El Anatsui grew up in a small corner of Ghana, the son of a fisherman. Now he’s an art world super star with solo presentations at the Venice Bienniale, the oldest and most prestigious art biennial, and his work hangs in major collections around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the British Museum in London. Anutsui is one of the most well-established contemporary African artists.
Anatsui infuses his cultural background into his artistic practices, in particular his childhood had a profound effect on his work. His father was a weaver of Kente cloth, made by combining strips of silk and cotton fabric together. Anatsui uses a similar technique with a contemporary twist for his most iconic pieces. He uses bottle caps and foil wrappers from discarded liquor bottles, flattens them, and weaves them together with wire, creating massive shimmering tapestries, some up to 33-foot-long, in reds, yellows, silvers, and golds. His works create an illusion, the rich colors and metallic sheen that make them look sumptuous and luxurious even though they are created out of discarded metals.
He discovered the bottles caps and foil by accident one day in 1998 when he was outside a distillery in Nsukka, a small city in Nigeria where he was teaching sculpture at the University of Nigeria. He liked the material not only because there was an abundance of it but because it had a layer of cultural symbolism. The caps and metal come from Nigerian brands of alcohol, namely Chairman, Dark Sailor, King Solomon, Makossa, and 007. Including them references the slave trade and the history of alcohol, introduced to Nigeria by Europeans.
Not all of Anatsui’s pieces are made of metal, his earlier works are made of wood, which he shaped using power tools and chainsaws. He also made ceramic objects, pieced together from shattered traditional pots. Now, however, Anatsui is focusing on his monumental metal tapestries that he makes in his studio in Nigeria with the help of a large team of young studio assistants from the local community. (via Flavorpill)
He discovered the bottles caps and foil by accident one day in 1998 when he was outside a distillery in Nsukka, a small city in Nigeria where he was teaching sculpture at the University of Nigeria. He liked the material not only because there was an abundance of it but because it had a layer of cultural symbolism. The caps and metal come from Nigerian brands of alcohol, namely Chairman, Dark Sailor, King Solomon, Makossa, and 007. Including them references the slave trade and the history of alcohol, introduced to Nigeria by Europeans.
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| Yet Another Place, 2014 |
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