Beyond wide-eyed angels: contemporary expressive culture in Ethiopia.(Cover story)(Report)

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Our intention in this issue is to present new research on Ethiopian expressive culture (1) that illuminates how some of the complexities of the modern experience, particularly within the post-Socialist period, influence art. To use a popular form of Amharic (2) rhetoric as metaphor, we hope to get at the seminna werq, the "wax and gold" of art making in Ethiopia (Levine 1972). (3) This term, which refers to the lost-wax casting process, is commonly found in Amharic poetry and song and in historical and contemporary discussions of politics. The "wax" refers to that which is obvious; the "gold" to that which is hidden. The "wax" is the fact that Ethiopian artists produce objects despite limited access to material and financial resources. In what is one of the world's lowest ranked countries on the human development index, people from more than seventy ethnic groups struggle to meet life's basic needs (United Nations Development Program 2007/2008:247). As we write this, thousands of Ethiopians are at risk of starvation due to famine. In a landlocked country with approximately eighty million people (the third highest population on the continent after Nigeria and Egypt), some of the hottest temperatures on earth, and great geographic diversity, droughts are inevitable (Pankhurst 1985/6). This paucity resonates among all of the country's cultural groups and shapes, to some degree, their material and performance-based expressions.

It is also obvious that specific types of artistic practices, namely those associated with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC), have come to be equated with "Ethiopian art," a status quo perpetuated by academic and popular texts alike and by museum displays in the West. As Raymond Silverman has argued, the country's myriad other "traditions of creativity" are often ignored (1999:3). (4) For example, in 1977 Stanislaw Chojnacki wrote, "Ethiopian art is almost exclusively religious and essentially Christian" (1977:44). Thirty years later, the Waiters Art Museum toured "Angels of Light: Ethiopian Art from the Waiters Art Museum," an exhibition focused exclusively on objects related to the practice of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity despite the seemingly more inclusive title. The "gold" we hope to reveal is twofold. This issue presents three articles that address some of the multiple forms of artistic expression that exist beyond the EOC and by extension, art practices that address non-Christian traditions. The other four articles offer new approaches to the study of Ethiopian Orthodox Christian art. By joining secular and sacred artforms and performance-based expressions, fields that have rarely been examined within the same tome, we hope to offer the reader a fuller appreciation of the diverse cultural expressions of Ethiopia within the broader framework of African art. (5)

When we began to formulate this special issue, we asked ourselves: what do readers of African Art know about the artistic practices and traditions of Ethiopia? Many enjoyed the first major US exhibition by an Ethiopian Orthodox church painter when "Painting Ethiopia: The Life and Work of Qes Adamu Tesfaw" opened at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Many may also have wandered through "Continuity and Change: Three Generations of Ethiopian Artists" at the University of Florida's Harn Museum during the last ACASA Triennial. And Ethiopian artists such as Zerihun Yetmgeta (who won the grand prize at Dak'art in 1996), Wosene Kosrof, and Skunder Boghossian have been featured in this journal. Yet the majority of artists who have graduated from what is now the Addis Ababa University School of Fine Art and Design (SFAD; for the history of this institution see Achamyeleh Debela 2007) and the rural artists working throughout the country continue to create beyond our sphere of academic attention and certainly beyond the international market for African art.

Herein, seven scholars examine some of the emerging practices and the cultural structures that support artistic activity within Ethiopia but that are little known to the outside art world, whether academic or commercial. All of them examine shifts in art production and consumption, particularly with the advent of the post-Socialist regime (1991-present) during which Ethiopia has experienced an opening-up to the West and a significant increase in tourism. Elisabeth Biasio's contribution provides a comprehensive overview of the transition from church-based painting to the production of canvas paintings with increasingly secular themes for foreign clients. She refers to this latter genre as "contemporary painting in traditional style" (Biasio forthcoming). Neal Sobania and Raymond Silverman address the role of patronage and the art market in the production of innovative Christian painting and sculpture in Aksum, former capital of the Aksumite empire and now a major tourist destination in northeastern Ethiopia. Makda Teklemichael (6) highlights the lives and works of six women painters and sculptors who work as academically trained artists or within the EOC tradition. Despite the challenges they face, these women artists continue to create and survive in highly competitive male-dominated markets. Briana Simmons explores the consumption and display of imported Christian chromolithographs, today increasingly used by Orthodox practitioners to construct simultaneously a religious and a modern identity. While these contributors study traditions that are historically rooted in the EOC, Peri Klemm examines three new body arts made and worn by Muslim Oromo women near the Islamic center of Harar. She explores how these forms satisfy women's fashion sense while reinforcing and communicating cultural values. In another article on Muslim arts from Harar, Belle Asante Tarsitani demonstrates how changes in economic wealth and imported materials have impacted the production and consumption of Harari basketry, which continues to serve as a key marker of Harari ethnic identity. She demonstrates how younger weavers are constantly reinterpreting their art as meanings and materials shift through time. Lastly, Leah Niederstadt focuses on circus performances throughout Ethiopia as a means of disseminating information about social challenges such as early marriage and HIV/AIDS. While contributions on dance, drama, music, and ritual are admittedly lacking in this special issue, her discussion of children's circuses pays homage to the country's important performance arts traditions (Plastow 1996, 1998, 2004) and alerts readers to the need for future study in this direction (see Shelemay 1980, 1982a, 1982b, 1991).

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These contributions share a number of themes surrounding the creation and production of Ethiopian expressive culture, themes that are useful for discussions of contemporary practices throughout the continent. These themes include the process of commercialization of artistic practices, including the establishment of a capitalist art market; the effects of new materials/practices and foreign aesthetic preferences on art production and use; the emergence of middlemen; and the role of art as a ...