Collection: Telluric Silhouettes - Reinata Sadimba
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“Telluric Silhouettes” brings together two artists whose practices are rooted in a physical and sensory relationship with matter. The title evokes both the power of the Earth and the silhouettes that emerge from it: bodies, beings, and forms traversed by the forces of the world around them. For both Reinata Sadimba and Tiemar Tegene, the material is the site where the earthly and the human meet. Earth, ink, imprints, reliefs, and layers give the figures an almost organic presence, as if they were emerging from the material itself. “Telluric Silhouettes” invites us to view these silhouettes as presences rooted in a physical, cultural, and living world.
Sadimba’s Makonde origins run through her work. We see the dinembo—the distinctive tattoos of her social group—on some of the faces she has sculpted. Her work thus appears deeply rooted in a cultural and personal experience, where Makonde memory intertwines with her sculptural language.
Untitled (Female Torso)
This work could be called The Venus of Sadimba, or rather The Venus of Nemu, in reference to the Venus de Milo and the artist’s birthplace. This female torso with its rounded forms draws the eye.
Untitled (Two Children Lying Down)
We see two figures lying down and entwined. The artist gives us no further details about the people depicted: Are they friends? A couple? Are they children? So many questions that remain unanswered—much to the delight of our imagination.
Untitled (Head sculpture)
This work depicts human heads—likely Makonde, as indicated by their scarification-tattoos—arranged according to a three-tiered hierarchy. The question viewers might ask themselves is: Who is at the bottom and who is at the top of this hierarchy?
Untitled (Back to Back)
These two female figures have their backs turned to each other, but at the same time they rest their hands on each other, which softens the sense of discord.
Untitled (Three Reclining Figurines)
The viewer can witness a scene of complicity and friendship among four people, three of whom are lying down. Sadimba used minerals to color the terracotta, graphite for the black, and lime for the white.
Untitled (pregnant)
A depiction of a pregnant woman with her hands on her belly and decorative incisions on the terra cotta at the level of her breasts and belly.
Untitled (Woman with Two Faces)
A sculpture of a woman divided in two by the different ways the terra cotta has been treated: on one side, it is smooth with incisions marking the ornamentation; on the other, the skin is textured by the addition of material and/or pinches of clay.
Untitled (acrobat)
This figure, perhaps a child, strikes an acrobatic pose while appearing relaxed. He is shown sitting.
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