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To be alive is to walk through the many experiences that life gives with pure consciousness, passion, and rigorous act of rebellion towards one’s path. An artist is an individual that observes the neglected truth of his own existence and gives meaning to life using tools of his own artwork. That’s what the artist did with his own painting collection themed ‘the footpath’, referring to chance encounters or unplanned arrangements resulting from thoughts or arrangements that coincidentally present themselves as one goes by their daily life. The exhibition features 17 paintings completed by Engdaget Legesse, the german based Ethiopian visual artist with over 20 years of experience.
As interacting with the paintings made from mainly dominant and vibrant colors, each compacted with its own theme and color, the front entrance objectifies colors of yellow strapped with brown and vague green, in the opposite, there are two groups placed differently with dominant contraction color red and shades of blue and on the opposite ends there are two groups of paintings facing each other with bold purple color and shades of green. the interweaving shreds of canvas with multicolor strips highlight the movement of everyday experience.
The story takes you into the journey of life, upbringing, and setbacks, with bold colors it magnifies the pain and suffering as well the euphoria of life upbringings. With an abstract interaction, the paintings tell a story in a precise manner relating to human conditions. It shows the rebel’s journey to the fullest and his progress into accepting the absurdity. And yet again it tells us the struggle of the rebel and his defeat moving towards absurdity.
The artist told a story of his interaction with life itself but as one looks at it, transferring the same message to the observer deeply feeling the same fundamental emotional rollercoaster. The paintings’ unique patterns and the blending of different materials into the canvas gave it a real and perplexing feeling to our perception of reality.
The experience of the painting’s feeling gives a vibrating mood to the room, with bright and dim colors blending with exotic materials attached to them. It expresses the bizarre encounters in life and tends to give meaning to them. The footpath exhibition is open at Goethe Institute until August 24, 2021.
