Anansi's Quest for Knowledge Sculpture

This body of work deals primarily with my artistic quest for knowledge and personal growth as represented through his use of the Ghanaian folktale of Anansi the Spider. Though Anansi is generally known to be a trickster, most tales about him are loaded with adventure, challenges, and pedagogic solutions that convey a wide array of moral life lessons. For this tale, I welded scraps of steel piping and the doors of old school lockers to create Anansi's form. Along with the use of aluminum wire and gold chrome spray paint, I suspended Anansi from a large tree outside of the sculpture studio in Spelman's Fine Arts building, which also sits beside both Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University. The popular Ghanaian tale of "Anansi's Quest for Knowledge" is a story of the old spider's quest to stash all of the world's knowledge that he had gathered in a bag, atop of a tall tree for safekeeping. The issue that Anansi faced was how to effectively carry the heavy bag of knowledge while attempting to also climb this tall tree. In attempting to navigate the tree, Anansi noticed that he was being watched by his young son who had been laughing while Anansi struggled with carrying the heavy bag of knowledge to the top of the tree. During another unsuccessful attempt, Anansi receives advice from his son on how to fasten the bag to Anansi's back in order to focus solely on climbing to the top of the tree. In awe of his son's wisdom, Anansi accidentally drops the bag all the way down to the ground, spreading all of this gathered knowledge around the world. After reflecting on his accident, Anansi realizes that there is no use of having all of the world's knowledge if his own son could teach him something new.

Sculpture:Found Objects on Aluminium

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:60 W x 132 H x 36 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.