1993
tropical hardwood and tempera
61 x 145 cm
El Anatsui is a Ghanaian artist known for his innovative use of materials and deeply layered visual language. Over a five-decade career, he has addressed social, political, and historical themes, such as human consumption, environment, and the relations between Africa and the Western world, through media ranging from wood and ceramic to metal.
His wooden sculptures are considered a trademark of his early career. Sleeping Cloth is a 14-panel wall-hanging sculptural installation that emulates the folds and patterns of fabric, rendered in tropical hardwood. Anatsui employs a unique technique in this artwork, carving and scorching the wooden surface, and then applying natural pigments, specifically tempera. The result is a richly textured relief marked by geometric incisions and charred grooves.
The inspiration behind Sleeping Cloth draws on West African textile traditions and storytelling, which Anatsui reinvented through contemporary sculpture. The artist is known for his fascination with the cultural significance of textiles – an interest rooted in his heritage, as he was born to a master weaver of Ghanaian kente cloth.
The themes and methods in Sleeping Cloth foreshadow Anatsui’s later renowned work. In subsequent years, he began crafting monumental hanging sculptures from thousands of discarded liquor bottle caps, which he painstakingly joined with copper wire into shimmering metal tapestries. These iconic works further explore the concept of a sculptural cloth, expanding it to an architectural scale and incorporating new social metaphors – from the legacy of colonial trade to the connectedness of communities.
El Anatsui (born 1944), one of the most influential artists today, is a globally acclaimed Ghanaian sculptor based in Nigeria. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1990 and 2007, receiving the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2015 and the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Award for Sculpture in 2017. Anatsui’s works reside in museum collections worldwide – the British Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
