Sandra Poulson

Sandra Poulson (she/her) is an  Angolan artist living between London and Luanda. Her work discusses the political, cultural, and socio-economic landscape of Angola to analyse the relationship between history, oral tradition, and global political structures towards the understanding of ‘near-south’ appropriate (and often in place) approaches.

Through auto-ethnographic and archaeological approaches, her practice continually operates as a space for questioning and unravelling ‘networks of existence’ that understand the dynamics of the ‘uninhabitable as a methodology’. While drawing upon inherited societal memories of colonial Angola and its civil war to dismantle contemporary narratives through semiotic studies.

Her practice utilizes family and societal passed down knowledge to dismantle contemporary fluxes of reality in Angola through semiotic studies of ordinary (cultural) objects such as household items as actors in political and cultural ongoing transformations. Which inherently draws the questions posed by the work to the task of decoloniality.

She is the recipient of the MullenLowe NOVA Award (2020)  and the Central Saint Martins Dean’s Award (2020). Her work has been exhibited in various exhibitions internationally, most recently at the Lagos Biennial (2019) and Bloomberg New Contemporaries at the South London Gallery (2021). She has had solo presentations at ARCO Madrid (2021); V.O Curations, London (2022); Acne Studios, Stockholm (2022).

Among many artist talks, Poulson has been in conversation about her project ‘Economy of the Dust’ with curator Natalia Grabowska at Prada Frames, organised by Forma Fantasma in Milan (2023).

Poulson is currently showing ‘How Much for the Coal?’ at  Bold Tendencies, London (2023) and ‘Sabão Azul e Água’  commissioned for the British Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2023).

Sabão Azul e Água

2023

Soap, landfill textile waste, felt, cotton, aluminium, steel and timber

Artist Sandra Poulson draws from her personal experience and observations growing up in Luanda, Angola. Dust sweeps this city, settling on the bodies and garments of the people. The artist investigates this residue as a means of identifying socio-economic status and cleansing rituals as tools for social mobility and space occupation. 

The installation comprises four objects referencing the architectural vernacular and social traditions of Luanda: a hand washing cement tank; a colonial-era balustrade; a silhouette garment reminiscent of a type of traditional Angolan dress worn by women; and a footprint. Pattern cut, sewn and stuffed with landfill textile waste, and rendered with Sabão Azul (blue soap that is ubiquitous in Angola), these objects are archaeological remnants of Angola’s past and present.

Soap is used to conceal the objects’ form and unearth the hidden narratives and bodies that they hold. It references its use as a smuggling device for diamonds.

During the colonial rule over Angola, Portuguese settlers outsourced washing to mature Angolan women, lavadeiras - a form of labour performed by the artist’s great grandmother. Such labour was performed outside Angolan homes using cement hand washing tanks. 

Today’s city centre (where the Portuguese once resided) contains balustrades, typical of colonial architecture. This architecture is foreign to the reality of the city, but has become naturalised, raising questions around the politics of restoration.

Today, these buildings are either government buildings, abandoned, or occupied by vulnerable young men whose clothes can be seen draped across the balusters.

Sabão Azul e Água captures Poulson’s ongoing interest in cleansing rituals and their connection to space, heritage preservation, and labour. It speculates on why public cleansing acts are forbidden in Britain’s urban environment.

Text written by curator Sumitra Upham in conversation with Poulson