Sisi Eko

Born in 1944 in Anyako in Ghana's Volta region, El Anatsui attended Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. In 1975, he moved to Nigeria to pursue a career as lecturer in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Here he met other like minds and his career flourished. He has explored a range of art media such as wood sculptures and wall reliefs. Today El is popular for his bottle cap installation pieces which have become dominant in African art history and beyond. His art has become global as Much as it is African.

The term Sisi Eko means Lagos lady. In this piece, he depicts a Lagos lady who is always trendy, classy and fashionable. It is a loose pile-up of linearly designed organic and geometrically formed wooden blocks/panels. Hanging on one of its blocks is an irregularly shaped wooden block with a rope which connotes the lady's handbag. One could infer El was attempting to abstractly depict of a classy lagosian lady who loves to put her bag on her shoulder always and seeks to be treated with care and respect as she displays her elegance. Through its non-permanent nature, El gives it's curator the possibility of re-arrangement due to the rotary nature of the panels of the sculpture.