Two women back-to-back in the center of the brightly colored background in black, white and blue.

2018.01

Florence E. Lonsford Endowment

Lonsford Collection

2017

21st Century

She was born in Ethiopia and her art is influenced on being an African woman

Memory of Hope (Both Sides)

7

1

Risk Management list 2025.

32 7/8 x 32 7/8

32-3/4 in

32-3/4 in

Photoprint and frame

BlueYellowWhiteBlack

Artist; [Jenkins Johnson Galley] San Francisco, CA; purchased through the Lonsford Fund in 2018

25: A Selection Works from Purdue Galleries’ Permanent Collection (2024)

Cultural/Historical Context

Both Sides Aïda Muluneh Photograph, 2017 All of Aïda Muluneh’s models possess a regal intensity and poised strength, hints at their innate power and potential. The clothing and painted patterns which adorn them are coded and symbolic references to the different ethnic groups in Muluneh’s native Ethiopia. The prevalence of painted faces in Muluneh’s work alludes to the many masks that we all wear, whether for power, wealth, or acceptance. Through her works runs a vein of nostalgia, which the Ethiopian people call Tisita, celebrating the past while looking to the future. Muluneh is the founder of Desta for African Creative Consulting, a company which seeks to create a local talent pool of Ethiopian and African photographers through education and the dissemination of information. Muluneh asserts that when given the proper tools and instruction African communities are then able to go forth and document their own reality, providing a balanced perspective of Africa for the rest of the world to see.