Meet Sammy Malary

Malary combines art-pop, soundscape, performance art and visual art to address socially engaged issues of gender identity, queerness and mental health.

He is passionate about alternative, queer and open-minded communities. His layered and colorful digital paintings focus on abstraction and experience. Inspired by David Bowie, Lana Del Rey & Anohni, Malary combines melancholy and hope with pop culture influences and social issues. 

Can you explain what your interdisciplinary artworks entail?

I do artistic and theoretical research on a particular topic, and in that research process I start making already. That can be digital art or paintings, but also music or theater pieces. Often at the end of a project, that packs together into a work of art. That makes it interdisciplinary.

Is that also what you're going to show at Frictions, or is that different?

During Frictions I will combine my own video work, a theater piece and my own music in a performance, around the subject of gender identity. 'Gender' by the way, it's mainly about identity. So I do that through storytelling, visuals and music. The music I play is partly the work of artists to which I have given my own twist, supplemented with my own songs.

You're going to cover several chapters during your performance 'The Fear of Queer', called 'How it all started', 'How it came to be' & 'How I ended up'. Can you talk more about that?

I take the audience on a journey into the person I am today. For example, I emerge as a boy in a tank top and jeans, thinking back to the past but also running into certain struggles. Slowly, you see the steps I take, such as putting on makeup and wearing a dress. You follow me in my thought processes during this process, which in turn parallels the thought processes of the character I play there.

The central emotion is fear. How is that expressed in your performance?

In those three chapters, I mainly take the audience through the emotions I feel. That can be nostalgia in addition to fear, joy and despair, or dreams. It all starts out nice, but then a lot of fears come around the corner. The second chapter includes a lot of anger and sadness, which then turns back into dreams, nostalgia and finding happiness. Because that's where the performance ends. But all the happiness, anger, sadness and despair always comes back in the form of fear. That's how my story went, and that's why fear is the main theme.

What audience did you create this performance for?

Actually, the performance is of interest to a tremendously broad audience. It provides recognition for people from the LGBTQ community, but it is also relevant for people who want to know more about this topic. In addition, it provides comfort to people who experience a sense of loneliness, or feel excluded. Not necessarily in terms of gender identity or orientation. After all, people can recognize themselves in many situations. It really is for young and old alike. And if there's something I didn't cover, visitors can shamelessly ask questions during the Q&A afterwards. As long as the questions are not hurtful, of course.

For more info and background on the Frictions festival look here.