El Anatsui’s Bottle-Cap Tapestries Weave Their Way to London’s October Gallery

Anatsui’s assemblages are typically draped across walls or hung from the ceiling. In addition to several recent works done in his signature style, an early piece by Anatsui is also on view: a totemic carved-wood sculpture called Wonder Masquerade II (1990), which shows the nascent ideas that have been fully realized in the artist’s mature work. 

In AG + BA (2014), Anatsui uses both tactics, juxtaposing a grand, drooping sheet of stitched-together aluminum on the wall with a shield-like sculpture hung from the ceiling. Similar to artists such as Jodie Carey, Mira Lehr, and Jessica Stockholder, Anatsui blurs the distinctions between sculpture, painting, and weaving, using the color from solid, repurposed materials to create flowing images. “I work more like a sculptor and a painter put together,” Anatsui has said.

In an interview with October Gallery, Anatsui stated, “The amazing thing about working with these metallic ‘fabrics’ is that the poverty of the materials used in no way precludes the telling of rich and wonderful stories.” The poverty of the materials is part of the meaning that Anatsui hopes to convey with their use. He is interested in the reuse of found materials by people in the developing world, who reclaim discarded goods out of necessity. Much of the metal used to create his wall pieces comes from waste alcohol bottle caps and milk cans, as in Strained Roots (2014), Iris (2012), and Timespace (2014). The materials are typically cut into small pieces that are flattened and sewn together with copper wire, sometimes with their original logos still intact, adding a pop art flourish that hints at the works of Andy Warhol.