Things we carry by Daniel Abera
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Acrylic , marker and collage on canvas
Dimensions: 90 x 100 cm
Year: 2026
Price: $2400.00 USD
Status: available
“Things We Carry” grew from my reflection on the invisible weight each of us brings into daily life: memories, expectations, identities, responsibilities, and the constant stream of images that shapes how we understand ourselves. I wanted to capture the uneasy balance between moving forward and being pulled back by everything we have accumulated. The tumbling screens and devices form a restless burden, crowded with fragments of information and experience. I built them through acrylic, marker, and collage, allowing sharp outlines and overlapping forms to create a sense of pressure and motion. Beside this weight, the elongated figure continues onward through a landscape of palms, flowers, buildings, and electrical lines. Her patterned red clothing carries warmth and vitality, while the vivid greens and blues suggest a world that remains alive beyond the noise. For me, this work asks a quiet question: what belongs to us, and what are we carrying simply because we have forgotten how to put it down? I hope viewers recognize something of their own journey here and feel invited to pause, sort through the burden, and make room for what truly matters.
Why collect this work?
A diagonal avalanche of screens presses against a solitary walking figure, turning accumulated media into a burden that is both physical and informational.
- Abera’s profile describes a practice concerned with memory, identity and everyday environments. Here, those concerns converge in familiar devices whose crowded presence makes personal experience difficult to separate from received images.
- In the photograph, dark, angular electronics dominate the centre while the elongated figure occupies a narrow strip at right. Palms, flowers, buildings and power lines prevent a simple nature-versus-technology reading: both systems surround the figure’s movement.
- The documented acrylic, marker and collage on canvas enable different visual registers. Heavy outlines bind the tumbling objects together, while patterned passages and abrupt overlaps intensify compression without requiring consistent perspective.
- Catalogued at 90 by 100 cm and dated 2026, the work gives concrete form to the artist’s stated question of what people continue to carry. It can anchor discussion of how digital consumption becomes entangled with memory, responsibility and urban life.
About the Artist
Daniel Abera
Daniel Abera is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: Mixed media painting. Based in Addis ababa, ET.
Nationality: Ethiopian
My practice explores memory, identity, and collective experience through everyday environments and objects.
