n September 1986, El Anatsui walked into his
freshman design class, asked his students to draw egusi
soup, then walked out. He left no further instruction.
The students, in their first semester at University
of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), debated for hours what
exactly their lecturer wanted. How do you paint egusi,
recreate its yellow paste of crushed melon seeds on
canvas? Do you include hints of cow tripe that go into
it? Some Nigerians prefer theirs with crayfish. How do
you account for that? Some students decided Anatsui
was looking for an idea or concept. Others gravitated
towards form and saw it as a test by the artist of who
could draw the best. Anatsui’s intentions were less
complicated and echo his own artistic philosophy.
He wanted his students to reflect on an ‘object’ that
was a part of their immediate environment as an entry
point to solving an art problem. After all, egusi soup
is one of the most popular dishes in Nigeria, eaten
with different local variations across the country.
‘This was the first signal that he thought things
out differently,’ says Chika Okeke-Agulu, a member of
that class. He is now an art historian and co-curator
of Anatsui’s travelling exhibition, ‘Triumphant Scale’,
which opens in October at Mathaf: Arab Museum
of Modern Art in Doha. It’s this ability to ‘think things
through differently’ that helped Anatsui become one
of the most accomplished contemporary artists of
his generation. This year he is also showing for the
third time at the Venice Biennale, as part of Ghana’s
inaugural pavilion (he won the Golden Lion for
Lifetime Achievement back in 2015).
Anatsui was born in Ghana in 1944, the youngest
of his father’s 32 children, but has lived in Nsukka for
the last 45 years. His mother died when he was a baby
and Anatsui was raised by his uncle, a Presbyterian
minister, who ‘sheltered’ him from local cultural
practices, convinced by conventional Christian wisdom
that they were heretic. Despite his uncle’s intentions,
Anatsui would embrace and then advance the artistic
traditions of his ancestors.
He developed his artistic philosophy – of using
what the environment throws up as medium – after
graduating from Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University
of Science & Technology (KNUST). His first medium
was the wooden trays used to carry goods in Ghanaian
markets. ‘You should look for things around you,’ he »I
EL ANATSUI PHOTOGRAPHED
AT HIS STUDIO IN NSUKKA IN
AUGUST, WITH NEW WORKS,
AS YET UNTITLED, MADE FROM
ALUMINIUM AND COPPER WIRE188 ∑
Art Icon