Navigation Chart | 2017 | 46” x 69” | Digital print on vinyl (Detail)
DeSouza’s most recent work reenacts and upends iconic colonial narratives of discovery in Africa. Through the Black Country, or, The Sources of the Thames Around the Great Shires of Lower England and Down the Severn River to the Atlantic Ocean is based on the expedition diaries of the Zanzibari crypto-ethnologist Hafeed Sidi Mubarak Mumbai, the fictional great-grandson of the historic figure, Sidi Mubarak Bombay—a formerly enslaved African who, upon gaining his freedom in India, returned to Africa and lead numerous British expeditions across Africa. In this installation, comprised of photographs, diary extracts, and sculptural works, Hafeed sets off to fulfill his great grandfather’s unfulfilled wish—to discover the fabled and elusive source of the River Thames.
In addition to his art practice, Allan deSouza is chair of the department of Art Practice at the University of California, Berkeley. His current book project, How Art Can Be Thought, an examination of art pedagogy and a lexicon of terms used within the art critique, will be published in 2018.
View More on Al-An deSouza
Hafeed Sidi Mubarak Mumbai as Sidi Mubarak Bombay, Starting the Thames Expedition, 2016,
Digital print on Hahnemuhle paper
16” x 12” | Framed: 17" x 13"
TG 3790
Borough Boogie Woogie, 2016
Digital print on Hahnemuhle paper
24" x 36" | Framed: 24.25" x 36.5"
TG 3809
Empire Gardens, 2016
Digital print on Hahnemuhle paper
24" x 36" | Framed: 24.25" x 36.25"
TG 3795
Navigation Chart, 2017
Digital print on vinyl
46” x 69”
TG 3794
Building Paradise, 2016
Digital print on hahnemuhle paper
24" x 36" | Framed: 24" x 36"
TG 3793
Merikani II, 2016
Digital print on cotton
22" x 22"
TG 3806
Merikani III, 2017
Digital print on cotton
24" x 24"
TG 4076
Maridadi II, 2017
Digital print on cotton
24” x 24”
TG 3804
Maridadi III, 2017
Digital print on cotton
24” x 24”
TG 3805
Mzungu1, Isla Dogs, 2016
Digital print on Hahnemuhle paper
40” x 23” | Framed: 41.25" x 24.25"
TG 3798
Mzungu2, Isla Dogs, 2016
Digital print on Hahnemuhle paper
40” x 23” | Framed: 41.25” x 24.25"
TG 3799
The Orange Merkin Strikes Again, 2016
Digital print on Hahnemuhle paper
9.5” x 16” | Framed: 10.5 x 16.75
TG 3797
Xing, 2016
Digital print
11" x 19" | Framed: 12 x 20 inches
TG 3792
Rewards, 2016
Digital print
12" x 16" | Framed: 13" x 17"
TG 3803
Kmarks, 2016
Digital print
12" x 16" | Framed: 13" x 17"
TG 3801
Goodbye Too, 2016
Digital print
12" x 16" | Framed: 13" x 17"
TG 3800
50%, 2016
Digital print
12" x 16" | Framed: 13" x 17"
TG 3802
Base Camp, 2017
Blue tarp, shoes, trousers, jacket, cooking utensils, makeshift shower fabricated from tape and cardboard, boots, umbrella
Dimensions variable
Trade Goods, 2017
Various beanie babies, stuffed soft toys
Dimensions variable
Unframed text panels
Mounted on foam core
9" x 6” each
Unframed text panels
Mounted on foam core
9" x 6” each
Unframed text panels
Mounted on foam core
9" x 6” each
Unframed text panels
Mounted on foam core
9" x 6” each
