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Mickaël Bethe-Selassié (b. 1951) is an Ethiopian sculptor known for his work in papier mâché. He left Ethiopia after graduating from high school in 1970, studying science in college. He turned to sculpture at the age of 30, and currently lives and works in Paris. Some of his work is in the collection of the National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC.
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The most arresting quality of Kenfe Michael's sculptures is that of the medium and the technique. Papier-mache has been used in a wide variety of applications, from elaborately decorated furnishings, or the simplest playful figurines and masks, to functional objects such as prefabricated papier-mâché houses and nose cones for fighter planes, until it was replaced by mass-production techniques of plaster and plastic. Kenfe Michael appropriately exploits papier-mâché, which has not been used, strictly speaking, as an artistic medium either by Ethiopians or by other artists, to the maximum. Newspaper, which since the turn of the century has been the basic material for development of papier-mâché, although the papier-mâché technique is as old as papermaking, is still the preferred material for Kenfe Michael's works. And Paris supplies the material in abundance. DEBRE HAYQ
