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Artist or Maker: EL ANATSUI
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Provenance: Contemporary African Art Gallery, New York
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Notes: Art grows out of each particular situation and I believe that artists are better off working with whatever their environment throws up. I don't think that working with prescribed materials would be very interesting to me—industrially produced colours for painting. I believe that colour is inherent in everything and that you're better off picking something which relates to your circumstances and your environment than going to buy a ready-made colour. (El Anatsui as quoted in K. McCrickard, El Anatsui, London, 2006)
At the back of my mind, I think about things concerning the conditions in my environment but sometimes I simply let the medium or the process lead me on. These are the two approaches which, I guess, all artists use; with one you attempt to impose your ideas onto the media, with the other the medium leads you on. (El Anatsui as quoted in D. Ogunwa, El Anatsui: A Man of the Earth,Philadelphia, 2006)