Raízes da Terra

Raízes da Terra (Roots of the Earth) is a series of drawings developed between 2025 and 2026. The drawings accompany an ongoing artistic research, bringing together archaeological research, literature, historical timelines, community narratives and fieldwork developed with anthropologist and archaeologist M. Dores Cruz, alongside long-term collaborations with ceramicists and communities in São Tomé, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau.

The drawings assemble fragmented forms of knowledge gathered across different geographies. Each community contributes its own forms, techniques, material practices and oral histories, reflecting how a ceramic tradition historically sustained and transmitted by women has continued to develop within distinct ecological, social and historical contexts.

Together, the drawings function as cartographies of the research, where community narratives, archaeological evidence, literature and artistic research complement one another. Rather than reconstructing a single historical narrative, they consider how this ceramic lineage has been shaped by historical and social developments across Atlantic geographies.

Anna Nunes van den Hoven, Raízes da Terra (2025-2026), Graphite and coffee washes on Canson Grano Fino paper, 21 × 29,7 cm.

Photos by Larissa Ambachtsheer