EL ANATSUI
Art comes into the world from a derivation of society and history, namely the closest subject to human life, and simultaneously throwing a question about culture, history, and notion. It is because art is a part of the world and world is a part of the art. However, human generally pays attention to the issues that already become known, fancy and terrific subject matter. The discarded, abandoned, forgotten things are out of concern. In the exhibition, Sedimentations: Assemblage as Social Repair, including El Anatsui’s work, artists comments to the society’s social ills and systematic problem and issues through their ways of expression and using of materiality. Specifically, El Anatsui transforms the wasted, ignored, and discarded materials into the complex accumulation that involve mentioning of the history of colonialism, consumption, and environment[1]. In other words, by using rejected and abandoned elements, Anatsui’s work not only creates his own way of expression of metallic and fluid sculpture but he also embodies the unpredictable form through the transformation of discarded materials that involve the meaning and relationship with the social issues and global politics[2]. His organic and metallic cloth form sculpture leads viewers to think about African colonial issues, societal matters and how he develops and merges African tradition of textile art into contemporary western art making.
Anatsui’s hanging metal fluid form of art is considered one of the most conceptually complicated and creative art objects among the international art world[3]. Then, it may evoke question about how does this old artist, who lives in the unknown town in Nigeria, creates and brings out the new form of art that is regarded as either sculpture and painting, into the global art world. For understanding his works clearly, it is necessary to understand and recognize how his philosophical conceptuality and materiality are reflected in his artworks. The materiality as using metal sheets shapes the conceptual frame of Anatsui had improved for almost twenty years, which is the symbol of pure potential to embody his unfixed form as hangings on the wall[4].
In detail, for the materiality, Anatsui’s “Metas II” on view at the exhibition, which is made by found aluminum and copper wire, is not just tried to change the solid and metallic material into the fluid and unpredictable form that has an organic character but he also used the found materials, which is related to comment on the historical Ghanaian and Nigerian experience[5]. Also, the way of displaying on the wall is a quite interesting point to take a look, by good using the characteristic of fluid form, it is fixed on the gallery’s wall randomly and draped over by pushing against the wall that brings the illusion of wall space and his sculptures dominantly on that wall[6]. Moreover, he didn’t say people to how to display his works on the gallery wall. In other words, he opens the ideas of presenting to museums and curators as all different ways and meanings of showing it on the wall[7]. Also, the reason why he makes his piece as a large scale is because of his intention for the manipulation of various forms freely that interacted with space can get from the large scale than the small size of the art[8]. So his large scale of the unfixed fluid form of art is displayed on the wall, and it interacted with the space of the gallery and gives much of impact to the viewer about his ideas of materiality, social issues of consumption, waste and African colonial matters.
In contemporary artistic point of view, it is natural for the audience to think about the connection between Anatsui’s usage of found object and Duchamp’s readymade found object. Nevertheless, his found object is different from the way of Duchamp’s found object. Anatsui tries to use the recycled object as the thinking of a relationship with the human hands that contain the users’ sediment, and he simultaneously seeks to explore this. Besides, he emphasizes the process of transformation of material because, for him, it is the process of elimination of familiar content to the new meaning that brings the histories and identities[9].
His choice of materials is tightly connected with symbolical and metaphorical meaning as mentioned above about container of human hands. The purpose as he says about the traces human hands is his intention of bringing back of memory and life of a human, who used that material, by dragging discarded and thrown away materials that were used in specific times by human. According to Anatsui, “Anything that has been used by humans has a history, so those properties help whatever do to gain some meaning.”[10] So his process of making is the reshowing of human’s lives, that who used and consumed those materials, which contains a person’s private or public history. That’s why it makes sense that his piece is carrying the meaning of the culture of consumption, waste or environment.
As the point of art historical view, Anatsui’s works exist on the boundary between the western art area and the outside area of western art. The reason is that even though western art critics tried to explain his unconventional and new way of works as the connection with the history of the west of artistic relationships, but in reality, Anatsui’s work had been developed from the other history of art. So it is not just western art but it also the mixture concept of Ghanaian traditional culture and western art[11]. For understanding Anatsui’s works identities clearly, it is necessary to consider how his piece merges African tradition of textile art.
As traditional ideas in Africa, because of some of the absence of particular written historical records, clothes were used as containing and recording of the celebrating things, the political, social, and religious history of African culture. In other words, history of Africa sometimes can be read and record by the cloth. Anatsui’s work is containing this traditional way of African art, especially the beauty of African oral history through the textile works. Furthermore, he does not just uses or maintains the conventional approaches, he also develops the technique of connecting thousands of separated metal elements such as liquor bottle or steel plate that explore the expression of a fluid unfixed form of materials that triggers to depart from just using the thin strip Kente cloth, which is well known for Ewe and Asante people of Ghana[12]. Besides, for West Africa, when they hang the narrowband cloth on their wall, they generally display it as horizontally. As similarly, Anatsui’s work also follows this orientation of horizontal stripes and bands form when he designs his metal piece[13].
Interestingly, as the process of working, many hands create his works, particularly term Dusasa, which is the meaning of a team of town people’s communal patchwork[14]. The method of his work is regarded as a process of production. He sometimes gives some instructions that what he wants to assistants and when Anatsui wants to compose the work, Anatsui directs them to lay down the work all over the long studio floor and see which arrangement that he satisfies. After the final decision, assistants are hanging the piece on the large wooden rack[15]. Thus, with his team, he deals with the concept of the waste, consumption culture, overpopulation and African traditional oral characteristic of cloth, on to this work as the transformation of these disgust elements into beauty to viewers, could be evaluated as it leads him to beyond Africa and arrives the global art world.
Also, he developed fifteen ways of formats of shape for his fluid hanging sculpture, most of them had two or more options rely on whether the metallic sides or color sides are showing externally. The hinge of copper wire is considered as the essential ingredients because it enables to permit the flat material to change as flexible sculpture. This process is not regarded as ‘sewing’ because of the non-existence of continuous threading, but it is also considered as ‘stitching’ or ‘suturing.’[16] The marvelous thing is that his harmonizing of these organized ways of creating the small part of the sculpture and irregular arrangement of repetition of these small parts for his art piece as the viewer could recognize on his “Metas II” on this exhibition. It leads a viewer to keep looking and following the extreme complex arrangement of these small found aluminum pieces and interact with the artwork.
In conclusion, an Anatsui’s new feature of unique fluid metallic hanging sculpture evokes the rethinking of the western-centered thinking art world and also encourages the challenging the boundary of sculpture and painting that causes the notifying the African texture art and culture. Moreover, his using of discarded and abandoned materials into a beautiful, unpredictable hanging sculpture that has a significant relationship with the global political and social issue gives a powerful impact on the viewer. Also, his work is a transformation of rejected and useless stuff to reshow the human’s lives and memory that those materials are contained that convey his thinking of social and global issues. The point that using the materials that other people don’t use, which means it is a challenging thing and presenting that those small abandoned materials can be having essential roles when they gather together is Anatsui’s incredible achievement. His work stimulates and awakens the global art world. The ability to see the natural thing as differently and transforming the useless thing into the useful thing is the best power and ability Anatsui, and his artwork has. It is an undeniable fact that his creative point of view and expression influence the development of the contemporary art world and has an immense contribution to the world.
[1] Jack Shainman Gallery. “El Anatsui.” http://www.jackshainman.com/artists/el-anatsui/
[2] Lisa M. Binder , “El Anatsui: Transformations ”, African Arts, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer, 2008), pp. 24-37,
[3] Vogel, Susan Mullin, El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2012.
[4] Vogel, Susan Mullin, El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2012.
[5] Lisa M. Binder , “El Anatsui: Transformations ”, African Arts, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer, 2008), pp. 24-37,
[6] El Anatsui and Laura Leffler James, “Convergence: History, Materials, and the Human Hand—An Interview with El Anatsui”, Art Journal, Vol. 67, No. 2 (SUMMER 2008), pp. 36-53
[7] Karen Wilkin, “El Anatsui at the Brooklyn Museum”, The Hudson Review, Vol.66, No.1, Literature and the environment (Spring 2013), pp. 209-212
[8] Vogel, Susan Mullin, El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2012.
[9] El Anatsui and Laura Leffler James, “Convergence: History, Materials, and the Human Hand—An Interview with El Anatsui”, Art Journal, Vol. 67, No. 2 (SUMMER 2008), pp. 36-53
[10] Vogel, Susan Mullin, El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2012.
[11] Vogel, Susan Mullin, El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2012.
[12] Spring, Christopher, African Textiles Today. London: The British Museum press; [Washington, DC], 2012.
[13] Vogel, Susan Mullin, El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2012.
[14] Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Dusasa II”, accessed December, 21, 2008. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/495553
[15] Vogel, Susan Mullin, El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2012.
[16] Vogel, Susan Mullin, El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2012.
Bibliography
El Anatsui and Laura Leffler James, “Convergence: History, Materials, and the Human Hand—An Interview with El Anatsui”, Art Journal, Vol. 67, No. 2 (SUMMER 2008), pp. 36-53
Jack Shainman Gallery. “El Anatsui.” http://www.jackshainman.com/artists/el-anatsui/
Karen Wilkin, “El Anatsui at the Brooklyn Museum”, The Hudson Review, Vol.66, No.1, Literature and the environment (Spring 2013), pp. 209-212,
Lisa M. Binder , “El Anatsui: Transformations ”, African Arts, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer, 2008), pp. 24-37
Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Dusasa II”, accessed December, 21, 2008. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/495553
Spring, Christopher, African Textiles Today. London: The British Museum press; [Washington, DC], 2012.
Vogel, Susan Mullin, El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2012.