Tanoa Sasraku

14 October – 17 December 2022
Vardaxoglou, London

Vardaxoglou presents Tanoa Sasraku’s (b. 1995) first solo exhibition in London, following her major recent solo institutional exhibition at Spike Island, Bristol.

The exhibition focuses on Tanoa Sasraku’s Terratypes, a recent body of work which draws on the artist’s personal and historical connection to the British landscape, and which was first exhibited at Spike Island, Bristol. Through this body of work, Sasraku continues her exploration of British geology and topography informed by her perspective as a bi-racial and lesbian artist, raised in the West Country.

Terratypes are unique, sculptural hybrids of painting, drawing, collage, printmaking, and textiles. Sasraku forages for million-year old earth pigments at various poles of the British Isles – Dartmoor, the Jurassic Coast and the Scottish Highlands – hand-rubbing these into sheets of blank newsprint, which are sewn, soaked and ripped, revealing past layers of pigment and pattern; the intersection of geological time and personal memory.

The process itself, involving laborious pattern cutting, recalls her Ghanaian heritage and in particular the artist’s relationship to her late father, whilst the fringing bordering each Terratype expresses the unique textile application of the Fante Asafo flags of coastal Ghana, fabricated by Sasraku’s paternal ancestors. Geometric forms printed onto the Terratypes’ surfaces reference electrical circuitry and the flow of a deep, earth-rooted energy whilst the tartan stitch patterns are influenced by Sasraku’s relationship with her Scottish partner. The result is mysterious, ceremonial-like objects weathered with centuries of materiality, presenting a new way of engaging the landscape.

To accompany the exhibition, a monograph on Tanoa Sasraku’s Terratypes will be published in November by Vardaxoglou, featuring contributions from Robert Leckie, Chiorstaidh Black, Ellen Greig, Wes Knowler, Tanoa Sasraku, and Rosalind Nashashibi.

In February 2023, Tanoa Sasraku’s large-scale sculptures, Liths, originally shown at Spike Island, will be presented at PEER Gallery, London. 

For further information please contact info@vardaxoglou.com.

 

Tanoa Sasraku Biography

Tanoa Sasraku (b. 1995, Plymouth) graduated from Goldsmiths College (2018) and is currently enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools. Sasraku's practice shifts between sculpture, drawing and filmmaking. A major solo institutional exhibition of her work took place at Spike Island, Bristol (2022), and Sasraku was included in Radical Landscapes at Tate Liverpool (2022); and Testament at Goldsmiths CCA, London (2022). In addition to her solo exhibition at Vardaxoglou, London (2022), Sasraku will have a solo exhibition at Peer Gallery, London (2023). In 2021, Sasraku was awarded the Arts Foundation Futures Award for Visual Arts.

Installation Views

Selected Works

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Red Gate (Terratype), 2022
    Newsprint, thread, foraged Torbay red ochre, foraged Sligichan yellow ochre, forage Braes purple pigment, Ultramarine pigment, Antwerp blue pigment, fixative spray, Plymouth Sound seawater
    41 x 36 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Transformer (Terratype), 2021
    Newsprint, thread, graphite, foraged Oronsay red ochre, foraged Sligichan yellow ochre, fixative spray, Sound of Raasay seawater
    63 x 38 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Mire Horse, 2022
    Newsprint, thread, toner, foraged Bideford Black pigment, foraged Yarner Wood orange pigment, fixative spray, Dartmoor bog matter
    33.3 x 18.1 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Yellow Gate (Terratype), 2021
    Newsprint, thread, graphite, foraged Sligichan yellow ochre, fixative spray, Sligichan river water
    37.5 x 37.5 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Resistor (Terratype), 2022
    Embossed inkjet print on newsprint, thread, foraged Torbay red ochre, foraged Yarner Wood orange, Rochelle Salt solution
    71 x 41 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Mire Horse, 2022
    Newsprint, thread, toner, foraged Bideford Black pigment, foraged Yarner Wood orange pigment, fixative spray, Dartmoor bog matter
    25.2 x 21.9 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Blue Gate (Terratype), 2022
    Newsprint, thread, foraged Torbay red ochre, Ultramarine pigment, Antwerp blue pigment, fixative spray, Plymouth Sound seawater
    41 x 36 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Gradient Gate (Terratype), 2021
    Embossed newsprint, thread, toner, foraged Torbay red sandstone, Devon seawater
    41 x 41 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Mire Horse, 2022
    Newsprint, thread, toner, foraged Bideford Black pigment, foraged Yarner Wood orange pigment, fixative spray, Dartmoor bog matter
    40.2 x 29.2 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Mire Horse, 2022
    Newsprint, thread, toner, foraged Bideford Black pigment, foraged Yarner Wood orange pigment, fixative spray, Dartmoor bog matter
    56.4 x 40 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Mire Horse, 2022
    Newsprint, thread, toner, foraged Bideford Black pigment, foraged Yarner Wood orange pigment, fixative spray, Dartmoor bog matter
    61 x 42.9 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Mire Horse, 2022
    Newsprint, thread, toner, foraged Bideford Black pigment, foraged Yarner Wood orange pigment, fixative spray, Dartmoor bog matter
    77.7 x 39.2 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Mire Horse, 2022
    Newsprint, thread, toner, foraged Bideford Black pigment, foraged Yarner Wood orange pigment, fixative spray, Dartmoor bog matter
    73.8 x 27.6 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Storr Terratype, 2021
    Newsprint, thread, foraged Storr red ochre, graphite powder, fixative spray, Sound of Raasay seawater, birch ply frame with brass hooks and matt emulsion
    71 x 38.1 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Red Wet-Cell, 2022
    Patinated cast bronze, resin glue, foraged Torbay red sandstone
    13 x 7.5 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Grey Wet-Cell, 2022
    Patinated cast bronze, resin glue, foraged Fremington grey graphite
    13 x 7.5 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Yellow Wet-Cell, 2022
    Patinated cast bronze, resin glue, foraged Sligichan yellow ochre
    13 x 7.5 cm

  • Tanoa Sasraku
    Red Dry-Cell, 2022
    Patinated cast bronze, resin glue, foraged Quiraing red ochre
    13 x 7.5 cm

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