Chosen as a runner up for the open call 'Protect the Protest: Thawing the Chilling Effect' by Shado Magazine and exhibited in their poster campaign in London, June 2025.
I originally created this illustration as part of the ethnographic research for my master's thesis, "Decolonial and Anticapitalist Future Imaginations of the Anthropocene: A Methodological Approach." Together with activists, I collected future imaginaries and drew them as part of an inclusive and collaborative research methodology. Through the drawing, a non-material, abstract concept like the future became a concrete object that we could discuss and reflect on together. The participants were able to see exactly whether I had understood them correctly and give me feedback on the illustration, which I incorporated. Thus, this methodology represents a collaborative and ethical research approach that recognizes the hierarchy between researchers and participants.
Based on an interview with two activists from Sudan Uprising on a future after the war in Sudan. The imaginary evokes Kandake (title of ancient Nubian queens) as a symbol of new societal and political values that are just, socialist, non-exclusionary and non-patriarchal. In 2019, the young activist Alaa Salah spoke and sang to her fellows from the roof of a car. She was the embodiment of the idea of Kandake and her image went viral. In this drawing she is surrounded by the people’s hands, as it happened in reality, exclaiming the slogan of the revolution. No deal with the military, no negotiation, no compromise. In Sudan political and religious elites have ruled the country with greed and allegiance to foreign interest, robbing the country and it’s people of their wealth and leading up to the present civil war, which is the third uprising in the history of the nation. The flower petals showing scenes of what the interviewees imagined are inspired by the principles of permaculture which respond well with the demands of the revolution. They refer to 'Living in Harmony with Land and Nature', 'Housing for Everybody', 'Commonly Owned Technologies and Resources', 'Education and Cultural Access for Everybody', 'Public Health And Joined Care Work', 'Pan-African Circular Economy and Finances', 'Politics Inspired by Tribal Values Creating Justice and Equality', respectively.