The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Visit to homeland enlightens artist
Hirut Yosef brings her Ethiopian roots to MJCCA exhibition.
Hirut Yosef was Israeli. She was Ethiopian. She was not quite either and it was affecting her art.
In 2002, she begrudgingly took a trip back to her native Gondar, Ethiopia, with a sister. It was there she discovered her artistic voice.
“It grounded me,” said Yosef, whose colorful acrylics on wood, ink and pencil drawings and embroideries are now on exhibit at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta’s Katz Mainstreet Gallery through March 31. “I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I realized that I can’t just put my roots aside. I realized that if I wanted success in fashion school, if I wanted success in art, if I wanted to express myself it had to come from there.”
She was grabbed by the smells, sounds and colors of the place she left when she was 5 years old — the smoky smell of corn roasting in a house made of soil; the almost deafening sound of rain hitting a tin roof; the rich yellows, purplish pink flowers; the reddish brown hues of the land and the people, “all blended in one beautiful palette.”
Part of her journey to self discovery is chronicled in the free exhibit, “Chalom Yashan – A Journey Back Home.”
Artist
It draws from her Ethiopian roots and honors strong African women.
Yosef, 35, who speaks English, Amharic, Hebrew and a little Turkish, uses vibrant colors throughout her work. “We use a lot of color in our traditional clothes and our embroideries,” she said. “It comes from there.”
The exhibit contains 28 pieces, most of which are for sale.
“Yosef ’s heart is her guide as she grapples with her sense of self,” said Kim Goodfriend, gallery manager. “Her art reflects Ethiopian culture and beliefs based in history, memory and imagination. The result is a lovely balance between the playfulness of the teenage immigrant alongside the revered African woman. Not unlike other folk artists, there is a great respect for materials, including the work that honors embroidery craft. It is in this totality that the artist provides us all a glimpse into the truths of her unique culture and life journey.”
“Eleleta” is one of the centerpieces of the exhibit. Yosef said it means the sound of happiness, a sound people — usually women — make when someone is getting married or something good is happening in a family. The piece shows two women facing each other, dancing. “In my work you see it constantly empowers women,” she said. Her mother and grandmother were both very strong, traditional women.
Yosef ’s family left Ethiopia in 1984 when she was five as part of Operation Moses, in which thousands of Ethiopian Jews were evacuated and settled in Israel. Her memory is in bits and pieces. Her family, braving thirst, hunger and robbers, walked for weeks in the desert to Sudan. Once there, they were rescued by the Israeli government. She remembers sleeping in an abandoned house and feeling the rain fall through holes in the roof.
When her family arrived in Israel, her parents tried their best to make sure their 12 children fit in. But Hirut always felt an outsider. Her hair was different. She spoke Hebrew and Amharic. Her skin was brown. “I ate food with my hands (in the traditional Ethiopian way) and I listen to weird music in a different language.”
She attended art school and later moved to Turkey, where she worked for a design company.
She tried focusing on art but found a total disconnect with the art scene there.
“I went from gallery to gallery,” she said. “All they wanted to see were mosques in my paintings or some kind of Turkish motif. I’m not from there so why would I do that? They really didn’t understand my art.”
In 2013, she decided to come to the United States.
She tried New York, but it was a tough market. An older sister, Maritu Enyew, convinced her that Atlanta had an evolving arts scene.
She now lives in Duluth with her sister and her family and uses her room there as a small studio. She wants to build a reputation here as artist and designer.
“Nobody welcomed me with a red carpet,” she said. “You have to fight to get what you want, but it’s only been a year here. If you work hard, you can make it in this country. I think that’s the secret and I’m a person who works hard.”