The article features an interview with Angolan artist Sandra Poulson about her first museum exhibition, 'Este quarto parece uma República! (This bedroom looks like a republic!)', on view at MoMA PS1 in Queens until October 6. The exhibition, originally commissioned by Jahmek Contemporary Art in Luanda and shown at Sadie Coles HQ during Condo London 2025, uses wood and found furniture to explore how symbols in everyday objects reflect postcolonial legacies, global trade, and power structures. Poulson discusses her father's Portuguese phrase that inspired the title, the material history of wood from Dutch colonies, and the use of institutional logos on T-shirts in Angola as a form of propaganda.
The exhibition matters because it arrives amid a new era of trade protectionism, offering a timely archaeological examination of how common materials and objects carry hidden codes that sustain global economic and political hierarchies. Poulson's work connects personal, domestic experiences to macro-level stories of imperialism and globalization, making visible the silent ways objects shape aspiration, power, and economic ability. As her first museum show, it marks a significant milestone for an emerging artist whose practice interrogates cultural exchange and postcolonial dynamics.