City Stories

Ezra Wube (b. 1980, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) creates lively mixed media animations made from painting, collage, objects, and paper cutouts that narrate scenes of daily urban life across Brooklyn, Addis Ababa, and other cities around the world. Mixing audio recordings of the clamoring sounds of the places he profiles with shifting, cumulative collages, Wube brings to the fore the spirit of different locations.

Flatbushtopia (2017) is a portrait of the Flatbush, Brooklyn neighborhood surrounding King County Hospital. To realize the work, Wube invited the public to draw the streets surrounding the hospital; the drawings could then be changed by the next person. Menged Merkato (2016) is named after an essay by Emanuel Admassu that makes an architectural analysis of Merkato, Africa’s largest open-air market, located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Admassu is a professor of architecture who also writes about the relationship between global art and the African diaspora. At the Same Moment (2013) is a highly relatable snapshot of the artist’s daily commute, which shows fellow commuters, rainy waits for the bus, passing subway cars, and the inevitable jog to catch the train.

Organized by Melanie Kress, High Line Art Associate Curator.