Telsem is an ancient, talismanic form of painting practiced in Ethiopia. Two key factors determine a telsem composition: one’s own zodiac sign and “calculations” made by a lower clergy of sorts, who might be a trained scribe or astrologer, using elements of biography and personal information such a mother’s name or date of birth. A fixed set of symbols, routinely evoked, include a surveilling eye, a face signifying existence, and vines denoting human connection to the universe. Beyond the compositional elements of color and form and the symbolism of plant and animal life, any deeper layers of meaning are secret, passed on from one generation to the next.

Henok Melkamzer, various works, 2023. Exhibition view: Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery, Sharjah Art Museum, 2024. Image courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation. Photo: Shafeek Nalakath Kareem

Ethiopian artist Henok Melkamzer learnt from his father, and his father from his father before him. Notwithstanding his occupation as a practicing artist, these secrets are never divulged, and neither are their origins – social, religious or political – known to the public.

How does telsem art contribute to our understanding of north-west African art in a global art context? This is a key question raised by Telsem Symbols and Imagery, a major solo museum exhibition of Melkamzer’s work. Shown at Sharjah Art Museum from 24 February to 16 June 2024 and curated by Elizabeth Giorgis, the exhibition features over 100 recent and older works by Melkamzer of various scales.

Over a video call from her base in Sharjah, Giorgis explains the significance of the retrospective exhibition, which bridges contemporary art and ancient religious practice. Giorgis curated a Melkamzer exhibition at Gebre Kirstos Desta Center Modern Art Museum at Addis Ababa University in 2018, and is now associate professor of art history, theory, and criticism at the Africa Institute in Sharjah.

Henok Melkamzer, various works, 2023. Exhibition view: Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery, Sharjah Art Museum, 2024. Image courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation. Photo: Shafeek Nalakath Kareem

Giorgis hopes that the exhibition will establish telsem-based art as part of the “global narrative” of modern art discourse. Traditionally made on request by individuals seeking good fortune in health and wealth, telsem was typically made on scrolls and with vegetable dyes. By contrast, Melkamzer predominantly paints on canvas using acrylic, owing to the ephemeral nature of natural dyes which disintegrate fast. The fact of the artist’s life and studio being situated in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital and largest city, is an additional reason, says Giorgis – the suggestion being that industrially produced acrylic paint, in required volumes, is readily sourced compared to vegetable dyes.

Temporal specificity forms a core argument of Telsem Symbols and Imagery, as well as the vitality of Melkamzer’s design complex as being synonymous with key developments in global art history. Despite Melkamzer’s paintings displaying a preoccupation with depth, volume, and perspective in abstraction and other considerations of form, style, and texture that are fundamental to modernism, because the artist is “experiencing contemporary existence” argues Giorgis, “it is a painting done in the modern world, and that itself makes it a modern interpretation.”

Henok Melkamzer, various works, 2023. Exhibition view: Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery, Sharjah Art Museum, 2024. Image courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation. Photo: Shafeek Nalakath Kareem

Would not the secrecy inherent to telsem limit curatorial expositions, display strategies, and public understanding of Melkamzer’s paintings, especially for a career retrospective? Giorgis is unconcerned: “it’s their wisdom, not mine, and that matters quite a bit.” Some Ethiopian painters have taken on telsem-based art by bypassing ancestry or initiation, but the curator argues that however well-constructed, those works lack the depth present in a genuine telsem painting: “you have to know the knowledge itself to give it a complex and meaningful kind of articulation.”

Plans for Telsem Symbols and Imagery began four years ago during a visit to Melkamzer’s studio by Giorgis and Hoor Al Qasimi, president and director of Sharjah Art Foundation. Impressed by their discoveries, Al Qasimi invited Melkamzer to show at Second Lahore Biennale (LBO2), which she curated, while also asking the artist to prepare some 100 works for a solo exhibition in Sharjah.

Henok Melkamzer, Untitled, 2023. Image courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation. Photo: Shafeek Nalakath Kareem

The catalogue for Telsem Symbols and Imagery has contributions from Giorgis and Al Qasimi, and a forward from Julie Mehretu, the Ethiopian American artist whom Giorgis credits with introducing her to Melkamzer’s work. Similar to Ibrahim Salahi and Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq, two pioneering Sudanese artists whose solo exhibitions at Sharjah Art Museum led to shows at Tate and Serpentine Gallery respectively (both in London). Giorgis hopes Melkamzer’s Telsem Imagery and Symbols will likewise travel to major institutions after closing on 16 June 2024.

Sabo Kpade is a culture writer from London.