Anne Samat

Born 1973, Melaka, Malaysia.
Lives and works Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and New York, United States.

Museum of Contemporary Art

Cannot Be Broken and Won’t Live Unspoken #2, 2023
rattan sticks, kitchen and garden utensils, beads, ceramic, metal and plastic ornaments, handwoven tapestry

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with assistance from MARC STRAUS, New York
Courtesy the artist and MARC STRAUS, New York

Transcending tradition, Anne Samat works with established fibre and weaving techniques, including songket and pua kumbu, from across Southeast Asia to build elaborate woven totems as monuments to family lineages, mythologies and as mouth pieces for her message of love.

For Samat, a Malaysian artist who recently relocated to New York, the range of humble and everyday objects found within her sculpture reflects notions of culture, memory and migration. Embracing both traditional crafts and aesthetics to render more conceptually driven work, she incorporates everything from combs to toy swords to rake heads. Appearing like avatars, the symbolic sculptures are in line with Samat’s belief that the thread binding together all life is love. Her sculptures are modelled from the artist’s relationships with friends or family and form sites of personal devotion and care. Approaching each figure is designed to feel like receiving a warm hug.

Anne Samat is a Malaysian artist who employs the Southeast Asian art of Pua Kumbu weaving and adds humble goods from 99 cent (discount) stores to construct brightly coloured, totemic works. They resonate from deeply personal issues – family and identity – and speak of love, individuality, and liberation. For Samat, it is paramount to embody what one feels to be from within – without fear or coercion. Her works often have clear gender assignments, but even when this can be discerned it often feels irrelevant in light of the greater presence of the sculptures. Brightly coloured and heavily adorned with details, each one resonates as an avatar.

Read more about the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, by purchasing the catalogue here.