Established in 2015, The Line is London’s first dedicated public art walk; an outstanding, free outdoor art gallery, following the line of the Greenwich Meridian along a route which passes through three of the most diverse boroughs in the UK (Newham, Tower Hamlets and Greenwich).
To mark the 5th anniversary of the critically acclaimed art walk, The Line is delighted to announce the launch on 29th August of Sanko-time – a new, specially commissioned audio work by British Ghanaian artist, Larry Achiampong, funded by Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust.
This audio work has been developed to accompany the 20-minute round-trip on the Emirates Air Line cable car from Greenwich Peninsula to the Royal Docks and is designed to complement the views over the River Thames. It can also be experienced anywhere in the world via www.the-line.org.
Sanko-time is a concept developed by the artist that relates to the Ghanaian Twi word Sankofa, which roughly translates as to go back for what has been left behind and alludes to using the past to prepare for the future. This site-specific work responds to the indelibility of the historical British Empire on the areas local to The Line. Incorporating oral histories from the Museum of London’s sound archive, field recordings from London and Accra and audio recorded during workshops with primary school children from St Mary Magdalene C of E School in Greenwich. Sanko-time takes the listener through a rich soundscape connected by the Greenwich Meridian.
Threaded with a powerful narrative about the legacy of colonialism from Achiampong, Sanko-time is a hypnotic synthesis of poetry, field recordings and music, including drum loops by the late Tony Allen an Afrobeat pioneer who brought together elements of Ghanaian Highlife and Jazz. The work is infused with the sounds and rhythms of Accra and London, including the lapping waves of Jamestown (the fishing harbour in Accra) and the water of the Royal Docks, as well as the street sounds of Accra’s Makola Market. The tides and empires explored in Sanko-time rise and fall to reveal the imprints of histories and the colonial past in our present.
Learn more here.
Image credit: ‘What I Hear I Keep’, 2020, @larryachiampong Commissioned by @delawarr for their ‘Rock Against Racism: Militant Entertainment 1976-82’ exhibition opening late 2020
