2, waiting (family)
Fabrics sewn on canvas
, 146 x 130cm, 2025
My new works are carefully composed pieces featuring human figures in various settings. Inspired by
characters that i bring across popular media, i have stripped them from any identifiers, placing them in
vibrant and floral scenes. While textile serves as my medium. Interested in the composition of women's
garments, how women assemble outfits, and the organic nature of street wear, my attempts to channel
the city's rhythm through the figures outfits. My choice of medium investigates the relationship
between the material, its origins, and its integration into Ethiopian culture and identity. With
globalization's effect on local customs of clothing in mind, my questions concepts like originality,
adaptation, and how people peacefully integrate mass-produced modern elements into ancient and
culturally rich traditions. The central question is if this integration causes internal identity conflicts or if
one seamlessly adjusts to these changes.
In this specific body of work, I explore how contemporary politics unsettles social unity and erodes
deeply rooted structures of collective integrity. Through fragmented forms and layered materials, the
work reflects the loss of head of the house for nonsense civil war that political forces impose on
everyday individual and social bonds. What once functioned as a shared fabric of values and mutual
responsibility becomes strained, fractured, and reconfigured, mirroring the lived experience of a society
negotiating instability. Rather than offering fixed conclusions, the work invites viewers to reflect on how
power, ideology, and governance permeate intimate social spaces and reshape the foundations of
communal life.