World premiere retrospective of renowned Ghanaian artist on display all night on October 2nd
The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) showcases the exhibition El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa, and three site-specific installations, as part of the city’s fifth annual Scotiabank Nuit Blanche festivities on Saturday, October 2, 2010. During this free, all-night event featuring contemporary art from around the world, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche revellers will be among the first to experience the internationally renowned artist’s first solo Canadian exhibition on its opening day. El Anatsui is on view from 7 pm to 7 am in the Roloff Beny Gallery on Level 4 of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Please note that the rest of the Museum, with the exception of the Thorsell Spirit House, will be closed that night.
As part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, the ROM also hosts XXIX, a site-specific music and video installation by Laurel MacDonald, depicting 29 singers performing in 29 languages. Their voices, emanating from 29 speakers placed throughout the Thorsell Spirit House on the Lee-Chin Crystal’s Level 1, feature Canadian singers in all musical genres, performing in the language of their heritage.
Projected outside onto the Lee-Chin Crystal on Bloor Street West, Crossings, created by The OpenEnded Group, incorporates the structure’s unique architecture into a dynamic ever-changing art installation where figures appear to walk on and through the building’s façade. High up in the historic Red Oak tree located near the ROM’s Queen’s Park entrance, a sight and sound installation entitled 20,000 Species?, created by Eric Davies, explores urban biodiversity by representing some of the other 20,000 species, including plants, insects, birds that call Toronto home.
About El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa
Constructed from found objects and everyday materials, Anatsui’s stunningly original sculptures evoke memories of Africa’s past and present. El Anatsui brings together the full range of the artist’s oeuvre, from early works in ceramic and wood to the internationally celebrated metal wall sculptures of recent years. The exhibition illuminates the great diversity of materials in which Anatsui has worked, among them mortars, the lids of evaporated-milk tins, cassava graters, driftwood, and obituary-notice printing plates. The retrospective enables visitors to observe the development of the artist’s ideas over four decades, bringing to light his multilayered narratives, which refer to the complex histories, themes, and social issues that shape personal, cultural, and historical identities.
For more information on El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa click here.
For more information on Scotiabank Nuit Blanche click here.