Tizita / Nostaligia

Inspired by traditional African body art, Ethiopian artist Aida Muluneh creates brightly surreal meditations on identity. An exhibition of her work is at VivaneArt in Calgary until 24 February. All photographs: Aida Muluneh

The Morning Bride

Muluneh has had an uprooted existence since her birth in Ethiopia, living in Yemen, the UK, Cyprus, Canada and finally the US, where she worked as a photojournalist for the Washington Post

Age of Anxiety

She has since returned to Ethiopia, a move she describes as ‘a lesson in humility, and what it means to return to a land that was foreign to me’

City Life

‘When I do something, I do it passionately. I want a passionate colour – something that’s both beautiful and disturbing at the same time, like a car accident you can’t help but look at,’ she says

Denkinesh Birth on Ground

These works are from her series The World Is 9, named after a saying of her grandmother: ‘The world is nine, it is never complete and it’s never perfect’

Memory of Libya

‘Each image is an exploration of questions about life, love and history. I am not seeking answers but asking provocative questions about the life that we live – as people, as nations, as beings’

Local Understanding

‘I have chosen to continue working on body painting, which is inspired by traditional body art from across Africa. Each work is a reflection of conscious and subconscious manifestations of time and space’

The Departure

‘When people think about Africa right now, they often only think about animals, war and famine. I’m trying to distort that impression to provoke questions in a different sense’

Romance is Dead

She says she uses painted faces to show people ‘as different characters void of nationality and ethnicity, like blank slates’

Sai Mado. The Distant Gaze

Aida also does commercial work, as well as photojournalism around Addis Ababa and beyond

Conversation

She has founded the Addis Foto Fest, a biennial exhibition of global photography, and DESTA (Developing and Educating Society Through Art) which aims to kickstart creative projects in the country