NADA MIAMI | Booth D109

NEW Edition and Textiles by Tsedaye Makonnen

We are thrilled to present the triptych The One with a Soul by Tsedaye Makonnen. The screens were printed as unique works on textiles for the Africa & Byzantium groundbreaking exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and later editioned on paper with iridescent inks and a blend of blues, referencing the movement of people across bodies of water and manufactured borders. Each work includes a shared prayer written by three generations.

The Soul Is Set Free ::ነፍስን ነፃ ማውጣት Series by Tsedaye is an exploration of ancestral protection, migration and the universal connections across Black communities around the world. This textile and print series features the artists’ reimagination of sayings as poetic spells of protection and healing. This shared, intergenerational prayer, is interpreted by the artist, her mother, and her eldest son. Inspired by the tradition of dabtaras known as Ethiopian and Eritrean healing or magic scrolls, amulets and talismans; each work embodies layers of Amharic abstractly written by the artist in collaboration with her mother’s corrections of her imperfect translations and her son’s translations into English. These pieces meditate on state-sanctioned violence and the transhistorical forced migration of Black people, as well as reflecting on the power of our collective Black indigenous languages, cultures and spiritualities. 

The textile “scarves” in this Series carry their own migratory imprints and serve as protective "wombs." With Amharic translations altered by the artist’s imperfect grasp of the language, each work invites reflection on what is lost and preserved as culture adapts across borders. Through abstracted African designs and Ethiopic script, the artist creates a new unique visual language, layering generational voices and memory into each piece.

The prayer in The Soul Is Set Free :: ነፍስን ነፃ ማውጣት reads as follows:

The one with a soul (still alive) :: ነፍስ አለው

Come back :: ተመልሰዉ

Be careful :: ተጥንቀቅ

Travel in peace :: በሰላም ተጓዝ

Be blessed :: ተባረክ

The soul is set free :: ነፍስን ነፃ ማውጣት

about

Tsedaye Makonnen is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, researcher and cultural producer. Tsedaye’s practice is driven by Black feminist theory, firsthand site-specific research, and ethical social practice techniques, which become solo and collaborative site sensitive performances, objects, installations, and films. Her studio primarily focuses on intersectional feminism, reproductive health and migration. Tsedaye’s personal history is as a mother, the daughter of Ethiopian refugees, a doula and a sanctuary builder. 

In 2019 Tsedaye was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow and staged two interventions at the Venice Biennale titled When Drowning is the Best Option feat. Astral Sea I. In 2021 her light sculptures were acquired by the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art for their permanent collection and she published a book titled Black Women as/and the Living Archive. Tsedaye is the recipient of a permanent large-scale public art commission for the city of Providence. In the  Fall of 2022 she was invited to perform at the Venice Biennale for Simone Leigh’s ‘Loophole of Retreat: Venice and was  Clark Art Institute’s Futures Fellow. In Fall 2023, Tsedaye exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Africa and Byzantium,  The Walters Art Museum Ethiopia at the Crossroads where she is also the guest curator of contemporary works, Bard Graduate Center SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power, and Prestige, UT Austin If we are here. This 2024 in collaboration with DC Public Libraries, they are recent recipients of  the Library of Congress Connecting Communities Digital Initiative  award for Documenting the Ethiopian Communities of DC.  Additionally she has been commissioned to perform for MetLiveArts for the Africa and Byzantium exhibit, returning to Clark Art Institute as a research fellow and so much more. She is currently represented by Addis Fine Art. She lives between DC and London with her partner and children.