Elias Sime: TIGHTROPE ECHO!?: Gallery Exhibition at 48 Walker St

Elias Sime deftly weaves, layers and assembles materials into abstract compositions that suggest topography, figuration, and sublime color fields. The history of his materials hold meaning, as they are the backbone of all communication systems, whether they be telephone or computer. They suggest the tenuousness of our interconnected world, alluding to the frictions between tradition and progress, human contact and social networks, nature and the man-made, and physical presence and the virtual.

In this new chapter in the Tightrope series, the artist presents wall-based works that feature megaphones that have been embellished and affixed to the surface of the picture. The inclusion of this new element points to the artist’s interest in the way information can be successfully or unsuccessfully transmitted. Megaphones are used in large communal gatherings—both by activists demanding their rights and by law enforcement controlling the crowds—to project a message. Yet the series title, ECHO?! questions which voices are amplified.

“Through the title Tightrope, Sime recognizes the uneasy balance between the advances made possible by technology and the impact they have had on our humanity and environment, exploring how devices intended to connect us have mediated our interactions and lived experiences while creating massive amounts of e-waste. He deconstructs these modern means of communication to expose and demystify their internal dynamics, allowing a new lyricism and energy to emerge” - Tracy L. Adler 

"According to the artist, he does not give life to the materials in his works; he joins them on their journey through life. As he describes it, 'I don’t philosophize and think about whether I give the materials life or not. But, the moment I start playing with it is when [my life with it] begins. This is what makes me happy, the moment I start working with it.' His interactions with his materials are immersive and ongoing and extend to the manner in which he carries out research and pursues new techniques." - Karen Milbourne

TIGHTROPE: ECHO!? features a new sculpture inspired by the artist’s recent visit to the Cahokia Mounds of the ancient Mississippian city near modern-day St. Louis. For his exhibition Currents 118 at the Saint Louis Museum of Art in 2020, Sime created Tightrope: Eyes and Ears of a Bat (1), a large, bowl-shaped form covered in dense patterns made from braided, colored wires. The artist found a connection between the Cahokia Mounds, which were hand built from compressed clay, and his own architectural work at the Zoma Museum, which he built and co-founded with Meskerem Assegued in Addis Ababa. 

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¹ Tracy L. Adler, Johnson-Pote Director, "Introduction" in Elias Sime: Tightrope, exh. cat., co-published by Wellin Museum of Art and DelMonico Books • Prestel, 2020, p. 29

² Meskerem Assegued, "Elias Sime: Tightrope Echo!?," essay written on the occasion of the exhibition TIGHTROPE: ECHO!? at James Cohan, 48 Walker St, March 19 - April 24, 2021.

³ Karen Milbourne, "Personal Touch: Vital Materialism in the Work of Elias Sime," in Elias Sime: Tightrope, p. 69