Sunday, June 10, 2012

Quiz Make Up

The first thing that I found very interesting was when El Anatsui said, “I do not provide installation instructions for my works of art as a matter of principle.” This seems to say a lot about the flexibility of his mind as the way he envisioned the piece put together may be completely different from the way it is constructed as his client’s site. The ceramic arts of work seemed to have a deep meaning for him as they were all done at a time when Ghana's economy “was at its lowest point” as El Anatsui described it. The fact that these destructive pieces give rise to hope and new possibilities seems paradoxical, but at the same time a unique perspective to the suffering of the people of Ghana.

Probably, one of the most powerful pieces I have seen on this website is El Anatsui’s bottle cap artwork. At a first glance the piece looks very colorful and appealing to the eye. However, as he starts to describe the significance of the bottle caps and that they are from liquor bottles and how liquor relates to Africa, the piece really comes alive. Essentially, the Europeans brought liquor to Africa and traded it for slaves where the slaves were then transported to the Americas to harvest more sugar cane and produce more liquor. After, that realization and looking at the tiny metal hooks that linked all of the bottle caps together it was easy to see how small links between people and objects could have a significant effect on history. The one piece I didn’t find that interesting by itself was the one which represented the river made of ceramic bricks, but as a metaphor for the constant change and for El’s work it seemed very appropriate. 

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