Masters/Art & Design/El Anatsui

El Anatsui

Ghanaian sculptor who stitches thousands of flattened bottle caps and aluminium seals into shimmering, drapeable metal tapestries the scale of building facades.

Art & DesignshokuninSculptureArt & DesignGhana
El Anatsui

Veronica's Take

El Anatsui is a Ghanaian sculptor active for much of his career in Nigeria. He has drawn particular international attention for his "bottle-top installations". These installations consist of thousands of aluminum pieces sourced from alcohol recycling stations and sewn together with copper wire, which are then transformed into metallic cloth-like wall sculptures. Such materials, while seemingly stiff and sturdy, are actually free and flexible, which often helps with manipulation when installing his sculptures.

He turns liquor-bottle caps and discarded metal into gold-and-crimson cloth that ripples down museum walls, making a continent's cast-offs hang like royalty.

Seed
shokunin-atlas-v1
Era
b. 1944
Living
true
Discipline
Sculpture
Domain
Art & Design
Country
Ghana
Wiki Image Original
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/El_Anatsui_-_Man's_Cloth.jpg
Wiki Url
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Anatsui

Key Facts

Category
Art & Design
Location
, Ghana
Craft
Sculpture
Era
b. 1944

The people behind El Anatsui

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El Anatsui

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Sculpture

Ghanaian sculptor who stitches thousands of flattened bottle caps and aluminium seals into shimmering, drapeable metal tapestries the scale of building facades.

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El Anatsui — SLAYREPORT