I looked up the verb EDIT in Thesaurus and I found the following synonyms: OVERSEE: run, manage, direct, control; CORRECT: revise, amend, change, alter, rework, rewrite, rearrange, rehash. And then I clicked on CONTROL and it read: manipulate, influence, dominate, oppress, dictate. I could not resist so I clicked on REARRANGE: reorganise, reorder, reposition, move, reshuffle.

I am thinking of history and how narratives are packaged and repackaged through time using the techniques of editing to serve the purposes of those in power. For the past decade or so, I have been exploring issues of history and identity through my paintings, drawings, collages and installations. My interest lies in the investigation of how both individual and collective identities are constructed or obliterated based on the manipulation of history and the fabrication of new narratives by politicians. I try to reflect on how those of us who happen to be on the receiving end process, consume and act upon a narrative or an aspect of it formulated for us.

EDIT is a body of work that stems from my own frustrations, confusions, fear and uncertainty I am experiencing at the moment due to the current socio-political situations both at home and around the world. Edit is a follow up of a series I started creating in 2014 (Background I, Lela Gallery, Addis Ababa (2014), Background II, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2015),
Quo Vadis, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2017) and is made up of six large format paintings featuring once again the back of the human figure.

I continue to work in layers whereby I start by covering the primed canvas with pages from old school exercise books impregnated with ‘regulated’, ‘inculcated’ and ‘acquired’ knowledge which in turn are effaced by coats of paint before I incorporate the figures and other elements. Since I have the habit of creating each time a series evolving from previous works, I have developed through the years a visual vocabulary made up of recurrent elements. I use car plates, archival letters, the back, the naked figure, insects and watches time and again to help me express ideas and emotions as well as depict situations. In my past works, the car plate was used to make mainly geographical references whereas in the current pieces the plate numbers written according to the Ethiopian calendar correspond to
significant moments in the history of my country.

The second body of work simultaneously featured in the current show is entitled Long Hands. It was born spontaneously out of EDIT to elaborate further on issues of politics and the manipulation of narratives. These are ten smaller format paintings that revolve around the expression “having long hands” (ረጅም እጆች) which in my language refers to power exercised in various forms by the few while affecting the lives of many.

Dawit Abebe, January 2020, Addis Ababa