El Anatsui

El Anatsui is a Ghanaian sculptor whose monumental, tapestry-like works transform discarded materials—especially aluminum bottle caps joined with copper wire—into flexible sculptural forms.

Bottle cap art: Artworks made from discarded bottle caps, arranged or assembled into new forms. Anatsui’s signature works use flattened liquor-bottle caps as their primary material.
Metal bottle-cap sculpture: Sculpture made by joining flattened metal bottle caps or their fragments into larger forms. This describes the construction method behind many of Anatsui’s large hanging works.
Nsukka: A university town in Enugu State, Nigeria, and a center of modern art and scholarship. Anatsui taught at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka for decades.
Global trade: The exchange of goods and services across national borders. Bottle caps evoke the circulation of alcohol and other commodities across Africa and beyond.
Old Man's Cloth: A large wall-hanging sculpture by El Anatsui made from linked metal bottle caps and fragments. This early bottle-cap work established the scale and textile-like character of his later sculptures.
Assemblage: An art-making method that combines found objects and other materials into a composition. His works build a whole from individually collected and joined fragments.
Art fabrication: The processes and skilled labor used to construct an artwork from materials. His monumental pieces depend on extensive cutting, flattening, and linking.
University of Nigeria: A public university founded in 1955 in Nsukka, southeastern Nigeria. Anatsui joined its art department in 1975 and developed his career there.
Colonialism in Africa: European political domination and exploitation of African territories, especially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The materials’ histories can recall colonial trade and its lasting economic legacies.
Dusasa I: A large, flexible sculpture by El Anatsui assembled from discarded aluminum materials and copper wire. Its shifting folds demonstrate how his metal panels behave like draped cloth.

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Uche OkekeRelated: His career at Nsukka illustrates the broader artistic community shaped by the university’s art department.