The art of El Anatsui pulls meaning from everyday objects
From what others regarded as rubbish, African artist El Anatsui has created an art collection that blends ordinary objects into a bright, extraordinary whole.
Gawu, in the Ewe language of Ghana, means metal cloth. It is also the name El Anatsui has chosen for a collection of his work, in which he has fashioned thousands of small items together to have the movement and agility of cloth. Gawu will be on display at the Samuel Harn Museum until Oct. 16 in the SFI Rotunda and Langley Foyer.
In his piece "The Peak Project," what were once metallic tops to Peak Milk bottles become the medium for collection for a series of statues.
In "Old Man's Cloth," a thousand drink tops were joined by wire to become cloth. "Crumbling Wall" sees metal sheets fashioned into a 3-dimensional wall.
El Anatsui said Gawu "shows the soft side of metal, the feminine and masculine effects of it. The properties it has, you wouldn't associate it with metal. It's a salvation of property."
Susan Cooksey, associate curator of African art at the Harn Museum, procures objects for Harn exhibition, acquiring pieces from donors and through purchases. She said she looks for things she feels will enlighten and enrich the audience of the Harn.
El Anatsui is also the first African artist to have an entire show at the Harn, she notes.
"There was something so different and intriguing about Gawu. I felt it would complement the African art collection we already have here.
"Gawu's not contemporary or westernized. El's work bridges the gap," Cooksey continued.
El Anatsui also uses mediums other than metal such as wood and clay.
Asked why he chose to work with these items, he said because they can become anything. "With every twist and turn, there's a new statement," El Anatsui said, "The colors lend themselves."
Anatsui said he loves to work with objects that have been exposed to human use. "The human hand puts a certain charge on objects. The more hands, the more charge. It's different to work with something that has no history or providence," El Anatsui said.
"Art is a continuous search for ways of expression. You don't know what the search will lead you to."
His "Wet Paper Basket" artwork at the Harn is made of newspaper printing plates fashioned into a huge shopping bag, with pieces of metal newspaper plates sprawled around it. Many of the plates contained obituaries and funeral notices, which he said tell people's lives.
"Old Man's Cloth" is made from bottle tops. One day El Anatsui found a bag in the bush containing bottle caps. He said he traced their origin and began accumulating them in Nsukka.
"Drinks played an important role in the relation between Europe and Africa. While engaging in trade, drinks were among items brought. This is like working with history in a sense. This was a point of contact between two countries," El Anatsui said.
"Adrinka Sasa" represents a funeral cloth. El Anatsui said funeral cloths are usually dark colors, and they're enlivened by bright strips of color.
"It's a reflection of life. There are mostly ordinary days in life and a few bright days," El Anatsui said.
Martin Barlow, curator of Gawu and director of the Oriel Mostym Gallery in Wales, where El Anatsui's Gawu was first displayed, said he first heard about El Anatsui when the artist attended an art-themed gathering in Wales. It was then that Barlow saw Anatsui's "El Madin," a piece using the ends of several logs stacked as a wall, their ends serving as individual canvases.
"I said, 'I love that and I would like to work with that artist,'" Barlow said.
Barlow visited El Anatsui's studio in Nigeria and saw the beginning of one of the cloths and encouraged the artist to make more of them.
"El has a clear idea of his own work and how to display it. At every gallery it looks different, whether the space given is big or small," Barlow said.
Teresa Southern can be reached at southet@gvilleguardian.com or at 352-337-0373.