For the first non western post I have chosen the subject that I am the least familiar with, African art. In searching through the choice of African artists, El Anatsui is one of the only ones that appealed to me. His recent explorations in installation art are the most intriguing to me. In the video below Anatsui talks about naming the artwork in his native language because one word can have so many different meanings. This leads to the ambiguity that he strives for in his artwork and is often why he chooses to name the pieces in his native language. If he were to name them in English, it narrows the ability the piece has to evolve to more than one specific meaning. This is especially seen in his installation artwork that blends without context to let your imagination fill with whatever thoughts come from only the artwork in front of you and not the meaning behind the name of the artwork. To me this is a very intriguing idea that allows for the art to be solely judged what is presented rather than a preconceived thought based on associations with familiar objects and names.
http://www.art21.org/videos/short-el-anatsui-language-symbols
A good example of this theme presented by Anatsui is the piece below. The piece is made out of aluminum and copper wire meshed with fabric. It is called Adinkra Sasa, which just looks like a jumble of letters to a monolingual English speaker such as myself and has no specific meaning. Initially this piece reminded me of flowing ashes of a burnt log and reminds me of stoking the fire during camping trips.
El Anatsui, Adinkra Sasa 2003
When examined in its native language the word adinkra describes a dyed cloth with imprinted designs made in Ghana by the Akan (africa.si.edu). The second part of the name sasa comes from the Ewe and it loosely translates to patchwork. This patchwork word was chosen by Anatsui to mourn the carving up of Africa by European colonial powers (africa.si.edu). Now knowing the meaning behind the words and why the artist named the cloth Adinkra Sasa completely changes my view on the piece and proves the point that Anatsui was making in the video above.
Sources:
http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/gawu/artworks.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Anatsui
spmurphy2013 
Thank you for such a wonderful post. I also looked through the African art and didn’t find anything that I was really drawn to. After reading your post, I will go back and take a closer look. I thought the video was very informative and added another dimension to your post. You did a very good job! When I first looked at this piece, It looked like a crumpled piece of fabric to me. I now have a better understanding and appreciation for the artistic aspect of this piece. Thank you for expanding my horizons!