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For our commissioning project Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other, Othello De’Souza-Hartley reflects on the notion of stillness, loss and how to navigate grief.
Othello De’Souza-Hartley’s artistic vocabulary encompasses photography, film, performance, sound, drawing and painting. Working across multiple platforms, his practice is concerned with ideas around the human body as a site of embodiment, often taking inspiration from classical paintings and art historical tableaux.
Autograph commissioned De'Souza-Hartley to create new work in response to the wider context of the Covid-19 pandemic for our project Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other. The series, Blind, but I can See (2020) began as a reflection on what De'Souza-Hartley experienced as the 'treadmill of life that never stops'. Following the unexpected loss of his father Nevil Hartley to Covid-19, the artist created an extended self-portrait in three parts in his father’s bedroom to capture, in his own words, 'the unequitable stillness within it'. Ideas of absence and presence become tangible signifiers in this evocative new body of work.
Alongside a film work comprised of symbolic moving imagery of a tree outside his apartment window and a large-scale painting, the series of photographs taken at his family home represents a mediation of grief whilst emphasising the inevitability of change and seeking tranquillity in the beauty of the everyday – especially amidst the personal and collective crises we are living every day.
To contextualise this new art commission, we invited poet Raymond Antrobus to write a short essay reflecting on themes of loss and grief – as well as time – in Blind, but I can See. This is published alongside an in-depth conversation between the artist and Autograph's senior curator Renée Mussai.
Room
Untitled
Garden
Study 17 (Blind, but I can See), acrylic on canvas 60 x 48in Poet Raymond Antrobus reflects on the shape of time and grief in response to Othello De'Souza-Hartley's new commission Blind, but I can See.
Read moreArtist Othello De'Souza-Hartley speaks with Renée Mussai about the process of making Blind, but I can See, and how he uses his creative practice to reflect and mediate grief.
Read more 
Othello De’Souza-Hartley (born 1977, London) explores ideas around the human body as a site of embodiment, taking inspiration from classical paintings and art historical tableaux. His multi-faceted practice encompasses photography, film, performance, sound, drawing and painting.
Through an intimate – and ongoing – engagement with auto-portraiture, Othello De’Souza-Hartley often stages his own body in multiple settings, both private and public – from domestic interiors to vast industrial spaces. The result is a deeply personal, poetic mediation on notions of self and other, offering viewers different depictions of masculinity and vulnerability as visually performed ideas.
De’Souza-Hartley has been the recipient of numerous artistic commissions including from Camden Art Centre; The Photographers’ Gallery; Platform for Art and the National Portrait Gallery – his recent works have been exhibited at The Museum of Liverpool, UK; Shanghai Centre for Photography, China (2019); Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool and Gasworks, London.
You can follow the artist on Instagram and Twitter, and visit De'Souza-Hartley's website to see more of his work.
Initiated during the first months of lockdown in 2020, Autograph commissioned ten UK-based creative practitioners to create new work in response to the wider contexts of the Covid-19 crisis.
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Works from Othello De'Souza-Hartley's commission Blind, but I can See, 2020, © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other: 1) Absence, 2020 [detail]. 2) Blind, but I can See, 2020 Video, 5' 44". 3–5) Absence, 2020, Triptych, C-type prints, each 20 x 24 inches. 6) Room, C-type print, 20 x 24 inches. 7) Untitled, 2020 C-type print, 20 x 24 inches. 8) Garden, 2020, C-type print, 20 x 24 inches. 9) Study 17 (Blind, but I can See), 2020. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches.
Artist: 10) Othello De'Souza-Hartley. Photograph by Nico Froechlich.
Part of the project: 11) Aida Silvestri, A Great Leveller [detail], 2020. From the commission Contagion: Colour on the Front Line. © and courtesy the artist.
Discover more: 12) Rivington Place, home of Autograph. Photograph by Zoë Maxwell. 13) Work from Poulomi Desai's commission Our cultures are the portals - the gateways between one world and the next [detail], 2020. © and courtesy the artist. 14) Aida Silvestri, Tea [detail], from the commission Contagion: Colour on the Front Line, 2020. © and courtesy the artist. 15) Cover of Autograph's new anthology Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other. 16) Nevil Hartley, London, 1960. Courtesy of Nevil Family Archive.
Autograph is a place to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.
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