El Anatsui: Cire Perdue

“Why boats, why barques? For me, the barque symbolizes departure, it’s what serves to transport human beings, ideals and materials. It sacrifices itself, so to speak, in order to transport human beings and goods of all kinds. The work is called Cire Perdue, like a lost work, a lost life. The boat sacrifices itself by carrying human beings and goods: it’s usually horizontal, but here it’s used vertically. These are dead boats, standing on their ends in order to be celebrated. A glorification of those who have sacrificed their lives, an elevation skywards in an extraordinary sculpture. The boat is sacrificed, just as the wax is lost when you pour the bronze. Energy is lost so as to enable something else to exist. It is the emergence of new things that is celebrated here. The boat has a bronze spinal column. The boats are being converted into bronze, with the basin at the top to enable distribution of the wax.” El Anatsui