Martha Tesema

Made Manifest 

Martha Tesema

 “Black art is the future. But also the past and the present.”

“I create  because  I  want  people  to  remember.  I  create,  because  I  don’t know  what  else  to  do, that [creating] is how I  move  though  this  world and  I think  that  is  how  I  have  always  moved  through  this  world. I do it  because  that  is  what  has  been  passed  down  to  me  in  my  family.  The tools  to  create  have  been  passed  down  to  me, and so I have  taken  those  and  run  with  them.  In  that  sense,  I  have  been  able  to  look  at  the  things the  people  in  my  family  have  created and hold on to those. So when I create, I try to do the same for whoever may come down the line in the future.”