Opening November 19, The Museum of Anthropology at UBC (MOA) presents the Canadian premiere of From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson.
On display from November 19, 2026–March 29, 2027, From the Deep is American artist Ayana V. Jackson first major institutional exhibition, making its first touring stop at MOA, since its 2023 debut at Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. The work draws inspiration from the mythic underwater world imagined by Detroit techno duo, Drexciya, to create a feminist, Pan-African aquatopia inhabited by water spirits from African and Afro-Atlantic traditions.
“In From the Deep, I am asking the audience to consider what is possible when we look beyond the archive of the trauma and violence contained within the historical recordings of the Middle Passage. Through the world building power of mythology, we imagine an alternative reality, rooted in ingenuity, survival, and transformation,” says Jackson. “Additionally, with this exhibition I welcome visitors to connect with African cosmologies that have been systematically erased or devalued in the Western context. I have chosen to build on the myth of Drexciya by imagining that African water spirits followed the enslaved pregnant women to midwife their babies, bringing them into an entirely new world, an aquatopia of survivors. Through scent, sound, animation, photography and video, I provide a multisensory experience that invites visitors to take their time, to experience its beauty and materiality, even as they grapple with the difficult histories at its core.”
A multimedia exhibition, From the Deep transports visitors into an otherworldly environment featuring custom mannequins adorned in original garments by contemporary African designers. More than merely decorative, the colours and materials of the garments were chosen to signal histories of trade, labour, and ritual, and of cultural and commercial exchange between Africa, Europe, and the Americas. In addition, the exhibition showcases striking photography installations, layered soundscapes, and evocative projections. The project was developed in collaboration with designers, composers, artists, printers, and makers in five countries across three continents.
The exhibition comes to MOA at a moment of renewed global reckoning with the legacy of the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans, with the United Nations General Assembly adopting an official resolution recognizing the atrocity as “the gravest crime against humanity,” in March 2026.
“In From the Deep, Ayana V. Jackson alters society’s traditionally held understanding of the horrors of the trade of enslaved Africans to imagine a transformative narrative filled with hope and possibility,” says Nuno Porto, MOA’s curatorial liaison for From the Deep and Curator, Africa + South America. “In her sophisticated and compelling approach to the development of a richly imagined mythical realm, Jackson claims the many cultural traditions, narratives, and beliefs of African heritages as the central source to imagine a better future.”
Brooklyn and Johannesburg-based artist, Ayana V. Jackson works critique the colonial gaze and reimagines historical narratives of the Black diaspora. By restaging 19th and early 20th-century portraiture, often casting herself in historical roles, she challenges photography’s role in shaping racial and gendered identities.
From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson celebrates its opening Thursday, November 19, 2026, at 7pm, running until March 29, 2027, at MOA, 6393 NW Marine Drive, at UBC. To learn more about the exhibition visit moa.ubc.ca