Naz is Betelhem Abera Abechu Derse Jano Kino Bocholo Kereyou Fetu Yadansure
As an artist with roots in both Ethiopia and South Dakota, Betelhem’s work is deeply influenced by distance. Through extensive research, exploration and day dreaming she navigates through complex realities, digital media, and things that have never existed. Naz’s access to the understanding of physical spaces was primarily facilitated through phone calls, videos, and images. Employing patterns and surrogates plays a crucial role in maintaining the connection between gaps. Through the exploration of online artifacts, She is particularly drawn to elements with unknown sources, as they offer a lack of context that can be manipulated. The concept of memory serves as a central theme in Betelhem’s work, especially in how she perceives the past. Betelhem links her aesthesia of memory to her ancestry-hand-me-down experiences from both her mother and father (mainly my mother) whose recollections of significant moments in history, both personal and collective, are adorned with incomplete stories. This often leads Naz to explore her desire for 'definitive' narratives and to inquire into whether anecdotes tend to 'fictionalize' history.