Mutual Identity 39

Trained at the Alle School of Fine Art and Design, Addis Ababa University, Dawit Abebe is a skilled painter and draftsman. In 2001, he was one of the founders of the Habesha Art Studio, a common studio and exhibition space for a group of artists, and he has also worked with UNICEF to hold workshops for street children in cities throughout Ethiopia. He showed at the Karachi Biennial and was named Chevalier of Frances Order of Arts and Letters in 2017. Most recently, in 2021, Abebe received the First Place Award from the Ethiopian Ministry of Culture. Through his larger practice, classified as social criticism, he expresses concerns regarding the environment, urbanization, technology, and post-colonial legacies. Abebe considers personal identity to be closely intertwined with a nation’s own history. “I believe that every human being has a history and that this, as well as the history of our country, can be viewed as the basis for our identity,” he has stated. This work is from the series Mutual Identity, which (along with another recent series, entitled Long Hands) explores the effect that those few in power have upon so many others. According to his gallerist, Abebe’s work calls attention to “how our identities and belief systems are established, manipulated, or obliterated by dominating powers, with a particular focus on the foundation and dissemination of knowledge.” To the paper (or in other cases, canvas), Abebe collages sheets from school notebooks, which symbolize “acquired and regulated knowledge.” Official-looking stamps convey authority. Although Ethiopia itself was never colonized, this hasn’t prevented the country and its people from being exploited by neo-colonialism, as traditional customs and knowledge are abandoned for Western approaches. Figures—often recognizable political personalities—are cut from local and international magazines and similarly collaged into the composition to represent the puppetry of the community by those in power.