El Anatsui worked with a team of assistants to assemble discarded liquor-bottle caps and wrappers into a metallic tapestry. When pinned to the wall, its rolling hills and valleys recall a topographical map. At center, a black river—is it oil? people? water? alcohol?—seems to seep across a border. Liquor wrappers with names like “Dark Sailor” and “Black Gold” hint at Africa’s long history of slavery and colonialism, as well as today’s conflicts over natural resources, especially oil. The patterns made by some of the wrappers at lower right resemble traditional Ghanaian kente weavings.

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