Nádia Taquary graduated in Literature, but soon embarked on the path of art education. It was during a period of personal retreat that she came into contact with books. Circle of Beads: Jewelry of Bahian Creoles, by researcher Solange de Sampaio Godoy, and became interested in the history of Afro-Brazilian jewelry.

During a visit to the Carlos Costa Pinto Museum in Salvador, her hometown, Nádia came across the largest collection of trinkets. Seeing the pieces, she understood the story of an object her father, a Black man, had given her: a trinket that passed through many hands—from her great-grandmother, to her grandmother, to her father, until it reached her.

These objects are sets of metal pendants attached to a bow, worn by enslaved and freed black women in Bahia in the 18th and 19th centuries, which brought together symbols of faith, protection and prosperity.

Nádia Taquary, Open Paths, 2013. Photo: Beatriz Franco

From this research, Nádia created her first work. The work entitled Open Paths is a large bunch of trinkets with ten of the most common symbols found in his research. The work is on display at the exhibition Ònà Irin: railway, at Sesc Belenzinho — solo exhibition by the artist, curated by Amanda Bonan, Ayrson Heráclito and Marcelo Campos, which premiered at the Rio Art Museum (MAR) in 2023 and was on display at the National Museum of Afro-Brazilian Culture (MUNCAB), in Salvador, until March of this year.

In interview with arte!brasileirosNádia discusses the importance of this Afro-Brazilian jewelry for women who, by wearing these pieces of jewelry, transformed the object into an amulet. When the bauble gained enough charms and weight, it was possible to buy one's own freedom or that of a relative. "This story brings me a very important Black protagonism, and from there, my poetry deepens and unfolds. It moves away from jewelry and enters other layers as I learn more about and understand the story," she says.

Without any prior experience, Nádia began sculpting Yabás, such as Oxum, Iemanjá, and Oyá. "The first sculptures I made in a foundry, I had no idea about sculpture, but modeling wasn't difficult. Of course, over time we improve, but watercolor, sculpture, and painting came intuitively. I think it was in me, and I just never allowed it to be there. I believe that, even because I was raised in a family where being an artist wasn't a possibility, I don't think that was sufficiently encouraged for me to recognize myself as an artist," she explains. 

The approximately 22 works exhibited at Sesc Belenzinho were created based on reflections that arose when the artist left Brazil. During this time, Nádia felt fear—fear of leaving her studio, fear of being far from her language. When consulting Ifá, the Yoruba oracle, Ogum appeared and said that fear is an energy, and that it was necessary to transmute this energy into strength: "Because where there is fear, there is also strength," reveals the artist.

Nádia bought small mirrors, created a paper base and began to draw and test the paths on these mirrors, making them always move forward and multiply in seven directions, in a reference and a greeting to Exu. The work, a model, became the exhibition itself: “The The curatorial decision was that [the model] would not be a work within the exhibition, but rather that the room would expand and receive the exhibition within this work.”

In the exhibition space, the seven directions represent Exu, while the train tracks refer to Ogum, the orisha of technology and paths. "Ogum is the orisha who discovers iron, forges it, and creates the first tools. He enters a dense forest and allows the land to be plowed, cultivated, and also to cross into spaces beyond that forest."

A recurring work in the artist's portfolio is Bird woman and Fish woman that appears in this exhibition and also in 36th Bienal de São PauloThe sculpture is based on an itan, a Yoruba story in which a girl menstruates for the first time. Frightened, she goes to wash her clothes in a river and disappears for three days. On the fourth day, she is found high on a mountain, holding a gourd with a bird inside. In the itans, it is believed that the great ancestral mothers took the girl, performed rituals, and shared information about feminine power and the mystery of creation. "This power is not a power of creating children; it is a power of creating everything that will come to be and everything one wishes to create. It is the forces of construction connected to their power of creation," explains Nádia. The gourd would, therefore, represent the mystery of creation, while the bird would be a reference to Oxalá. 

The exhibition arrives at Sesc Belenzinho with the expectation of reaching a diverse audience: "Here at Sesc, there's an audience that doesn't necessarily come just for the exhibition; sometimes they come to the pool, to have lunch, and then they come across the exhibition. That's very interesting," notes curator Amanda Bonan.

The public will have until February 22, 2026 to visit the exhibition. 

 


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