unlikely mediums – and curated an exhibition of
their works, titled ‘New Energies’. The unconventional
show, which took place at the Nimbus and Mydrim
galleries in Lagos, caused a scandal but helped launch
careers. Some of Anatsui’s acolytes – Nnenna Okore,
Gerald Chukwuma, Bright Ugochukwu Eke, Ndidi
Dike, Eva Obodo – might be familiar and if you don’t
know them, you should. Anatsui also sponsors an
annual exhibition and competition, titled ‘Life In My
City’, with six finalists visiting the Dakar Biennale.
In Anatsui’s Nsukka studio are several ceiling-high
pyramids of crates, in which his works are encased,
most bound for faraway destinations, a few returning
from abroad. Scattered around them are woven plastic
sacks of bottle caps, copper wires, pliers, shears,
chainsaws, cut strips of aluminium foil and the quiet
enthusiasm of Anatsui’s studio assistants. There are
about ten of them present (sometimes there are up to
40) working in groups of twos and threes, binding the
bottle caps with copper wire: which eventually become
tapestries that Anatsui has conceptualised. Given
his style of small forms becoming a monumental mass,
it is unclear how many works are being created. The
volume of the work in front of the assistants gives
nothing away. Nor does Anatsui.
To the left of the studio, there are crates to be
despatched to Marrakech, São Paulo and Ontario.
In another corner, work destined for Paris, Frankfurt,
London. To reach any of these destinations, movers
have to journey nine hours by road from Lagos to
Enugu, the nearest city to Nsukka, and then drive
back to the port city. These long, important journeys
were highlighted by the influential Nigerian curator
Okwui Enwezor, the artistic director of Haus der
Kunst in Munich, who organised the first showing of
‘Triumphant Scale’ from his hospital bed (Enwezor
had cancer and died earlier this year). By his design,
the first set of work seen by visitors to Haus der Kunst
had been shown in three iconic museums on bothsides of the Atlantic: the British Museum in London,
the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York.
The American author Toni Morrison once said,
‘I stood at the border, stood at the edge and claimed
it as central and let the rest of the world move over
to where I was.’ It could describe Anatsui’s career too.
And the rest of the world is now knocking at Anatsui’s
door. Does this create some kind of creative pressure
to please, to satisfy this demand?
‘I don’t feel any pressure because you know that
you are reaching people. If you weren’t reaching them,
they wouldn’t be demanding. It stimulates you to
work hard. I don’t bother to ask how the work reaches
them,’ says Anatsui. ‘As an artist, you have a leadership
role – you lead and see whether they will follow.’ ∂
‘Triumphant Scale’ is showing from 1 October–31 January
at Mathaf, Doha, mathaf.org.qa; el-anatsui.comLEFT AND BELOW, ANATSUI’S
PREFERRED MEDIA IS FOUND
MATERIALS, SUCH AS BOTTLE
CAPS, ALUMINIUM PACKAGING
AND COPPER WIRE, WHICH HE
TRANSFORMS INTO STRIKING,
SHIMMERING SCULPTURES192 ∑
Art Icon