ETHEL TAWE

Ethel-Ruth Tawe (b. Yaoundé, Cameroon) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, curator and creative researcher exploring memory in Africa and its diaspora. Image-making, storytelling, and time-travelling compose the framework of her inquiry. From collage to moving image, Ethel examines space and time-based technologies often from a speculative lens. Her burgeoning curatorial practice took form in an inaugural exhibition titled 'African Ancient Futures', and continues to expand in a myriad of audiovisual experiments.

Ethel is recipient of the Magnum Foundation 2022 Counter Histories Grant-Program for her project 'Image Frequency Modulation', which was also recently selected for the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2023 DocLab Forum and Black Public Media's BPM+ Fellowship. She is recipient of the 10x10 Photobook Research Grant 2024 for her project 'The Algorithms of Colonial African Photobooks. Exhibitions include 'Black Atlantic Visions' at Eye Filmmuseum x MACA, 'AfterImages' (2023) at Rele Gallery Lagos, 'Double Exposures' (2023) at PhotoIreland Festival in Dublin, 'Back in the Day is our Future' (2021) at Melkweg Amsterdam, flat70’s 'Reclaim Space' (2021) billboard exhibition in London, Mozilla Foundation's 'Ancestral Intelligence' (2022), among others. Ethel has presented at the University of Oxford, Maastricht University, the Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD SF), Afrikana Film Festival, amongst other engagements. She was a 2022 artist-in-residence at Palm Heights where she showcased a site-specific installation along with an online series on Something Curated. Her work has been featured on international platforms like BOMB Magazine, Nataal and OkayAfrica.

 

As a creative consultant, Ethel has produced global campaigns for cultural platforms like ART X Lagos and international organisations like the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action. She has conducted talent research for brands like Nike and Johnnie Walker, as well as image research for selections shown at Tribeca Film Festival, Blackstar Fest, The Barbican Center and others. She is a contributor to the British Journal of Photography, ContemporaryAnd, Quartz, Feminists, among other publications. She was previously Editorial Director for arts and culture platform Africa 2.O Magazine.  Ethel holds an MSc Development Studies from SOAS University of London and a BA (Hons) International Human Rights. Her academic research examined the safeguarding of in/tangible heritage in Africa, informing her work experience with the African Union and organisations in The Hague. Living in Cameroon, Tanzania, Kenya, The US, UK, Netherlands, and Ghana has informed her multifaceted approach.

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