{"id":617390,"date":"2026-10-01T12:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/617390\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T12:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:06:09","slug":"sandy-christ-crafts-fuzzy-out-of-focus-illustrations-that-make-you-embrace-ambiguity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/617390\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandy Christ crafts fuzzy, out-of-focus illustrations that make you embrace ambiguity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cGrowing up German-Nigerian, I\u2019ve always felt like I existed in a liminal space, somewhere in between,\u201d says London-based illustrator and designer Sandy Christ<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s a pressure \u2013 less so in a city like this, that\u2019s why I\u2019m here \u2013 to neatly fit into a pre-shaped box so others can comprehend you. I think that\u2019s why I\u2019ve become interested in ambiguity and the capacity to sit with something that doesn\u2019t resolve, something that stays astride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s across album covers, editorials or event visuals, Sandy\u2019s illustrative style often resists a search for clarity by shifting her subjects slightly out of focus. From soft Riso-looking food illustrations to ethereal artworks that make records look more like portals to far away worlds, the illustrator\u2019s fuzzy, tactile and layered mark-making reveals a fascination for the \u201cthings that initially feel beyond comprehension\u201d to us. In a visual world of her own she explores subjects like: \u201cmulti-heritage identity, music, surrealism, consciousness, the metaphysical, space, quantum physics, and my own emotions and psyche,\u201d she says. It\u2019s on the borders of these more unknown, blurry subjects that a certain kind of abstraction and dream-like style has been able to come to life for Sandy.<\/p>\n

Sandy has found a space to explore facets of her multi-heritage identity in particular through self-published projects and zines. For her poems and illustrations for Chutney Magazine<\/a>, the creative unpacked her experience of growing up between German and Nigerian culture: \u201cMy mum would cook both cuisines and sometimes combine leftovers in her plate,\u201d she says, hence the title of the series, Everything goes into one stomach. A collaboration with Gurlz with Curlz for German Black History month led the designer to celebrate Black beauty in an illustrated zine printed by Terry Bleu<\/a> on Afro Hair Styles inspired by paste-ups on salon windows, \u201cfor which we chose cornflower blue and burgundy to echo the sun-faded colours of these posters\u201d. The publication became \u201ca form of representation I didn\u2019t have growing up\u201d, she ends.<\/p>\n