Wendimagegn Belete
MISS AND HIT
The 2nd Floor Gallery
16.10.—16.11.2025

MISS AND HIT explores the entangled forces of destruction, resilience, and transformation through clay and image. Rooted in a simple ceramic traditions yet radically reimagined, the work combines intuitive hand-building tech­niques with a violent and unpredictable gesture: wet clay forms are shot with a hunting rifle. The ruptures created by impact remain as scars within the final sculptures, which are later fired at high temperatures. These works em­body a fragile balance—creation entwined with destruction; endurance held within fracture.

The process gestures toward broader histories of violence inflicted on bodies and land, while simul­tane­ously affirming resilience and regene­ration. By treating rupture as a site of possibility rather than loss, the work unsettles con­ven­tional narra­tives of preser­vation. Instead, it invites medi­tation on cycles of time and trans­for­mation, on how we come from the earth and will inevitably return to it. Echoing many Indi­genous traditions that regard time as non-linear, MISS AND HIT underscores a conti­nuous flow between past, present, and future.

As part of the exhibition, a photograph of the shooting process is presented on gray linen canvas, printed in retroreflective vinyl. The image resists passive viewing: it appears only when struck by light, activated by a camera flash. In this gesture, the work extends its dialogue with the gunshot—inviting the viewer to “shoot” the surface with light. The every­day camera, carried in every pocket, becomes a tool of revelation.

This interplay touches on the material as meta­phor. You cannot simply look, you must engage. You must shine light, take a picture, become implicated in the act of seeing and hitting. In doing so, the work mirrors the uncovering of buried histories, drawing attention to what is remembered, what is forgotten, and how technology (camera, flash, media) shapes perception.

The work is made during the residency in FABRIKKEN for Kunst og Design, Copenhagen, and shooting by Leif Tutavae Iversen.

Wendimagegn Belete (b. 1986, Ethiopia) is a multi­disci­plinary artist, and holds a MFA from the Academy of Arts, UIT The Arctic University Norway, Tromsø, in 2017, and BFA from ASFAD, Addis Abeba University, Ethiopia in 2012.  His work explores the complex interplay of culture, memory, identity, heritage, spirituality, and epi­genetic inheri­tance—a form of memory trans­­ferred across generations in uncon­ventional ways. His work has been exhibited across the world such as khg West Palm Beach, Miami USA, (2024); Kongsberg kunstforening (2024); Gallery NOME, Berlin (2024); Gwangju biennale, South Korea (2024); National Museum of Norway (2022); Bangkok biennale, Thailand, (2022); Trøndelag Center for Con­temporary Art, Norway (2023); Nord­norsk kunstner­senter, Norway, (2023). Currently he is a resident artist in New York at ISCP. He has been nominated for the 6th edition of the Future Generation Art Prize and the Spare­bankstiftelsen DNB Art Prize 2019.