A native of Ethiopia, Betelhem Makonnen is an artist living in Austin, TX, with a MFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in History and Literature of Africa/African Diaspora from UT Austin. Her work includes photography, video, installation and text, shown nationally and internationally – including
The Contemporary Austin, The Philbrook Museum of Art,
Big Medium, Women & Their Work, Le Musée des Abattoirs, and The Carver Museum, with performances and screenings at The Blanton Museum, IVAHM, and Casa Daros. Her work has been featured in a variety of publications including Artforum, NYT, Frieze, Hyperallergic, Zoetrope, O Menelick 2º Ato, Revista Lampejo, and Glasstire. In addition to her practice she co-organizes Addis Video Art Festival, a platform for video art in Ethiopia, and is a co-founder member of the Austin-based arts collective Black Mountain Project.
The Contemporary Austin, The Philbrook Museum of Art,
Big Medium, Women & Their Work, Le Musée des Abattoirs, and The Carver Museum, with performances and screenings at The Blanton Museum, IVAHM, and Casa Daros. Her work has been featured in a variety of publications including Artforum, NYT, Frieze, Hyperallergic, Zoetrope, O Menelick 2º Ato, Revista Lampejo, and Glasstire. In addition to her practice she co-organizes Addis Video Art Festival, a platform for video art in Ethiopia, and is a co-founder member of the Austin-based arts collective Black Mountain Project.
A continual blending of anthropological, philosophic,
and historical (both personal and collective) inquiries provides the platform for the development of the conceptual foundation of my practice. My works in photography, video and installation translate perception, presence, and place within a trans-temporal and trans-spacial topology that operates on the relational dynamics of an African diasporic consciousness.
With unfixed and many-ed points of departure, I use strategies of (re)combinations and (re)configurations to activate in-between spaces existing in paradoxes, feedback loops and sites of connection. My ultimate interest is to unsettle time and space beyond reductive sensorial logics into fugitive perceptual experiences.
and historical (both personal and collective) inquiries provides the platform for the development of the conceptual foundation of my practice. My works in photography, video and installation translate perception, presence, and place within a trans-temporal and trans-spacial topology that operates on the relational dynamics of an African diasporic consciousness.
With unfixed and many-ed points of departure, I use strategies of (re)combinations and (re)configurations to activate in-between spaces existing in paradoxes, feedback loops and sites of connection. My ultimate interest is to unsettle time and space beyond reductive sensorial logics into fugitive perceptual experiences.
Photo by Moyo Oyelola