ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Gabrielle Tesfaye is an interdisciplinary artist versed in painting, animation, film, puppetry and interactive installation. Tesfaye was raised in the United States as a first-generation American, to an Ethiopian father and Indo Jamaican mother. Her extensive international travel and exposure to multiculturalism in her life, echoes itself in her mixed media approach to art making and cross-cultural content. Her work is rooted in cross-cultural diaspora, Afro-futurism, Southeast Asian puppetry practices and cultural storytelling. Tesfaye uses the body in the form of otherworldly mobile puppets, as a vessel to personify ancestral, emotional, and celestial ideas, transforming ancient symbolism into contemporary languages and consciousness. In addition to exhibiting, she uses her puppets in stop motion animation in cultural narrative filmmaking. 

 

Tesfaye’s background in film started at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and continued at the Mahidol University International College in Bangkok, Thailand. Tesfaye obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Peck School of the Arts, with a double emphasis in painting/drawing and film/animation, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Tesfaye has been internationally recognized in online and printed publications such as Majestic Disorder Magazine (UK) and Vogue (USA). Tesfaye has an active international exhibition record, including exhibited The Crypt Gallery (London), Gallery X (Dublin), and Thapae East Venue for Creative Arts (Thailand). She is the recipient of a series of important scholarships, including the Clarice George Logan Travel Award Scholarship, which enabled her artist residency at the Tholpavakoothu Puppetry Theatre in Kerala, India. As an Artist-in-Residence with Artists Working in Education, she has teaching experience with Milwaukee highschool students in community public art. Tesfaye is currently expanding to travel with her art, and create an in depth puppetry practice in the realms of audience participatory installation and animation.

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RELATED LINKS

Website | http://www.gabrielletesfaye.com/the-water-will-carry-us-home/

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/gabrielle.tesfaye

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/tesfayetra/

Vimeo | https://vimeo.com/tesfaye

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