Artist Bio
Sam Hsieh is a conceptual artist and designer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Raised in the American South with ancestral ties to the Indigenous Paiwan people of southern Taiwan, Hsieh draws from a transitory upbringing between Arkansas, California, and Taiwan—experiences that shape her exploration of identity, displacement, and cultural memory.
Hsieh has experience as an educator and instructor at UC Berkeley in the Architecture and History of Art departments. Her work has been selected for the UC Berkeley NAAB Exhibition in 2024 and has been displayed at the 2024 Thesis Exhibition.
With a background in both fine art and architecture, Hsieh investigates modes of representation to reframe the spatial and symbolic significance of everyday objects, particularly within domestic environments. Her current body of work focuses on reinterpreting domestic Taiwanese objects, examining how material culture carries stories across generations and geographies.
Artist Statement
My work explores the idea of home and the layered emotions tied to memory—a dual experience of the comfort of familiarity and longing for what has been lost. Having navigated a transient existence that challenges a singular idea of home, I reflect on how time, place, and memory shape our understanding of belonging. By drawing from personal history and placing it in new, unfamiliar settings, I examine the tension between remembered familiarity and the unknown.
The making process in my work is ritualistic and repetitive, utilizing methods such as crocheting, making rubbings on paper, and crafting iterative objects. These meditative techniques give form to objects that invite viewers to engage with collective memories, fostering connections through emotional resonance.
By reflecting on personal experiences and their universal implications, my work evokes a shared sense of longing and belonging, inviting viewers to consider their own relationships with home and memory.