Albert Samreth

Lives and works in New York, NY, USA

Artist statement

My work focuses on the personal relationships we have with history, the circulation of images and objects across time, and the dynamics of the ecologies we cultivate, and how they, in turn, cultivate us. Born in Long Beach, California, the same year my parents arrived as refugees fleeing the American Wars in Southeast Asia, I was raised in a multi-ethnic working-class enclave (AKA the hood) where my childhood both exemplified and undermined what it means to be American. Commuting has long been a central part of my life and work. For instance, my primary school commute totaled 3 hours each day, taking buses from my part of town to the distant suburbs where schools received better funding. Later, as an adult, my commute from Los Angeles to create artwork in Cambodia would echo this tendency. It is this transit that has highlighted the powerful effects ideological and material dimensions have had on place, personhood, and possibility. My most recent body of work focuses on Californian history and its transmission between generations. I used a statewide take-home assignment called the California Mission Project as my object of study and followed its ideological and material trajectory. By replacing the usual cardboard with ceramics, I was able to cast a different character to tell the story. Similarly to when an object casts a shadow or an actor is cast to play a role in a movie, the truth is lost, but story and detail are gained—a parallel reality of poetics is produced. In a...

Artwork