Bottle Caps and Boundaries: El Anatsui’s Shimmering Histories Fill Tate Modern
Step into Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and you’ll find thousands of discarded bottle caps transformed into a sweeping, metallic landscape. Ghanaian artist El Anatsui’s Behind the Red Moon isn’t just a visual marvel—it’s a layered meditation on migration, memory, and the labor that binds continents together.
His monumental installation unfolds in three dramatic acts: a crimson sail that seems to catch the winds of history, a fractured golden globe hinting at human journeys, and a towering wall inspired by the legendary fortifications of Notsie. Each piece weaves together stories of the transatlantic slave trade, colonial power, and the enduring resilience of communities.
Crafted by a team spanning Nigeria and Ghana, Anatsui’s shimmering tapestries prove that art can bridge worlds, turning discarded fragments into a collective memory that refuses to fade. In the glint of metal, echoes of the past shimmer into the present.
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