Memories of the present

Theresah Ankomah is an artist who lives and works in Accra, Ghana. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art and a Master of Fine Art Degree from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi-Ghana. In 2017, she won the first runner up prize of the Kuenyehia Prize for Contemporary Art.
Ankomah’s artistic practice is expressed through performative installation. She has been working with kenaf woven baskets, strings, ropes, raffia, and royal palm leaves as her principal material to explore the intricacies of ‘weaving’ through complexities of art historical ‘craft’ as well as trade, geopolitics, gender, and capitalism.

Ankomah employs different techniques including twisting, weaving, stitching, and knotting with jute rope to realise tapestries of the onion baskets. Some of the baskets are dyed into different colours like yellow and blue using local Sudine dye. For this exhibition, the two façades of Nubuke Foundation’s gallery are draped with tapestries. In this context, the artist is exposing her works directly to the harsh conditions of the weather even though the materials are biodegradable. The exhibition space then becomes a place of knowing. Of learning.