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Distant Echoes of Dreams, from Water Life series

2018

Ethiopian, born 1974

Commenting on the series that was commissioned by WaterAid in 2018 and that this photograph is a part of, Muluneh says the following: “For those of us who live in cities, it’s easy to take for granted the privilege of access to water…. While travelling across Ethiopia for my work, I often encounter streams of women traveling on foot and carrying heavy burdens of water. I have understood that women spend a great deal of time fetching water for the household, which has an adverse effect on the progress of women in our society…. Hence, supporting access to water in rural regions in Africa is an urgent social issue, as well as an essential determining factor in the self-sustainability of a community…. My focus in this project was to address these topics without the cliché that we see in mainstream media. In a sense to advocate through art.”

Archival digital print

31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (80 x 80cm)

General Acquisition Fund

2021.40

Provenance: The artist, commissioned by WaterAid UK with support from the H&M Foundation; [David Krut Projects, New York and Johannesburg, South Africa]; purchased from gallery by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2021

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryLondon, England, Somerset House, 1-54, Oct. 4 -7, 2018.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM