By John Owoo

(Accra – Ghana)

Tectonic Transference, the debut of a planned series of solo exhibitions by Los Angeles–born artist Lisa C Soto, unfolds as an immersive, quietly arresting meditation on land, memory, and trans-Atlantic entanglements.

Currently based between Ghana and Puerto Rico, Soto presents an exhibition that functions less as a static display and more as a living ecosystem—one that breathes, resonates, and subtly shifts as viewers move through it.

Comprising photographic transfer works printed on plant-based supports, sound recordings, and scents collected from weaver bird nests in Duende Achuwe (Western Region of Ghana), and boiled to create scents that could transport the viewer into the landscape, the near open-air exhibition is alluring and welcoming.

Curated by Patrick Nii Okanta Ankrah with support from Maane Iddrisu and Andrew Siaw Nubour, the images of land and seascapes—tree bark, roots, rocks, salt water, sand, and sky—are layered, collapsed, merged, and juxtaposed, echoing geological processes and suggesting new forms of visual and historical synthesis. The works pulse collectively, blurring distinctions among image, matter, and environment.

Soto describes these natural elements as “the original archives, our first libraries,” holding knowledge of the world alongside human histories of pain, resilience, and survival. Her articulation finds a compelling parallel in political theorist Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter, which calls for a shift away from human-centered narratives toward an acknowledgment of the agency and interconnectedness of non-human forces—microbes, plants, climate, and minerals. In Tectonic Transference, matter is not passive; it speaks, remembers, and insists.

Installed at The Courtyard Accra in the plush environs of the Airport Residential Area, the exhibition reactivates the site as both a contemplative space and a social crossroads. Soto’s photo transfers stand like sentries along imagined tree lines, while others hang and twist gently, inviting viewers to choreograph their own passage through the courtyard.

These movements subtly reference deeper histories: continental drift, which began over 200 million years ago; the mulberry plant’s fraught legacy as both an economic promise and an invasive species; and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, traced through the forced and hopeful transfer of plants, bodies, and cultures.

The surrounding environment seeps into the experience—the distant call to prayer, the passing ice-cream vendor, and the anticipatory hum of Ghana’s “Detty December,” all intensified by ongoing diasporic returns sparked by the 2019 Year of Return. In this context, Tectonic Transference becomes a pause, a question, and an invitation. What new stories might yet emerge from old and ongoing trans-Atlantic movements? Soto does not offer answers, but she leaves the ground fertile for them to take root.

The exhibition ends on Saturday, January 24, 2026.

Pictures – Lisa C Soto

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