7 November 2015
Saturday afternoon saw Endale Desalegn meeting members of the Art Press from publications like Art SA. Walking them around his Two Social Pacifiers Exhibition he responded to questions about interpretation and explained aspects of his work to Journalist and Artist, Chepape Makgato.
For him the concept of the aleatoric is a presiding force in the making of his work so that incidental, arbitrary experiences heard during art production such as the barking of a dog or the sound of rain falling outside are recorded as written words on the surface of the painting in progress. He explains that Amharic is a language that relies on audition or the perception of sound. Often words in Amharic are derived from onomatopoeia and come into usage as a result of their resemblance to an action or the sound somebody or something makes. By incorporating these chance elements of life into his paintings he registers the mundane as a signifier, elevating its existence and marking the inconsequential.
Text by Linda Kocovaos