FUTURE ARTEFACTS FM X HENRY MOORE INSTITUTE

THE MANDJET

Sarah Al-Sarraj

In this episode, we speak with artist Sarah Al-Sarraj about her new speculative audio work The Mandjet. Framed as a fictional radio phone-in and set in a near future reshaped by rising waters and contested borders, the work uses humour, satire and political tension to explore how environmental crisis transforms our relationship to land, water and community. We discuss the process of building this imagined world, the use of radio as a storytelling device, and the complex figures who inhabit it.

Our conversation also explores the histories that underpin the work. Using one of the main protagonists, the leader of a radical water-autonomy movement, as a starting reference, we talk through the drainage of the English Fens and the resistance of the Fen Tigers as well as touching on contemporary debates around water privatisation, environmental justice and political dissent. Finally, we consider how folkloric actors, whether real or imagined, collective memory and ideas of borderlessness shape both the narrative and Sarah's wider artistic practice.

This mini-series is commissioned by the Henry Moore Institute as a part of their program for their exhibition Phantasmagoria: Folkloric Sculpture for the Digital Age, open 15th May - 30th August 2026.

Bios;

Sarah Al-Sarraj (b. 1997) is a visual artist and cultural worker based between Pittsburgh (US) and London (UK). Her work centers on worldbuilding as a creative and critical process, where painting and immersive technologies are understood as portals to other worlds. Predicated on the belief that our world was designed in service of imperial violence, she builds new lifeworlds rooted in land, spirit, and ancestry. Currently working with game engines, she is interested in appropriating military simulation technologies to build uncolonisable realms inspired by Global Majority knowledge systems and emerging quantum thought.

Her creative practice is informed by working in movements, at organisations such as Forensic Architecture, the Inclusive Mosque Initiative and Healing Justice London. She is inspired by the tangible material potential of visionary practice in global liberation movements and she occasionally lends her hands to illustration and graphic design for various groups.

Henry Moore Institute's Galleries, Research Library and Archive of Sculptors' Papers are free to access and open to all. As part of the Henry Moore Foundation, they are a hub for sculpture, connecting a global network of artists and scholars to ensure the art form is accessible and celebrated by a wide audience. Discover their changing programme of historical, modern and contemporary exhibitions and events in Leeds city centre, where Henry Moore (1898-1986) began his training as a sculptor.

Credits;

Voice Actors;

Rosemary Moss

ELLC

Raza Tariq

Ashirbad Roy

Yasmin Alrabiei

Special thanks:

Siegrun Salmanian

Angelina Radakovic

Davis Galvin

You can read the full transcript of this episode here.

The opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the Henry Moore Foundation, its trustees, employees or associates.

FUTURE ARTEFACTS FM X HENRY MOORE INSTITUTE

THE MANDJET

Sarah Al-Sarraj

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Bios;