Taming the Alien: El Anatsui

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IN THE 1980 JAMES UYS FILM "The Gods Must Be Crazy," Kalahari Bushman Xi and his tribe of secluded desert farmers' utopia is intruded upon when a small airplane drops an empty Coke bottle into their world.

The apparent gift from the "gods" quickly becomes a piece of property fought over among the tribe and begins to divide the people. Incensed, Xi takes hold of it and sets off on a quest to throw "the evil thing" off the edge of the earth.

Like Xi, reknowned African artist El Anatsui is likewise moved by the appearance of Western objects into Africa. But in the hands of the Nigeria-based sculptor, industrial scrap metal and commercial cast-offs become a catalyst for artistic expression and intercontinental dialogue.

"What I do is bring back a product that has been introduced into Africa," Anatsui says. "I try to weave the material into something that metaphorically represents a clash of continents but also of people together."

Used printing plates, mesh wire and bottlecaps are indeed gifts for Anatsui, who says he stumbles upon such items over the natural course of his day between time in the studio and teaching classes at the University of Nigeria, where he is a professor of sculpture.

"It's like working with a material that is historically alive," Anatsui says. "A used bottle cap, a discarded thing ... is now something to contemplate instead of something merely conveying a mundane use."

Anatsui's work, including many of his large-scale metal tapestries, is featured in "Gawu," Anatsui's first solo exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art, on view now through Sept. 7.

"Gawu" has multiple meanings in Ewe (Anatsui's native tongue), but loosely translates into "metal cloak." Anatsui's work is very modern in its assemblage-influenced, abstract way, but the artist also likens his work to traditional African art and sculpture.

"There is a connection in the sense that [earlier African artists] used materials that were available to them in their time... skin and wood, for example," Anatsui says. "We use what is available from our environment in our time."

» National Museum of African Art, 950 Independence Ave. SW; through Sept. 2; 202-633-4600. (Smithsonian)

Written by Express contributor Johnathan Rickman
Photo courtesy NMAFA