Elias Sime: Eregata እርጋታ

16 Mar-8 Sep 2024

Elias Sime, Tightrope Evolution 1, 2017. Credit: Courtesy the artist and James Cohan Gallery. Photo Adam Reich.

Overview

This spring, multi-disciplinary artist Elias Sime comes to Hastings with his first major solo show in Europe.

Elias’s work has been shown around the world and will feature prominently at the 2024 Venice Biennale. His approach to both life and art, epitomised by Eregata እርጋታ, feel vital in the present moment.

Elias deftly weaves, layers and assembles carefully selected everyday materials, transforming commonplace items into lyrical abstract compositions. He often creates intricate works from electronic components – including circuit boards, computer keys, wires and megaphones.

The exhibition will focus on the last decade of Elias’s career with over 25 works on display, including his landmark series Tightrope (2009-present) and the ceramic installation Bareness (2014), made up of 192 clay vasals.

The exhibition’s title Eregata እርጋታ emerges from the artist’s language, Amharic, and is translated by Elias to the English word serene. For Elias, eregata reflects a recognition that our minds are never truly still or silent: “we struggle to stop and sleep because our brains are constantly stimulated by technology – we are constantly moving faster not slower.”

Elias’s work flows against this tide, embracing a notion of slowness – “My art is slowing it down. The work forces me to slow down” – as he takes years to transform carefully sourced materials to explore local and global issues around sustainability, materiality and the impact of technology.

Elias Sime: Eregata እርጋታ originated at Arnolfini, UK, and is a collaboration with Hastings Contemporary and Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Germany.

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