Compromise

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Compromise

Artist Aïda Muluneh (Ethiopian, born 1974)

Date2017

Dimensions31 1/2 × 31 1/2 in. (80 × 80 cm)

MediumArchival digital print

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LineFrederick B. and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund

Object number

2018.58

Not on View

Label TextAïda Muluneh’s richly hued photographic works create nuanced portraits that counter the stereotypical visuals entrenched in what Nigerian novelist Chimanda Ngozi Adichie famously referred to as “the single story” typically told about Africa that erases the multiplicities of narratives and experiences throughout the continent. For Compromise, Muluneh combines traditional Ethiopian body painting with bold colors and crisp geometric patterns. 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 she holds. As the artist explains, “The masking [with body paint] in my photographs is, in a sense, my attempt to uncover other masks and consider underlying truths.” Compromise is part of Muluneh’s series The Memory of Hope that explores the diminishing possibility of hope as one gets older. She began the series in 2017, a tumultuous year around the globe that revealed the darker realities beneath the surface of many societies. Muluneh states that we turn a blind eye to these difficult truths, so the series confronts us to “question ‘hope’ while we also provoke calls to action for a better world, for a better future, and are present as catalysts for change. The manifestation of this collection is to voice what we refuse to hear and to show what we refuse to see.”Exhibition HistoryWest Lafayette, Purdue University Galleries, Aïda Muluneh: Memory of Hope, February 27 -March 31, 2018. San Francisco, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Spring Selections, March 22 - May 31, 2018.