Both Sides

Photograph

-

Purdue University Galleries

Name/Title

Both Sides

Entry/Object ID

2018.01.01

Description

Two African women sitting back-to-back dressed in black and white robes with geometric blue, black and white paint on their faces. They are laid up against a solid blue background with fabric string bananas hanging from the ceilings. There is a soft lighter glow in the middle of the background.

Photograph Details

Subject

Two women back-to-back in the center of the brightly colored background in black, white and blue.

Acquisition

Accession

2018.01

Source or Donor

Florence E. Lonsford Endowment

Credit Line

Lonsford Collection

Made/Created

Artist

Aida Muluneh

Date made

2017

Time Period

21st Century

Place

City

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Ethnography

Cultural Region

Country

Ethiopia, Africa

Continent

Africa

Notes

She was born in Ethiopia and her art is influenced on being an African woman

Edition

Edition

Memory of Hope (Both Sides)

Edition Size

7

Edition Number

1

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Secondary Object Term

Print, Photographic

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Photograph

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Graphic Documents

Nomenclature Class

Documentary Objects

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Other Names and Numbers

Notes

Risk Management list 2025.

Dimensions

Dimension Description

32 7/8 x 32 7/8

Height

32-3/4 in

Width

32-3/4 in

Parts

Photoprint and frame

Color

Blue, Yellow, White, Black

Provenance

Notes

Artist; [Jenkins Johnson Galley] San Francisco, CA; purchased through the Lonsford Fund in 2018

Exhibition

25: A Selection Works from Purdue Galleries’ Permanent Collection (2024)

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

Both Sides Aïda Muluneh Photograph, 2017 All of Aïda Muluneh’s models possess a regal intensity and poised strength, hints at their innate power and potential. The clothing and painted patterns which adorn them are coded and symbolic references to the different ethnic groups in Muluneh’s native Ethiopia. The prevalence of painted faces in Muluneh’s work alludes to the many masks that we all wear, whether for power, wealth, or acceptance. Through her works runs a vein of nostalgia, which the Ethiopian people call Tisita, celebrating the past while looking to the future. Muluneh is the founder of Desta for African Creative Consulting, a company which seeks to create a local talent pool of Ethiopian and African photographers through education and the dissemination of information. Muluneh asserts that when given the proper tools and instruction African communities are then able to go forth and document their own reality, providing a balanced perspective of Africa for the rest of the world to see.