A visual artist, EZRA WUBE has a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts College of Art (USA) and a master’s degree from Hunter College in New York. He works with drawing, collage, painting, performance, video and animation, thematizing the strangeness provoked by the culture of artificiality. Since 2015 he has organized the Addis Video Art Festival, an international video art platform in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His major exhibitions include the biennials of Lyon (2015) and Dakar (2014) and individual shows at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, USA (2018), and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York (2014 and 2017).
In the video HIDIRTINA / SISTERS (2018), seven immortal sisters live in harmony with forest animals. They are rarely spotted by humans, especially with the increasing urbanization. One day two of them come across a hunter. When he aims at a grazing deer, one of them warns him that killing the animal will bring down on him a great curse. The hunter ignores the warning–and shoots. The other sister, in love with the man, tries to save him from misfortune by pointing out a tree that can protect him. The hunter makes an amulet from the tree, carrying a branch with him and thus living many years. One day the amulet falls into the river and is carried away by the current. Before he can defend himself, vultures swoop down from the sky, tearing the hunter apart and devouring him. This story,of the Habesha people,was collected by Ezra Wube among the immigrant community of New York. The stop-motion animation is part of the artist’s project to collect and share the dreams and knowledge of this cultural heritage.