El Anatsui at the Brooklyn Museum

Ghanaian artist El Anatsui makes sculptures from materials he finds or collects from communities in Nigeria, where he has lived and worked for many years. He employs bottle tops, can lids, wire, wrappers, plastic bags, mirror shards, and other cast-off goods (aka trash), as well as cloth, wood, and canvas. The results, many of which are on display at the Brooklyn Museum, generally mimic fabric in their movement or draping, often provoke with the raw talent of a self-trained artist working in a singular, idiosyncratic vision, and sometimes dance with the slightest gust of breath.