Drawing from astrology, religion, and spirituality, the Ethiopian art form of telsem intertwines symbols, drawings, and texts imbued with deep spiritual and philosophical significance. Shaped by Ethiopia’s sociopolitical and cultural histories, telsem addresses pressing contemporary challenges such as climate disasters, war, and poverty. Despite its ongoing practice, it is often categorized within Western frameworks as “healing art” or “talisman art,” limiting its inclusion in modernist discussions.
This publication, featuring a foreword by Hoor Al Qasimi, underscores the importance of translating the exhibition’s research and scholarship into a permanent published volume. Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery, published in collaboration with The Africa Institute, Skira, and Sharjah Art Foundation, and edited by Professor Elizabeth W. Giorgis aims to provide an introduction for those unfamiliar with telsem art and a valuable resource for those studying contemporary African art and lesser-known indigenous art forms.
In 2024, Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery marked the largest solo exhibition of the artist to date and the first major showcase of telsem art in the region. Organized by Sharjah Art Foundation in collaboration with The Africa Institute and the Sharjah Museums Authority, the exhibition, curated by Professor Giorgis, repositions telsem as an intellectual tradition with contemporary relevance, moving beyond the narrow categorization of “healing” or “talisman” art.
This monograph includes documentation of Melkamzer’s work, a guide to interpreting telsem aesthetics, and critical reflections from historian and curator Salah M. Hassan, artist Julie Mehretu, and Semeneh Ayalew Asfaw, Postdoctoral Fellow at The Africa Institute. These contributions complement a critical essay by Giorgis, situating Melkamzer’s practice within both the telsem tradition and the broader contemporary art world.
This publication, released in 2025, is the fourth in the co-publication series between The Africa Institute and Skira.
For more information about Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery and to purchase the book, visit Skira or stop by our campus bookshop, Meroë .
Elizabeth W. Giorgis is the Chair of Department of Humanities and Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at The Africa Institute. Her book, “Modernist Art in Ethiopia” (2019, Ohio University Press), stands as the first comprehensive monographic study of Ethiopian visual modernism, situated within a broader social and intellectual context. Shortlisted for the African Studies Association UK Fage and Oliver Prize and a finalist for the African Studies Association Best Book Prize, it ultimately secured the African Studies Association’s 2020 Bethwell A. Ogbot Book Prize for the best book on East African Studies. Read more.
‘These were intricate, potent, exuberantly colored, meticulous paintings of eyes, entangled in shapes, geometries, and vines dotted with numbers and symbols. These details are familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of Ethiopian Coptic illuminated manuscripts or even the kitsch market trinkets that borrow from that language. The history of telsem painting as talismanic healing art and esoteric epistemology, however, predates all of that. I was struck by how different the logic of these paintings felt and the power they held as reverberating objects–resplendent, circuitous, and exacting in their abstracted forms. The elaborate, labyrinthian paintings are first drawn in pencil or in black ink, then some are painted densely with color and others are more sparsely painted with color to accentuate vital nodes. The sheer immensity of the scope of cosmological sensibility and space in these modestly scaled, shamanisitic yet deftly contemporary paintings, is staggering.’
Listen and view featured interviews with the curator and editor, Elizabeth W.Giorgis as well as artist, Henok Melkamzer:
Drawing from astrology, religion, and spirituality, the Ethiopian art form of telsem intertwines symbols, drawings, and texts imbued with deep spiritual and philosophical significance. Shaped by Ethiopia’s sociopolitical and cultural histories, telsem addresses pressing contemporary challenges such as climate disasters, war, and poverty. Despite its ongoing practice, it is often categorized within Western frameworks as “healing art” or “talisman art,” limiting its inclusion in modernist discussions.
Drawing from astrology, religion, and spirituality, the Ethiopian art form of telsem intertwines symbols, drawings, and texts imbued with deep spiritual and philosophical significance. Shaped by Ethiopia’s sociopolitical and cultural histories, telsem addresses pressing contemporary challenges such as climate disasters, war, and poverty. Despite its ongoing practice, it is often categorized within Western frameworks as “healing art” or “talisman art,” limiting its inclusion in modernist discussions.
This publication, featuring a foreword by Hoor Al Qasimi, underscores the importance of translating the exhibition’s research and scholarship into a permanent published volume. Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery, published in collaboration with The Africa Institute, Skira, and Sharjah Art Foundation, and edited by Professor Elizabeth W. Giorgis aims to provide an introduction for those unfamiliar with telsem art and a valuable resource for those studying contemporary African art and lesser-known indigenous art forms.
In 2024, Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery marked the largest solo exhibition of the artist to date and the first major showcase of telsem art in the region. Organized by Sharjah Art Foundation in collaboration with The Africa Institute and the Sharjah Museums Authority, the exhibition, curated by Professor Giorgis, repositions telsem as an intellectual tradition with contemporary relevance, moving beyond the narrow categorization of “healing” or “talisman” art.
This monograph includes documentation of Melkamzer’s work, a guide to interpreting telsem aesthetics, and critical reflections from historian and curator Salah M. Hassan, artist Julie Mehretu, and Semeneh Ayalew Asfaw, Postdoctoral Fellow at The Africa Institute. These contributions complement a critical essay by Giorgis, situating Melkamzer’s practice within both the telsem tradition and the broader contemporary art world.
This publication, released in 2025, is the fourth in the co-publication series between The Africa Institute and Skira.
For more information about Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery and to purchase the book, visit Skira or stop by our campus bookshop, Meroë .
Elizabeth W. Giorgis is the Chair of Department of Humanities and Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at The Africa Institute. Her book, “Modernist Art in Ethiopia” (2019, Ohio University Press), stands as the first comprehensive monographic study of Ethiopian visual modernism, situated within a broader social and intellectual context. Shortlisted for the African Studies Association UK Fage and Oliver Prize and a finalist for the African Studies Association Best Book Prize, it ultimately secured the African Studies Association’s 2020 Bethwell A. Ogbot Book Prize for the best book on East African Studies. Read more.
‘These were intricate, potent, exuberantly colored, meticulous paintings of eyes, entangled in shapes, geometries, and vines dotted with numbers and symbols. These details are familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of Ethiopian Coptic illuminated manuscripts or even the kitsch market trinkets that borrow from that language. The history of telsem painting as talismanic healing art and esoteric epistemology, however, predates all of that. I was struck by how different the logic of these paintings felt and the power they held as reverberating objects–resplendent, circuitous, and exacting in their abstracted forms. The elaborate, labyrinthian paintings are first drawn in pencil or in black ink, then some are painted densely with color and others are more sparsely painted with color to accentuate vital nodes. The sheer immensity of the scope of cosmological sensibility and space in these modestly scaled, shamanisitic yet deftly contemporary paintings, is staggering.’
Listen and view featured interviews with the curator and editor, Elizabeth W.Giorgis as well as artist, Henok Melkamzer:
Elizabeth W.Giorgis
The Africa Institute (Sharjah, UAE), Sharjah Art Foundation, and Skira Editore (Milan, Italy)
English
978-88-572-5286-5
24 x 17 cm, hardcover
€35
2025
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