Amasaka Gallery exhibition Patterns Through Time, features seventeen works from two contemporary artists based in Addis Ababa, Birhanu Manaye and Tibeb Sirak. The exhibition explores patterns as sequential repetitions in stylistic choices, behaviours, rituals, and occurrences in nature. In the works that make up the show, these patterns have been observed to have the potential to uplift and ensnare people and their communities.
Sirak, who grew up in Somalia, recognizes the visual patterns he was exposed to during his upbringing from East African heritage. “The textiles, the jewellery making, and traditional art forms that surround me have informed my visual language,” he says. In this exhibition and beyond, his works aim to preserve and interpret these patterns into a dialogue that reveals their connection with the human experience. Sirak describes this connection as “deeply embedded in how we live and interact within our societies.” For him, this connection is a source of stability. “In life, as in art, patterns create a sense of order in chaos. They help us navigate the complexities of our world, giving us something familiar to hold on to,” he explains. Sirak adds that rituals like religious ceremonies and family traditions fortify community and keep us “connect[ed] us to both our ancestors and our contemporaries.”
Ethiopian-born and raised artist Manaye reiterates that visual patterns exist all around us as powerful ways of understanding how culture is structured. “In Ethiopian art, we routinely use spiritual symbols as motifs, and these tell us what people choose to believe and how they abide by these beliefs,” he says. Manaye too acknowledges that visual patterns are just one way of engaging with culture, “the other way is in the stories we repeat to ourselves.” His sentiment echoes the deep entrenchment that Sirak refers to, but instead, Manaye positions it as something we ought to question. He shares; “my mother used to express her concern daily about the increased cost of living. It becomes normal to think that everyone is struggling to bring food to the table, it becomes part of the fabric of your reality. Inflation is now a normal part of Ethiopia or Africa, and really, all over the world.”
The variances in interpretation can also be seen in the use of space, colour, and texture in their works. Sirak plays with the contrast between bright colours and the wood’s natural colour. The dialogue between patterns in nature and human experience is depicted through his use of flower and plant stencils that act both as background and overlay. In a work titled “Patterns of Life IV, 2024,” he extends this dialogue to the patterns in language, with a halo-like object atop a figure’s head, adorned with what looks like Arabic lettering. Human figures are central and centred in his works with patterns enmeshed over them, which echoes his view of the symbiosis between patterns and the communities that nurture them.
Manaye’s work does not shy away from colour either, preferring to contrast one bright colour with another. Here too, audiences will recognize patterns that depict the natural world. In a work titled “Dreamcatcher,” the artist incorporates patterns that resemble roots or veins, and in “The Gaze” and “Yellow Fantasy” the patterns resemble the familiar curl pattern you’d see in science textbooks describing mitochondria. Human figures are incorporated in Manaye’s work too, but they are not centralized. Instead, they are overlaid against the patterns to create an effect that feels like recollection. “Holding Onto You” and “Sweet Blue,” in particular, where there are multiple fading impressions of the human figure, feel like they were pulled from someone’s memory.
What is a source of stability and safety to one, can be a prison to another. While Sirak’s pieces encourage a sense of harmony between pattern and subject, there is a palpable grit to Manaye’s pieces. Pieces like “A Way Out,” “The Gaze,” and “The Dreamcatcher” by Manaye communicate uncertainty and even anguish, whereas Sirak’s “ANIMA II” and “NAAG NOOL,” communicate confidence and trust. In addition to being in conversation with the audience, the two artists’ works are also in conversation with one another. This is a quality that Amasaka Gallery’s Communications Assistant, Sandra Kyomugisha cites as one of the reasons behind the decision to have a duo exhibition. She explains; “their work has similarities in that they both use acrylics and print, but their approach when it comes to how they interpret patterns has contrasts in a way that we thought would be most interesting if showcased at the same time.”
Both artists visualise this dialogue between patterns and way of life primarily through the medium of printmaking, one of the oldest and most enduring artistic practices. Many African contemporary artists have incorporated the technique in their own works, but Amasaka Gallery founder Collin Sekajugo points out that “young Ethiopian artists in particular have carved their own lanes through the medium.” He notes that most young artists are following in the footsteps of the likes of Ephraim Solomon, whose oeuvre is most notably made up of the print medium as a tool for socio-economic commentary.
For Tibeb woodcut print fosters a connection between him and the subject matter. He explains; “the physical act of carving into wood, a natural material, the manual labour and craftsmanship, gives me the freedom in the process of making the artwork.” He describes this feeling of freedom as one that allows him to enter a flow state; to be meditative in a way that mirrors the flow of the patterns he creates.
Birhanu enjoys the medium’s playfulness. “In printmaking, you don’t find mistakes,” he starts before adding, “or at least you don’t call them mistakes. You consider them chances to review yourself in a new way; to reform yourself.” He describes the process of making patterns as one where he gets to find himself in new ways as much as he gets to learn about the subject matter he is depicting. This fosters a sense of intimacy that is particularly fitting when engaging with themes that are as personal as heritage, memory, and ritual.
What Tibeb describes as freedom and Birhanu places as the refusal to frame his craft as a mistake, both allude to an experimental nature that emanates from their works. Sekajugo privileges art and artists who are willing to think out of the box and willing to make experimentation part of their process; it is a core value of the gallery. He shared his rationale; “at times I have felt like artists were not taking advantage of the locally found resources, both cultural content as well physical materials, so the gallery was founded on the ethos that artists could link their practices to the communities they inhabit.
Patterns Through Time serves as a visual reflection of the way patterns are entrenched in the artists’ own lives and surroundings. In this way, they invite the audience to practise this reflection too. The works in the exhibition stifle the urge to think of patterns as ordered, sanitised cycles and instead awaken audiences to the way our eyes and minds have adjusted to ways of being that are actually patterns that have endured.
For more information about the exhibition: https://www.amasakagallery.com/patternsthroughtime
About Author
Karen Chalamilla is a researcher and writer based in Dar es Salaam, with a keen interest in African art and (pop)culture. Her work explores art in all its forms, against political and identity considerations including race, gender, sexuality, and class.