An exploration of El Anatsui’s artworks at Talbot Rice Gallery in 2024 and the making of Scottish Mission Book Depot Keta – the artwork and exhibition – which was the most expansive presentation of the Ghanaian artist’s metamorphic forms ever seen in the Uk. New essays, an interview with the artist and sumptuous images reconstruct the extraordinary exhibition which united his shape-shifting metallic bottle-top artworks, carved wooden reliefs, printed works on paper and an enormous installation of the façade of the 16th century University of Edinburgh.
Internationally acclaimed artist, El Anatsui
(b. 1944, Anyako, Ghana) has a long and
distinguished career as both sculptor and
teacher – he taught at the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka for nearly four decades. In
2015, he was awarded the Venice Biennale’s
highest honour, the Golden Lion for Lifetime
Achievement. In 2014, El Anatsui was made
an Honorary Royal Academician and elected to
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Major solo exhibitions include Royal Ontario
Museum, Toronto (2010); National Museum
of Ethnology, Osaka (2010); Akron Art
Museum, Akron, Ohio (2012), which travelled
to the Brooklyn Museum, New Y ork and the
Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (2013); Bass
Museum of Art, Miami (2014); and Museum
of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2015). In
2019, El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, a major
career survey curated by Okwui Enwezor and
Chika Okeke-Agulu, was presented at Haus
der Kunst, Munich, before touring to Mathaf:
Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, 2019; and
Kunstmuseum Bern, 2020. Anatsui’s works
have been featured in Ghana’s first National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2019); the
Marrakech Biennale (2016); Biennale of Sydney
(2012); Moscow Biennale, (2009); Venice
Biennale and Sharjah Biennial (2007); Biennale
of African Art, Dakar (2006); Gwangju
Biennale (2004); Johannesburg Biennale (1995);
Havana Biennale (1994); Venice Biennale
(1990). In 2023, El Anatsui’s largest work to
date Behind the Red Moon was unveiled at the
Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall for the site-specific
Hyundai Commission which toured to the
Museum of Art Pudong (MAP), Shanghai in
2024. His work is held in prestigious public
collections across the globe including: The
British Museum, London; Centre Pompidou,
Paris; de Young Museum, San Francisco;
Smithsonian Institution, Washington;
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi; Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, California;
The National Gallery of Contemporary
Art, Lagos; Brooklyn Museum, New York;
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate
Modern, London; 21st Century Museum of
Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, among others.
Tessa Giblin is the Director of Talbot Rice Gallery at the University of Edinburgh, where she holds a Personal Chair in Contemporary Curating with Edinburgh College of Art. She has recently curated solo exhibitions of Angelica Mesiti, Emeka Ogboh, Samson Young, Lucy Skaer, David Claerbout and Jesse Jones. She was commissioner and curator of Jesse Jones’ Tremble Tremble for Ireland at the 57th Biennale di Venezia (2017), which has since continued to tour internationally. She is part of the acquisitions committee of the Frac Bretagne 2020–2022, and from 2006–2016 was Curator of Project Arts Centre in Dublin, Ireland.
Melissa MacRobert is Deputy Director at Talbot Rice Gallery. With a focus on project management, artist commissions, research and touring - she has produced exhibitions with Angelica Mesiti, Emeka Ogboh, Samson Young, Myriam Lefkowitz and Lucy Skaer in addition to various major international group exhibitions including
The Normal, Pine’s Eye, Borderlines and
At the Gates. She was co-editor of Emeka Ogboh
Song of the Union (Talbot Rice Gallery, 2021) and has co-ordinated a number of artist publications including Ken Price
A Survey of Sculptures and Drawings (H&W Publishers/DelMonico Prestel, 2017); Guillermo Kuitca (H&W Publishers/Snoeck, 2016); Phyllida Barlow
Fifty Years of Drawings (JRP Ringier, 2014); Takesada Matsutani
A Matrix (JRP Ringier, 2013).
