Miriam Hillawi Abraham: The (Incomplete) Cosmic Catalogue

The (Incomplete) Cosmic Catalogue is a culmination of several years of research and exploration into precolonial cosmologies and spatial orders in the African Sahel extending to the Horn of Africa. Using methods of abstraction, deflection, and overlay, the work examines the tensions between the accessibility or legibility that cultural preservation demands and the willful opacity of sacred orders, the unseen world of spirit realms and “non-worlds.” The catalogue is intended to be a nomadic guide or analogue toolkit to navigate our shared sky of the Northern Celestial Hemisphere.