Instagram story viewer> @tsedaye> Posts
Tsedaye • ፀደይ • Studio(@tsedaye)'s profile avatar HD Profile

Tsedaye • ፀደይ • Studio

@tsedaye

7K
followers
5296
following
tsedaye.com @phillipscollection @labiennale
@smithsonian_africanart @thewaltersartmuseum @mellonfoundation
POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED
Download All
My 2019 light sculptures ‘Senait & Nahom | ሰናይት :: እና :: ናሆም | The Peacemaker & The Comforter‘ acquired by @smithsonian_africanart in 2021 for their permanent collection WILL BE ON VIEW IN ITS VERY OWN GALLERY STARTING DECEMBER 13th. I have named the entire gallery/installation: ‘Sanctuary :: መቅደስ :: Mekdes’. (Thank you @bahimisha for brainstorming with me on this) Thank you NMAfA team from 2019 til now: @kddumouchelle & @kemilbourne & Dana Moffett & Kevin Etherton & Janet Stanley and so many more, the @smithsonian institution, my studio team @aishanailah & @elizabethalamb and the countless people that had a hand in contributing to the life of this work, my practice and my kids🙏🏿. It’s surreal to be exhibiting at a museum that I grew up regularly going to on field trips and family outings. It really shaped who I am as a child of the African diaspora, an artist, researcher and cultural producer. More deets & images soon. RP @smithsonian_africanart Here’s a sneak peek at our newest exhibition “Tsedaye Makonnen—Sanctuary :: መቅደስ :: Mekdes,” opening Dec. 13. Featuring seven sculptures by D.C.-based Ethiopian American artist Tsedaye Makonnen ( @tsedaye ), it explores the invisibility and violence that Black women and their communities are often subjected to, finding connections in form and themes related to alternate depictions of the power of motherhood and sisterly solidarity. Makonnen’s seven light-tower sculptures at the center of the exhibition 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 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 permanent collection. Plan your visit to be among the first to see the magnificent display. #NMAFA #SmithsonianAfricanArt Photographs by Brad Simpson, 2024 National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution taken in National Museum of African Art by @tsedaye
80
2 years ago
Download
Now on permanent display @thewaltersartmuseum in the Medieval gallery, a new commission titled: "Sacred :: የተቀደሰ :: Yetekedse" Artist Statement - East African spiritual codes have spoken to me my entire life. They are indigenous to what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea, a region with deep reverence for and faith in the sacred, a culture that has taught me to see the divinity in all things. These structures are also inspired by the sacred architecture of places like Lalibäla and the monumental processional crosses that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church uses in ceremonies at these holy sites. These ethereal symbols resonate beyond the region and the religion not only because they are fractals and carry the imprint of the Universe within each design, but also because similar patterns exist across the African diaspora.  My research threads together spiritualities across borders and peoples, with a focus on East to West Africa and across the Black Atlantic. Having parents who migrated to the U.S. and birthed me here, my own Black identity has been shaped—and profoundly blessed—by the cultural practices, resistance legacies, and interpersonal generosity of Black Americans. As such, my work centers Black femmes and Trans and gender-nonbinary individuals, with a steady focus on Black people migrating across the Mexico-US border, the Darien Gap, the Middle East and North Africa, and the Black Mediterranean—this installation is no different.  My hope is that this installation provides Baltimore residents a space to reflect on the sacredness of all living beings, including themselves. May this space provide comfort, rest, refuge, and inspiration. May you find a sense of limitlessness, a moment of safety, and a gateway to Spirit (whatever and whoever that may be for you). May you walk away cleansed and carry a lifetime’s worth of protection and healing. Photos courtesy of @thewaltersartmuseum Dedications & Thank You's in the comments- taken in The Walters Art Museum by @tsedaye
58
2 years ago
Download
‘Africa and Byzantium’, curated by @dreaachi, closing today @metmuseum. It’s been so special to have my light sculptures & textiles installed next to ancient works that my pieces reference and are in constant conversation with. My work collapses time, it exists in the past, present and future. I hope to have the capacity soon to share more behind the scenes on this experience. For some etheric inspiration, look through my MetLiveArts stories to see some clips from my ‘Astral Sea’ performance from last Thursday with dream collaborators @adiascorner @aishanailah @alsarah5000 @jasminehearncollaborates. taken in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York by @tsedaye
29
3 years ago
Download
Here's a selection of press about "Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise," which closed today. We are thrilled about the recognition and grateful to all the writers for their care in writing about the show 💕 taken in The Phillips Collection by @tsedaye
2
13 days ago
Download
💡 Who gets to decide which diaspora stories survive? 🗣️ On September 22, I'm moderating a conversation built around that question, and I've been looking forward to it for weeks. ✨ The Living Archive: Capturing Eritrean and Ethiopian Stories Through Art and Fiction, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC. 🌍 For Eritrean and Ethiopian diaspora communities, our stories live in the work of our artists. They live in photographs, in fiction, in the images and objects we carry across borders and pass to the next generation. Our creative voices have always been our archivists. 🤝🏾 I'll be in conversation with three of them: visual artist @Tsedaye Makonnen, photographer Redeat Wondemu, and writer @BsratMezghebe. ✍🏾 Together we'll explore why artists feel called to document these communities, how creative practice becomes a form of archival work, and what our diasporas have built into the cultural life of Washington, DC. ✊🏾 Our history is not sitting in an archive somewhere waiting for permission. We are writing it, painting it, and photographing it right now. Come sit with us while we talk about how. 🗓️ Tuesday, September 22, 7:00 PM EDT, MLK Jr. Memorial Library, Central Library. Presented with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and DC Public Library. 👉🏾 Free and open to the public. Register here: https://dclibrary.libnet.info/event/17273160 #TDADiasporas #CreateTheSpaces #Diaspora #DiasporaEngagement #DiasporaArt #Eritrean #Ethiopian #DiasporaPhilanthropy #Philanthropy #Engagement #Africa #Immigration #Migration #SocialImpact #DiasporaLeadership by @tsedaye
6
a month ago
Download
“Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise” is now open at The Phillips Collection, featuring 48 artists from the greater DC region 🌞 Thanks to all of the artists and art workers who made this possible. What an honor to work with you and bring this project to life. Negar Ahkami @negarahkami Sobia Ahmad  @sobia.ahmad.art Mark Armbruster @markwithnohair Hannah Atallah @hannah_atallah Aliana Grace Bailey @alianagrace Sasha Baskin @sashbask Diego Borgsdorf @diegoborgsdorf Kara Braciale @karabracialestudio Danyela June Brown @se3ingth1ngs Thea Canlas @theacanlas.art Adam Chamy @adamchamy Christina Chan   Aishwariya Chandrasekar @aishwariya.chandrasekar Alexandra Chiou @alexandrachiou Se Jong Cho @sejongee C.S. Corbin @cscrbn Pamela Crockett @pamelacrockett.art Mary Early @maryearly Erin Fostel @erinfostel Cianne Fragione @ciannefragione Emily Francisco @magic_artefacts Kyle Hackett @kylehackettstudio Leslie Holt @leslie_holt_studio Kei Ito @kei.ito.art Savannah Faith Jackson @savannahfaithjackson Omari Jesse @omari.jesse David Joo @davidajoo Khin @art.khin Don Kimes @donkimes Sharon Cheuk Wun Lee @sharonleecw Madyha Leghari @madyhaleghari Ringo Lisko @rrlisko Joey Mánlapaz @joey.p.manlapaz Aynex Mercado @aynexquilts Margaret Murphy @murphymarg Danielle Mysliwiec @daniellemysliwiecstudio Abdulrahman Naanseh @abdulrahman_naanseh Javaid Nayyar @jnayyarart Jhon Ochoa @jhonochoart Katie O’Keefe @katieostudio Nami Oshiro @namioshiro Mojdeh Rezaeipour Gail Shaw-Clemons Alexandra Silverthorne @silverthorne02 Anne C. Smith @anne.c.smith Bria Sterling-Wilson Melissa Sutherland Moss @melissasutherlandmoss Paloma Vianey @palomavianey   Curators: Tie Jojima and Tsedaye Makonnen Jurors: Leila Grothe and Jordan Martin Exhibition designers: Adrienne Gaither (@rockyyoadrienne ) and Omar Hakeen  (@heybromar) Exhibition Manager: Aly Schuman @a.schu_ People's photos: @mariahmirandaphoto Installation photos: Lee Stalsworth taken in The Phillips Collection by @tsedaye
36
2 months ago
Download
An evening of short films + Q&A in conversation with Tsedaye Makonnen’s exhibition ‘Sanctuary :: መቅደስ :: Mekdes’ at the @smithsonian_africanart Wednesday, Aug 5th 6 PM - 7:30 PM Smithsonian National Museum of African Art Featured films: Ladan, 2023, dir Jessica Beshir Coming Home To Boon, 2013, dir Feven Ghebremariam Entitled, 2018, dir Adéyẹmi Michael Papa Machete, 2014, dir Jonathan David Kane, wri Jason Fitzroy Jeffers Motherland, 2021, dir Elle Evan An Ecstatic Experience, 2015, dir Ja’Tovia Gary Afronauts, 2014, dir Nuotama Bodomo Co-curated by Tsedaye Makonnen, Naheir Tafere and Adéyẹmi Michael. taken in National Museum of African Art by @tsedaye
25
2 months ago
Download
Tonight: Friday, July 31st Time: 6-7pm Location: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art Cost: FREE & public event Join @alsarah5000, @jasminehearncollaborates and I tonight as we revisit our on-going collaboration part of my Astral Sea and monumental light sculpture series. We will be honoring the womyn my current Smithsonian solo exhibition is memorializing. Houston, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, D.C., NY, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Bayou, the Nile, the Red Sea, we're bringing every one, every land, every breathe and body of water that has ever carried our people and our technologies. From the contemporary to the medieval and all other timelines. 🔗 in bio 🎥: courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Adia is missing tonight but will be with us in spirit). by @tsedaye
22
2 months ago
Download
🌊Upcoming free performance related to my solo exhibition that has been up since December 2024 at the National Museum of African Art. 🌊Please join me, @alsarah5000, and @jasminehearncollaborates as we revisit our on-going collaboration that last took place at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2024 for the ‘Africa & Byzantium’ exhibition. 🌊Get Tickets/Register: RSVP 🔗 in Bio 🌊Date: Friday. July 31, 2026. 🌊Venue: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art 🌊Time: 6-7pm 🌊Event Location: Sublevel 1, Mezzanine and Sylvia Williams Gallery 🌊Cost: Free 🌊Related Exhibition: Tsedaye Makonnen—Sanctuary :: መቅደስ :: Mekdes 🌊Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible 🌊Tsedaye Makonnen’s Astral Sea is a multidimensional body of work that synthesizes sacred East African and Byzantine visual traditions with contemporary narratives of Black feminism, liberation, and healing. Makonen revisits her textile, performance and soft sculpture series, created from the negative spaces of the sacred form of Ethiopian and Eritrean mäsqäl crosses and its connections to other Black/African spiritualities. Makonen activates these works as living icons of ancestral presence, protest, and protection in conversation with her exhibition on view at the National Museum of African Art, Sanctuary :: መቅደስ :: Mekdes. In collaboration with Makonen, water and Spirit, performer Jasmine Hearn (Houston) animates the textiles while musician Alsarah  (Sudan) creates the soundscape. They will transform the museum into a living liturgy of remembrance, astral projection and collective healing. Together, they generate a ritual and sonic encounter rooted in diasporic memory and spiritual cosmology that resists the colonial decontextualization of African sacred art, restoring these symbols to their original functions as tools of communal protection and transcendence. This iteration of their ongoing collaboration is titled Lullaby from the bottom of a ship, taken from a track that Alsarah developed for their last collaboration at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2024. 1.) Alsarah 📷 by Lexi Webster 2.) Astral Sea soft sculpture (Tsedaye) 📷 by Jon Verney 3.) Jasmine Hearn 📷 by Jakayla Monay taken in Nile River by @tsedaye
10
3 months ago
Download
We are so excited to invite you to join us on Wednesday, July 8, at Creative Grounds DC for What We Inherit, an evening centered on the stories we inherit through our families and communities, and how they shape our identities and perspectives. Bsrat’s work explores the layered inner lives of Eritrean women at a pivotal historical moment. Tsedaye’s multidisciplinary practice brings together research, art, performance, and social practice to examine questions of migration, history, care, and collective. I explore how decisions made long before we are born can shape the trajectory of our lives. Together, we will consider what it means to receive stories from those who came before us: the ones told clearly, the ones held quietly, and the ones we must learn to carry when silence is all that remains. We hope you can join us for a thoughtful evening of conversation, reflection, and community! Wednesday, July 8 | 7:00–9:00 PM Creative Grounds DC 1822 N Capitol St NW Washington, DC 20002. #WhatWeInherit #DCEvents #DMVEvents #ethiopiandiaspora #eritreandiaspora taken in Creative Grounds DC by @tsedaye
13
3 months ago
Download
Yesterday was so dreamy - thank you - @tsedaye and @meg_fullofjoie @tracingpavements @leslo.rose @museofire for being incredible at the @bannekerdouglasstubmanmuseum Alisha B Wormsley’s newest project film : Temple of Our Survival x Tsedaye Makonnen’s Astral Sea accompanied by harpist Megan-Joie Coleman this immersive event brings together ritual, sound, and collective storytelling as an act of historical reckoning and remembrance. The Temple of Our Survival (Children of NAN: A Survival Guide)  is a film for future black femmes. A series of performed philosophies, myths, rituals, survival strategies by Black and Indigenous Femmes on various landscapes staged in a mobile set handcrafted by Alisha B Wormsley. Also amazed by Amiel and Shepherd who helped so much. Amiel shot the footage for this video!!! @amielrobn_artstuff @amielrobinson_12 🎥🎥🎥🎥🙏🏾⚡️ by @tsedaye
4
4 months ago
Download
SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2026
1:00 – 4:00 PM
@bannekerdouglasstubmanmuseum 
84 FRANKLIN STREET
ANNAPOLIS, MD 21401 The Temple of Our Survival: Alisha B. Wormsley Installation, Performance & Conversation In collaboration with: Tsedaye Makonnen & Megan-Joie Coleman As the nation marks 250 years since its founding, we are called to ask: whose survival made this nation possible? Join artist @alishabwormsley for a special activation of The Temple of Our Survival (Children of NAN: A Survival Guide)—a mobile cinematic altar and gathering space dedicated to Black femme survival, care, and reMatriation. Presented in collaboration with artist Tsedaye Makonnen and harpist Megan-Joie Coleman, this immersive event brings together ritual, sound, and collective storytelling as an act of historical reckoning and remembrance. The program will feature a live ritual performance honoring Black femme survival, including a guided group dreaming meditation and opportunities for audience members to participate by reading their own survival stories alongside those of historical Black femmes from Maryland and beyond — centering voices that the official record of nationhood too often left out. The event will conclude with a panel conversation on the project and the ongoing practices of Black femme survival, moderated by curator Martina Dodd @tracingpavements, exploring what it means to commemorate 250 years through the lens of those who were never meant to survive it — and did. Thank you to our sponsors: the City of Annapolis and the Association of African American Museums (AAAM). REGISTRATION 🔗 in bio. (Museum text) taken in Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum by @tsedaye
6
4 months ago
Download
×

Download all media on this page

Photos Videos
back to up