There’s an air of mystery to a series of beautiful new prints by Sierra Leonean artist Zainab Sumu. In them, large masks are filled with a constellation of intricate marks, lines and textures, as full of detail as a crown is full of jewels.
The prints depict “sowo-wui,” or masks worn by members of a secret, all-woman society called Sande that’s based in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Sande masks are the only ones worn by women in all of African masquerade culture, and the Sande hold a unique form of power in their communities. (Politicians have allegedly been known to court the groups’ leaders, as their support can sway elections.) Yet they’re known in the West mostly for the practice of female genital cutting, and not for the unique forms of power they hold in an otherwise patriarchal culture.
Sumu sees real problems in today’s Sande society, but she sees deep value in it, too. Though she now lives in Cambridge, in 2023 she returned to Sierra Leone for a paid artist residency with the nation’s government. It was there that she began a phase in her artwork of creating woven versions of a ceremonial mask made typically of wood. Those pieces inspired her monotype prints, published recently by Cambridge’s Caira Art Editions.
This wasn’t your average printmaking. In monotyping, the artist often draws or paints an image onto a surface such as glass called a “matrix,” then transfers that image to paper. Sumu worked in reverse, covering the matrix in ink and pressing her weaving onto the inked surface. She had to weave versions of the masks with a fairly consistent height so those high points would lift the ink off the matrix’s surface. Using weaving in this way is unconventional, to say the least. The process required Sumu to “basically make up a new kind of print,” Caira founder Lucy Rosenburgh said.
The complexity makes the precision of Sumu’s finished pieces all the more impressive. In addition to the large masks, she printed etched versions from her sketchbook, in which she made gorgeous and vibrant drawings of the local flowers she saw during her residency.
Caira Art Editions was founded by Rosenburgh in 2024, with its main goal to help Boston-area artists explore materials and sell new work. The Sumu prints are Rosenburgh’s second project for the business; she’s just getting started. In a country where artist opportunities feel increasingly precarious, this small business fills a big need.
“Supernal Beauty” prints are for sale, but no purchase is necessary to view the art. The shop is open by appointment via email: lucy@cairaart.com.
Zainab Sumu’s “Supernal Beauty” at Caira Art Editions, Porter Square, Cambridge.
Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to editor@cambridgeday.com with the subject line “Behold.”
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