GRIMM
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Viewing Rooms
  • News
  • Publications
  • Contact
Cart
0 items €
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu
Elias Sime
Tightrope, Frans Halsstraat 26, Amsterdam (NL), November 23, 2018 - January 26, 2019

Elias Sime: Tightrope

Past exhibition
  • Installation Views
  • Press release
  • Press
  • Related content
Installation Views
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 1
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 2
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 3
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 4
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 10
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 7
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 8
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 9
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 11
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 6
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 12
  • Eliassime Tightrope Grimm 2018 Sm 13
Press release
Elias Sime, Tightrope

GRIMM is proud to announce Tightrope, the first solo exhibition by Elias Sime (1968, Addis Ababa, ET) in Europe. The exhibition will open on Friday November 23, during the Amsterdam Art Weekend Gallery Night.

Elias Sime creates reliefs featuring repurposed materials including thread, electrical wires, organic materials, and computer detritus. This exhibition highlights new and recent work from the artist’s Tightrope series. The title refers to the precarious balance between the advancements that technology has made possible and their detrimental impact on the environment.

The artist incorporates the refuse from consumer electronics, repurposing salvaged components such as circuits and keyboards to create abstract compositions. The materials he uses are sourced from the largest open-air market in Africa located in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where Sime’s practice is based. These works present an implicit commentary on the fact that countries in Africa are often the repositories of e-waste imported from elsewhere in the world and they point to the urgency of, and different approaches to, sustainability.

Sime is uncompromising in his method of constructing elaborate arrangements from ephemera. The artist braids used wires into roiling terrains with biomorphic features, transmuting discarded technology into a more enduring power source art. The craftsmanship and seemingly-effortless universalism of the works re-frame the iniquitous global processes that have resulted in their formation. His work functions as a prism and kaleidoscope, on the one hand fearlessly aesthetic; on the other, a platform to confront challenging topics, which Sime proposes are not mutually exclusive goals.

Opening: November 23rd, 2018 from 5 pm until 9 pm

Download Press Release
Press
  • Het afval van rijke landen (in Dutch)

    Kees Keijer, Het Parool, January 11, 2019
    This link opens in a new tab.
Related content
  • Het afval van rijke landen (in Dutch) Press

    Het afval van rijke landen (in Dutch)

    Het Parool January 11, 2019
    Read more

Related artist

  • Elias Sime

    Elias Sime

Back to exhibitions

Keizersgracht 241

1016 EA, Amsterdam

The Netherlands

2 Bourdon Street

London, W1K 3PA

United Kingdom

 

54 White Street

New York, NY 10013

United States

 

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
WeChat, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
Vimeo, opens in a new tab.
Manage cookies
© GRIMM, 2025
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences