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Landing: Elias Sime's Their Tightrope: Behind the Processor #5
Dec. 3,2023
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TBD
Tightrope: Behind the Processor #5, 2023
A frame of circuit boards surrounds multiple panels of tightly braided wires in this monumental work by Elias Sime. Evoking maps and painterly fields of color, the artist creates his abstract compositions by weaving, layering, and assembling obsolete electronic parts he finds at open-air markets in Addis Ababa. Tightrope: Behind the Processor #5 is from Sime’s ongoing “Tightrope” series (2009–present), which builds on the formal qualities of the hardware we use every day and invites us to contemplate the aesthetic qualities of these technologies that enable global communication. At the same time, the scale and materials of Sime’s work call attention to the frictions of our technologically mediated world, connecting the research and manufacturing industries of Silicon Valley with the millions of tons of electronic waste produced globally every year.
Elias Sime
Born 1968, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Lives and works in Addis Ababa
Tightrope: Behind the Processor #5, 2023
Reclaimed electrical wires and components on panel
Museum purchase with funds provided by the Lipman Family Foundation, 2023.15
Additional Info
Elias Sime is a multi-disciplinary artist, best known for his large-scale reliefs made from recycled consumer electronics. Sime’s process is motivated by a will to reclaim and re-examine our relationship to our environment. He uses braiding and layering techniques to create vast mosaics composed of keyboards, circuits, wires, and all manner of e-waste imported into his home country, Ethiopia. These materials are sourced from the largest open-air market in Africa located in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Elias Sime, one of the most prolific artists of our time has been using electronic components to express his observation and imagination of humanity’s complications and its future. A processor is the key component of an electrical circuit necessary to interpret and execute electrical signals fed into the device. Behind the Processor is an extension of Elias’ TIGHTROPE series that began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2013 and has been traveling in different galleries and museums around the world. - Meskerem Assegued, 2023
Sime’s works serve as records of the global exchange of commodities, and the conceptual transformations of matter from raw materials, to machine, waste, and finally as art. He alternates between biomorphic forms, landscapes, and pure abstraction, relying on the materials to guide his intuitive, measured approach. The equilibrium of universalists concepts—between humanity and nature, progress and tradition, material, and concept—are explored in the series Tightrope. The title refers to the precarious balance between the advancements that technology has made possible and their detrimental impact on the environment. Sime’s works draw upon their materiality, to comment on the resilience of nature, social responsibility, and the beauty of the utilitarian.
Elias Sime is deeply involved in developing the Ethiopian art community and has established a research practice studying the ancient rituals of rural communities in the country. Together with his long-time collaborator, curator and anthropologist Meskerem Assegued, Sime founded the Zoma Museum which opened in Addis Ababa in 2019. In the same year, Sime was awarded the African Art Award by the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and he was a 2020 Hugo Boss award nominee.
Source
His gallery https://grimmgallery.com/artists/52-elias-sime/
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