Tightrope 5.1
Sime’s practice integrates approaches to collage and assemblage with West African craft traditions of weaving and braiding. Sime typically sources his materials from the Menalesh Tera (translated as "what do you have?") section of open-air markets in Addis Ababa, which are often filled with discarded computer parts and other e-waste from Western countries. To make Tightrope 5.1, he braided together discarded lengths of brightly coated copper electrical wires using a technique he learned from local women, who also collaborated with him on the work’s production. In this composite approach, Sime critically underscores the powerful effects of transformation and highlights the recuperation of technological refuse that flows out of centers of finance and global commerce.
Artwork Details
- Title: Tightrope 5.1
- Artist: Elias Sime (Ethiopian, born 1968)
- Date: 2009–14
- Medium: Telephone wire nailed to fiberboard (telephone wire, nails on fiberboard)
- Dimensions: 130 3/16 in. × 94 7/8 in. (330.7 × 241 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2016
- Object Number: 2016.38.1–.83
- Rights and Reproduction: © Elias Sime
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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