22 October 2025 – 7 January 2026
Lessons of Darkness, dir. Werner Herzog, USA 1992, 54 min.
Tanoa Sasraku: Morale Patch
"To accompany my exhibition Morale Patch at the ICA, I have selected two fictional films and two documentaries which powerfully depict the entanglements of ferocious capitalism, dangerous geo-political alliances, desert warfare and the alien physical properties of crude oil, which I have spent the past two years immersing myself in to create this new body of work.
There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson is one of my favourite films because of how effective the production design is in presenting crude oil as both irresistible materially, and as a spiritual and psychological contaminant.
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 unpacks the deeply unstable relationship between George W. Bush’s America and Saudi Arabia; a relationship predicated on an oil alliance which in 2001, culminated in the defining socio-political event of the 21st century.
Werner Herzog’s Lessons of Darkness allows the audience a rare view into the other-worldly reality of crude oil unleashed onto the natural landscape, and the strange impact that it has on its human custodians.
Sam Mendes’ Jarhead is interesting to me, because it is a war film that depicts the ways in which war films impact real warfare. In particular, how Vietnam films informed the hopes and expectations of soldiers fighting in Desert Storm."
– Tanoa Sasraku
Lessons of Darkness, dir. Werner Herzog, USA 1992, 54 min.
Tanoa Sasraku: Morale Patch
"To accompany my exhibition Morale Patch at the ICA, I have selected two fictional films and two documentaries which powerfully depict the entanglements of ferocious capitalism, dangerous geo-political alliances, desert warfare and the alien physical properties of crude oil, which I have spent the past two years immersing myself in to create this new body of work.
There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson is one of my favourite films because of how effective the production design is in presenting crude oil as both irresistible materially, and as a spiritual and psychological contaminant.
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 unpacks the deeply unstable relationship between George W. Bush’s America and Saudi Arabia; a relationship predicated on an oil alliance which in 2001, culminated in the defining socio-political event of the 21st century.
Werner Herzog’s Lessons of Darkness allows the audience a rare view into the other-worldly reality of crude oil unleashed onto the natural landscape, and the strange impact that it has on its human custodians.
Sam Mendes’ Jarhead is interesting to me, because it is a war film that depicts the ways in which war films impact real warfare. In particular, how Vietnam films informed the hopes and expectations of soldiers fighting in Desert Storm."
– Tanoa Sasraku
Biography
Tanoa Sasraku’s (b. 1995, Plymouth) practice encompasses sculpture, drawing and filmmaking. Her work is rooted in the material and symbolic properties of land via landscapes, pigments, and minerals, and informed by a personal relationship to textiles and patternmaking. Sasraku graduated from Goldsmiths University (2018) and the Royal Academy Schools (2024).
Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Man Engine', Vardaxoglou, London (2023); Tanoa Sasraku, Vardaxoglou, London (2022); ‘Terratypes’, Spike Island, Bristol (2022); and ‘Liths’, Peer, London, UK (2023).
Programme
There Will Be Blood
Wed 22 Oct, 6:30pm
Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling epic about family, faith and power, centres upon Daniel Day-Lewis's Machiavellian silver minor turned oil prospector, during California's turn-of-the-century petroleum boom.
Fahrenheit 9/11
Wed 19 Nov, 6:30pm
Michael Moore's Palme d’Or-winning indictment of the George W. Bush administration focuses on the fear tactics used following the attacks of September 11th to push the United States into an unjust and unrelated war in Iraq.
Lessons of Darkness
Wed 10 Dec, 6:30pm
Werner Herzog's spectacular documentary about ecological disaster and the Gulf War.
Jarhead
Wed 7 Jan, 6:30pm
A young Marine sniper awaiting action in the Gulf War experiences the loneliness and frustrations of combat while worrying about home and his future.
There Will Be Blood
Wed 22 Oct, 6:30pm
Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling epic about family, faith and power, centres upon Daniel Day-Lewis's Machiavellian silver minor turned oil prospector, during California's turn-of-the-century petroleum boom.
Fahrenheit 9/11
Wed 19 Nov, 6:30pm
Michael Moore's Palme d’Or-winning indictment of the George W. Bush administration focuses on the fear tactics used following the attacks of September 11th to push the United States into an unjust and unrelated war in Iraq.
Lessons of Darkness
Wed 10 Dec, 6:30pm
Werner Herzog's spectacular documentary about ecological disaster and the Gulf War.
Jarhead
Wed 7 Jan, 6:30pm
A young Marine sniper awaiting action in the Gulf War experiences the loneliness and frustrations of combat while worrying about home and his future.
no. 236848.