Tyna Adebowale

Nigerian artist Tyna Adebowale's artistic practice is woven into the multiplicities that surrounds, queer bodies and women’s bodies in our societies. Her residency At EKWC focused on the cast of 244 dolls, each glazed differently. The project started with a question of how motherhood has been shaped by patriarchy and capitalism to be viewed as a prerequisite for feminity. By researching forms of motherhood and the translation of feminity in precolonial spaces in West Africa, Tyna became fascinated with fertility practices that includes rituals and activations of feminine energy through mainly sculpted dolls like in the Ashanti, the Ndebele and the Yoruba cultures. As a result of these investigations, Tyna decided to engage in the production of a large number of “non-binary” dolls, considering that their forms and materiality would affect our usage of and our relation to them. What would you do if you had a white doll with long blond hairs and blue eyes in your hands? How would this affect your perception of feminity and beauty? The 244 dolls that were casted and glazed during Tyna’s residency will be part of a larger body of work/installation.