20/20 meet the artists: Christopher Samuel
- Written byKatie Moss
- Published date 02 August 2023
In June, UAL announced the twelve emerging and mid-career artists in the second of 2 cohorts for 20/20: a national commissioning and network project directly investing in the careers of a new generation of ethnically diverse artists.
20/20 was launched in November 2021 by UAL Decolonising Arts Institute, working with a network of 20 UK public collections, museum and gallery partners, and with funding from Freelands Foundation, Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants Programme and UAL.
We recently chatted to Christopher Samuel about being selected for the second cohort of artists for 20/20. His residency is taking place at Birmingham Museums Trust.
Tell us about your artistic work, discipline & background
"I am a Black British disabled artist, whose grandparents travelled over to the UK from the Caribbean as part of the Windrush. Growing up poor, Black and disabled in London and the Midlands had a profound effect on the way I viewed and experienced the world.
"I now make work about identity and disability politics, often centred around my own lived experience. My practice is constantly evolving, as the cultural and social landscape evolves around me.
"I often use humour and poetic subversiveness as an accessible way in to discussing challenging experiences and uncomfortable subjects. Often marginalised by society, I have had to fight for my independence. My work redresses that balance of power – reclaiming my agency and telling untold stories.
"I want my work to start conversations."
Why did you apply for the 20/20 project?
"To date, nobody has seen fit to preserve histories such as my own.
"Coming from a Black, working-class family, and living with a disability, my story is absent from most galleries, museums and archives. To be missing from such important and influential cultural and social spaces is to be invisible. Society is now beginning to acknowledge the limited lenses through which social history has been seen and recorded.
"An estimated 22% of the UK population identifies themselves as having a disability – that is a huge section of society to be ignoring and excluding. For the 20/20 Project, I am excited to be working with Birmingham Museums Trust to begin to redress that imbalance.
"We can – and must – create more inclusive and diverse social histories and cultural spaces."
What conversations, thoughts or feelings do you hope to encourage amongst your audiences during your residency?
"Birmingham Museums Trust holds a small collection of objects with links to British Black history.
"But whose voices are captured, how were they acquired, and whose stories are absent? And how many disabled voices are currently heard or recorded?
"My work will be developed in response to identifying those missing stories. Working with Birmingham Museums Trust to reach out to the local community, I will use my 20/20 residency to gather stories – both historical and contemporary – of Black and / or disabled experiences in Birmingham.
"I want to begin conversations around representation, what we choose to preserve, and whose lens we view history through, in a sensitive and honest way. I aim to create an artwork that represents a group of people whose stories are not currently reflected in Birmingham Museum Trust’s collection."
Follow Christopher Samuel on social media:
Instagram: @christophersamuel_| christophersamuel.co.uk