Tsedaye Makonnen: Sanctuary :: መቅደስ :: Mekdes

Tsedaye Makonnen is a Washington, D.C.–based Ethiopian American artist. In the seven sculptures featured in this exhibition, she explores the dehumanization of Black women, femme people and their communities, finding connections in form, and themes related to the power of motherhood and sisterly solidarity.

Her seven light tower sculptures are made up of 50 boxes, each named after an individual lost to violence, enshrining their names with love as a form of comfort and solidarity, with a sense of hope for a different future.

Makonnen envisioned the central installation in this exhibition, Senait & Nahom | ሰናይት :: እና ::ናሆም | The Peacemaker & The Comforter, while she was an artist in residence for the National Museum of African Art as a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow. The sculptures are in dialogue with artworks from across the Horn of Africa’s history drawn from the museum’s collection, which the artist selected with curator Kevin D. Dumouchelle.