The Weight of Soft Things

by Latitudes Editorial

The Weight of Soft Things

presented by Nafkot Gebeyehu

______

The emotional lives of young women are often undocumented, particularly in African societies where tradition still defines what should be seen, said, and shared. In Ethiopia, vulnerability is often met with silence or spiritual platitude. Feelings, especially those that are heavy, shapeless, or unresolved rarely find form, let alone space.

The Weight of Soft Things brings together five emerging Ethiopian women artists who confront this absence by placing emotional life at the center of their work. Across collage, painting and photography these artists explore memory, mental health, grief, isolation, and the emotional toll of caregiving and survival. Each body of work is shaped by personal experience: the stillness of unemployment, the aftermath of war, the fatigue of caregiving, or the simple rituals that make memory bearable. What binds them is an insistence that what happens inside us matters: psychologically, socially, and politically.

Softness, whether it’s emotion, memory, or unspoken grief, carries weight. It isn’t decorative. It isn’t optional. It has real consequences on how we live, how we see ourselves, and how we move through the world. These artists refuse the idea that internal life is secondary or indulgent. Instead, they build visual languages that translate emotional labor into textured, layered forms. What happens to us when we cannot name what we feel? When there is no space to unravel, reflect, or simply be? What does it cost to carry everything alone, silently and for a prolonged period of time?

This exhibit does not offer closure. Instead, it invites the viewer to take these questions seriously: to pay attention to the states we are told to push aside. To imagine what a culture might look like if emotional life was not a private burden, but a shared language. These questions are deeply political, especially in a time when Ethiopia is undergoing rapid transformation without room for emotional reckoning. As tradition frays and new norms emerge, the artists in this exhibition document the psychological residue of change. Their work becomes a counter-archive, a record of what isn’t often said but collectively felt.

_____

Banner Artwork Details: Ribka Sisay, Fear Towers, 2024, 40cm x 60cm, Mixed media (photo print on canvas, yarn), R16,800 ex. VAT, CONTACT TO BUY.

Ribka Sisay, Self Reliance, 30cm x 40cm, Mixed media (single photo printed twice on canvas), R12,000 ex. VAT, CONTACT TO BUY.

EXHIBITION CURATOR, NAFKOT GEBEYEHU

Nafkot Gebeyehu is a curator, filmmaker, and creative entrepreneur with a focus on empowering African women artists and reshaping the Ethiopian art scene. As the co-founder of Studio 11, a women-owned art gallery in Addis Ababa, Nafkot is building a dynamic platform for emerging artists to showcase their work locally and internationally. She has curated impactful exhibitions, and events that challenge cultural norms and amplify authentic African narratives.

Her artistic practice combines photography and filmmaking, with a deep commitment to storytelling that bridges the personal and political. Her debut film, The Legacy of a Man, explores themes of memory and vulnerability through the lens of her father’s life, leaving audiences profoundly moved. Through her creative work, Nafkot merges her curatorial instincts with her passion for visual storytelling to foster dialogue and inspire change.

Currently, she is focused on expanding the gallery’s international presence and cultivating partnerships to create sustainable opportunities for African creatives.