Terratypes, Tanoa Sasraku (2022-Now) (EMPIRE LINES x RAMM, ICA)

Contemporary artist Tanoa Sasraku unearths complex relations with British landscapes and natural resources, connecting environments from the north coast of Scotland to South West England, and flagging colonial extractivism in Ghana, through their series of Terratypes (2022-Now).

Tanoa Sasraku’s Terratypes (2022-Now) capture specific sites across Britain. Constructed from layers of newsprint paper, and foraged natural pigments, these ‘ultimate drawings’ are hybrids of painting, collage, sculpture, architecture, and textiles that embody plural experiences of identity and place. With their inclusion in a group exhibition at Exeter, Tanoa delves into their creative journey from Plymouth to the Isle of Skye, and their particular relationship with their father’s practice in fashion design. We explore patterns, from tartan to Asafo flags, assertions of Fante identity and independence in British colonial Ghana and Africa.

Tanoa’s expanded (and expansive) practice is rooted in the physicality of natural water and landscapes. We explore their interest in colour, the likes of Joseph Albers and Richard Smith in Abstract Expressionism and action painting. Tanoa details how their drawings are ‘direct photographs’ of the environment or data stores, objects grounded in the present, but appearing as 'future-past hybrids'. Drawing on sci-fi films like Interstellar, we explore their engagement with deep time and space, alongside personal narratives of romantic love and loss.

Tanoa’s work challenges conventional institutions, making radical interventions in how art is collected, displayed, and conserved. They discuss the generalisation of ‘Blackness’ and anti-Black racism, experiences of working with curators in different contexts, and education at Goldsmiths and Royal Academy Schools in London. From their studio in Glasgow, we return to England’s capital as the location of their forthcoming solo exhibition, connecting both imperial cities, and the rise and fall of extractive industries like oil in Scotland.

Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape runs at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter until 23 February 2025.

Tituba, Who Protects Us? runs at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris until 1 May 2025.

A major solo exhibition of Tanoa’s work opens at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London in October 2025.

For more about Invasion Ecology (2023), co-curated by Jelena Sofronijevic for Radical Ecology, and Southcombe Barn on Dartmoor, listen to the episodes with the exhibition’s artists:

- Ingrid Pollard, on expanded photography, Blacknesses, and British identities, in Carbon Slowly Turning (2022) at the Turner Contemporary in Margate: pod.link/1533637675/episode/e00996c8caff991ad6da78b4d73da7e4

- Hanna Tuulikki, on selkies, Scottish folklore, and performance, in Avi-Alarm (2023): pod.link/1533637675/episode/21264f8343e5da35bca2b24e672a2018

You can also read about Hanna’s installation, ⁠under forest cover (2021)⁠, at City Art Centre in Edinburgh: gowithyamo.com/blog/edinburghs-environmental-exhibitions-the-local

And hear about Fern Leigh Albert’s activist photographic practice, now on display at RAMM.

- Ashish Ghadiali - whose film Can you tell the time of a running river? (2024), from the series Cinematics of Gaia and Magic (2023-Now), also features at RAMM - in the episode from Against Apartheid (2023) at KARST in Plymouth: pod.link/1533637675/episode/146d4463adf0990219f1bf0480b816d3

For more about Ibrahim Mahama’s 2024 exhibition at Fruitmarket in Edinburgh, drawing from archives, and mineral extraction in West Africa, hear the artist’s episode about Sekondi Locomotive Workshop (2024): pod.link/1533637675/episode/ed0be49d016ce665c1663202091ce224

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.

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