Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
Compromise
Aïda Muluneh
Photograph, 2017
The work of Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh sits at a crossroads between traditional and modern sensibilities. She approaches each photograph as though it were a film production, casting characters and designing, lighting, and styling sets that come together to create colorful, eye-catching afro-futurist compositions.
Muluneh takes inspiration from traditional forms of adornment and body painting from across Africa, as well as documentary photographs of Ethiopia from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She uses her works as a visual diary, expressing her inner feelings and exploring the dualities of sorrow and joy, pain and beauty.
Both of Muluneh’s works included in this exhibition come from her Memory of Hope series which explores the realities of living in America through the lenses of gender and race.
“As we age, hope at times becomes illusive while in our youth it was a distant mirage in the desert of optimism. Like the longing for a lover’s kiss, we used to embrace hope with excitement and fervor for what was right and what was wrong in this world. Now we stand at the shores of the future, see- ing in the distance the memory of hope.”