El Anatsui
When I Last Wrote to You about Africa - Museum for African Art
When I Last Wrote to You about Africa - Museum for African Art
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A colorful sculpture evokes the stalls of a marketplace.<br />
The thousands of tin boxes in this sculpture refer to the vibrant, exciting,<br />
and often vast African marketplace. Capturing the moment of anticipation<br />
of stalls just about to open for business, Open(ing) Market represents the<br />
emergence of local and global African markets. <strong>Anatsui</strong> commissioned the<br />
handmade boxes from local tinkers. Each box is painted on the exterior in<br />
black with red, chevron-shaped marks, and has typical product labels from<br />
West Africa cut and glued to the inside. The colors, patterns, and spatial<br />
relationships of the sculpture are closely related to <strong>Anatsui</strong>’s work in other<br />
mediums.<br />
Looking and Interpreting<br />
• Notice the details of this sculpture. What materials is this sculpture made<br />
out of?<br />
Connecting and Doing<br />
• Research marketplaces both in Africa and the United States. How might<br />
this piece remind you of stalls in marketplaces that you have seen?<br />
• Repurpose old boxes to create a found object sculpture. Add colored<br />
paint, fabric, or papers such as magazines or wrappers to decorate your<br />
sculpture.<br />
EXPLORING MATERIALS AND PROCESSES 33
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