Artist Info
Paul Duffus
Paul Duffus
born 1969
Faisal Abdu’allah – formerly Paul Duffus – taught at the University of East London (UEL), formerly North East London Polytechnic. He was a visiting Professor at Stanford University and is a member of the Association of Black Photographers.
In the spring of 2013 Abdu'Allah was an artist in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arts Institute, and in the fall of 2014 he returned to Wisconsin, this time as an assistant professor in the Art Department of the School of Education.
He is now an associate professor of art and in 2017, received one of UW–Madison's Romnes Faculty Fellowships.
His work crosses the borders of photography, the printed image and lens-based installation which, in turn, compliment his participatory practice. Interested in brokering disparate worlds, his work includes The Garden of Eden (2003), and Gold Finger (2007). Faisal Abdu’Allah has participated in Sharjah, Torino and Tallinn Biennales and has been the recipient of the Decibel Artist Award 2005 and the first prize at the Tallinn Print Triennial 2007.
His name was Paul Duffus before he converted to Islam. When his teacher urged him to try for an arts foundation, he put in applications for various art schools and got accepted by the Harrow School of Art. He then went to Central St Martins followed by the Royal College of Art. While at St Martin's, Faisal was sent on a student exchange to Massachusetts College of Art.
His work frightened some of the critics, particularly his 'I want to kill Sam', which brought out the noisiest critics, berating this "anti-American propaganda". The result was that "Where I had been an invisible man, now I was beginning to be seen.”