El Anatsui Transformations Lisa M. Binder n March of 2006, while on one of our daily two-hour hikes through the landscape and villages surrounding the Uni- versity of Nigeria, Nsukka, El Anatsui stopped mid-stride atop a crumpled, dusty, plastic tablecloth lying in the mid- dle of the dirt path. He wanted to come back with the car to retrieve the “road sculpture” that reminded him of debris assembled by the Nigerian police at driving checkpoints. He Ioften and half-jokingly conceived of the twisted log and metal heaps as sculptures and the law-enforcement individuals as installation artists. While we never did drive back to pick up that piece, the incident was the impetus for several discussions on the idea of transformation. El Anatsui has a personal mandate as a sculptor that he, and those under his tutelage, should use “whatever the environ- ment throws up.” He has always experimented with space and the unpredictability of form in response to environment: Chance was integral to his work with clay; when installing wood sculp- tures in galleries, there are almost always instructions for the sections to be arranged at the curator’s discretion; while working ALL PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR EXCEPT WHERE OTHERWISE NOTED in residence, he tends to take a good deal of time reacting and responding to the space of the landscape before beginning; and most recently, the elements of his “cloth series” began when he found a pile of bottle-caps while looking around his studio for a “pot monument” (Fig. 1).1 Arguably, it is the cloth series that has garnered him the most attention from the Western art world in recent years. Academ- ics, critics, museums, galleries, dealers and collectors are all in a scramble for his wire-stitched wall sculptures. With sold-out shows in New York and London, major commissions from foundations, corporate collections, and museums such as the Harn, deYoung, British Museum, and Centre Pompidou all adding his work to their collections, Anatsui’s pieces are quickly becoming some of the most sought after in the current contemporary art market. Much has been written about the cloth pieces, specifically the story of how he came to discover the material used in the sculp- tures and their relationship to Ghanaian kente and adinkra pat- terns. However, in conversation with the artist, it became clear that this historical connection to a specific cloth type was secondary to the transformation of material and the significance of this change in relation to local and global political and societal conditions.2 As popular as the cloth sculptures are in Europe and America, 1 Bag of liquor bottle tops in the studio of El the 2006 Dak’art Biennale marked the first time his work—Soci - Anatsui. Nsukka, Nigeria. March 17, 2006. 24 | african arts SUMMER 2008 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar.2008.41.2.24 by guest on 01 October 2021 10112#AAM_p24-37.indd 24 10112_20802045 CMYK 4/9/2008 6:55:52 AM 2 El Anatsui Society Women’s Cloth (2004) Aluminum bottle tops and copper wire; 400cm x 500cm (157½" x 196¾") As exhibited at “Dak’Art 2006,” Dakar, Senegal. ety Women’s Cloth (2004)—was exhibited in Africa (Fig 2). It Thus, this paper examines a selection of his recent work, pro- could easily be argued that the greatest number of Anatsui pieces duced and/or exhibited in the United Kingdom, specifically in on public display in 2005 were to be found in the United King- 2005. For while he was certainly known for his ceramic and wood dom. During the “Africa 05” celebration, pieces of Anatsui’s cloth sculptures prior to his cloth series, it is the cloth sculptures that series quite literally draped over the entire city of London. Man’s have resonated the most with contemporary curators and collec- Cloth greeted viewers at the entrance to the Sainsbury African tors in the last few years. While his work is often read primarily Galleries in the British Museum while yet another hung, and still in relation to cloth, in fact it should be considered in terms of a hangs, directly behind the desk of the director, Neil McGregor. At conceptual and historical space and given a localized reading of the same time, Sasa was displayed at the entrance to the “Africa his practice of incorporating locally procured materials. Remix” exhibition, while around the corner at the October Gal- lery, several works were on view in a solo show. In addition to FLOWING LIQUOR the cloth series, Signatures, constructed with piled logs, was on I first met El Anatsui in February 2005 after I became involved display in Norwich in 2005. with the installation of his solo exhibition “El Anatsui: Gawu” Anatsui’s connection to the UK is strong as a direct result of his at the October Gallery.3 A majority of the show consisted of his relationship with the October Gallery. Since first showing with “cloth series,” as the work has come to be called, with each piece October in the early 1990s, he has maintained the connection made up of thousands of liquor-bottle tops. He came up with while participating in an ever-expanding network of residencies, the idea after finding a bag of the tops while looking through the biennales, solo and group exhibitions, and private transactions. brush near his studio. One of the few things recycled in Nige- While he has lived and worked as a successful artist in Nsukka, ria is liquor and beer bottles; however, the screw tops denoting Nigeria, for several decades, it is the work that he has shown in brand name are discarded. the US and UK that launched him onto the international stage. According to Polly Savage of the October Gallery, the tops sat SUMMER 2008 african arts | 25 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar.2008.41.2.24 by guest on 01 October 2021 10112#AAM_p24-37.indd 25 10112_20802045 CMYK 4/9/2008 6:55:56 AM (counterclockwise from top left) 3 Folded “cloth sculpture” and pile of bottle tops in the studio of El Anatsui. Nsukka, Nigeria. March 17, 2006. 4 El Anatsui Dzesi I (2006) Aluminum bottle tops and copper wire; dimensions variable. Photograph taken outside the studio of El Anatsui. Nsukka, Nigeria. n.d. PHOTO: EL ANATSUI 5 Installation of “El Anatsui: Gawu” at the October Gallery. Wall right: Flag for a New World Power (2005). Floor right: Adinkra Sasa (2003). Floor left: Fading Cloth (2005). London, England, February 10–March 19, 2005. 5a Detail of Adinkra Sasa as exhibited in “El Anatsui: Gawu.” 26 | african arts SUMMER 2008 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar.2008.41.2.24 by guest on 01 October 2021 10112#AAM_p24-37.indd 26 10112_20802045 CMYK 4/9/2008 6:56:16 AM untouched in his studio until famous woodcut Description of a Slave Ship (1789). Juxtaposing the idea came to him to flatten and stitch them together with copper this historical image with that of the implement used to illegally wire. Once the process had begun, he realized the result resembled transport petrol between Benin and Nigeria, La Bouche du Roi a real fabric, and that the colors of the caps echoed those of narrow- simultaneously speaks of a local and global history of trade, slav- strip, or kente cloth (Savage 2005). ery, memory, loss, and environmental destruction.6 Elizabeth Harney has written beautifully on the practice of Two important items emerge here: the resemblance to kente and récupération employed by Senegalese artist Issa Samb: the use of liquor tops. As for the latter, when I asked the artist His use of objets trouvés from the streets of the surrounding city has why he did not use other brands, such as 7-Up or Coke bottle- helped him create an aesthetic that speaks directly to the experiences tops, he responded that they were too hard—they were not as of artists and audiences living in Dakar (2004:121). malleable as the liquor tops. In addition, he noted that soda tops rust whereas liquor caps generally do not. Samb, as a member of the Dakar-based artist group Laboratoire This is an important distinction, as the cloth series could be Agit-Art, would often perform in a city courtyard. Herein lies an seen to reflect a connection with alcohol trade in West Africa important distinction. The use of locally collected media, for use (see Ambler 2003:73–88, Akyeampong 1996, Diduk 1993:1–42). in artwork specific to a particular space, manifests a particular This reference in the “cloth” is born more of convenience rather transformation of material. For Samb’s audience, than the artist’s conscious planning.������������������������ However, the connection The Laboratoire acts as an open space, an interactive gallery of sorts, with the consumptive practices that the caps symbolize is an making works available to the surrounding community. Many of these important theme that runs throughout the series. Anatsui says, works … also constitute leftover “props” from Laboratoire perfor- Back home we would characterize someone who is given to the plea- mances and workshops, possibly awaiting recycling (ibid.). sures of drinking and eating as someone who is “building the stom- ach” … the whole piece is talking about “consumption,” or could be An Anatsui cloth sculpture, in that it is produced for and dis- seen as referencing it at least (Houghton 2004:22). played primarily in museums and gallery spaces, is transformed from a grouping of consumptive materials into its final manifes- I am not trying to imply here that Anatsui is not additionally tation as commoditized art object in the Western market.7 concerned with trade and globalization.