From a distance they look like cloth, gold and red and silver, hanging in folds like kente. Up close, they are thousands of bottle tops, flattened and joined with copper wire. El Anatsui’s metal tapestries have hung in the world’s great museums and made him one of Africa’s most celebrated living artists.
Early life
El Anatsui was born in 1944 in Anyako, in Ghana’s Volta Region. He studied art at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.
Nsukka
In 1975 he joined the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he taught sculpture for decades. Nsukka became home to an influential group of artists, and Anatsui was a central figure.
Early work
Before the bottle caps, Anatsui worked with wood, ceramics and other materials, often using a chainsaw to carve. His work engaged with history, memory and African symbols.
Bottle caps
Around 1998, he found a bag of liquor bottle caps near his studio. He began flattening and stitching them together, creating large, flexible metal sheets. The caps carried brand names of drinks, linking his work to trade, consumption and the history of alcohol in Africa.
Flexibility
His works do not have a fixed shape. Each time they are installed, they can be folded and draped differently, giving curators a role in the final form.
Venice
In 2015, Anatsui received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale, one of the art world’s highest honours.
Tate Modern
In 2023, he created Behind the Red Moon for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London, a huge installation exploring the sea, the slave trade and memory.
Kente
Anatsui’s tapestries are often compared to kente and Ewe cloth. He has spoken about the link between his work and African textiles.
Market
His works sell for high prices at auction and are held in major collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum.
Influence
Anatsui has inspired younger artists who use found materials and explore African histories.
Studio work
Anatsui’s tapestries are made with assistants in his studio in Nsukka, who flatten, cut and fold the caps before wiring them together. He directs the design, but the scale of the work depends on many hands, which he has compared to the way communities work together.
Bottle caps are rubbish in most places. In El Anatsui’s studio, they became a fabric that tells the story of trade, empire and the hands that made it.
