Sandra Poulson’s Sculptures Tell ‘Micro-Stories’ About Their Making

When Sandra Poulson was growing up in the Angolan capital of Luanda, her father used to tell her off by saying, in Portuguese, “Este quarto parece uma República!” The phrase, which translates to “This bedroom looks like a Republic!,” was an indirect order for her to clean up her room, and in some ways likened that messy space to nation-building and political disorder.

Poulson didn’t think about the phrase that way when she was younger. She didn’t think about it much at all until recently. “This sentence is something that I documented at some point in a Post-It,” she said, speaking by video call from Amsterdam, where she is currently in residence at the Rijksakademie. “I think I just remembered it at some point, and I came across it again when I was working on research into semiotic propagandistic distribution.”

Now, the phrase acts as the title for her first museum exhibition at MoMA PS1 in New York, on view through October 6. That exhibition features sculptures that meditate on how everyday objects are imbued with social and political meaning—whether that meaning is immediately obvious or not.

Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (2024), one of the sculptures featured here, is made of Oregon pine, found veneered plywood, chipboard, and a nightstand, and contains a T-shirt emblazoned with the word “Universal.” The work offers commentary on the reach of powerful mega-churches in Angola such as the one that the work is named after, which has its origins in Brazil, through infrastructure including TV channels and materials like T-shirts and caps that are given out for free.

“I’m quite interested in how those physical things, even though they appear to be gifts actually operate a bit like Trojan horses. There is some degree of contract, some degree of unspoken agreement there,” Poulson, who also lives and works in Luanda and London, told ARTnews. “And I thought that looking at the EU and political parties, it was quite important not to excuse religious organizations in their ability to move, to mold, to interfere, and to enter [homes] sort of uninvited.”

Poulson, 30, spent part of the past year thinking about wood, especially beds that she saw being made by young men outside the Kikolo market in Luanda. On the weekends, Poulson noticed people getting rid of furniture in the streets that were then collected by the local council. She was interested, she said, in collecting the furniture because she didn’t have any of her own when she moved to Netherlands in late 2024. Around the same time, she came across an archive in Amsterdam that had Angolan wood samples referenced by wealthy Dutch people. Those samples were used when ordering trees to be cut down in exploited territories, mainly ones in Africa and South America; the wood, despite coming from abroad, was passed off as Dutch.

All this history led Poulson to reflect on wood that may have come from Angola—and reminded her of her own history in that country. “There are a lot of micro-stories, sayings, or pieces of knowledge in my work that are very much auto-ethnographic to some degree,” said the artist, who was nominated for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize in 2023.

The PS1 works were initially produced for the 2025 edition of the Condo London gallery exchange program and hosted by Sadie Coles. The works were commissioned by Jahmek Contemporary Art, the Luanda-based gallery that has been bringing Poulson’s work to fairs since 2020, a form of exposure that has been key in bringing Poulson’s work to an international audience. Elena Ketelsen González, the Costa Rica–born New York based assistant curator at PS1 and the organizer of Poulson’s show there, spoke highly of Hope as a Praxis, an installation shown by Jahmek at the 2021 edition of ARCO Madrid. The piece took the form of green Monobloc chairs, some which appeared to collapse onto each other in a corner.

That installation “felt so familiar because it’s something I grew up with,” González told ARTnews, praising Poulson for her “interest in things that are really about everyday life but hidden within these objects are all these symbols and material history.” That information helps Poulson’s viewers “understand the political and social histories behind these objects and the stories that they can tell.”

Poulson’s big break has been at art fairs and events like the Venice Biennale, whose last edition included the artist’s work. But Poulson’s practice, with its emphasis on extensive research, has also brought her work beyond the art world as well. At the British Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, she exhibited Sabão Azul e Água, an installation made partly from blue soap and water sourced from Angola. Dust as an Accidental Gift, an installation making prominent use of dust, figured in the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial.

“I think Sandra has no limitations,” Mehak Vieira, cofounder of Jahmek Contemporary Art, which has represented Poulson since 2021 told ARTnews. “She’s super willing to experiment and she’s super hands on so she will always want to try to work with different materials. And I think that is something that is rare in artists.”

Vieira and Poulson met at the gallery’s former space in 2019. Having already seen the artist’s work online, Vieira asked Poulson if she’d like to work with her. Poulson, who wasn’t even 25 at the time, was already up-and-coming—her work was featured in the Lagos Biennial that year. But she said she needed more time before making the partnership official: she was still finishing her undergraduate degree in Fashion Print at London’s Central Saint Martins. (The two formalized their business relationship months after Poulson graduated in late 2020.)

Poulson’s career may be ascendant, but González, the PS1 curator, said the artist has not simplified her knotty themes, even now that she is speaking to a wider audience. “She’s not a reactionary artist,” González said. “She’s invested in deep, deep history, so I hope that people see [her work]. It draws you in, so I hope that people also start to maybe investigate some of their histories on their own.”

Poulson is still investigating some of her own histories. She spoke to ARTnews as she was preparing to exhibit new work through the Rijksakademie’s Open Studios program, which she called an expansion of the work in the PS1 show. In an exhibition audio guide, she spoke about Cabinda Dreams (2024), which is made out of a found veneered plywood bedframe, chipboard, and medium density fiberboard. The European Union’s logo was placed on the bedframe’s headboard by Poulson, who bought the pricey bed from a diplomatic couple from the United States. The work speaks to themes like nationalism, conflict, and the involvement of Western governments and corporations in the affairs of Africa with Angola as the focus. The title of the work is a reference to the Angola exclave and its history. (Cabinda disputes Angola’s claim to sovereignty over it. Cabinda was a protectorate of Portugal and Portugal colonized Angola.)

Producing a piece like the rusted steel floor work which references Cabinda Dreams for the open studio presentation was not easy, but she welcomed the challenge of making other works like it. Poulson wrote in an email that making the new work “was an incredibly labour-intensive task that required immense precision, effort, and time.” She added that she had become interested in what is perceived as being “obsolete,” describing the steel floor work as “the biggest single piece I have ever made.” Despite the daunting scale, she said this was “something I very much look forward to continue working on.”