Scottish Mission Book Depot Keta, El Anatsui (2024) (EMPIRE LINES x Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh Art Festival 2024)

Curator Tessa Giblin deconstructs El Anatsui’s monumental, sculptural textiles, unravelling the ties that still bind post-colonial Ghana, Nigeria, and Scotland in the 21st century.

Born in 1944, between the German and British colonial periods of the Gold Coast (1821-1957), El Anatsui has engaged critically with the impact of colonialism across Africa. He is well-known for his large-scale, sculptural wall hangings made by stitching-together of thousands of aluminium metal bottle tops; whisky, gin, and brandy were alcohols introduced into Ghana and Nigeria during the 15th century as ‘trade spirits’, first exchanged for gold, then enslaved people, becoming the second highest import into Africa after textiles. The artist, like his work, is considered a ‘product’ of their time. Despite major displays at the Tate Modern, Royal Academy, and British Museum in London, which have made him a ‘household name’, there was yet to be a significant exploration of his practice in the UK - until now.

Scottish Mission Book Depot Keta covers five decades of El Anatsui’s work, starting with the place of the exhibition itself, the University of Edinburgh's Old College building. Curator Tessa Giblin talks about working with the artist to shape his 'nomadic' installations, uncovering historic and contemporary connections. We discuss El’s childhood memories of making, and the indelible memory of Scotland’s role in the colonial project, with the export of organised religion and Christian missionaries. Tessa describes tapestries like Woman’s Cloth (1999-2002), inspired by Kente fabrics, the weaving traditions of fisherpeople, and the yellow clay or earth of the natural environment. From these ‘topographical’ works, we discuss his early works in wood, carving out or mapping the straight-line borders imposed upon Africa.

Tessa shares how El recreates ‘traditional’ Adinkra symbols, to highlight both the loss of cultural identity, and work of artists in telling new, transnational stories. From the artist’s watery works at the Guggenheim Bilbao, we make connections with the city’s own volcanic landscape, revealing their intergenerational work with climate crises - and younger contemporary artists.

El Anatsui: Scottish Mission Book Depot Keta runs at Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh until 29 September 2024. The exhibition is part of Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) 2024, which continues in Scotland until 25 August 2024.

For more about Otobong Nkanga and The Recent at Talbot Rice Gallery, read this article about Edinburgh’s Environmental Exhibitions in gowithYamo: gowithyamo.com/blog/edinburghs-environmental-exhibitions-the-global

Hear artist Ibrahim Mahama on Sekondi Locomotive Workshop (2024) at Fruitmarket in Edinburgh, also part of Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) 2024: pod.link/1533637675/episode/ed0be49d016ce665c1663202091ce224

And Serge Attukwei Clottey on his family’s internal migration from Jamestown/Usshertown in British Accra, Ghana, to coastal La (Labadi), Afrogallonism, and his collaborative practice, uplifting his community with upcycled plastic waste, through Noko Y3 Dzen (There’s Something in the World) (2018–Now) at the Eden Project in Cornwall: pod.link/1533637675/episode/8093f81c6a2eaaf7589bb73768e2a20c

Listen to curator Osei Bonsu, curator of the Hyundai Commission: El Anatsui: Behind the Red Moon and A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, at Tate Modern in London: pod.link/1533637675/episode/386dbf4fcb2704a632270e0471be8410

And hear Chris Spring, former curator of the British Museum's collections from eastern and southern Africa, on ‘African’ textiles and Thabo, Thabiso and Blackx by Araminta de Clermont (2010)⁠ at the British Museum in London. pod.link/1533637675/episode/a32298611ba95c955aba254a4ef996dd

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.

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