Compromise
Artist: Aïda Muluneh (Ethiopian, born 1974)
Date: 2017
Dimensions:
31 1/2 × 31 1/2 in. (80 × 80 cm)
Medium: Archival digital print
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Frederick B. and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund
Object number: 2018.58
Label Text:"[O]ver time I began questioning depictions of Africans and African Americans in the mass media. It dawned on me how the supposedly neutral form of photography was a tool that had helped perpetuate stereotypical images of Black people globally and erased a complex past and future."
—Aïda Muluneh
In combining traditional Ethiopian body painting with bold colors and crisp geometric shapes and patterns, artist Aïda Muluneh celebrates her culture while also addressing broader issues of gender, identity, and the effects of colonialism as they relate to contemporary African women.
Compromise investigates the global question of freedom and civil liberties through unconventional and striking juxtapositions—the black and white striped background represents personal and societal attempts to confine access to rights. The model’s hands are painted a similar blue to the shade on the Ethiopian flag, where the color symbolizes peace, as does the white dove.
—Aïda Muluneh
In combining traditional Ethiopian body painting with bold colors and crisp geometric shapes and patterns, artist Aïda Muluneh celebrates her culture while also addressing broader issues of gender, identity, and the effects of colonialism as they relate to contemporary African women.
Compromise investigates the global question of freedom and civil liberties through unconventional and striking juxtapositions—the black and white striped background represents personal and societal attempts to confine access to rights. The model’s hands are painted a similar blue to the shade on the Ethiopian flag, where the color symbolizes peace, as does the white dove.
Not on view