The Duality of One, An Aida Muluneh solo exhibition at Windsor Gallery

Power through Art, Feminism, Culture are the key takes from Aida Muluneh’s solo exhibition in Nigeria.

Recently, I overheard my friend say that notoriety can be a form of prison for an artist. You are required to make the same theme, copies of your most successful collections, basically surrender to the popular demands and lose your voice. To some extent, I believe this to be true for many successful artists but not for Aida Muluneh.

On Saturday the 14th of October 2023, a Solo Exhibition of the award winning Ethiopian Photographer Aida Muluneh opened at Windsor Gallery Abuja. Aida’s work has been internationally published and she is the first Black woman to co-curate a Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition.

Common with the general theme of Muluneh’s work she opted for the amalgamation of bold colors and the female gaze.

The scope of the photography exhibition was hard work, the societal roles expected of women, freedom and so much more. The selected works were 15 in number from an 8 photo series completed between 2014 and 2019.

Unfortunately for long standing fans of Muluneh she was unable to attend in person. The Gallery manager Theo Allanso was able to pick up the pace, providing mini tours to small groups ensuring each work was thoroughly appreciated.

The most striking work on display was titled “Everybody knows about Mississippi’ which is of a woman behind bars and just outside of it.  This reminded me of Natasha Tretheway’s poem ‘Miscegenation’

“In 1965 my parents broke two laws of Mississippi;

they went to Ohio to marry, returned to Mississippi.

They crossed the river into Cincinnati, a city whose name begins with a sound like sin, the sound of wrong_ mis in Mississippi.”

A poem which speaks to the migration of slaves. More importantly I’m reminded of the song ‘Mississippi Goddam’ which was released by Nina Simone in 1964 with the repeated line “Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam”.

It feels like a visual ode to the oppression and racial crimes which happened in Mississippi as Muluneh takes her place amongst black women who have used their crafts to call our attention to issues which affect the society.

She speaks to injustice, simple virtues and shows the inner femme goddesses who are often overlooked.

It’s easy to define Aida’s work as purely feminist but there is so much she has to say, an endless pool of creativity fueled by strong black women and culture.