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Everywhere his work is installed, he allows the curators a lot of input into how the pieces are displayed in the space. Thus his work is always changing based on the context, space and the curator's vision. Nice way to work. Nice way to live. |
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From trash to treasure |
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| For scale, Skip and El Anatsui |
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| This is from a show at The Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City a few years ago. What a stunning example of one of El Anatsui's pieces and an adoring fan. |
A couple weeks ago, en route to Greenville, NY, we took in the beautiful show of Ghanian artist El Anatsui's work at The Clark in Williamstown, MA.
We had seen El Anatsui's work in various places, MOMA, and The Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City, but had never seen a solo installation. The Clark show was a wonderful opportunity to see one of my favorite and most inspiring contemporary artists.
From The Clark's webpage:
"One of Africa’s greatest living artists, El Anatsui (b. 1944), weaves together discarded metal objects to create large-scale sculptures that demonstrate a fascinating interplay of colors and shapes. By “subverting the stereotype of metal as a stiff, rigid medium,” the artist says, he creates “a soft, pliable, almost sensuous material capable of attaining immense dimensions and being adapted to specific spaces.” A selection of Anatsui’s ethereal and transcendent sculptures, including Strips of Earth's Skin, will be on view at the Clark’s Stone Hill Center in an installation that explores the themes of history, economy, sustainability, and identity."
These vast, sensuous tapestries are made of the discarded foil wrappers that enclose the necks of liquor bottles. Trash elevated to the sublime. These bits of foil are woven, folded and linked into draperies that shimmer and undulate like the skin of an enchanted serpent. The sensation of standing before one is something like drowning in the glittery dream of a Gustav Klimt painting, or the dizzying tessellation of a Bonnard. Have I used enough metaphors? The fact is: they are exquisite. Complex and masterful in the abstract use of space, surface, color, texture. Brilliant. Literally and descriptively.
Best of all, they are more than beautiful. They are an idea, a social/ political/ historical statement worked into a perfectly expressive form. The liquor labels are a direct symbol of the currency that has bound the culture and economy of Africa, Europe, and the Americas for centuries. Liquor from Europe traded for African slaves who were taken to the Americas to work plantations to grow crops to produce liquor for Europe... Power and status, who has and has not become the currency within the smaller social groups, tribes, and developing countries and economies in Africa, and liquor has its' part to play there as well.
Where El Anatsui succeeds so satisfyingly (for me) is that he takes layers of dark subject content, and layers of actual garbage, and elevates it. The resulting artwork becomes something that seduces us with elegance to see his point of view.
To see more about this treasure of an artist go to The Clark's webpage and follow the extensive links.
