Communications Director Tim Hallman reflects on art, connection, and community.
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Al-An deSouza’s painting embraces the possibilities of disorder.
I was interested in that relationship between sacred languages and the very mundane act of drinking tea.
To make the monumental watercolor painting Table Settings, artist and professor Al-An deSouza gathered images and impressions from daily walks and travels, then distilled them into a semi-abstract tapestry of symbols and signs. A daily cup of tea served both as ritual and medium: the teacup’s ring-shaped stains provide a motif that repeats throughout the work. The circle, deSouza points out, is central to sacred imagery in Buddhist, Islamic, and Christian traditions.
At the heart of deSouza’s concept is a language for diaspora—the populations that live outside their traditional homelands. “I always think of diaspora as being a multiplicity, and so I’m always trying to find a language for that, rather than trying to create a single order.”
Top image: Table Settings (detail), 2025. by Al-An deSouza. Watercolor on paper. Bottom image: Installation view, April 2026 at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Photo by David L. Armstrong.
