NA Chainkua reindorf: MAWU nyonu

Press Release:

Na Chainkua Reindorf (b. 1991, Ghana) is a multidisciplinary artist with a deep interest in world-building and mythmaking through the art of the masquerade. Upon imagining a fictional female masquerade society, Reindorf’s art practice is currently focused on creating artworks ranging from paintings and tapestries to sculptural installations which serve as referential visual lexicon for this imagined world. 

Inspired by personal experiences and exploring West African folklore and religious cosmologies, Reindorf is interested in masquerading as an intervention through which guises and mutable personalities can be used to explore deviancy and non-conformity. 

Na Chainkua received an MFA from Cornell University and has exhibited internationally in institutions across Africa, North America and Europe. In 2022, Reindorf was one of three artists representing Ghana at the Venice Biennale. 

Project Statement: Mawu Nyonu
This entire project stems from a deep interest in storytelling and world-building.  Each of the seven paintings is based one of the seven masquerade characters (referred to as ‘skins’ or ‘glanu’), that make up of the Mawu Nyonu (roughly translated from Ewe as God is a woman). Mawu Nyonu is a mythical masquerade secret society in West Africa made up of seven skins (characters), each of which are distinct both in characteristics and features and each of whom possess a certain transformative power, so that when an individual wears their respective costumes they will be imbued with the power that they each carry.
The skins’ individual personalities and powers take inspiration from the Mino warriors, the highly skilled and fearsome all-female military regiment charged with protecting the King of Dahomey before it disbanded after Dahomey became a French protectorate in 1894.
The 7 skins are also inspired in part by Vodun Cosmology, where in some versions, Mawu is a female being with 7 children, each a deity with distinct powers.
My own personal experiences as a Ghanaian, African and Black woman also heavily inspired this project. The 7 characters are in a way my own dream alter-egos, each embodying a trait that I often wish I possessed, or believed I lacked or dreamed I could explore freely. These traits though, personal on the one hand are also quite universal, in that these sentiments are not singular but desired by many women.
This also connects especially with my interest in the idea of masquerades as a medium through which I can explore deviancy, non-conformity and perhaps a level of recklessness in behavior, without being judged harshly. Under the guise of a masquerade, often, aberrant behavior is tolerated and often acceptable.