Personal Affects: Denim Dreams
Sam Christian
Assembling found and handmade objects to tell the story of my family.
Artists Statement: Sam Christian
August 28 - September 19
Personal Affects is the beginning of my inquiry into the parts of my family that shape me.
I Am Sam. Like my aunt is Sam.
I am Lee. Like my grandfather was Lee
I am Christian. Like my My Grandmother was Christian and my Grandfather was Christian and
they became Christian together.
I am the collaboration and amalgamation of two peoples who came from two peoples who came from two peoples. In love and joy and delight. Through pain and death and loss, I am here.
Denim Dreams is a letter to the American Dream I deserve. To the American Dream that my Great Grandmother dreamed as a child in rural North Carolina. Blood runs like cool water carving the limestone and leaving veins behind. Veins like my mother’s veins. Veins like my Father’s. I am a complex network of bones and ideas and I come from someone. From something and somewhere. So then, where? What does the story of my heritage sound like? Does it echo off the rocks of the James River? Maybe it whistles like the wind through a poplar tree or rings out from deep in a valley in the Carolinas
In this series, I try to know that sound. Attempt to analyze its composition and dance to the rhythm it provides.
Biography
Sam Christian (they/them) is a Richmond VA native and mixed media fiber artist who is deeply committed to celebrating Black and queer stories, exploring both their light and their shadows. Their artistic practice is an homage to storytelling, influenced by their roots in the American South, the wisdom passed down by their quilting grandmother, and their experience as a parentified firstborn navigating the complexities of the "American Dream." From fiber arts to writing and performance, Sam's work interweaves layers of memory, liberation, and community care, always rooted in the preservation and utility of Black art.
Their Series, Personal Affects represents their effort to challenge what a families narrative can be and do, blending the lines between function and abstraction, tradition and experimentation. Sam redefines a quilt not just as a piece of fabric stitched together, but as a repository of memory and a living artifact. This project invites people to confront their own families history be it intimate, historical, or fantastical. Good or bad. These works manifest show up as quilts, assemblages of everyday objects, pieces of writing and performance art, becoming vessels for collective storytelling.
Sam Lee Christian
Website: www.highandmightyco.com
Instagram: @sam_christ21
