Hundreds of independent art and museums spaces were forced to close due to the Corona-Crisis. In this series we are celebrating the fantastic artistic events that are right now sitting behind closed doors. Liberty is Adiskidan Ambaye’s first solo exhibition at Addis Fine Art which now continues online and can be glimpsed here.
Installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
For Adiskidan Ambaye, sculpture and drawing are deeply interwoven. The abstract sculptures she produces are nearly always preceded by gestural two-dimensional works, which delineate the foundations for her three-dimensional compositions.
The wooden sculptures appear moulded from a single block of wood but are actually composed of as many as sixty handcrafted smaller slices of plywood. The ringed markings orbiting the surface of each segment represent an individual piece fused to form the whole. Ambaye has described this process as sculpting “from the inside out”. These cyclical markings also conjure images of the naturally occurring concentric circles found in trees, signifying age, and life and death, as they are only visible once the tree has been cut down.
Installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Embrace II, installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Shield, Installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Liberty, installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
Solitude, installation view of Liberty by Adiskidan Ambaye at Addis Fine Art gallery, Addis Ababa, 2020. Photo by Eyerusalem Jiregna.
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![(clockwise) Manyaku Mashilo, Passage to Prayer (detail), 2023. Credit: Hayden Phipps & Southern Guild Archives. Courtesy of the artist; Tatenda Chidora, Self isolation II, 2021. Ilford Gold fibre Pearl 290gsm, 102cm x 132cm. Courtesy of the artist; Anaïs Cheleux, Mas Maten, Guadeloupe, shot on digital camera, 2016. Courtesy of the artist; Glicéria Tupinambá, Manto tupinambá [Tupinambá Mantle], 2023. Courtesy of the artist. Foto: Glicéria Tupinambá; Elizabeth Catlett, African American, 2009, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, © Elizabeth Catlett Family Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023, photo: Axel Schneider.](https://contemporaryand.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Bildschirmfoto-2024-12-19-um-21.08.13-480x300.png)
