Tightrope: Yellow Season
Artist
Elias Sime
(Ethiopian, born 1968)
CultureEthiopian
Date2017
MediumReclaimed electronic wires on panel
Dimensions55 × 110 in. (139.7 × 279.4 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds provided by Joe Waldo and Ashby Vail, Susan and David Goode, Oriana McKinnon, Penny and Peter Meredith, Meredith and Brother Rutter, Pam and Bob Sasser, Cynthia and Stuart Katz, Clay H. Barr, Mary Jane and Cabell Birdsong, Christina Goode, Virginia and John Hitch, Amy and Kirk Levy, Angelica and Henry Light, Ashlin and Wayne Wilbanks, Lisa Smith and Maurice Jones, Selina and Tom Stokes, and Anne Corso and Timothy Griffith
Object number2017.38
Collections
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 224
Label TextElias Sime Ethiopian, b. 1968 Tightrope: Yellow Season, 2017 Mixed media This seeming "tapestry" is actually a relief sculpture composed of several computer motherboards covered in braded, multicolored electronic wire. Growing up near an open-air market in Addis Ababa, Elias Sime was keenly aware of his neighbors who could turn discarded materials into useful, beautiful treasures. His practice connects to the forced ingenuity of his community, stemming from the lack of available resources and the expense of importing traditional art materials. And though one can marvel at the artist's imagination, Sime's works also tell a complex, global story of consumerism, consumption, and the exploitation of materials. Museum purchase with funds provided by Joe Waldo and Ashby Vail, Susan and David Goode, Oriana McKinnon, Penny and Peter Meredith, Meredith and Brother Rutter, Pam and Bob Sasser, Cynthia and Stuart Katz, Clay H. Barr, Mary Jane and Cabell Birdsong, Christina Goode, Virginia and John Hitch, Amy and Kirk Levy, Angelica and Henry Light, Ashlin and Wayne Wilbanks, Lisa Smith and Maurice Jones, Selina and Tom Stokes, and Anne Corso and Timothy Griffith 2017.38
