El Anatsui

Transcription

El Anatsui - Blanton Museum of Art

El Anatsui
When I Last Wrote to You about Africa
Educator’s Guide
Museum for African Art
New York
El Anatsui
When I Last Wrote To You About Africa
Educator’s Guide
By
Erika Gee
Director of Education and
Public Programs
Assisted by
Lisa M. Binder
Associate Curator
Donna Ghelerter
Manager of Curatorial Affairs
Christine Weible
Intern
Education Department
Museum for African Art, New York
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa is organized by the Museum for
African Art, New York, and has been supported, in part, by grants from Toyota as the
lead corporate sponsor, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the
National Endowment for the Arts.
TOYOTA Warhol
Foundation
This Educator’s Guide, developed in conjunction with the exhibition El Anatsui:
When I Last Wrote to You about Africa, is funded by Toyota Foundation and The May
and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., and supported, in part, by public funds
from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City
Council.
Copyright 2011 © Museum for African Art, New York. All rights reserved. No part
of this publication may be reproduced except solely for educational purposes. All
other uses require written permission from the Museum for African Art, 36-01 43rd
Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101. www.africanart.org
Cover: Untitled, 1980s. Acrylic on masonite, 24 x 48 in. Collection of the artist
Frontispiece: Plot A Plan III (detail), 2007. Aluminum, copper wire, 73 x 97 in. Collection
of Joan and Michael Saike, Naples, Florida.
This educator’s guide is largely based on the catalogue El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote
to You about Africa, edited by Lisa M. Binder.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2About this Guide
3About the Exhibition
4About the Artist
9Exploring Culture, Stories and Memory
10 When I last wrote to you .. II, 1986
12 God’s Omnipotence, 1974
14 Chambers of Memory, 1977
16 Omen, 1978
18 Beads, 1980
20 Leopard’s Paw-prints and Other Stories, 1991
22 Akua’s Surviving Children, 1996
24 Sacred Moon, 2007
27Exploring Materials and Processes
28 Lady in Frenzy, 1999
Chief in Zingliwu, 1999
30 Peak Project, 1999
32 Open(ing) Market, 2004
34 Stressed World, 2011
37 Resources
38 Lesson 1: Research Activity: El Anatsui’s Life and Works of Art
41 Map
42 Lesson 2: Creating a Found-object Work of Art
43 Artist’s Timeline
46 Annotated Webography
47 Vocabulary
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
THIS EL ANATSUI EDUCATOR’S GUIDE is designed as a tool to assist educators
in engaging students in the life and works of contemporary artist El Anatsui.
Based on the exhibition When I Last Wrote to You about Africa, the guide
explores the full range of the artist’s work, from wood trays referring to
traditional symbols of the Akan people of Ghana; to early ceramics from the
artist’s Broken Pots series, driftwood assemblages that refer to the transAtlantic slave trade, and wooden sculptures carved with a chainsaw; to the
luminous metal wall-hangings of recent years, which have brought the artist
international acclaim.
This resource guide may be used by K-12 teachers in connection with class
visits to the exhibition, or as an independent curricular resource. It provides
an overview of El Anatsui’s life and highlights examples of his works of art.
Educators can use individual works of art to explore El Anatsui’s process as
an artist and the different materials that he employs. Teachers can also utilize
Anatsui’s work as part of curriculum units that investigate contemporary
art as well as African history, visual arts, folklore, symbols, and traditions.
Each work of art has sample discussion questions to encourage students to
closely examine the artwork, interpret possible meanings of the artworks,
discover African traditions, and make personal connections. The guide also
lists suggested activities, including doing further research, or creating works
of art inspired by Anatsui’s examples. These suggested activities are designed
to encourage interdisciplinary connections with other studies in history,
social studies, literature, science, and performing arts.
While not specifically designed for a particular grade level, the suggested
questions might be best suited for upper elementary and middle school
students. Teachers are invited to adapt these materials for use with their
specific students. For example, teachers may want to select a few works of
art to explore with younger students. This guide is not designed to provide a
comprehensive history of West Africa or its artistic traditions as teachers can
refer to other sources for more detailed information.
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EL ANATSUI EDUCATOR’S GUIDE
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa
IN WOOD AND METAL SCULPTURES, ceramics, paintings, prints, and drawings
created over the past five decades, El Anatsui (b. 1944, Ghana) tells his
personal story alongside local and global narratives. Today an internationally
renowned artist, he lives and works in Nigeria and continues to use the
simplest materials to create monumental sculptures. El Anatsui: When I Last
Wrote to You about Africa, the artist’s first retrospective, surveys his ongoing
practice of juxtaposing color, form, and pattern to evoke major themes in
African and world history.
Anatsui, best known for his shimmering metal sculptures made from
thousands of West African liquor bottle tops, has also worked in a variety of
other mediums, some of them long-established and some less conventional.
He has often used materials from his immediate surroundings in his
sculptures—in the 1970s he worked with wood trays like the ones sold in
the market stalls of Ghana, in the 1980s sculpting with clay pots and yam
pounders, from the 1990s onward fashioning metal bottle tops and milk-tin
lids—and, by doing so, infusing his art with symbols and myth. Many of his
large compositions consist of multiple parts. Anatsui
encourages diverse readings by rearranging sections of
scorched wood slats or linked aluminum caps, seeing
such movement as part of his nomadic aesthetic.
Anatsui’s art, like his poetic titles, can be simultaneously
diminutive and monumental, delicate and violent,
whimsical and serious. There is no one single trajectory,
no specific path to take through history. El Anatsui asks
us to make connections between our knowledge and
his message, our environments and his materials, and
most of all, between our lives and his art.
El Anatsui carving Erosion with a chainsaw
at an Earth Summit workshop in Manaus,
Brazil, 1992. The finished work was displayed in the exhibition Arte Amazonas at
the Modern Art Museum in Rio de Janeiro.
ABOUT THIS EXHIBITION
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
EL ANATSUI WAS BORN on February 4, 1944 in the Ewe town of Anyako and
later went to high school in nearby Keta; both are located in Ghana’s Volta
region. Anyako and Keta are surrounded on one side by the sea, on the
other by a lagoon. Anatsui remembers people concerning themselves with
fishing and harvesting salt most of the time and with weaving during the off
season. Though the artist never practiced weaving, his father and brothers
did so in their spare time. In addition, several of his brothers composed lyrics
for music related to traditional drumming. He refers to these siblings as
poets. This exposure to cloth patterns and poetry provided Anatsui’s earliest
interaction with media that would later inspire much of his mature work.
El Anatsui working in his studio at the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, on a piece
from the Broken Pots series, 1977.
Though he was the youngest of the thirty-two children in his family, Anatsui
discovered ways to highlight his individuality within a large group. His
interest in art quickly set him apart from other students and members of
his family. He recalls his earliest experience with art as an attempt to write
letters on a chalk slate: “I would copy the bold capital letters on the door of
the general manager’s office or the headmaster’s office. Because I did not
understand these, I regarded each of them more as an image than a letter.
These forms were intriguing and attractive.” Even from this early age he
was appropriating and connecting forms in order to discover new ways of
communicating. Later, in high school, he would win awards for his artistic
endeavors during the annual speech and prize-giving days. Advisors began
to encourage him to study fine art in college. Knowing the path he wanted
to take, he let those around him know that he would be leaving and not
following in the footsteps of other members in his family.
Education
Anatsui earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Science and
Technology, Kumasi, Ghana in 1968. At the time, the institution was affiliated
with the University of London, specifically Goldsmiths, and employed
mostly European lecturers; thus, after having grown up in a British colony,
he received his university training under the British model, which continued
in Ghana following its independence in 1957. He studied drawing, painting,
and sculpture in the Western tradition and had art history classes that did
not include discussions of African art. He followed his undergraduate degree
with a postgraduate diploma in art education and secured his first teaching
position upon graduation as a lecturer in the Art Education Department,
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Specialist Training College, Winneba, Ghana (now University of Education,
Winneba). In 1975, Anatsui applied for an open lecturer position in the
Department of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka.
The following year, El Anatsui made his first trip outside of Ghana to live on
the campus where he would teach for the next thirty-five years.
Teaching and Artistic Practice
El Anatsui started teaching in the Department of Fine and Applied Art at
the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1975. From the very beginning, his work
was informed by various local, regional, and international histories and art
practices. One can find Ghanaian and Nigerian influences in his work as well
as myriad other African, European, Asian, and American
references. He has gained this knowledge through an
intimate investigation of his immediate environment
coupled with decades of travel for research, residencies,
workshops, and exhibitions.
Anatsui has an edict that he, and those under his
tutelage, turn to their respective environments for
inspiration and materials. He urges them to look around
and use “whatever the environment throws up.” In this,
he is not only referring to organic materials—discarded
bottle-tops, glass bottles, milk tin lids, market trays, old
mortars used for grinding yams, and metal obituary
plates may be used along with “natural resources” such as clay, driftwood,
leaves, and logs.
El Antsui making Ambivalent Hold,1983,
Nsukka, Nigeria.
Artistic media need not be expensive. Anatsui believes that an artist does
not necessarily need to spend money on oil paints or chisels, but rather, he
can free the creative process by turning to the humble everyday materials
around us. However, this is not to say that simple materials render simple
artworks. He has expressed the idea that when one has only humble
materials to work with, the act of bringing them together in massive
quantities creates the possibility for monumentality.
For example, when making Signatures on the campus of the University of
East Anglia during an artist-in-residency program, he piled up hundreds
ABOUT THE ARTIST
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of logs into a rectangular pile. Then, using common
household paint, he added countless stripes of color to
the end of each log. He hoped a viewer standing before
the work would be “dizzied” by the massive movement
of pattern and texture. He teaches his students, that
when working with humble materials such as logs and
paint, one should bring them together in a manner that
renders them monumental.
Signature in situ at the Cyfuniad Internationa Artists Workshop in Plas Caerdeon,
Wales, 1999. Wood, paint, dimensions
variable. Collection of the artist, now
destroyed.
Travel is a very important part of Anatsui’s teaching. He
encourages his students to apply for travel grants, artistin-residency programs, and study abroad opportunities.
He suggests that they should experience the best of
what the world has to offer, and then consider those
influences, along with local art histories, in their studio work.
One of the most important elements in Anatsui’s practice is the element
of chance. His work is often comprised of pieces that can be arranged in a
variety of ways. He encourages the installer to participate in the work by
suggesting placement or order of the final installation. For example, in his
bottle top sculptures, he asks the curator to add vertical and horizontal
gathered points as they see fit. This often opens up different ways of seeing
and reading the same work of art—and in this—new meanings can emerge.
This is a practice he strongly encourages his students to follow as well.
Most importantly, rather than asking his students to copy or mimic an
“Anatsui style” he teaches a way of seeing the world, a process of art making,
and encourages individual artistic vision. He has taught generations of
artists to consider process. In sum, these are the primary strategies Professor
Anatsui has conveyed to his many students over the last four decades:
• Pull from your personal history for inspiration
• Look to your environment for materials and give them the opportunity
to be more than just humble fragments
• Travel when you can and bring all your experiences to bear on your work
• Allow for the possibility of chance—something new and wonderful may
come of it
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Exhibitions and Collections
Starting in the 1980s and ’90s Anatsui was included in numerous local and
international workshops, artists’ residencies, collectives, biennales, and
exhibitions. Anatsui’s work has appeared in group exhibitions at the Fowler
Museum of Cultural History, UCLA; the Smithsonian National Museum
of African Art, Washington, DC; the October Gallery, London; and in the
celebrated exhibition Africa Remix, which opened in 2005 in Düsseldorf and
traveled to London, Paris, Tokyo, Stockholm, and Johannesburg. His work
has also been included in numerous biennial exhibitions, including in Venice
(1990 and 2007), Havana (1994), Johannesburg (1995), Gwangju (2004), and
Sharjah (2009), as well as in Prospect.1 New Orleans (2008). Gawu, a solo
show of metal sculptures, traveled throughout Europe, North America, and
Asia from 2004 to 2008.
In 2008, Anatsui received the Visionaries Artist Award from
the Museum of Arts and Design, in New York City. He is
also a laureate of the 2009 Prince Claus Award. His work
is collected by institutions internationally, including the
British Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The
Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern
Art, New York; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh;
the Denver Art Museum; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of
Art, Kansas City; the de Young Museum, San Francisco; and
many others.
El Anatsui constructing Gli, a metal wall
sculpture commissioned for an exhibition
at the Rice University Art Gallery, Houston,
January 2010. In the past, Anatsui would
deliver the metal hangings as complete
works, but now he often brings large sections to venues and fuses them together
on-site.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
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EXPLORING CULTURE, STORIES,
AND MEMORY
EL ANATSUI uses double meanings, references to history, and
language mixing as elements of his art practice. For example, the
Broken Pots series ties to African traditions and beliefs regarding
the earth. This section explores how Anatsui incorporates signs,
symbols, and historical and cultural references in his works.
Akpukpoefi, part of the Broken Pots series
1979
Ceramic, glass
22.5 x 15.5 in.
Collection of the artist
Anatsui used molten glass in several Broken
Pots series objects. This use of drink bottles
prefigured the employment of liquor tops in
his current metal sculptures.
EXPLORING CULTURES, STORIES, AND MEMBORY
9
When I last wrote to you . . . II
1986
Drypoint, aquatint
19 ½ x 15 ½ in.
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A letter explores the idea of language and communication.
Anatsui made a suite of works in the late 1980s, all of which have the title
When I last wrote you about Africa (or variations of it). In this print, Anatsui
utilizes the aquatint etching process to create a soft image of a letter
emerging out of what looks like a wash of grey. He fills the lines of his letter
with symbols that are similar to adinkra ideograms, a system of linguistic
symbols used in Ghana. Adinkra symbols appear on objects, jewelry, and
brass weights and, are stamped on cloth using carved gourds. Adinkra
symbols are ideograms, as each symbol visually represents a meaning or
concept. These symbols are linked to proverbs, folktales, folksongs, and
popular sayings as well with as flora, fauna, and everyday objects. One of the
symbols, sankofa, represents a bird known for its ability to look backward
and is associated with the concept of looking to the past in order to plan
the future. Anatsui’s use of adinkra is an attempt to use tradition as a way
of moving art forward. Another symbol, aya, depicts a fern and represents
endurance, independence, hardiness, perseverance, and resourcefulness;
it is connected with the phrase “I am not afraid of you.” Using combinations
of symbols to create various meanings, Anatsui might suggest viewers to
consider the idea of language and explore how communication happens.
Looking and Interpreting
• What textures and patterns do you see in this work of art?
• How do people use letters to communicate? What role do symbols and
language play in fostering communication?
Connecting and Doing
• What symbols have you seen in use in the United States, i.e. eagle, flags,
etc.? What do they represent?
• Create your own simple print using a Styrofoam plate. Cut the raised
edges off so you have a flat printing surface. Then carve a design on
the plate using a ballpoint pen, being careful not to puncture a hole in
the plate. Cover the surface with paint (preferable printing paint using
a roller). Place a sheet of paper over the painted surface pressing down
to ensure the paint transfers to the paper. Remove the paper from the
Styrofoam plate to reveal your image.
EXPLORING CULTURES, STORIES, AND MEMORY
11
God’s Omnipotence
1974
Wood, paint, lacquer
21 ½ x 20 ½ in.
Institute of African Studies,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
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An ordinary tray is carved with new meaning.
Anatsui decorated this wooden tray with a central symbol surrounded by
radiating decoration. These wood sculptures are among Anatsui’s earliest
works and are based on Ghanaian market trays. The artist commissioned
local wood carvers to make the kind of market trays conventionally used
to display fruits and vegetables, then he branded and scorched the wood
with shapes and patterns using a low-tech method of heated rods or knives.
The symbol that Anatsui uses is akin to the adinkra symbol nyame ye ohene,
meaning “God is King,” symbolizing the majesty and supremacy of God.
Using a local form and processes, he blurs the traditional perception of fine
art and craft.
• What do you notice about the tray? How do you think the designs are
created?
• Research adinkra symbols from West African cultures. Select a few
symbols with meanings that you like or have significance for you. Carve
your own symbol out of a potato or soap and use it to stamp different
surfaces such as paper and fabric.
• Can you imagine an everyday object in your own life for which you could
invent a new purpose? Draw how you might use this object.
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How can we explore the role of memory in our lives through art?
Chambers of Memory
1977
Ceramic, manganese
16 x 10 in.
With a speckled, brittle surface on a cylindrical base and a large, bulbous
upper half, this work evokes an abstracted form of a human head. The front
is defined by full, pursed lips and a narrowly slit nose and eyes, which may
evoke a more literal history—the early art traditions of Africa. This sculpture
can be seen as fashioned to resemble the ancient terra-cotta heads found
around the village of Nok near the Jos Plateau region of Nigeria. Anatsui
might ask viewers to reflect on their own, individual contributions to the
history of humanity.
The back of the skull is incomplete with chambers delineated by rough,
jagged edges. The interior divisions in Chambers of Memory could allude to
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the abstract sites of memory and history archived in one’s mind. The holes
and cracks in the skull of this piece, along with its title, Chambers of Memory,
suggest that the artist is toying with ideas of the fragility and elusiveness of
memories. How accurately can our minds sustain memories? Can we lose
memories permanently? Is memory interpretive or factual?
Earthenware is a principle material used in everyday life in many West
African cultures from centuries ago to today. It is used for common as well as
ceremonial activities. Anatsui has lived in Nigeria since the mid-1970s, and
the cosmology of the Igbo, an ethnic group in Nigeria, has had an influence
on his work and his aesthetic. For the Igbo, the earth is not only the source
of all life and creation (many other genealogies trace the first humans to
anthills), the earth is also the site and domain of Ala, the earth goddess—
the divinity of creativity, communal balance, and moral righteousness. El
Anatsui’s pots are formed by the artist’s hands, and consequently their form
reveals the close relationship between the objects, their maker, and the
earth.
• What forms and shapes do you see in this work of art?
• How many chambers do you see? What objects do you see in them?
• The Nok area in Nigeria is one of the earliest African centers of
ironworking and terracotta figure production. Research more about
the Nok terracotta sculptures. How are these sculptures made? Do you
see any similarities in how these faces are depicted and in Chambers of
Memory?
• What do you think the role of memory is in your life? Do you have any
favorite memories? What are they? How might you keep yourself from
forgetting these memories?
• What ways do we remember important events or memories in our life?
Create a work of art where you preserve your memories. This could take
the form of an accordion book, timeline, quilt, or collage that depicts
multiple events.
15
How can exploring brokenness help one understand history?
Omen
1978
Ceramic, manganese
15.5 x 16.5 in.
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With an imperfectly rounded shape and ruptured opening, Omen is
evocative of the moment where life begins anew and can be seen as a
premonition for all of life’s possibilities. A coating of the mineral manganese
creates the object’s speckled texture. Mined in Ghana, El Anatsui’s homeland,
manganese is known to promote the biological process of healing wounds in
living organisms. The egglike shape of Omen reoccurs in several of Anatsui’s
drawings, paintings, and sculptures.
In 1978 El Anatsui began to work with clay, a material that held a cultural
significance for him. A Nigerian poet Osmond Ossie Enekwe (b. November
12, 1942) wrote a series of poems also entitled Broken Pots (1977) that
laments the consequences of wars—the human suffering, broken humanity,
and the creating of a physical and spiritual wasteland. El Anatsui uses
ceramic shards that he fabricated, broke, and repaired in his Broken Pots
series.
Omen, created with damaged ceramics, might represent the idea of
brokenness and fragility in a time of political instability in West Africa.
The re-forming of the pot-like shape might represent regeneration and
rebirth, while the materials relate to myths and stories Anatsui heard as a
child in Ghana. These pieces are partially repaired in order to suggest that
brokenness does not necessarily result in disuse; rather, through repair,
objects might serve a new function.
• What do you notice about the surface of this work of art? What textures
and patterns do you see?
• An omen is defined as something perceived or happening believed to
indicate a good or bad circumstance or event in the future. Look closely
at this work. What “omen” might you read in this work?
• Have you ever broken something, only to find a new use for it? What was
it?
• Are there stories that you have heard about rebirth and creation i.e. the
phoenix rising out of the ashes? Create a work of art that illustrates the
story.
• Research more about manganese and its properties. For starters,
manganese is a hard and brittle metal that is both nutritionally essential
and potentially toxic. Its name comes from the Greek word for magic.
Scientists are still working to understand its diverse effects in living
organisms. Manganese plays an important role in the biological process
of healing wounds.
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Beads
1980
Ink on paper
10 ½ x 9 in.
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A simple drawing of a decorative product.
Anatsui depicts a string of patterned beads in this black and white drawing.
In many cultures beads are used as ornaments, currency, talismans, counting
devices, religious objects, and as symbols of power, wealth, and affiliation.
From 1979 to 1981, Anatsui made a series of elegant drawings that relate
to works he created in other mediums. This drawing specifically depicts a
type of bead made in Ghana out of recycled glass. These beads are made by
selecting colored glass that is then pored into molds, fired in kilns, polished,
and painted. They are also significant as trade items used as part of an
international exchange in markets in Ghana and other areas of West Africa
that exported these goods around the world.
• What patterns and shapes do you see on these beads? What colors do
you imagine on these beads?
• Research the history of trade in West Africa. What items were being
produced and traded? Why might beads have been significant as trade
items?
• Generate a list of materials that could be used as beads or made into
beads. Create your own beads out of paper (rolling colored paper),
papier mâché, bread dough, beans, noodles, or spices. Consider utilizing
found natural materials such as seedpods, feathers, and small pines
cones, as well as discarded bottle caps, hardware, and toys to make
beads as well.
19
Leopard’s Paw-prints and Other Stories
1991
Wood, paint
16 x 35 ¼ in.
Collection of the artist and October
Gallery, London
20
This work depicts a new visual language drawn from symbols and
literature.
In Leopard’s Paw-prints and Other Stories, El Anatsui carves a number of
textures and patterns on the slats of wood assembled together. While the
symbols and patterns might not be discernible, viewers might liken them
to systems of communication based on adinkra symbols and kente cloth.
The act of naming a sculpture is an important part of Anatsui’s process.
Although he may think of a title at any point during the production of a
work, usually no final decision is made until he has spent time with a finished
piece and the idea for it begins to emerge. His titles often relate to language,
mythology, literature, or poetry, as well as major events in African history.
This naming practice recalls the way in which weavers, brass casters, and
carvers in Ghana name designs and compositions to reflect events, stories, or
proverbs. Leopard’s Paw-prints and Other Stories may relate to how leopards
are associated with kingship in West African folklore.
• Imagine taking a rubbing of this surface. What textures would you
notice?
• Research kingship in West African cultures. For example, in Igbo culture,
one of the ethnic groups in Nigeria, a head, paw, or tooth of a lion or
leopard is a symbol or power. Other Igbo associations with royalty
include turtle shells, python skin, eagle feathers, crocodile skin, ostrich
eggs and feathers, and elephant tusks. These symbols are displayed on
fabrics or any piece of clothing and in wood such as mahogany, iroko,
obeche, ebony, all from trees that are usually huge and strong-textured.
Why do you think the leopard and its attributes might symbolize
kingship? Why do you think leaders associate themselves with symbols
of power? What symbols of power do you see today’s world leaders
display?
• What stories do you know that incorporate animals? Can you imagine
a story about a leopard based on what you see in El Anatsui’s piece? Act
out your story.
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How can found objects be transformed to tell a story of Africa?
Akua’s Surviving Children
1996
Wood, metal
Installation dimension variable. Height of
the tallest individual piece 65 in.
Gallery, London
22
Made of driftwood logs that had washed ashore on a beach in Denmark,
Akua’s Surviving Children represents individual Africans who crossed
tumultuous oceans and seas during the Danish slave trade. This sculptural
installation was exhibited as part of the 1996 Images of Africa Festival in
Copenhagen, Denmark. The wooden heads and bodies were attached using
nails from a forge where, in the past, guns had been made for use in the slave
trade. Anatsui also burned each figure’s head in the forge as a symbolic act of
cleansing.
In Ghana, El Anatsui’s home country, Akan children are given a “day name,”
which is based on the name of the day of the week on which he or she was
born. Akua is the name for females born on Wednesday. It is believed that
all peoples born on the same day of the week have the same kind of soul.
The Akan, one of the West African ethnic groups, also believe ancestors give
children to the living to continue their family and their society. Ancestors are
still involved in the life of the living, and the well being of the living depends
on them. In light of this, an interpretation of this piece might be that Akua—
depicted in this piece—is a revered ancestor, whose children continue to
depend on her for the good of their family and are the continuation of her
legacy today.
• Describe the grouping of forms, including the spacing and variety of
heights. Arrange your own version of this piece, using either objects or
people to fill the space.
• Anatsui encourages people to install his sculptures as they see fit. This
open process suggests the innumerable combinations of interactions
possible within a group of people, and demonstrates the fluidity of
human relationships. If you were to install this piece, how might you
arrange these sculptures?
• Research the African slave trade. What places are connected to this
history? What are the experiences of the people involved and affected?
• Research stories from other cultures where ancestors influence or help
the living. What is the relationship between the living and those that
came before them?
• Reflect on the members of your family. Do you have family members
who are important to you? Why are they important? What have they
taught you or passed on to you that you find valuable? What would you
like to pass on to your children someday?
23
A shimmering piece could provide a backdrop for sharing stories.
Sacred Moon
2007
Aluminum, copper wire
103 x 141 in.
Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, Michigan,
608
24
Sacred Moon is a shimmering, shining, tapestry-like piece that ripples and
gives the illusion of movement. One might see the work as a night sky for
a fiery orange harvest moon against the silvery backdrop. On the left side,
there is a tree-like shape anchored by a patch of color, which could be
interpreted as earth. The ripples evoke a feeling of a breeze or life pulsing
through.
In many cultures, storytelling serves a means of entertainment, education,
and cultural preservation. One of the most popular times for storytelling
is after the sun has set and the day’s work has been
finished. Among the Limba, an ethnic group from Sierra
Leone, a full moon is seen as the optimum opportunity
for storytelling, because people go to bed later during
this time. By creating a moon, El Anatsui might provide
viewers with a new kind of social space within which
viewers may be inspired to share stories with one another.
• On first glance, what do you think this piece is made
of? Look at this work more closely. What materials do
you see?
• How is this work constructed? How long do you think it might have
taken to put this together? Note: Anatsui has employed a delegation of
labor throughout his career; he currently has more than twenty assistants
who help make his metal wall sculptures.
• Upon seeing Anatsui’s hangings, many people associate them with
kente cloth. Kente cloth is special fabric that was developed in Ghana.
Kings, queens, and other important people wore special designs during
ceremonies and other state occasions. The kente patterns contain many
cultural concepts from history, literature, and political thought, codes of
conduct, moral values, and philosophy. Research kente cloth and create a
piece using a pattern that conveys a message.
• Think about story time in your school or family. Where and when are
these stories told? Are there particular times, places, seasons, or events
where storytelling has been a part of your social interactions, i.e. summer
camp? What kinds of stories have you told or heard?
• El Anatsui’s father and brothers practiced weaving in their spare time.
Several of his brothers composed lyrics for music related to traditional
drumming. What skills have you seen your family members do, i.e. cook,
sew, etc.? Are there skills or traditions that you have learned from your
family members? Are there skills that you hope to learn from your family
members?
25
26
EXPLORING MATERIALS AND PROCESSES
Many of El Anatsui’s sculptures employ materials once
designated for other purposes. Using found objects such as
market trays, old mortars, fallen logs, can lids, and cassava
graters, he reworks and rearranges materials and transforms
them into something new. The vocabulary of Anatsui’s work
involves exchanges between seemingly humble materials, that
are constructed into monumental works.
Signature (detail) in situ at the Cyfuniad
International Artists Workshop in Plas
Caerdeon, Wales, 1999. Wood, paint,
dimensions variable. Collection of the
artist, now destroyed.
In Nigeria, cut wood that is for sale will
often be marked with a stroke of paint
to denote the logs’ owner. Anatsui is
making reference to this proctice and the
individual “signatures” left behind.
27
Lady in Frenzy
1999
Metal, wood, fabric
74 x 26 in.
Gallery, London
28
Chief in Zingliwu
1999
Metal, wood, fabric
66 ½ x 29 ½ in.
Gallery, London
These whimsical sculpture are made from a variety of materials.
In 1999 Anatsui began to use found objects more frequently than he had
in the past. Metal and wood, two of his predominant mediums throughout
his career, are combined with fabric here to create each figure of this
freestanding couple, Lady in Frenzy and Chief in Zingliwu.
• Look carefully at the artwork. What materials were used to make these
sculptures?
• Anatsui often creates his own words, or uses words in other languages,
to title his artworks. For example, zingliwu is an Ewe word that references
the zinc roof-top materials used in the body of the sculpture Chief
in Zingliwu. Have you ever created your own words, or used another
language to express something? Come up with some new words for a
concept, story, or work of art.
• Create an artwork made out of a number of materials, like metal, wood,
and fabric.
29
Peak Project
1999
Tin, copper wire
Installation dimensions variable, each
sheet approximately 24 x 48 in.
30
How can an artwork explore issues of consumption and waste?
This sculpture is made from the shiny lids of Peak Milk cans linked together
by wire into 2-foot-by-4-foot sheets. The number of sheets can vary (usually
from 20 to more than 150), depending on the available exhibition space.
Although Anatsui encourages each installer to arrange the sheets as he or
she likes, he prefers that the pieces be shaped into peaks as a play on the
milk’s brand name. Produced by a Dutch company in Holland, Peak milk
powder and cans of condensed milk are widely used in Nigeria because
some people cannot keep milk cold in areas where electricity is often limited
and intermittent.
In the National Museum of African Art’s website for the Gawu exhibition,
Anatsui explains that this work and others in the series were inspired by
“huge piles of detritus from consumption,” such as the mountains of milk
tins and bottle tops that have been growing throughout West Africa due to
limited recycling technology. A lot of things which are made in Europe and
America and are sent over arrive in certain kinds of packaging, for example,
fresh milk comes in tins. We have our own milk too, of course, but in addition
there are huge imports of milk from outside, which is accessed by way of
tins.”
• Notice the details of this sculpture. What is this sculpture made out of?
How is this arranged?
• Why might you work with discarded materials?
• Research how products are imported in the United States. What are
the costs to import products? What conveniences and advantages
might an imported product offer when compared with a local product?
Conversely, what conveniences and advantages might a local product
offer when compared with an imported product?
• Collect and repurpose lids from cans or caps from bottles to create a
found object sculpture. In creating your artwork, do you prefer that the
labels show? Why or why not?
31
Open(ing) Market
2004
Tin, paper, wood, paint
Installation dimensions variable,
1,767 pieces
32
A colorful sculpture evokes the stalls of a marketplace.
The thousands of tin boxes in this sculpture refer to the vibrant, exciting,
and often vast African marketplace. Capturing the moment of anticipation
of stalls just about to open for business, Open(ing) Market represents the
emergence of local and global African markets. Anatsui commissioned the
handmade boxes from local tinkers. Each box is painted on the exterior in
black with red, chevron-shaped marks, and has typical product labels from
West Africa cut and glued to the inside. The colors, patterns, and spatial
relationships of the sculpture are closely related to Anatsui’s work in other
mediums.
• Notice the details of this sculpture. What materials is this sculpture made
out of?
• Research marketplaces both in Africa and the United States. How might
this piece remind you of stalls in marketplaces that you have seen?
• Repurpose old boxes to create a found object sculpture. Add colored
paint, fabric, or papers such as magazines or wrappers to decorate your
sculpture.
33
A luminous sculpture fashioned of a web of folded and crushed
materials.
The eroded patterns and distressed sections of Stressed World demonstrate
Anatsui’s most recent production techniques and thematic concerns. While
certain sections are densely populated, web-like areas appear to be worn
thin by time and use. Sharply folded and crushed liquor bottle tops, in
various configurations, firmly hold together the seemingly fragile material.
Stressed World
2011
Aluminum, copper wire
186 x 258 in.
34
“When I first found the bag of bottle tops, I thought of the objects as
links between Africa and Europe. European traders introduced the bottle
tops, and alcohol was one of the commodities they brought with them
to exchange for African goods. Eventually alcohol was used in the transAtlantic slave trade. Europeans made rum in the West Indies, took it to
Liverpool, and then sent it back to Africa. For me, the
bottle caps have a strong reference to the history of
Africa.” – El Anatsui
In 2002, Anatsui was walking in the area surrounding
the university and stumbled across a stash of tops from
schnapps, whiskey, wine, rum, gin, brandy, and vodka
bottles produced in West Africa. He took the tops back to
his studio and began to affix them together much as he
had done with the milk lids. The result was astounding.
The gold, red, black, and blue colors and images blurred
into each other forming a tapestrylike metal wall
sculpture. Though many have compared his works to
West African cloth, when he found the tops, one of the artist’s first thoughts
was of the history of migration and consumption. In this recent piece,
Anatsui continues to use these materials in new and surprising ways.
• Notice the different areas of the sculpture. What makes them different?
How are each of the areas created?
• Look carefully of at the materials used in this sculpture. What brands can
you make out?
• Research the history of the brands of the bottle tops that Anatsui uses.
Some of the companies have European origins with factories in Africa
which produce their products for West African consumption.
• People in West Africa give these brands of liquors used in the sculptures
as gifts to hosts or for special occasions. Are there gifts that you give to
people when you visit or to celebrate special occasions? What are the
reasons why you might give a specific item?
35
36
RESOURCES
Old Cloth Series (detail)
1993
Wood, paint
31.5 x 60.25 in.
Collection of Neil Coventry
RESOURCES
37
LESSON PLANS
LESSON 1
Research Activity: El Anatsui’s Life and Works of Art
Objectives
Using information gathered on websites, students will
research the life of contemporary artist El Anatsui and
examples of his work in a variety of materials.
Grades 4-12
Materials
Computers with Internet access, worksheets
Procedure
Many websites and image galleries feature El Anatsui’s
work. In this lesson, students will use these sites
to research El Anatsui’s life and select examples of
works of art in the variety of materials that he uses.
The worksheet included can provide a guide for this
research. Note: Teachers can assign any number of
questions to the students depending on the time. If
computers are not available in the classroom, this can
be done as a homework assignment.
38
1. Researching El Anatsui’s Life
a. Where was El Anatsui born? Where did he go to
school and get his training?
• El Anatsui was born in Ghana in 1944. He
earned a bachelor’s degree in sculpture and
a postgraduate diploma in art education
from the University of Science and
Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
b. Where does El Anatsui teach and work?
• From 1975 to 2010, he was professor of
sculpture at the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, where he taught since 1975.
c. Where was his work exhibited?
• Anatsui’s work has appeared in group
exhibitions at the Fowler Museum of
Cultural History, UCLA; the Smithsonian
National Museum of African Art,
Washington, DC; the October Gallery,
London; and in the celebrated exhibition
Africa Remix, which opened in 2005 in
Düsseldorf and traveled to London, Paris,
Tokyo, Stockholm, and Johannesburg.
His work has also been included in
numerous biennial exhibitions, including
in Venice (1990 and 2007), Havana (1994),
Johannesburg (1995), Gwangju (2004), and
Sharjah (2009), as well as in Prospect.1 New
Orleans (2008). Gawu, a solo show of metal
sculptures, traveled throughout Europe,
North America, and Asia from 2004 to 2008.
d. What awards has he won?
• In 2008, Anatsui received the Visionaries
Artist Award from the Museum of Arts
and Design, in New York City. He is also a
laureate of the 2009 Prince Claus Award.
e. Which institutions and individuals collect his
work?
• His work is collected by institutions
internationally, including the British
Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris;
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The
Museum of Modern Art, New York; the
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; the
Denver Art Museum, Denver; the NelsonAtkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; and the
de Young Museum, San Francisco and many
others.
2. Researching El Anatsui’s works of art and
materials: Examples of works of art included in this
packet are in italics. Note: Many websites feature
examples of El Anatsui’s work created in materials
and processes other than those included in this
packet.
a. Find a work by El Anatsui made out of ceramic.
Share which artwork you chose and describe
what you see.
• Omen, Ceramic, manganese, 1977
• Chambers of Memory, Ceramic, manganese,
1977
b. Find a work that El Anatsui created out of wood.
what you see.
• Akua’s Surviving Children, Wood, metal, 1996
• God’s Omnipotence, Wood, paint, lacquer,
1974
• Lady in Frenzy, Metal, wood, fabric, 1999
• Leopard’s Paw-prints and Other Stories,
Wood, paint, 1991
c. Find a work that El Anatsui made out of
recycled materials. Share which artwork you
chose and describe what you see.
• Opening Market, Tin, paper, wood, paint,
2004
• Peak Project, Tin, copper wire, 1999
d. Find a work that El Anatsui made out of metal.
what you see.
• Sacred Moon, Aluminum, copper wire, 2007
• Stressed World, Aluminum, copper wire,
2011
e. Find a work by El Anatsui that reminds you
of fabric. Share which artwork you chose and
describe what you see.
• Peak Project, Tin, copper wire, 1999
• Sacred Moon, Aluminum, copper wire, 2007
• Stressed World, Aluminum, copper wire,
2011
LESSON PLANS
39
WORKSHEET
Exploring El Anatsui’s Life:
1. Where was El Anatsui born? Where did he go to
school and get his training?
2. Where does El Anatsui teach and work?
3. Where was his work exhibited?
4. What awards has he won?
5. Which institutions and individuals collect his work?
Exploring the El Anatsui’s works of art and materials
1. Find a work by El Anatsui made out of ceramic.
Share which artwork you chose and describe what
you see.
2. Find a work that El Anatsui created out of wood.
you see.
3. Find a work that El Anatsui made out of recycled
materials. Share which artwork you chose and
describe what you see.
4. Find a work that El Anatsui made out of metal.
you see.
5. Find a work by El Anatsui that reminds you of fabric.
you see.
40
Possible Website Resources
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa,
Museum for African Art’s Exhibition at the Royal
Ontario Museum
http://www.rom.on.ca/exhibitions/special/
elanatsui/index.php
New York Times, “A Thousand Bottles…” by Alexi Worth
www.nytimes.com/indexes/2009/02/22/style/t/
index.html#pageName=22nigeria
“El Anatsui, a Sculptor Who Starts From Scrap”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
story/2008/03/20/ST2008032003103.html
El Anatsui Bio
http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/anatsui.htm
Some Artworks with audio from El Anatsui
http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/gawu/artworks.html
LESSON PLANS
41
LESSON 2:
Creating a Found-object Work of Art
Objective
Students will create their own found-object work of art
based on one of their memories.
Grades 1-12
Materials
Found objects (magazines, string, bottle caps, boxes,
etc.); paper; pencils and markers; and glue, glue sticks,
pipe cleaners, wire, and other fasteners.
Procedure
Homework: Have students collect and bring objects
from home, i.e. magazines, wrappers, bottle caps.
Start a discussion asking students to list the objects
that they see in their daily lives. What are the materials
these objects are made out of? Where do they
encounter them? Introduce at least one example of
a work of art by El Anatsui. Discuss the materials that
he uses. Then ask students to recall and identify five
memories or events that are significant to them. Ask
students to choose one of those memories or events
as an inspiration for creating an artwork using found
objects. Students should be encouraged select objects
or images that have significance for them and to use
a variety of materials to create either a two or threedimensional work of art.
42
ARTIST’S TIMELINE
DATE El ANATSUI’S LIFE
WORLD EVENT
1944
Born in Anyako, in the Volta Region of Ghana. June 6 – Allied Forces, including British, American,
Canadian and Free French airborne troops, invade
Normandy to combat German forces on what was called
D-Day, a turning point leading to the end of World War II.
1965–68
Attends College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University Science
and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. 1967 – The Nigerian-Biafran War, also known as of
the Nigerian Civil War, begins on May 30 as a result of
economic, ethnic, cultural, and religious tensions existing
between the nearly 300 different ethnic and cultural
groups which inhabit the Nigeria.
1965
Produces heraldic sculptures, including coats of arms for
Ghana, Uganda, Tunisia, and Zambia, in preparation for
a meeting of the heads of state for the Organization of
African Unity (O.A.U.) conference in Accra, Ghana.
Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s leader at the time, was made
Secretary-General of the O.A.U. in October 1965, and
presided over the summit.
1969
Receives postgraduate diploma in Art Education from
University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
1969–75
Lecturer, Art Education Department, Specialist Training
College, Winneba, Ghana (now University of Education,
Winneba)
1970s
Begins to incorporate adinkra, a Ghanaian symbolic
language of ideograms, into his art practice. One of the
symbols, sankofa, represents a bird known for its ability
to look backward and is associated with the concept of
looking to the past in order to plan the future. Anatsui’s use
of adinkra is an attempt to use tradition as a way of moving
art forward.
1972–75
Exhibits with a group of artists who hold annual shows
in Ghana (both at Winneba and Accra) under the name
Tekarts. Members include Desmond Fiadjoe, Philip
Amonoo, Edith Agbenaza, Richard Ekem, Hope Gamor, and
David Akotia.
1975–82
Lecturer, Fine and Applied Arts Department, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka 1976
First major solo exhibition, Wooden Wall Plaques by El
Anatsui, held in Nsukka, Nigeria. The plaques are produced
by the same carvers that make trays for market wares.
Anatsui marked the trays with adinkra symbols and hung
them on a wall. This is the first time Anatsui sculpts with
materials originally intended for another use.
1977–79
Begins to work on his Broken Pots series in 1977—a group
of ceramics based on the idea that fragments of a sculpture,
or pieces of history, are equally powerful as a complete
work. Exhibits the suite in 1979 at the British Council, Enugu
and at the Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria,
Nsukka.
1970 – Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, declares itself an
independent and racially segregated republic on March 1.
1972 – Eleven Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in
Munich are killed after eight members of an Arab terrorist
group invade the Olympic Village.
1975 – Pol Pot (May 19, 1925 – April 15, 1998) and the
Khmer Rouge, a communist party, take over Cambodia in
April. They rule for four years, during which approximately
2 million Cambodians die due to political executions,
starvation, and forced labor.
TIMELINE
43
DATE
El ANATSUI’S LIFE
1980s
Makes a number of paintings during this period using
colors and patterns that later appear in some of his carved
wood sculptures and his sculptures using metal bottle
tops. 1982–96
Senior lecturer, Fine and Applied Arts Department,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
1983
Joins an art collective called SKEP, coined from the initials
of members S.P.K. Awa, S.E. Anku and E.K. Anatsui. Out
of a series of proposals submitted, Anatsui’s designs,
Ambivalent Hold and For the Upliftment of Man were
selected by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to be realized
on the grounds of the new Physical Sciences building. The
sculptures were fabricated jointly by the group. 1985–87
Visiting artist at the Cornwall College of Further and Higher
Education in Redruth, England. In 1987, a solo exhibition,
Venovize: Ceramic Sculpture by El Anatsui, is held at the
college.
1986 – Desmond Tutu (b. October 7 1931), a Christian cleric
and South African activist known for his opposition to
Apartheid, becomes the first black elected as an Anglican
Archbishop in South Africa on April 14.
1986
Founding member, AKA Circle of Exhibiting Artists in its
first year, 1986, and participates in their exhibitions for
more than a decade. Each exhibition starts in Enugu and
continues on to Lagos. Other founding members include
Obiora Udechukwu, Tayo Adenaike, Chris Afuba, Chike
Aniakor, Obiora Anidi, Ifediorama Dike, Chike Ebebe, Chris
Echeta, Nsikak Essien, Bona Ezeudu, Boniface Okafor, and
Samson Uchendu.
1986 – Wole Soyinka (b. July 13, 1934) is the first African to
be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is known for
his political activism and his criticism of Nigerian military
dictators. Soyinka published poetry that he had written on
toilet paper while imprisoned in Nigeria for conspiracy. His
works include poetry, plays, memoirs, essays, and novels
laced with Yoruba legends and political protest.
Mid-1980s to
present
Makes wall sculptures from wooden slats that hang
vertically side by side. Continues to use this format
throughout his career.
1986
Creates a wood sculpture and several prints titled When I
last wrote to you about Africa . . . (or a variation of that title),
using adinkra symbols. This wood sculpture is rare for
Anatsui in that it consists of horizontal, rather than vertical,
wood slats.
1989 – Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over
Tiananmen Square in Beijing demanding democracy,
beginning on April 19. Thousands of students are ordered
killed by the military and police in Tiananmen Square by
the communist Chinese government.
1990
Participates in the exhibition Five Contemporary African
Artists at the 44th Venice Biennale.
1990 – On February 11, the South Africa government
frees Nelson Mandela (b. July 18, 1918), after 27½ years of
imprisonment.
1990
Begins to make wood sculptures using a chainsaw during
an artist-in-residence program at the Cummington
Community of Arts in Massachusetts.
1991 – Apartheid laws in South Africa are repealed by the
country’s parliament on June 5.
1992
Produces the wood sculpture Erosion at an Earth
Summit workshop in Manaus, Brazil. The works made by
participants are displayed in the exhibition Arte Amazonas
at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro.
1992 – The Cold War ends on February 1 as the result of a
formal proclamation by President George H. W. Bush (b.
June 12, 1924) of the United States and President Boris
Yeltsin (February 1, 1931 – April 23, 2007) of Russia.
44
WORLD EVENT
DATE
El ANATSUI’S LIFE
WORLD EVENT
1996
Creates the wood sculpture Akua’s Surviving Children from
driftwood found on the beach while he is a visiting artist at
International People’s College, Helsingør, Denmark.
1995 – The Nigerian government hangs writer Ken SaroWiwa (October 10, 1941 – November 10, 1995) and eight
other minority rights advocates on November 10. SaroWiwa was the leader of a nonviolent campaign against
environmental degradation of land and water in his
homeland of Ogoniland in the Niger Delta.
1998–2000
Head of Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka
1999
Creates the wood sculpture Signature at the Cyfuniad
International Artists Workshop, Plas Caerdon, Wales.
In Nigeria, wood planks and logs cut for sale are often
marked with a stroke of paint to denote the log’s owner. In
Signature, Anatsui makes reference to this practice and the
individual “signature” left behind.
2001
Creates the ceramic-and-glass sculpture Digital River for
the Biennale de Ceramica dell’ Arte Contemporanea, Villa
Groppallo, Vado Ligure, Italy. 2002
Begins to make sculpture from the metal tops of local
liquor bottles, which he finds while walking in the area
surrounding the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Liquor
brand names include Black Gold, Chelsea, Dark Sailor,
Ecomog, King Edward, Mac Lord, 007, and Top Squad,
among others.
2004
Creates the wood sculpture Aziza Gate during a residency
at the Eden Project, Cornwall, U.K.
2003 - US Military campaign begins in Iraq due to
suspicions of Iraqi possession of weapons of mass
destruction and accusations of Iraq President Saddam
Hussein’s (April 28, 1937 – December 30, 2006) harboring
of members of al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist terrorist
organization.
2005
Participates in Africa 05 celebration in London and in the
touring exhibition Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a
Continent.
2005 - Chimanga Ngozi Adichie (b. September 15, 1977)
receives the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First
Book for her novel, Purple Hibiscus. The book is set in postcolonial Nigeria and follows the life of Kambili Achike, a
young woman growing up in a disintegrating family set
against the backdrop of Nigeria’s political instability and
violence.
2007
Participates in the 52nd Venice Biennale, where his bottlecap sculptures Dusasa I and Dusasa II are installed as focal
points in the international exhibition in the Arsenale; a
third bottle-cap sculpture, Fresh and Fading Memories,
is draped over the entrance of the Palazzo Fortuny,
commissioned for the exhibition there, Artempo: Where
Time Becomes Art.
2006 – Sudanese government and the largest rebel group
in the Darfur region of the country sign a peace accord,
ending three years of conflict related to ethnic conflict,
which resulted in the death of 200,000 people and the
displacement of two million people. The accord resulted
from intense talks in Nigeria calling for the disbandment of
rebel forces and pro-government militia.
2001 – Twin Towers in New York City collapse after attack
by Muslim extremists on September 11. Attacks are also
directed at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and a plane
which crashes in Pennsylvania. Three thousand people lose
their lives. As a response military campaigns in Afghanistan
are launched on October 7.
TIMELINE
45
ANNOTATED WEBOGRAPHY
El Anatsui Installation Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7UBvknG8c4
In this video, El Anatsui discusses the methods, history, and
philosophy of his work. The video can promote a discussion
about materials and the relationship between art, ideas, and
everyday life. The video documents the process of installing
one of his tapestries with curatorial commentary.
Danudo: Recent Sculptures of El Anatsui. Skoto
Gallery (in collaboration with Contemporary African
Art Gallery, New York)
http://www.skotogallery.com/viewer/press.release.
danudo.asd
This site features a personal statement by Anatsui about
his work with liquor bottle tops. He explains his philosophy
and approach to working with these materials, and shares
the differences between his previous art and recent
developments in his work.
El Anatsui Microsite: October Gallery, London
http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/microsites/anatsui/
This website offers a detailed look at El Anatsui’s life, career,
and artistic process. It provides a general overview of his
work and can be utilized for extensive research. The site
features images, biography, lists of shows that have featured
El Anatsui’s work, collections that include his work, and an
extensive bibliography and filmography.
The October Gallery offers a book in pdf format for download
that contains curatorial notes on Anatsui’s work and
exhibitions, interviews with the artist, essays, photographs of
his works, and a timeline : http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/
artists/anatsui/el_anatsui_asi.pdf.
A PDF catalogue of the Gawu exhibition can also be
downloaded http://octobergallery.co.uk/pdfs/gawu_el_
anatsui_october_gallery.pdf that includes photographs of
El Anatsui’s works and biography with the artist’s education,
teaching history, and exhibition history, and an extensive
bibliography.
46
Duvor. An Indianapolis Museum of Art Installation
http://www.artbabble.org/video/ima/el-anatsuisduvor-new-ima-installation
The Indianapolis Museum of Art has created several short
videos about El Anatsui’s works of art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Audio Podcast –
Interview between El Anatsui and curator Alisa
LaGamma
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/african_textiles/
more.asp
This website features a curatorial essay, brief history of
African textile traditions, and transcribed interview between
the artist and Alisa LaGamma, curator of African Art at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Anatsui discusses his
education, his reasons for choosing to work with bottle tops,
and the way that he intends to reach viewers. The curatorial
essay helps relate his work to West African history.
Rice University Art Gallery
http://www.ricegallery.org/new/exhibition/
newinstallation.html
This website focuses on El Anatsui’s installation at Rice
Gallery and includes photos and a video of the installation as
well as links to a radio piece and articles.
Zebra Crossing, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York,
NY
http://www.jackshainman.com/exhibition56.html
This website offers a curatorial essay detailing Anatsui’s
approach to what constitutes refuse, as well as the purpose
and creative challenges related to recycling objects and
materials. The site also contains a brief biography, Anatsui’s
education and exhibition history, and includes four
photographs of the gallery installation.
VOCABULARY
Abstract Nonrepresentational, focused on formal relationships.
Monumental Massive, imposing; being larger than life.
Adinkra Visual symbols used in Ghana and West Africa that
represent concepts and ideas. May be used on fabric,
pottery, woodcarvings, and other locations.
Sculptural Three dimensional, consisting of sculpture-like qualities.
Composition The arrangement of elements in a work that form its
whole.
Textile Flexible material consisting of a network of natural or
artificial fibers.
Transience Impermanent; lasting only a short time.
Consumerism Social and economic order based on the creation of a
desire to purchase goods and services in ever-greater
amounts.
Ewe An ethnic group from the southeast corner of Ghana,
east of the Volta River, in an area now described as the
Volta Region, extending to southern Togo and western
Benin. They speak the Ewe language.
Found-object An object used in artworks, which was originally
created for another purpose.
Globalization The integration of regional economies, societies, and
cultures through a global network of political ideas.
Kente Cloth Sacred strip-woven cloth worn by Ewe and Akan people
from Ghana on important occasions. Characterized by
bright, multicolored patterns, geometric shapes, and
bold designs.
VOCABULARY
47
NEW YORK
www.africanart.org

El Anatsui - Blanton Museum of Art

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