Dream Makers
Sam Christian
Building 305, South Gallery
On View: April 10 – 25, 2025
Monday – Friday, 11 am – 4 pm and by appointment
Opening Reception: April 10th from 4-6 pm
Open Studios to share and quilt:
Saturday, April 5th | 2 pm
Tuesday, April 8th | 3 pm
Wednesday, April 16th | 1 pm
Artist Walkthroughs:
Thursday, April 10th | 4 pm (at reception)
Saturday, April 19th | 2pm
Centrum is thrilled to announce Dream Makers, an installation by visual artist Sam Christian as part of the In the Making residency program. Please join us TBD for an opening reception of the work, which will be on view from April 10 – 25, 2025. The artist will also host two informal walkthroughs of the installation.
During their residency, Sam will continue work on the performative aspects of their “The High & Mighty Dream Quilt” project: We like to define a quilt as a covering composed of two or more layers of fabric or fiber. Societally, we define quilts as coverings holding memory. For as long as quilting has been around, it’s been coupled by certain rules (spoken and unspoken) that make a quilt a quilt. But do these rules force us into a box of mundanity? Are there certain conditions that must be present
for a quilt to be considered a quilt? For example, is a pile of scraps, sewn haphazardly on a wooden board, a quilt if the fabric clings and has meaning?
Through this work, Sam explores the prevalence of dreams in their life and the lives of others. In this project, Sam asks participants to share about their dreams, then they will write their dreams down and sew them into sheer quilt panels. The quilting squares then become installations as wearable garments or simple vessels for the story telling. Sam hopes to start the process of spinning all these quilt panels and dreams into performance pieces where the quilts serve as setting, costume, and supporting character.
Sam Christian (They/Them) is a mixed media fiber artist who focuses on the celebration of Black and queer stories, both good and bad. Sam’s work talks through their own experiences growing up in the South as the grandkid of a quilter, parentified first-born and Black body existing within the “American Dream”. These ideas show up in multiple forms of media including Fiber (Quilting), Digital Design, and ceramics all book-ended with Sam’s background in writing and performance. Sam writes to convey the chaos of queer childhood and performs with the dreams of their community on their back. They explore and celebrate the utility of Black art and the need to preserve oneself in the face of adversity. Sam’s work asks every viewer to question their personal ideas of liberation and community care.