The ICA’s latest exhibition by Tanoa Sasraku is an eye-opening commentary on the complexities of the inherent links between oil and national identity.
Spanning decades of history from countries across the globe, Tanoa Sasraku’s new exhibit, Morale Patch, explores the inherent connection between the oil industry and national identity.
The exhibition, which is currently on display at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), comprises a series of original artworks as well as historical memorabilia that Sasraku has collected over the last year.
Its central piece, Watchlist, shows a giant chessboard-like table lined with velvet. In different squares sit paperweights, each containing samples of crude oil from different countries, including the US, Saudi Arabia, and the UK.
These types of paperweights, popular in the 1970s and 80s, were commonly commissioned by oil companies as corporate gifts to celebrate success. Visually, they are elegantly designed figures – a sophisticated token to celebrate success.
Yet behind the display, a series of Sasraku’s own creations span the walls. Long frames of newsprint have been stained by UV light to depict military service ribbons.
As the exhibition continues over time, the shapes printed on these pieces will gradually fade, which Sasraku likens to a gradual fade in society “towards false comfort”.
“I did a studio visit with Tanoa in early 2023. I was so compelled by her approach, her respect for materials and the authority of her processes,” says Andrea Nitsche-Krupp, Curator of Exhibitions at ICA London.
“She gives herself over to unknown outcomes with a kind of trust and rigorous discernment or decisiveness one doesn’t often see in artists so early in their careers.”
The series of prints, named Subdued Morale Patch, comprises six works. These include ‘Desert Shield’, a reference to a US military operation during the Gulf War, which depicts the ribbon from the Kuwait Liberation Medal; as well as ‘War on Terror’, printed in the design of the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. Focusing on global conflict, these pieces highlight the darker side of the oil industry.
The contrast of the paperweights and the artwork behind them is almost haunting.
It’s hard to view this exhibit without reflecting on current global events. The largest newsprint display in the exhibit is composed of two prints that depict the US flag.
Its name – Allomother – refers to an individual who is not a mother, but performs the responsibilities of one. In a time when Western forces are once again intervening in a Middle Eastern conflict, the piece evokes questions about the West’s role in the politics of other nations.
“The timing [of the exhibition] was circumstantial,” says Nitsche-Krupp, “and yet ended up feeling almost prescient.
“The work, very broadly speaking, deliberates on how power communicates, and how individuals are implicated within that communication. And it is materially and temporally complex such that there is an internal ambivalence that usefully turns the gallery into an interrogative space.”
Just off the Mall in Westminster, a short walk from Buckingham Palace, the location of the exhibition is not without its significance either.
“To host this work at the ICA, the place for counternarrative on the Mall, the grand processional route of world leaders, it feels right”.
The name itself, Morale Patch, comes from a type of small, unofficial uniform patch, worn by those in the military, to boost morale and spirit within a unit or division.
At the end of the exhibit, Sasraku displays her own paperweights she had produced in the shape of military coffins, adorned with national flags. Inside, though, sits not a body, but a pool of ink shaped like a pen – a commentary on the politicians throughout history who have sat in their offices, waging wars with no more than a pen and paper.
“This work in the scope of Tanoa’s career is exactly what we hope to support at the ICA,” says Nitsche-Krupp. “A critical moment in an artist’s career in which she has succeeded in pushing her practice in a new and fully developed direction.
“I really believe in the value of Tanoa’s artistic perspective, and I’m honoured to be able to support it at the ICA”
Morale Patch is on display at the Institute of Contemporary Arts until January 11, 2026.
All images by Elise Wylie.