El ANATSUI: TSIATSIA – searching for connection
Large-scale installation at Zeitz MOCAA installed on behalf of 0ctober Gallery, 2019
TSIATSIA – searching for connection, by the acclaimed artist El Anatsui, adorned the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) iconic BMW Atrium throughout 2019. Anatsui’s work breaks away from the traditional cast of sculptural practice to invoke a multi-layered, sensory reimagining of our material world. At 15.6m x 25m, the wall-hanging sculpture is one of the largest he has made using his bottle top technique. The ‘canvas’ comprises eight vertical panels composed of regularly patterned pieces and includes found and recycled metals such as aluminium bottle-tops and printers’ plates, whose elements represent in abstract the strokes and splashes painted upon the piece.
Anatui’s sculptures have been collected by major international museums including the British Museum (London), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the de Young Museum (San Francisco), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Guggenheim (Abu Dhabi), Osaka Foundation of Culture (Osaka), the Tate Modern (London), and the Museum of Modern Art (New York). In 2013 Anatsui was awarded the prestigious Charles Wollaston Award, in 2014, he was made an Honorary Royal Academician and was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2015, he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 56th Venice Biennale; and in 2016, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Cape Town, and was honoured with the Praemium Imperiale Award for Sculpture in 2017.
