From a young age, Sami has always felt essential to express herself through art. She moved from Hong Kong to Canada for the Specialized Art Program at H. B. Beal Secondary school in 2012. Beal introduced her to a wider range of visual arts, where she discovered her passion for clay. She obtained her BFA in ceramics and graduated from Sheridan College in 2019. She was accepted as a candidate in the Master of Ceramic Art Program at Alfred University in Fall 2019.
~ Artist Statement ~
Growing up as the youngest child of a conservative Hong Kong family, my voice was not welcomed. The ability to speak faded away. At 12, I moved back to Canada, where a series of traumatic issues were created by the constant flux amidst two cultures - Chinese and Western. At 20, I began to resist my traditional role.
Every day, I process my progress.
I gather stories of domestic encounters and private narratives. Simultaneously, I find relationships between these stories and the materials I use in my practice, such as resin, rice paper and ball point pen. I ask: Is clay actually the old grump? Does making a humorous sculpture help me to strip down guilt? Can using ball point pen bring back innocence?
In Chinese culture, it is forbidden to speak of family shame. My ultimate goal is to face head-on the heavy hearted matter. When the heart allows, I convert these stories through the work of cartoonistic gesture into bearable, yet straightforward imagery to reveal the raw emotional experiences we share. Overtime, I hope the sweet anticipation for mooncake parties will become fruitful.
