NOREEN EWOE DEFIA: AN EMERGING ARTIST FROM TEMA.

By Nii B. Andrews.

Quite often with the pipes gone dry, erratic power cuts and a crazy neighbor fouling the air by burning his refuse, I find myself moping in my Tema lair about the trajectory of human behavior and development.

It is even worse when there is also a booming monotone from a not too far off worship venue, almost always headed by a vociferous cognitive dwarf with a highly inflated air of self importance on account of a fawning cohort.

The gloom inevitably brought on by such occasions was recently lifted by the arrival of a body of work executed by a self trained young lady artist from Tema (yaay!! ) called Noreen Ewoe Defia, who signs her work – DEWOE.

PURPOSE: Noreen Ewoe Defia, acrylics on canvas, 16 x 20 ins, signed lower left, 2022.

Almost every canvas was suffused with vibrant colors and deliberate thick brush strokes to enhance what were figurative compositions of urgent contemporary relevance.

The immediacy of her work is the forthright questioning of the equilibrium of power between the individual and societal authority.

In one painting, a Generation Z individual stands imprisoned by the Covid-19 virus, his face transmitting mild one (natural) eyed amusement; the elderly face placed on his torso appears worried perhaps confirmed by a wilted flower in the foreground.

Another painting shows two anguished heads – the larger one in profile with a smaller face morphed just around the ear; the head displays the brain which is turned the wrong way round and tied with a pink ribbon; the throat has a necklace with keys around it – and the coronavirus punctuates the background.

UNTITLED: Noreen Ewoe Defia: mixed media, 39 x 48 in, signed lower left, 2021.

Does the virus not lead sometimes to strokes or long term to “brain fog”; does it not make it difficult to breathe; did it not imprison us?

In both paintings the colors are striking and vivid – bright reds, blues, black, white; but the textures are varied making for sustained interest.

Ewoe Defia often distorts her figures; perhaps a tool for transmitting the angst that most of us have experienced in the last 24 months.

In the diptych entitled CHARACTER, the distortion in one half seems to be complimentary for the pair of figures. The artificial hair remnants glued on the figures gives them a realism which also resonates with the artist’s vocation as a hairdresser.

GIFT: Noreen Ewoe Defia, acrylics on canvas, 20 x 20 ins, signed lower left, 2022.

It also provides commentary on conservation and repurposing…..and perhaps our import driven so called economy.

The realistic hairstyles are repeated in several other works thus according the paintings a certain energy and symbolism – herein perhaps even a defiant acknowledgement of her lived reality as echoed by other artists such as Ayana Paintsil.

Two paintings, HIGHLIGHTING MY IMPERFECTIONS and PURPOSE are each loaded with potential layers of meaning.

The former uses a digital screen mechanism to ask questions pertaining to body image; an issue that plagues young people all over the world particularly those who subscribe to an aesthetic paradigm pushed by invidious dominant media.

HIGHLIGHTING MY IMPERFECTIONS: Noreen Ewoe Defia, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 ins, signed lower left, 2022.

When the artist in PURPOSE juxtaposes vegetation, a key and a distorted face we once again have many more questions than answers. 

Truth be told, the metallic sunburst discs representing the eyes sometimes inlaid with images also afford a futuristic slant to the figures.

In short, her work produces the endorphin rush that occurs when one considers Africa’s vast potential after taking into account its young population, abundant natural resources and capacity for sublime ideas.

UNTITLED: Noreen Ewoe Defia, Mixed media, 37 x 37 ins, signed lower left, 2021.

Is it a coincidence that she works out of the port city of Tema – Ghana’s first planned city; its planned ethos long ravaged by corruption, the inertia and incompetence of officialdom but still heaving with commerce, occasional advances in science and youthful energy?

From her visual language and artistic technique, Ewoe Defia furnishes an interesting and fresh perspective and is obviously not afraid to take risks as she seeks to share her opinions on what are topical issues.

CHARACTER: Noreen Ewoe Defia, Mixed Media, 32 x 20 ins, signed lower left, 2022.