sending...A few months ago, we reported on how the art world was waking up to the brilliance of El Anatsui, who weaves beauty out of bottle tops.
The story behind El Anatsui’s unique art form comes from a driving trip in the countryside of southern Nigeria,where Anatsui found a large bag of liquor bottle tops and collars apparently thrown away in the bush. Intrigued by uncomplicated and unobserved materials, or as he says, “whatever the environment throws up,” Anatsui took the bag back to his studio where it sat untouched for months as he continued to work on a string of abstract wooden sculptures. Eventually, he opened the bag and began experimenting with the contents – cutting, folding, and bending the metal bottle tops and collars into smooth swatches of color and texture that he connected together with copper wire, forming massive gleaming curtains that weaken the stereotype of metal as a stiff, inflexible medium
El Anatsui’s latest exhibition (Rice Gallery) is called – Gli, which means The Wall.
Photo Courtesy: Nash Baker © nashbaker.com via Rice Gallery
