The House is a Body by Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah

Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah will be in residence in Bristol’s Georgian House Museum, creating a new body of work in relation to the building’s colonial history. Built in the late 18th century, Georgian House is best known as the home of John Pinney (1740 – 1818), a wealthy sugar merchant and slave holder; yet was also home to Pero Jones (1753-1793) and Fanny Coker (1767-1820), both of whom were born into slavery and brought to Bristol by the Pinney family. Adu-Sanyah’s commission will respond to these histories. 

Best known for her original work examining the relationship between photography and memory, Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah is a German-Ghanaian artist based in Zürich, Switzerland. She has held exhibitions across europe, including: Centre Photographie Genéve (CH), Photoforum Pasquart (CH), Saarland Museum (DE), Foam Museum (NL). Her work is held in the permanent collections of both the city and canton of Zurich, Fotomuseum Winterthur and the city of Saarbrücken. In addition, she has been published by titles including: National Geographic, LUX Magazine, The Art Newspaper, Polka Magazine, Bloomberg, npr, DerBund, swissinfo and Tagesanzeiger.

About Akosua-Viktoria Ady Sanyah:

Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah is a German-Ghanaian visual artist and documentary photographer located in Zürich, Switzerland. She has exhibited and published her work abroad.

Her investigations into identity, family ties and insti- tutional structures combine a profound insight into human experience with an incisive critique of social ills. Akosua Vikto- ria Adu-Sanyah’s precisely conceived installation was complemented by a performative demonstration of the process of rinsing, by which chemical residues are removed from the photographs. In the casualness of its execution, this action was both moving and disturbing, underscoring the power of her artistic statement.

Her work has been published in National Geographic, LUX Magazine, The Art Newspaper, Polka Magazine, Bloomberg, npr, DerBund, swissinfo, Tagesanzeiger, Brytehall, and others. 

She has been recently received 2024 Swiss Art Award for her outstanding work, which is a fascinating synthesis of analogue and digital photography, including AI. Through her process-oriented approach, the artist explores deep-seated emotion- al and material layers and creates striking works of great resonance.

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