As a person who moved between geographies (Ethiopia, U.S.A.) time and place are no longer singular for me. I am in a continuous dialogue negotiating “Here” and “There”, “Old” and “New”. These fragmentations are reconciled through the storytelling aspects of my work, as a means to connect multiple realities. For me, an imaginative relationship is necessary to adapt to a new environment, to embrace the here and now, and to connect with the ephemeral in the everyday. While collaging my past with present experiences, I attempt to make a third entity that is in both the past and the present in which places and time are continuously shifting.
In my work, I combine traditional and modern mediums. After painting/ drawing, I take a picture of it and build the next scene on top of it. After the desired exploration, I then edit the still images and make an animation. The tactile making of my work now only exists digitally, the singular authentic object is forever gone but its process has been documented, serving as an indexical vehicle connecting the past with the present.