Join acclaimed contemporary African artist El Anatsui for a slide presentation on his sculptures, featuring his recent series interpreting kente, a strip-woven cloth worn during important social and ceremonial occasions by the Asante and Ewe peoples of Ghana.
The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History welcomes El Anatsui as he visits California for the installation of a major new piece at the entrance to the Africa wing of San Francisco's De Young Museum, scheduled to reopen on October 15, 2005. Called Hovor II (which translates from the Ewe language as "cloth of value") this 10 x 12 foot sculpture is constructed of hundreds of flattened metal seals from discarded liquor bottles attached together with copper wire into a pattern that evokes the color and patterning of Ghanaian kente cloth. Like kente, which when worn becomes a kind of kinetic sculpture, Anatsui's huge metal "wall cloths" also suggest movement and agility.
Born in 1944 in Ghana, El Anatsui lives and works in Nigeria and is currently professor of sculpture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He has participated in more than 85 exhibitions worldwide including the 1990 Venice Biennale and the currently touring group exhibition that recently closed at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Africa Remix. His works are held in 18 public institutions, including the British Museum, the Smithsonian's National Museum for African Art, the Setagaya Art Museum in Tokyo, and the National Gallery of Contemporary Art in Nigeria.
Date: Thursday, October 20, 2005
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Lenart Auditorium
Fowler Museum of Cultural History
UCLA campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095
United States
Cost: Free and open to the public; parking is available in lot 4 for $8.
Enter at Sunset Blvd. and Westwood.
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History
Tel: 310-825-4361
www.fowler.ucla.edu
Sponsor(s): Fowler Museum at UCLA, Co-sponsored by the Ethnic Arts Council of Los Angeles
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