From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Leather Archives—A Community-Built Spiral Shrine
This article concerns a physical participatory installation in Accra. For the metaphorical concept, see Leather as Living Archive. For related West African textile practice, see The Leather Reconstruction—A Participatory Mapping Installation.
An evolving participatory installation in Accra housing hand-stitched red leather panels, photographs, and written testimonies from Beach Surgery devotional communities across West Africa. Visitors contribute fabric segments inscribed with names, prayers, or personal interpretations of breaking the cycle. The panels spiral inward toward a central chamber containing a live community radio transmitter and rotating meditation recordings from Empty World Meditations.
The architecture mirrors Rico's embedded tale — a functioning archive-city nested inside a larger body. Red dominates the palette; stitching patterns incorporate Adinkra symbols signifying return and witness. Participants describe the act of stitching itself as ritual repair — each loop returning creates new layers, converting the building into a living record of engagement across time.
The shrine's leather is sourced from Accra-based workers now recognized as collaborators.[citation needed] Monthly photographic cycles and oral-history interviews are archived on-site and streamed via the radio station.