A Fateful Journey: Africa in the Works of El Anatsui

Abstract

This thoughtful one-person exhibition by the art historian Yukiya Kawaguchi, in the ethnographic museum in Osaka, lands at the intersection of art and ethnology, Africa and internationalism. The exhibition is masterfully curated and beautifully installed, but the premise stated in the title and implied in the show’s institutional context overemphasizes the African and ethnographic sources of Anatsui’s art. Rather misrepresenting both Africa and Anatsui, it seems to place the artist in the wrong Africa: the dusty village of ethnic traditions. Anatsui grew up in a small town and was shaped by an international formal education and a Christian church. Africa has always had areas of cosmopolitan learning, and occluding this one stunts the image of Africa. Where Anatsui is concerned, we should neglect neither his African origins nor his education, love of books, and years of looking at many kinds of art.

Authenticity, Misunderstanding, and Institutional Responsibility in Contemporary Art

“…34 Moreover, Anatsui notes, 'Sometimes museums prefer to replicate the same thing over and over', particularly for touring exhibitions where works are installed quickly and pass through many hands. 35 Installers sometimes copy photographic precedents in installing Anatsui's work, as is common practice for many other installation artworks. The work may, then, reveal tendencies of the institutions it passes through: a willingness to be bold and experimental, or an inclination to treat objects in a conventional fashion.…”

“…I think this quality is deeply connected with his theory of the nonfixed form. 37 The feeling Kawaguchi describes is grounded in a combination of visual experience and knowledge about how displays are produced. Even if viewers don't get to see two or more distinct displays, the knowledge that Anatsui allows installers to hang his works in a wide variety of ways allows them to appreciate the work in its fullness.…”