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Lot Essay
…take detritus and turn it, through the alchemy of art, into gold.(K. Anthony Appiah, ‘Discovering El Anatsui,’ in L. Binder (ed.), El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote You about Africa, exh. cat., Museum for African Art, New York, 2010, p. 63).
Currently exhibiting in the iconic Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern, El Anatsui’s shimmering veils have become beacons of international contemporary art ever since the artist emerged onto the global art scene in the 1990s. Using discarded aluminum bottle tops tied together with pieces copper wires, El Anatsui interrogates African traditions and the history of Western colonialism, and draws connections between consumption, waste, and the environment. Yet, in addition to his powerful messages of environmental and social justice, it is the unique formal language he has developed that is admired and celebrated the world over. El Anatsui’s reputation has grown considerably since he was honored at the Venice Biennale in 1990 (his first major international exhibition), and his works can now be viewed in some of the most prestigious art institutions in the world, including permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; and the British Museum, London.
With its expanse of glistening metal elements, Sechra occupies a unique space between the genres of painting and sculpture. On a scale more often associated with the grand history paintings of the western art historical canon, El Anatsui executes a wall-hanging made up of material found on the streets of his native Ghana, and Nigeria. Using primarily bottle tops and the metal ‘collars’ left around the necks of bottles once the twist-off tops have been removed, the artist and his team assemble thousands of these pieces into a myriad of patterns. In the present work, a vast field of shiny silver-colored pieces is interrupted by a schism of rich colored elements that runs through the center of the work. This area is then matched by other chromatic fields which occupy the upper and lower edges. Finally, in the upper left corner, a unique U-shaped arrangement is positioned, adding to the sculptural quality of the work. The overall effect is to concentrate our looking, as the eye moves between areas of clear reflection to active, high-keyed fields of chromatic activity. Often assembled flat on the floor of his studio, once installed on a wall, the drapes and folds of the works introduce a distinctly three-dimensional quality, adding a further degree of visual intensity.
However, El Anatsui points out that viewing his works purely through the lens of aesthetics only reveals part of the story. “The work is about making a statement beyond what the eyes sees,” he says, “it has to give to the mind too” (El Anatsui, quoted by S. M. Vogel, El Anatsui: Art and Life, Munich, 2012, p. 83). Thus, the artist encourages viewers to get as close to the works as possible, close enough to read the labels denoting the names and logos of the African beer companies that are printed on the bottle tops. This situates the work firmly within its cultural context and introduces issues of global trade, industrialization, environmentalism, and ultimately colonialism into the discussion. This, according to artist, is as necessary to gaining a complete understanding of the work as is taking in only its gleaming and iridescent surface.
Although resolutely contemporary, El Anatsui’s sculpture also relates to African traditions that go back many years. The ordered patterns formed by the individual elements evoke the geometric design of traditional Ghanian kente cloth that has been worn by Ghanaians for generations. Adopted by the first president of Ghana following independence, the pattern gained prominence around the world as a symbol of colonial defiance. Yet, within the country itself, the kente could also signify more than mere national pride; each pattern has a name, which often conveyed a political message, thus becoming a vehicle for traditional and contemporary ideas. The Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, sums up the interconnectedness of these shimmering bodies of work, “Take metal—hard and inflexible—and make it flex and flow; use contemporary aluminum bottle caps, commercial waste, to present a valued tradition; make a sculpture that sits like a giant canvas falling off the wall; take detritus and turn it, through the alchemy of art, into gold” (K. Anthony Appiah, ‘Discovering El Anatsui,’ in L. Binder (ed.), El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote You about Africa, exh. cat., Museum for African Art, New York, 2010, p. 63).
Belonging to a generation of African artists who came of age in the 1960s when fundamental ideological upheaval was a successor to the political independence occurring throughout Africa, Anatsui's practice is intimately linked to the impact of globalization and consumerism on the West African cultural landscape. Yet with an attachment to the found object and its connection to the human hand, Anatsui's art speaks beyond Africa, to universal truths and connections. “You've touched it, and I've touched it. There is now a kind of bond between you and me' Anatsui explains, 'and this is an idea which is very much related to religious practice, spiritual practice, in many parts of Africa and, I believe, in many cultures of the world” (E. Anatsui, quoted in L. Leffler James, 'Convergence: History, Materials, and the Human Hand - An Interview with El Anatsui', in Art Journal, vol. 67, no. 2, Summer 2008, p. 49).
I could spend the rest of my career using bottle tops because there’s an open-endedness—a sense of freedom in this medium.El Anatsui (El Anatsui, quoted by S. M. Vogel, El Anatsui: Art and Life, Munich, 2012, p. 78)
Currently exhibiting in the iconic Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern, El Anatsui’s shimmering veils have become beacons of international contemporary art ever since the artist emerged onto the global art scene in the 1990s. Using discarded aluminum bottle tops tied together with pieces copper wires, El Anatsui interrogates African traditions and the history of Western colonialism, and draws connections between consumption, waste, and the environment. Yet, in addition to his powerful messages of environmental and social justice, it is the unique formal language he has developed that is admired and celebrated the world over. El Anatsui’s reputation has grown considerably since he was honored at the Venice Biennale in 1990 (his first major international exhibition), and his works can now be viewed in some of the most prestigious art institutions in the world, including permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; and the British Museum, London.
With its expanse of glistening metal elements, Sechra occupies a unique space between the genres of painting and sculpture. On a scale more often associated with the grand history paintings of the western art historical canon, El Anatsui executes a wall-hanging made up of material found on the streets of his native Ghana, and Nigeria. Using primarily bottle tops and the metal ‘collars’ left around the necks of bottles once the twist-off tops have been removed, the artist and his team assemble thousands of these pieces into a myriad of patterns. In the present work, a vast field of shiny silver-colored pieces is interrupted by a schism of rich colored elements that runs through the center of the work. This area is then matched by other chromatic fields which occupy the upper and lower edges. Finally, in the upper left corner, a unique U-shaped arrangement is positioned, adding to the sculptural quality of the work. The overall effect is to concentrate our looking, as the eye moves between areas of clear reflection to active, high-keyed fields of chromatic activity. Often assembled flat on the floor of his studio, once installed on a wall, the drapes and folds of the works introduce a distinctly three-dimensional quality, adding a further degree of visual intensity.
However, El Anatsui points out that viewing his works purely through the lens of aesthetics only reveals part of the story. “The work is about making a statement beyond what the eyes sees,” he says, “it has to give to the mind too” (El Anatsui, quoted by S. M. Vogel, El Anatsui: Art and Life, Munich, 2012, p. 83). Thus, the artist encourages viewers to get as close to the works as possible, close enough to read the labels denoting the names and logos of the African beer companies that are printed on the bottle tops. This situates the work firmly within its cultural context and introduces issues of global trade, industrialization, environmentalism, and ultimately colonialism into the discussion. This, according to artist, is as necessary to gaining a complete understanding of the work as is taking in only its gleaming and iridescent surface.
Although resolutely contemporary, El Anatsui’s sculpture also relates to African traditions that go back many years. The ordered patterns formed by the individual elements evoke the geometric design of traditional Ghanian kente cloth that has been worn by Ghanaians for generations. Adopted by the first president of Ghana following independence, the pattern gained prominence around the world as a symbol of colonial defiance. Yet, within the country itself, the kente could also signify more than mere national pride; each pattern has a name, which often conveyed a political message, thus becoming a vehicle for traditional and contemporary ideas. The Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, sums up the interconnectedness of these shimmering bodies of work, “Take metal—hard and inflexible—and make it flex and flow; use contemporary aluminum bottle caps, commercial waste, to present a valued tradition; make a sculpture that sits like a giant canvas falling off the wall; take detritus and turn it, through the alchemy of art, into gold” (K. Anthony Appiah, ‘Discovering El Anatsui,’ in L. Binder (ed.), El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote You about Africa, exh. cat., Museum for African Art, New York, 2010, p. 63).
Belonging to a generation of African artists who came of age in the 1960s when fundamental ideological upheaval was a successor to the political independence occurring throughout Africa, Anatsui's practice is intimately linked to the impact of globalization and consumerism on the West African cultural landscape. Yet with an attachment to the found object and its connection to the human hand, Anatsui's art speaks beyond Africa, to universal truths and connections. “You've touched it, and I've touched it. There is now a kind of bond between you and me' Anatsui explains, 'and this is an idea which is very much related to religious practice, spiritual practice, in many parts of Africa and, I believe, in many cultures of the world” (E. Anatsui, quoted in L. Leffler James, 'Convergence: History, Materials, and the Human Hand - An Interview with El Anatsui', in Art Journal, vol. 67, no. 2, Summer 2008, p. 49).
I could spend the rest of my career using bottle tops because there’s an open-endedness—a sense of freedom in this medium.El Anatsui (El Anatsui, quoted by S. M. Vogel, El Anatsui: Art and Life, Munich, 2012, p. 78)