ArtReview: Tanoa Sasraku, ‘Whop, Cawbaby’, 2018 screening until 23 December
Whop, Cawbaby (2018), Tanoa Sasraku’s first moving image work, is currently being screened by ArtReview until 23 December 2022, as part of their Art Lovers Movie Club.
The story of an ecological cycle – occurring on the vast, bleak landscape of Dartmoor – of gorse thorns and yellow buds, ritualistically burnt to black whilst fertilising ground for the Golden Fritillary butterfly’s eggs to mature is told via paper banners, paraded through the moorland. The presence of the artist’s body against the sublime Devon landscape throws into question ideas of ‘deep’ England and what it means to claim ownership of the rural. Appliquéd paper banners, documented via 8mm film, act as key motifs in the film, inspired by the visual and material structure of the Fante Asafo war flags of coastal Ghana, which the artist’s ancestors fabricated in resistance to British colonial rule.
At once a ceremonial banner, a shield, and a geographical guide, this work allows the artist to question notions of belonging, patriotism and the role that the national flag of an imperial power plays in both past and present.
Screening dates:
Tanoa Sasraku, Whop, Cawbaby (2018)
2 – 23 December 2022