SAM SCHEMBRI

Artist Bio

Sam Schembri is an emerging queer artist currently residing in Edmonton, Alberta. She began her BFA at the University of Alberta then transferred to Vancouver, BC to become a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art & Design in 2020. After graduation she moved to Toronto, ON and worked as an Art Installer until returning back home to Edmonton. She continued her work as a Preparator with the Art Gallery of Alberta and then a Gallery Assistant with Gallery @ 501.

Her solo show “Iconic” at Slice of Life in Vancouver reinvisioned queer mythologies by utilizing printmaking methods on mirrors and painting on magnetic canvases to encourage viewer engagement. Iconic was meant to be its own space of worship, incorporating personal elements of fetishism in object-hood alongside iconic centrepieces to utilize the ritualistic behaviours of museums, domestic spaces, personal collections, queer expression, and narcissism.

Sam was one of the Emerging Artists in Residence at SNAP Gallery with her group show “Threshold” August 31, 2024 which was influenced by local queer icons and drag artists in Edmonton. She photographed drag artists and printed them on a series of mirrors installed as a grid, to emulate stained glass windows, places of worship, and the dance scene in queer spaces.

ARTIST STATEMENT

“This, my body” Published in SNAPLINE “QUEER” issue 2024.2, 2024

snapartists.com/snapline-issues/queer-edition/

Sam Schembri

“As a queer artist, the works I have created engage with the topic of identity through the reworking of existing mythologies to expose homosexuality embodied in classical histories. This seems to be an integral theme in many of my works - I believe that engaging in history, adopting it, mocking it, altering it, collaging it, in a lot of ways, is how I have built my Queer identity. There is this body we are given, and a social structure to wiggle around in; but as many Queers do, we alter parts of ourselves little by little, engaging with the history of our own bodies and modifying it to fit our needs. Gender expression, body dysmorphia, transgender dysphoria, sexual expression… These all use a familiar ground, a history of the body, and translate it to a contemporary context; a lived experience.

When bell hooks states, “queer was a space created out of necessity by those for which nothing else fits” and “was a place built to act as a ground upon which to stand, to speak, to live, to survive and to thrive”, I think of the body. Where is Queer now? It is right inside of us, and all around us. Our bodies should be the grounds for freedom, performance, style, personality, autonomy, culture, and individuality. The body is the first to be targeted through homophobia and simultaneously, it is the sacred foundation for expression.

Narcissus & Dysmorphia

I have developed works inspired by the story of Narcissus and the anecdote to dysmorphia and queer shame. The modern term of narcissism is quite different from the original myths of Narcissus. Several stories depict his admirers, men and women, inevitably killing themselves for his unreciprocated love.

Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, punished Narcissus for his vanity. The Goddess lured him to a pool where he leaned upon the water and saw himself in the bloom of youth. Under a spell, Narcissus did not realize it was merely his own reflection and fell deeply in love with it, as if it were somebody else. He, in fact, mistook himself as another. Unable to leave the allure of his image, he eventually realized that his love could not be reciprocated and ultimately died.

This work is meant to make your reflection look like another, as the myth provides. And what does that mean? To not recognize yourself? To love something that is unknowingly a version of you? To try and love your body when it won't love you back? Here I am, looking at my reflection, creating a reflection, and reflecting in the reflection. Thinking about self love, gender dysphoria, vanity, and Queer shame in relation to this myth. CHEERS to learning to make history fit my confused Queer body through my art and stretching it out till the threads break apart.”

-Sam Schembri

samschembri96@gmail.com

Contacts linked below.