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Kemper Museum is a free art museum in Kansas City, Missouri that presents global contemporary art.

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Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art acknowledges it resides on the ancestral territory of the Osage, Kaw, and Otoe-Missouria, among other tribal nations forcibly moved to the region such as the Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) nations. We recognize and support the continued vibrancy of Native communities and cultures today who continue to thrive, as well as the inherent sovereignty of tribal nations. We are compelled to serve and advocate for these communities in accordance with our public mission.

Kemper Museum acknowledges and respects the diversity of Native people connected to this land today. Many recognize the land and all beings who live within it as relatives. We acknowledge the earth we inhabit, the waters of the Blue River, the Kansas River, the Missouri River, and the plants, animals, and people supported by them. 

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The first major museum exhibition to focus on the work of contemporary artist Elias Sime (Ethiopian, born 1968), Tightrope features more than two dozen works of art in varying scales and showcases brightly-colored tableaux and sculptural assemblages rooted in both the figurative and abstract modes of modern Ethiopian art.

Sime repurposes salvaged electronic components such as circuits and keyboards in his work to explore the precarious balance between the progress that technology has made possible and its detrimental impact on the global environment. The exhibition explores how devices intended to connect us have instead mediated our interactions while simultaneously creating massive amounts of e-waste. Sime’s work—like topographical maps or aerial perspectives of vast landscapes—also points to the natural pathways existing in the environment, revealing that the organic fibers which connect us are not unlike the inner workings of man-made machines. Deconstructing them can expose and demystify their internal dynamics, allowing for a new lyricism and energy to emerge.

Elias Sime: Tightrope is organized by the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, and will travel to the Akron Art Museum in Akron, Ohio; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri; and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.

Lead Sponsor
 The Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts, Commerce Bank, Trustee

Sustaining Sponsors
 Stephen and Barbara Abend
 Copaken Family Fund
 Norm Fretwell and Bev Haskins
 Morgenthaler Family Foundation


 Learn more about this exhibition on the Kemper Museum smartphone app, available at: kemperart.org/app.

Elias Sime, Tightrope: Surface and Shadow 2, 2016, reclaimed electronic components and buttons on panel, 108 ⅝ x 204 ⅝ inches. 
 Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, Ohio. © Elias Sime. Photo: Brian Pinkley

Elias Sime, Tightrope: On the Edge, 2015, reclaimed electronic components on eight panels, 48 x 258 ¾ inches. 
 Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection,
 Museum purchase made possible by a gift from the William T. Kemper Charitable Trust, UMB Bank, n.a., Trustee, 2016.02.01. 
 © Elias Sime, courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York. Photo: E. G. Schempf, 2019

Elias Sime, Tightrope 3, 2009–14, reclaimed electronic components and fiberglass on panel, 81 ½ x 195 inches. 
 Private collection, New York. © Elias Sime. Photo: Adam Reich Photography

Elias Sime, Tightrope: Behind the Beauty, 2017, reclaimed insulated wire on panel, 91 ¼ x 127 ¼ inches. 
 Collection of Scott Mueller, Cleveland, Ohio. © Elias Sime. Photo: Phoebe d'Heurle

Exhibition Preview

Elias Sime: Tightrope

Elias Sime, Tightrope: The Dominant, 2017, reclaimed insulated wire on panel, 109 ¾ x 142 ½ inches.
 Collection of Erica Tennenbaum and Alex Friedman, New York. © Elias Sime. Photo: Phoebe d'Heurle