Clay/Ceramic Pieces
1966-2003
8 Artworks
"Clay is everywhere. It’s the earth we are walking on; it’s a common thing anyone can work with." El Anatsui
El Anatsui began working with ceramics in 1975 when he moved from Ghana to Nigeria to teach at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Anatsui found in clay the figurative resonances of both fragility and resilience, interminable, dialectical alterity, fragilis, fragmentarity, the spectral space between softness and hardness, wetness and dryness, even liquidity and solidity. He found these properties very exciting and full of sculptural and conceptual possibilities, each speaking to significant aspects of nature and existence, and especially to the cyclicity of life. — Olu Oguibe, 1998
