Fading Cloth

Hues of gold, red, yellow, and silver shimmer across the undulating surface of Fading Cloth. Although it looks like a textile, the work is actually made from discarded liquor bottle tops, flattened and stitched together with copper wire. By repurposing metal caps, El Anatsui transformed the mundane into something visually mesmerizing. Anatsui’s materials allude to a devastating legacy: For centuries, European traders exchanged textiles and liquor in West Africa for gold and enslaved people. Fading Cloth weaves together a range of political, historical, and visual references to this region significant to the artist, who was born in Ghana and lives in Nigeria.