Scottish Mission Book Depot Keta: El Anatsui

This book explores El Anatsui’s artworks at Talbot Rice Gallery in 2024 and the making of Scottish Mission Book Depot Keta – the artwork and exhibition – which was the most expansive presentation of the Ghanaian artist’s metamorphic forms ever seen in the UK. New essays, an interview with the artist and sumptuous images reconstruct the extraordinary exhibition which united his shape-shifting metallic bottle-top artworks, carved wooden reliefs, printed works on paper and an enormous installation of the façade of the 16th century University of Edinburgh.

Internationally acclaimed artist, El Anatsui (b. 1944, Anyako, Ghana) has a long and distinguished career as both sculptor and teacher – he taught at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka for nearly four decades. In 2015, he was awarded the Venice Biennale’s highest honour, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. In 2014, El Anatsui was made an Honorary Royal Academician and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Major solo exhibitions include Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (2010); National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka (2010); Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio (2012), which travelled to the Brooklyn Museum, New Y ork and the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (2013); Bass Museum of Art, Miami (2014); and Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2015). In 2019, El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, a major career survey curated by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, was presented at Haus der Kunst, Munich, before touring to Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, 2019; and Kunstmuseum Bern, 2020. Anatsui’s works have been featured in Ghana’s first National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2019); the Marrakech Biennale (2016); Biennale of Sydney (2012); Moscow Biennale, (2009); Venice Biennale and Sharjah Biennial (2007); Biennale of African Art, Dakar (2006); Gwangju Biennale (2004); Johannesburg Biennale (1995); Havana Biennale (1994); Venice Biennale (1990). In 2023, El Anatsui’s largest work to date Behind the Red Moon was unveiled at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall for the site-specific Hyundai Commission which toured to the Museum of Art Pudong (MAP), Shanghai in 2024. His work is held in prestigious public collections across the globe including: The British Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Smithsonian Institution, Washington; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; The National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Lagos; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, among others. Tessa Giblin is the Director of Talbot Rice Gallery at the University of Edinburgh, where she holds a Personal Chair in Contemporary Curating with Edinburgh College of Art. She has recently curated solo exhibitions of Angelica Mesiti, Emeka Ogboh, Samson Young, Lucy Skaer, David Claerbout and Jesse Jones. She was commissioner and curator of Jesse Jones’ Tremble Tremble for Ireland at the 57th Biennale di Venezia (2017), which has since continued to tour internationally. She is part of the acquisitions committee of the Frac Bretagne 2020–2022, and from 2006–2016 was Curator of Project Arts Centre in Dublin, Ireland. Melissa MacRobert is Deputy Director at Talbot Rice Gallery. With a focus on project management, artist commissions, research and touring - she has produced exhibitions with Angelica Mesiti, Emeka Ogboh, Samson Young, Myriam Lefkowitz and Lucy Skaer in addition to various major international group exhibitions including The Normal, Pine’s Eye, Borderlines and At the Gates. She was co-editor of Emeka Ogboh Song of the Union (Talbot Rice Gallery, 2021) and has co-ordinated a number of artist publications including Ken Price A Survey of Sculptures and Drawings (H&W Publishers/DelMonico Prestel, 2017); Guillermo Kuitca (H&W Publishers/Snoeck, 2016); Phyllida Barlow Fifty Years of Drawings (JRP Ringier, 2014); Takesada Matsutani A Matrix (JRP Ringier, 2013).