Interview transcript
Elisabeth Sann: This is El Anatsui who makes these tapestries out of discarded bottle tops that he finds in dumpsters. These are a bit more monochromatic for him and he’s gone a little bit more painterly with the color and the composition. He’s been also looking at maps, there are some references to water and rivers, he’s very much interested in that as kind of an aerial view. This is a really good time for him, he has a show at the Brooklyn Museum right now of monumental work, he has a piece on The High Line, on 21st street. This is really an amazing time for him.
This is a Ricard Mosse photograph, it’s from his “Infra” series, which he’s been photographing for the past two, three years in Congo. The film he’s using is actually Kodak Aerochrome, it’s a infrared film. So all of these pink you see it is how the film sees chlorophyl which is the chemical in plants. So this is not done in Photoshop, it’s all done with the film. The level of detail in this is amazing, you can see there are fisherman around the base here. Richard will be featured in the Irish pavilion at the Venice Biennale this summer and this piece will be included.
Video interview and article © galleryIntell. Artwork ©Richard Mosse © El Anatsui. Images courtesy of the Jack Shainman Gallery.
