"Everything But The Spice"

2015

maps, wood, textiles, rope, TV screens, clay, salt, and metal

Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama


"Everything But The Spice" is a body of interdisciplinary artwork that investigates the transnational identity of first generation Ethiopian-Americans living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Washington, DC. Through performance art, video installation, and sculpture, the work challenges notions of “home” in diaspora culture by gathering video footage, oral histories, maps, and organic materials during travel to both capital cities. During a live performance set within the installation, I evoked imagined characters based on actual interviews. Variations of the live performance were also performed at Grace Exhibition Space in Brooklyn, Massachusetts College of Art and Design's Pozen Center in Boston, and Medicine Wheel Productions Gallery in Boston.


Photo documentation by Angela M. Counts and Shun Liang.