Here is my chance to tell you a little bit about this amazing artist.
Who is El Anatsui?
With his breathtakingly beautiful sculpture pieces, El Anatsui is an artist in a world of his own. Coming from Ghana, El Anatsui has brought a new style of art.
El Anatsui was born in the year 1944, in Anyako,Ghana. He was trained formally at the College of Art and University of Science and Technology in Kumasi,Ghana.
Much of his career has been stationed in Nigeria, where he taught at the University of Niagira, in 1975.
El was also a part of the Nsukka group; a group of artists in Nigeria working to breathe life into the practice of Uli art and mix it into contemporary art.
Anatsui's art has been exhibited all over the world in places such as New York, and even Paris.
What Does His Artwork Look Like?
Above is a picture of one of El Anatsui's recent work that is sending many into a frenzied admiration, and inspiring many artists to create works like El's.
El Anatsui discovered that local factories in Nigeria were forming mountains of liquor bottle caps when the bottles themselves were recycled. He took such a hard, ugly, ordinary object and turned each bottle cap into beautiful flowing quilts.
Anatsui uses many different types of media in his artwork such as wood, clay and paint. He is known for using objects around him to create unique pieces of art out of ordinary things. His metal cloths are just one example of this. El Anatsui has created three-dimensional pieces out of evaporated milk tins, rusting metal graters and old printing plates.
El Anatsui takes what was once 'Ugly' and has turned it into something 'Beautiful'.
However, Anatsui presses that what he does is not actually Recycling.
What Is El Anatsui Communicating Through His Art?
Throughout an amazing forty-year career as a sculptor and professor, Anatsui has addressed a large range of social, political and historical concerns. He has grasped an equally different vocabulary of media.
Anatsui uses anything from chainsaws and welding torches to this difficult and yet calm 'sewing' process. He has shaped materials ranging from graters and railway sleepers to driftwood, iron nails and eviction notice printing plates.
My Connection To El Anatsui's Art
To me, El Anatsui is an amazing artist.
At first, after hearing about his pieces I was a little uninterested. I thought to myself, "bottle-cap clothes? That's silly."
However, after seeing his works and learning more about El Anatsui, I can honestly say that this artist may very well be one of my favourites.
The connection that I hold to El Anatsui's work is that I enjoy to to things like this as well. Whenever I have some sort of mold able material, I seem to go right into an artistic world and I just create anything I can.
I also quite enjoy the culture Anatsui incorporates into his pieces. You can clearly see the traditional works, and from afar his cloths look like actual pieces of cloth. Once you get up close, and see that Anatsui's work is actually bottle caps and other material as such, the work immediately holds a modern style.
I truly admire El Anatsui's work, and his art is very truly unique in a way that is his own.
~Haley
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My Research Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Anatsui
http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/gawu/about.html#SlideFrame_1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nsukka_group
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