Who needs bananas in New Guinea?

Mail Art. The background is a photocopy of Musa’s well-known series of textile paintings Who needs bananas in New Guinea? with his own photo in front; both of their faces have stamp collages. The main figure is that of the entertainer Josephine Baker based on an iconic 1929 photograph. Bananas refe...

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Archive & Special Collections MS 381333/42 Restrictions apply

Order number: MS 381333
Date(s) of creation: 2004
Level: Item
Format: Archive           
Main author: Musa; Hassan (b 1951); contemporary visual artist
URL: https://digital.soas.ac.uk/MUSA000084/00001
URL Description: Digital version available online at SOAS Digital Collections

collection SOAS Archive
id MS_381333.42
recordtype archive
scb_item_location Archive & Special Collections
item_location Archive & Special Collections
scb_loan_type Reference only
scb_order_with MS 381333
callnumber MS 381333/42
callnumber_txt MS 381333/42
callnumber-sort MS 381333/42
prefix_number 42
title Who needs bananas in New Guinea?
scb_date_creation 2004
scb_level Item
level_sort 8/Collection/Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Sub-Collection/Series/Sub-Series/Sub-Sub-Series/File/Item
scb_extent 1 item
author Musa; Hassan (b 1951); contemporary visual artist
author_facet Musa; Hassan (b 1951); contemporary visual artist
authorStr Musa; Hassan (b 1951); contemporary visual artist
author_letter Musa; Hassan (b 1951); contemporary visual artist
format Archive
scb_acquisition The donation was made to SOAS Library in June 2018 by Elsbeth Court, an academic who teaches African Art on the IFCELS course at SOAS, with the support and agreement of the artist Hassan Musa.
description Mail Art. The background is a photocopy of Musa’s well-known series of textile paintings Who needs bananas in New Guinea? with his own photo in front; both of their faces have stamp collages. The main figure is that of the entertainer Josephine Baker based on an iconic 1929 photograph. Bananas refer to Baker’s costume of fake bananas with their implied, racist, second class metaphor. Musa often reinterprets Baker who stood her ground in the 1920’s Parisian nightlife through satirical humour; he also used this rendering of Baker to revisit the parable of Suzanne and the Elders.
scb_access_status Restrictions apply
scb_conditions_gov_access Requests to access this collection should be made to the Archives & Special Collections department in advance.
scb_copyright Copyright in the artwork of Hassan Musa assigned to SOAS by the artist, 2018. Copyrights persist in other images and texts. The user is advised to investigate copyrights before making any re-use of this material.
language English
language_search English
scb_scripts_material Latin
scb_physc_charac_tech_reqs brown paper envelope 23cm x 32cm
scb_copies Digital version available online at SOAS Digital Collections
scb_url https://digital.soas.ac.uk/MUSA000084/00001
scb_url_description Digital version available online at SOAS Digital Collections
hierarchy_top_id_raw MS 381333
hierarchy_sequence MS_381333.0042

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