Description
Acrylic on canvas, Dereje Shiferaw (Ethiopian, born 1976)
Note Without Sound, 2025
100 x 100 cm
In Note Without Sound, Dereje Shiferaw explores the subtle space between expression and silence through a vibrant interplay of colour, texture and gesture. Blocks of vivid red, turquoise, deep blue and green emerge against a warm, pale background, creating a layered composition that balances visual intensity with moments of openness and restraint.
Across the canvas, black zigzag lines and rhythmic marks resemble fragments of an unfamiliar language or musical notation, suggesting messages that exist beyond the limits of spoken words. These gestures interrupt the composition’s geometric forms, introducing movement and a sense of underlying tension. The layered surface evokes traces of printed text and accumulated memories, hinting at the structures through which meaning is recorded, communicated and sometimes lost.
The contrast between the painting’s bold colours and its fragmented marks invites reflection on the many ways we communicate without speaking. In Note Without Sound, silence becomes an expressive presence in itself: a space where memories linger, emotions remain unspoken and meaning emerges through subtle gestures rather than explicit words.
Signed ‘Dereje (front)
Provenance: Direct from the artist
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