Tuesday, December 6, 2011

A Provoking Wood Carving

One of the most moving pieces at Ethiopia's National Museum titled "Genital Mutilation" by Abebe Zelew, 2003 wood engraving mixed media piece. It was like the piece had a voice screaming out at me. The brutality of this piece is palpable and left me shaken for most of the day. If you look closely on the upper left, the image is of the girls' father, peering in from the door in complete horror.
I remember when were going through our adoption process, we had to fill out a checklist regaring medical/physical issues that we would "accept". One of the items listed was "female genital mutilation" or "FGM".
I was quite surprised to see this work at the National Museum for many reasons but I'm really glad it's there.

1 comment:

fiddlehead said...

Ah...I remember this piece vividly from our visit to that Museum in Addis. It is incredibly powerful. I love visiting your blog. I will be following! Hope you'll visit me too!
www.fiddleheadarts.blogspot.com