ABOUT ME
CHANGE OF HEART, CHANGE OF MIND
Sam Coenen Arts as a whole focusses on mediums like digital illustration, songwriting, storytelling. These artistic mediums will form an interdisciplinary art project that tackles socially engaged topics, in combination with conducting artistic/theoretical/field research.
Sam Coenen is a Dutch interdisciplinary artist who combines art-pop, soundscape, performance art and visual arts to address socially engaged topics like, gender identity, queerness and mental health. He is very passionate about alternative, queer and open-minded communities. His layered & colourful digital paintings focus on abstraction and experience.
Sammy Malary is inspired by David Bowie, Lana Del Rey & Anohni, Malary combines melancholy and hope with influences from pop culture and societal issues. Sammy Malary invites the listener into her world in “Humana Spectra”, taking the existence and diversity of us as humans on a spectrum. Malary seeks to explore the boundaries of gender expression beyond a binary.
Artist Statement
As a thinker and creator, I would describe myself as an audio-visual storyteller. To me, my artistic practise stems from my urge to tell stories. Music and visual art have been a way for me to express my feelings, thoughts & emotions in the form of songs, poetry, soundscapes, paintings & digital artworks. I have always had a huge passion for creating since I was a little kid. My parents always knew that I would only need a brush and some pigment to be content. Writing songs started when I learned how to play the piano. The theoretical background in music helps me writing and composing songs nowadays.
Within my practise, I tackle the topic of gender through music by telling my own personal story. The audience I hope to reach are either part of the community to provide recognition of themselves in my story. Though, I also aim to inform people that are not part of the community.
When I turned 16, I started exploring the world of gender and drag, not knowing yet how much of an impact this was going to have in my life. It felt like a very natural urge to express myself in this way. I performed a few times on stage on several places on the world. This was the first time I felt really safe to express myself and stay really close to what I feel. Music became a way of expressing my gender identity.
Throughout my studies at iArts, I started to compose, record & produce my own music. I looked into the technical aspects of how to create your own home recording studio. When I gathered all the gear that I needed, I started looking into the basics of producing a pop song. With a passion for pop culture that stems from my youth, I was able to write a hundred songs in the following few months, at the beginning of 2021. Throughout iArts, there have been a few highlights where I slowly started to show more of who I am. I use art to express my gender, thoughts and feelings.
I want to explore and create my own world where people can step in and out. As a storyteller by heart, I want to give stories of others and myself a platform in the form of music and performance. The way I present myself within my artistic practice, is that I show my masculine and feminine side. I have been presenting my feminine side more and more over the time and people ask me the question regularly “Are you a drag queen? No?”, and often don’t understand the fact that I feel that I belong to both male and female gender. I get this question from people in and out of the lgbtqia+ community. In my eyes, this is an example there is a lack of knowledge within the community, and certainly outside of the community.