El Anatsui
For Art Appeciation
Your weekly exploration of art and its mediums. The stories we tell and the ways we tell them.
A collection of things I’ve seen. This week’s story is one of my favorite artists to see in person, I first physically saw his pieces at the MET and again at the Denver Art Museum.
Stitch in Time I, 2012
El Anatsui is a Ghanian sculptor based in Nigeria. The works that I will be focused on are made of copper wire and discarded aluminum. El compares the final products to painting, “you can accomplish almost the same things as acrylic or watercolor” as one would using bottle caps and tin cans.
When you pick a medium you stay with it for some time. You don’t do two pieces. with it and fleet on to another one. That way you wouldn’t be able to get into understanding that medium and wouldn’t be able to get something intrinsic out of it.
Between Heaven and Earth, 2006
I found El’s work by chance on Instagram and the following year stumbled upon the pieces above behind an exhibit that was very dear to me. It is captivating, the way that the tapestries drape across the wall and begin to look like billowing sheets on a clothes line. El says that one of the meanings behind his work is the link between America, Europe, and Africa. The bottles that would be traded for bodies, the waste coming from America and Europe building up in African sewers, and El also comments on mining that happens in Ghana. He says, “ I have a feeling that the earth is losing its skin.”
Earth Shedding It’s Skin, 2019
His work is often massive. Spreading across whole walls of museums but these tapestries can also take up a fraction of the space. “If art is about life and life is not a fixed thing, the form of art should be capable of changing itself.” It is important to him that his works are light, easy to transport, and can take different forms where ever they go. Just like we do. In his studio he refers to each sheet that make up the whole as blocks, they are moved around until a combination and arrangement feels like it is telling its story. As he began to play around with this form and saw that solid objects could be changed at your will he says, “It was creasing in ways that I found very interesting worthy of exploration.”
Life is not a fixed thing, it is capable of flux. I want my art to reflect something like that.
Gli, 2010
“I wish that I spoke more languages because I think each language is a new window. I would love to have more windows opening to me.” Most of El’s work is titled in English but, “I find that English is a bit specific, and since I am working with the idea of non fixity, I dont want the language to inform. By giving it context, you limit its ability to stretch and I want it to remain contextless so it doesn’t lead you anywhere.” In his own language El can be as ambiguous or as specific as he wants, just like the work above. “Gli is wall, gli is story, gli is erupt.” The concept of wall is used a lot of interpret his works. As a human contraction a wall is meant to sequester, protect you, or deprive you of your freedoms, but El has made this wall movable and a part of a whole.
Script, 2016
Each tapestry is made of thousands of bottles, but it is only noticeable when you are up close to it, El says, “The individuality of each piece is lost and it is subjected to the generality of a bigger form.” There is a spirituality to each piece. The owners of the discarded bottles that now hang in museums across the world, the workers that help El in his studio, and you the viewer who is now seeing it however you please.
Ink Splash, 2012
Those who see it, who stare at it, those that are now within it are all part of the playing that El does with his art. He says we are more honest when we are playing and nothing can come out of being serious, “Art is about communication.”
The golden rule is that there are no rules. As an artist, I think your worth is determined by how you can operate without rules.
— Anayah
For more information:
Language and Symbols with Art21
Meet El Anatsui with Art Basel
Broken Bridge II Above the High Line in New York with Art21
El Anatsui: Studio Process with Art21
Monumental works by El Anatsui
*All images retrieved from artist’s website*