El Anatsui

[vaneramos]

We went to the Royal Ontario Museum this afternoon, my first visit since the Crystal opened in 2007 (it is extremely ugly). I wanted to see the Chopin exhibit marking the bicentenary of the composer's birth last year, but it was unremarkable. Then we wandered through an exhibit of the museum's extraordinary textile collection. I spent a while gazing at two splendidly embroidered silk garments from the wardrobe of Dowager Empress Cixi.

Finally we stumbled upon a deeply moving career retrospective of a contemporary Ghanaian artist: El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote To You About Africa. This show, conceived for the opening of the new home of the Museum for African Art in New York, is premiering at ROM before an American tour. The greatest buzz surrounds his most recent works: huge curtain-like installations, often resembling traditional kente cloth, made of discarded items such as aluminum foil from alcohol bottles. They grabbed my attention and drew me into the room, however I eventaully found the greatest appeal in his earliest wood sculptures from the 1960s and more appearing in the 1990s. Anatsui's use of symbols (Adinkra, I believe) evokes oral tradition and personal meaning, mysterious and intimate. I recommend the show if you have an opportunity to see it here before the February 27 closing, or later elsewhere.

Comments

[art-thirst.livejournal.com]

There were a couple large scale pieces of his here during Art Basel Miami Beach. I like his work a lot.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

You might be familiar with some of his other work, too. One of my favourites was the wooden sculpture from which this exhibit took its name, pictured here. It ties into ideas I have had about incorporating a sense of storytelling into visual compositions.