks to @me !!! and now。。。。。。。。🫀～🫀～🫀🫀🫀｝｝｝～～ [ photos 1, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15 by @punk_theory ]

snippets from Syllabus VIII Fellowship [June ‘25- March ‘26] : me presenting at the partner day sharing (photo by @wysing.arts.centre ), silly cute graduation photo by @emmabfox , our year book, bog walk in the OG dead marshes, stone aura reading from @symstellium , the calm before the 3 course feast at @eprjcts , kinky karaoke at @gutlevelsheffield , and some of many many moments of play & exploration. (big-brain discourse and learning not depicted here but were amply had) much to process still after getting the chance to meet and experience so many ways of holding space & nurturing artistic practice (one’s own and/or others’), to travel and learn about local arts ecologies around the UK, and to develop a project in response to feedback from trusted povs <3 cohort: @alexanderstubbss @emma_breadman @symstellium @emmabfox @oceanloren @anouskasamms @kaiyawaerea @josieko_art art @hlboyce partners: @wysing.arts.centre @eprjcts @spikeisland @sitegallery @pssquaredbelfast @new_art_exchange supported by coordinator @__freyjaaaaaa and artist advisor @wingshan.ee

📽️Local Stories - Short Films Screening  + Q&A 📍Deptford Library 🗓️Thursday 14th May ⏰6:30pm   Join us for a selection of short films that offer different snapshots of local stories, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. From a portrait of the unofficial King of Deptford (Terry of Terry’s Discount), to an exploration of the 1981 New Cross Massacre, all of these films offer a unique picture of different Lewisham localities, personalities and stories.   Short films include: Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries - Dir. Andrew Dawson @foblc 
 Debtford - Dir. april forrest lin 林森 @a_f__lin 
 Head Culture 2 Pre Big Bang to Deptford - Dir. Brian Francis and Louise Francis   King of Deptford - Dir. Sasha Denny & Daisy Allen @sashadenny @tesco_metro_addict   Love Over Gold - Dir. Sasha Denny @sashadenny 
 Soldiers From Ends - Dir. Mya Onwugbonu by.mya_ @kin___studio @fromends_film   Uncanny Waters - Dir. Ray Malone
 — Programme supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery. @film_london

sharing another of my Programme Notes for @alchemyfilmandarts from Hawick, at the cusp of this year’s festival ~~ really enjoy writing these texts 🪁 A Zoo Must Never Be A Metaphor, with films by @jwatkinsonfilm , Andrea Luka Zimmerman, @longlolz , @_matildabutler , @jenotherjen , Ricardo del Conde, @avian.dekeizer , @madbrookshire

the ingredients for a dopamine-maxxxed 3️⃣0️⃣th birthday bender includes but is not limited to::: the finest karaoke performance in my (non-)professional career (belting) 2 bakery feasts (savouring) 8 nights of cohabiting w long-distance wife-menace of 15+ years (giggling) 11 conference attendees (learning) 1 collective reading of my pulse (noticing) 1/2 hainanese roast chicken courtesy of justin (squealing) 1 national housing demo (gathering) 1.5 hours in the sauna (sweating) 1 manifesto launch by the peoples want about building intl solidarity! re: frustrations about campists fracturing and derailing leftist movements w their recourse to states as main agents of power (healing) 1 sticker pack ft. copious amounts of h**ntai (inspecting) so grateful and excited to keep LLL (live love laughing) on GGE (god’s green earth) with accrued wisdom and in fine company. as always, more adventures to follow 💘

muchly very deeply excited to be back at @alchemyfilmandarts for my third year as Festival Programmer 🪁 here is one of this year’s Programme Notes — written for Your Body Has Never Been Your Own, a shorts programme with films by Harrotu ileak in collaboration with @zine_lab , @mayajeffereis , Magdalena Bermudez, @ecbigmac , @lilanyang.studio , and @oonataper 🐇 check out the rest of the programme! she is (a)live!

Our second Associate: april forrest lin 林森 (they/them), a London-based artist, curator, and film programmer. They traverse artist moving image, writing, installation, and performance, their interdisciplinary practice invoking thematic portals of multispecies epistemologies, the archival and the anti-archival, trans embodiment, and the vernacular of the diasporic. With a background in sociology, they bridge research~speculation, the sciences~the arts, and the fictional~the factual with a commitment to a collective remembering of forgotten pasts, a critical examination of normalised presents, and a building of futurities as imagined from the periphery. Their work is in the collection of Malmö Konstmuseum and has been screened and exhibited at arts institutions, festivals, galleries, universities including the Museum of the Moving Image New York, the Barbican Centre, HAU Berlin, Manchester Art Gallery, Ikon Gallery and Piehouse Co-op. 💜 Welcome april forrest lin 林森 📸 Riven Ratanavanh #DeptfordX #DeptfordXAssociates

3 months post-op today and feeling ever~lighter!!! still getting used to inhabiting this new flesh vessel,,, not least receiving hostile looks in public spaces and getting to know my wardrobe from scratch,,, though, a tab has been closed in my brain 4ever and it feels amazing so thankful to everyone who cooked for me, hosted me, meal-planned for me, and checked in on me during this period when i had tubes dangling from my chest and withdrawal hives and was walking around in a bathrobe 24/7 🥰 and everyone who dedicated a song to me at my karaoke celebration 🥰 and everyone who donated to make this possible 🥰 the list goes on 🥰 ever~lighter, ever~grateful!!! [1st photo ca 1 month post-op]

today’s affirmation: i am not the yassified version of my estranged father

as of today, my letterboxd reviews zine is alive 💚☘️🌱🦎✳️ they’re a leo sun, taurus moon!! which makes sense for 48 riso pages of my ramblings & musings on Cinema… hehe i will be tabling these tomorrow at @queercircle mutual aid fair to raise funds ! or DM me if ur interested in buying a copy ! prices are tiered at £11/£15/£22 — with all proceeds going to my top surgery 🫀 also on offer: memepage #2 zine by @em____dash , raising funds for @kaiyawaerea ’s top surgery + @han.gunji and @ratsaladratsalad ’s comic, raising funds for @gaza.11_ …. &&& more ! biggest of thank yous to @stickyfingerspublishing for holding my sweaty lil paw throughout the printing process and to @rupturous without whom it would’ve been impossible to finish these on time 🫵🥺💞 i never knew how much work it is to make a zine and,,,, now i know!!!

bye for now, mötherland… 拜拜…! hejdå….!