Tightrope 9

Artist Elias Sime Ethiopian, born 1968, Addis Ababa

Date2009–2014

MediumReclaimed electronic components on panel

DimensionsSix panels, overall: 63 x 236 1/2 in. (160 x 600.7 cm)

ClassificationsMixed Media

Credit LinePurchased with funds from Mr. and Mrs. N. Richard Miller in memory of Martin B. Rosenthal, by exchange

Object number2015.38/a-f

On View

On view

Label TextSime has said that Tightrope 9’s title "refers to the precarious balance a city must maintain to survive and thrive," and many of his works look like bird’s-eye views of massive, sprawling cities. Such aerial positionality allows us to zoom out from the minutiae of repurposed electronic waste, gathered in Addis Ababa’s Merkato (open-air market) but shipped from Western countries, to consider its global impact in an accelerated consumer culture.

Here, batteries, bottle caps, and dismembered cell phones weave a narrative of objects that speak louder than words about, as Sime puts it, the "troubled relationship between countries that create tremendous e-waste and those that process it."

ProvenanceCreated Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2009–2014; collection of the artist; [James Cohan Gallery, New York]; sold to NCMA, 2015.Published ReferencesNorth Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection," (Raleigh, NC; North Carolina Museum of Art, 2024), illus. (color) 78-79.Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, James Cohan Gallery, “Elias Sime,” September 10–October 17, 2015.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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