Art Taaalkssss: Tanoa Sasraku

Whop, Cawbaby (2018) | Installation view at Tate St Ives, UK | Image © TATE

Tanoa Sasraku was born and raised in Plymouth (UK), her practice shifts between sculpture, drawing and filmmaking, juxtaposing and performing British, Black, Ghanaian and queer cultural histories.    Sasraku’s stitched and torn newsprint works are inspired by the material structure of the Fante Asafo flags of coastal Ghana and geometric forms found in Tartan cloth, towers and pinnacles of rock. Her own banners map personal stories of a life lived in modern Britain, as newsprint, pigment and basic craft processes bind together to create cryptic, ceremonial objects.    In her practice as a filmmaker, Sasraku engages in retellings of traditional folklore from a black and lesbian perspective, as well as producing more diaristic journeys through her past, via the medium of analogue film. The presence of her figure, set against sweeping, rural landscapes throws into question mythologies surrounding «deep» England and what it means to claim ownership over the rural.      Tanoa Sasraku is based in London, England. She graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsmiths College in 2018 and is currently enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools.