03 march 2023, Flor Linckens
Elias Sime: A sculptural call for sustainability
Until 11 March, GRIMM in Amsterdam is showing a solo exhibition by the Ethiopian artist Elias Sime, whose work was shown in the Arsenale last year during the Venice Biennale. His practice deals with the delicate balance (a “tightrope”) between technological progress and its adverse environmental impact. Sime often uses consumer waste for his large-scale and complex reliefs, varying from discarded computer waste to organic material. Marked by striking texture and depth, his energetic and sculptural artworks are rooted in both the abstract and figurative traditions.
Sime's practice focuses on the impact of consumerism on people and the environment. The West exports waste on a large scale and at a rapid pace to countries such as Ethiopia — from synthetic clothing to e-waste — which is often toxic, causing a series of new problems. By using the material in his work, the artist says something about postcolonial relations and our disturbed relationship with nature. His works therefore become a symbol for a complex exchange on a global level, simultaneously highlighting the urgency of climate change. Yet for Sime, that is not the only interesting layer in the material. For him, it also symbolises the tension between tradition and technological progress, the physical versus the digital and the vulnerable and sometimes unpredictable ways in which technology both connects and polarises us.
For his dynamic works, Sime uses circuit boards, keyboards, buttons, plastic caps and telecommunication cables. He then skillfully weaves and layers these into three-dimensional wall mosaics. The materials he uses come from landfills as well as the largest open-air market in Africa: in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. In many cases, this material results in cheerfully coloyred wall works that sometimes consist of thousands of cables or other components. The final format of the work is determined intuitively and usually depends on when Sime feels he has been able to share the full story behind the material.
In some cases, nature is literally visible in his artworks: the sculptural wall works then resemble a vast topographical landscape, viewed from the air. Sime is often inspired for his work by the resilience and beauty of nature.
Visually, his works refer to modernist art, colour field painting and figurative art, as well as the Ethiopian visual language, for example in the form of textile prints. The artist uses orally transmitted, traditional arts and crafts techniques, which he learns through extensive research and conversations with Ethiopian communities. It is also a way for the artist to explore the origins of his artistic instincts. The use of traditional techniques lies in stark contrast with the mass-produced consumer electronics that he incorporates into his works. It ensures that his work carries a culturally specific element, in addition to a more universal character. To this end, Sime frequently collaborates with curator and anthropologist Meskerem Assegued, with whom he founded the Zoma Museum in Addis Ababa in 2019, an environmentally conscious art institute that includes a school, library and exhibition space.
The work of Elias Sime has been included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (Japan) and the Princeton University Art Museum, among others. In 2019, the artist received the African Art Award from the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and a year later he was nominated for the prestigious Hugo Boss Prize, a collaboration between the Guggenheim Museum and Hugo Boss.
