The West African artist El Anatsui is the creator of art made of materials that we would call garbage. His art consists of metal scraps to worn out cloths. The style and materials he uses for his artwork makes him one of the foremost contemporary artists of his generation. His trashwork has made him a worldwide hit by travelling gallery to gallery around the world.

The artwork created by Anatusui are made up of trash. This is because in his home country (Africa) seeing trash is no suprise. By using these simple everyday materials he fuses them together to create large canvases and sculpture. Anatusui says that artists are better off working with whatever their environment workups up. Obviously meaning, Anatusui does

not uses brushes and paints, but instead uses the large masses

of garbage around him, and turns it into art.

This artwork known as "Hovor" is made up of thrown away aluminum and copperwire. made in 2003

Anatusui said that he creats his art with what he finds with his surroundings. What I believe he is trying to communicate is that since he only uses his surroundings for materials, he must be communicating that garbage is the only material he can find, and lots of it. Considering every piece he has made is made up of garbage, he knows that there is a lot of it. Also he describes how anything can be beautiful, we see garbage as revolting and want to get rid of it ASAP. However, with Anatusui's creations, we see a different perspective of garbage, which we would have never seen before.

I appreciate Anatusui's work because he really does reuse garbage in a much larger and more beautiful way than other people can do. It is inspiring how he can turn a heap of trash into something large and beautiful, also saving that trash heap from going to a garbage dump. I can't truthfully say that my artwork relates to his, because I was unaware that anything, if we put time in it, can be beautiful (even garbage!) However, now since I know, I decided to be a participant in the ROM (The Royal Ontario Museum) of creating our own art pieces, now us using Anatusui's art as a reference.

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