▲This photo, provided by Barakat Contemporary, shows "New World Symphony." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲This photo, provided by Barakat Contemporary, shows one of the sculptures. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- El Anastasui, Ghanaian sculptor active for much of his career in Nigeria, has found the possibility of using abandoned bottle caps, found in bushes of the late 1990s, as new materials.

The piece, which is made by tapping, twisting, and sometimes cutting the collected discarded bottle caps and then connecting them with copper wire, looks like a well-woven fabric from a distance.

Anastasui received attention from the world of art when she presented abandoned bottle caps sculpture at Venice Biennale in 2007, and her artistic achievement was recognized in 2015, receiving Golden Lion Award at Venice Biennale.

Although the rediscovery of bottle caps as sculpture materials was a coincidence, the history of Africa lays behind the matter. African slaves cultivated sugar cane, and the alcohol using the syrup from sugar cane were shipped to seaside of West Africa and traded with slaves. To arouse this history, only caps of alcohol are utilized in his works.

Exhibition to watch Anastasui's bottle cap sculptures is to be opened at Barakat Contemporary on Nov. 29.

Enormous sculpture with width 6m and length 8m stands out at his second private exhibition in Korea since 2017.

Thanks to technological development, the work made with golden bottle caps has less wrinkles than his previous works, making the work to become more delicate and feels more like a painting than a sculpture.

Additionally, Ten new works showing Anatsui's diverse artistic world, including wooden reliefs created by burning wooden panels and painting them with color, and mono prints using patterns from the artist's sculptures, will be displayed in two exhibition halls. The exhibition will open until January 29 2023.

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Jiwon Woo.)

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