As LACMA prepares for the 2026 public opening of the new David Geffen Galleries, the future home of the museum’s permanent collection spanning a breadth of eras and cultures, we’re sharing 50 iconic artworks that will be on view in the building over the next 50 weeks in the series 50 for 50.
El Anatsui, a Ghanaian sculptor who’s spent much of his career living and working in Nigeria, uses discarded resources to create sculpture that defies categorization. His use of these materials reflects his interest in reuse, transformation, and an intrinsic desire to connect with the African continent while transcending the limitations of place. His work also interrogates the history of colonialism and draws connections between consumption, waste, and the environment.
Like much of Anatsui’s work, Fading Scroll (2007) is more complex than it seems at first glance. Despite its appearance, it is not a textile and contains no fabric or woven materials. Instead, it was created from thousands of discarded bottle caps, which were unfolded and then stitched together with copper wire, resulting in a shimmering plane of silvers, golds, yellows, reds, and blues that only resembles weaving. Fading Scroll transforms the byproducts of both colonial legacies and contemporary life in Africa into a sumptuous, large-scale “tapestry” that weaves together past and present.
The wall sculpture evolves each time it is installed, folding and draping differently to fit the particular aspects of any given space, including the galleries of Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st-Century Art and Poetics (on view through July 27, 2025), where it is currently displayed.