Overview

An unprecedented insight into telsem art through the work of one of its most prolific contemporary practitioners. Drawing from astrology, religion and spirituality, the Ethiopian art form of telsem interweaves symbols, drawings and texts imbued with spiritual and philosophical significance. Shaped throughout the ages by the sociopolitical and cultural histories of Ethiopia, telsem—with its ancient inspirations and modern idioms—is used to address critical problems in the contemporary world such as climate disasters, war and poverty. Despite the fact that it continues to be practised, telsem is often characterised as ""healing art"" or ""talisman art"" within western frameworks, a perspective that excludes it from many discussions of modernism. Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery, edited by scholar Elizabeth Giorgis, challenges such a one-dimensional understanding of modernism and offers us a rare insight into one of Ethiopia's most compelling modernist art practices through the work of Henok Melkamzer.

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9788857252865

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Elizabeth W. Giorgis received her Ph.D. in the History of Art and Visual Studies from Cornell University and her Masters in Museum Studies from New York University. She is Professor of Art History, Theory and Criticism at the Africa Institute in Sharjah, UAE. She is the author of several publications and a member of the editorial board for Transition Magazine, Northeast African Studies Journal (NEAS), ARTmargins and Critical African Studies, and the Ethiopian Journal of Social Science and Humanities (EJOSSAH). She is also an advisory editorial board member for the Journal for Critical African Studies (JCAS), Journal of African History, NKA Journal of Contemporary Art, Callaloo Art, and contributing editor for Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (CSSAAME). Her book Modernist Art in Ethiopia (Ohio University Press 2019) was shortlisted for the ASAUK Fage and Oliver Prize as outstanding scholarship on Africa, the 2020 ASA Best Book Prize and is a winner for the ASA 2020 Bethwell Ogot Prize as the best book in East African Studies.

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