The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington is showing Sanctuary :: መቅደስ :: Mekdes, an installation by Tsedaye Makonnen, as an ongoing presentation. The museum describes the gallery as a place for quiet, safe reflection.
Makonnen is an Ethiopian American artist based in Washington, D.C. She conceived the central installation while in residence at the museum as a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow. The work honours the memory of Black women and femme people and addresses histories of violence against Black women around the world.
The installation is made up of seven towers of light assembled from 50 boxes, each named after an individual; in all, the work names more than 50 people affected by ongoing crises. The towers take their form from the monumental steles at Aksum, capital of the ancient Christian kingdom, while their faces are laser-cut with the outlines of Coptic crosses that Makonnen studied in the museum’s collection and archives.
The artist connects the piece to Ethiopian and Eritrean codes of spiritual protection and healing. She has said she wants to honour the people it names, “who were lights unto themselves and their communities.”
The towers are shown in dialogue with works from across the history of the Horn of Africa. The museum’s selection includes Ethiopian Orthodox hand and processional crosses, a prayer staff finial and icons, as well as Spirit of Sisterhood by Aida Muluneh, which the museum presents in relation to the theme of sisters in Ethiopian art.
According to the museum, the exhibition continues Makonnen’s search for shared forms and themes across time and artworks, above all the power of motherhood and sisterly solidarity. She envisioned the space as a refuge, in which the names enshrined in the towers speak in tones of both comfort and fury, solidarity and action.
