El Anatsui / Scottish Mission Book Depot Keta: Exhibition Guide

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Abstract / Description of output

Welcome to Scottish Mission Book Depot Keta, the most significant exploration of the work of internationally acclaimed Ghanaian artist, El Anatsui, ever to be held in the UK, spanning five decades of work.

El Anatsui has worked with found objects in wood and metal, reclaiming and reusing materials for decades. His most iconic works, 12 of which can be found in this exhibition, are meticulously constructed by linking together thousands of individual aluminium bottle tops – waste material from the bottling and print industries in Ghana and Nigeria. The activation and unification of these fragments to create a powerful, metamorphic whole, has become central to our understanding of the sculptural object and its ability to evolve.

El Anatsui was born in 1944 in Anyako during the British colonial period in what would become Ghana. He was part of the generation that emerged as artists in post-independence Ghana, intent on rediscovering and retrieving what had been erased during the colonial period. Many of his artworks reflect a search for identity, citizenship and belonging across the African continent. With maps being redrawn, ethnic groups finding themselves divided by new borders and language groups overlapping in the newly defined states, the thousands of small pieces formed into one by many hands over long periods of time are emblematic of the complexities that continue to be navigated today. The colourful riot of aluminium materials, delighting and dazzling, carry with them the memory of their origins in the distribution of alcohol and the trade of enslaved people. Anatsui is a master of imbuing complicated materials with future life – not so much a reawakening, as an accumulation of meaning – and to give his artworks the freedom of being reshaped with every exhibition, and by whoever has them in their custody.

Through the early use of chainsaw on wood, and the evolving triumph of metallic form, El Anatsui has become one of the most celebrated artists of our time. Awarded a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement during the 56th Venice Biennale, curated by the late Okwui Enwezor, Anatsui will also receive an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh this summer.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationEdinburgh
PublisherTalbot Rice Gallery
Number of pages40
ISBN (Print)9781917137010
Publication statusPublished - 29 Jun 2024

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