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Podcast: EMPIRE LINES
Episode: Scottish Mission Book Depot Keta, El Anatsui (2024) (EMPIRE LINES x Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh Art Festival 2024)
Description: Curator Tessa Giblin deconstructs El Anatsui’s monumental, sculptural textiles, unravelling the ties that still bind post-colonial Ghana, Nigeria, and Scotland in the 21st century.Born in 1944, between the German and British colonial periods of the Gold Coast (1821-1957), El Anatsui has engaged critically with the impact of colonialism across Africa. He is well-known for his large-scale, sculptural wall hangings made by stitching-together of thousands of aluminium metal bottle tops; whisky, gin, and brandy were alcohols introduced into Ghana and Nigeria during the 15th century as ‘trade spirits’, first exchanged for gold, then enslaved people, becoming the second...