Photo of Melaku Belay and Tamrat Gezahegne, by Mesfin Abebe

I need people to have their own visual experience,

to interpret the images for themselves, and

to have a dialogue with themselves.

- Tamrat Gezahegne

Lucy (Painted on mud mixed with acrylic)

Lucy goes back 3 million years.

She is deep memory for us.

We all know Lucy.

I deliberately placed the bones -

head, pelvis, ribs -

to shift away from the known image.

I want to remind people

they can create their own image in their minds.

Danteil on Radio

Bright-colored danteil (ዳንቴል)

Homemade crochet

How we show respect

by covering religious pictures or a radio

in our homes

Kubet (ኩበት cow dung mixed with grass, framed)

I bought the cow dung in Addis Ababa

at a local market between Arat Kilo and Shero Meda.

People are amazed by the kubet;

They don’t expect it to be in a fancy frame.

But seeing kubet evokes layers of feelings

and memories for Ethiopians,

because we grow up with this.

We buy cow dung from the market and use it for fuel

to bake injera or dabo.

It is ancient knowledge to use kubet for fuel or fertilizer.

I don’t know who invented this.

There is a lot of cow dung in the countryside.

People mix it with water

to paint the inside of the house.

It has its own beauty -

a dark greenish color.

A natural beauty, especially

with the incense burning in the house.

It’s very beautiful.

Mud (on concrete)

I prepared the mud from soil and water,

the traditional way – no chemicals.

I stirred and mixed it for 6 days before it was ready.

I made geometric patterns with the mud on the concrete wall

To represent the urban, where

mud houses are giving way to concrete buildings.

Mud has been used to build in Ethiopia -

be it Menelik’s palace or local houses.

The walls are made of mud mixed with dry grass.

In Tigray, the stones are bound together

by mud

to keep the houses standing

for centuries.

Dots and Lines (white paper Mache)

The dots are meditation:

focus, contemplation, prayers.

They are the moments

when you connect to yourself,

when you listen to yourself.

Like the rosary beads, they arrive

again and again.

The dots are mixed with the lines:

Everything has its own end and beginning.

Sound Memories (Found objects)

The round metal plate

was the top of a tool box

that belonged to a metal repair man.

I bought it from him.

Imagine

when it was new,

it must have been flat and shiny.

But he patched it up over and over again.

Imagine

the layers of sounds

Stored in its memory.

The slotted metal plates and wired metal basket

Held charcoals, burned

to make bunna and melt incense.

Imagine

the sound of flames licking the metal,

of charcoal dust falling through the slots

when swirls of incense adorn the air.

Imagine

the crackling of the wood when it was burned.

Imagine

the swishing of this broom against someone’s floor.

Imagine

The notes that come out of a saxophone

when musicians push down buttons that are perfectly round -

black and gold.

Decorated Wooden Stick (stick, fabric and paper Mache)

Respect.

Patterns.

When you enter a sacred space,

you see things with patterns.

Patterns bring out the contemplative spirit.

I need my work to take people to that feeling.

At the same time,

people also interpret it on their own.

A Small Part of A Tree

I like its organic shape.

I mixed it with geometric objects,

such as a frame.

What do you see?

Saint Yared’s Nota

The father of Ethiopian music

Saint Yared

created musical notes in the 6th century.

I melded his 10 notes with Western music notes

to create this new stage background in Fendika.

Perhaps some musicians will be inspired by the image

and make new music in the future.

Who knows?

My work is …

Coalescence

Bringing together

Images and sounds

Shapes and lines

Lifeways, knowledge, thoughts

Stories, poetry

Mutual acceptance

Human with nature

People with each other -

Urban or rural

Ethiopian and elsewhere

Going hand in hand

Photo by Haymanot HonelgneFor more about this installation, please see “The Story Told by a Fendika Table” — Photo by Haymanot Honelgne
For more about this installation, please see “The Story Told by a Fendika Table”

At Fendika

You hear indigenous music of Ethiopia,

but also experimental music.

Like in my work, there is a

coalescence

of rural and urban,

organic and geometric.

People come to Fendika to share ideas.

I come to listen to music and

to meet my friends

every Monday and Friday night.

I used to sit by this table at Fendika;

It started telling me its story, its journey.

Touched by the table’s contemplation,

I turned it into art on Fendika’s wall.

During the day,

I come here

whenever I feel inspired to work.

I’m creating a new work for the ceiling of the pavilion –

invented alphabet symbols based on

my studies

of many cultures of Ethiopia.

I met Melaku before 2014 when Netsa Art Village was

demolished.

He used to visit the Village.

Now there is rapid construction in Addis.

They want to demolish traditional houses (like Fendika).

We can encourage people to keep our houses like this

by making them into art.

If there is art in the house, it becomes art.

Then demolishing the house

will be at the level of demolishing art.

Maybe

we’ll have a chance to keep the house.

To learn more about Tamrat’s work, please visit his website: tamratgezahegne.com

Tamrat Gezahegne: Making Art at Fendika, Making Fendika into Art

FENDIKA CULTURAL CENTER