Esmaa Mohamoud Canadian, b. 1992

This painted, metal sculpture of a dandelion by African-Canadian artist Esmaa Mohamoud is part of a series titled Faith in the Seeds. The series memorializes Black people who have been killed by police. As suggested by its title, Darkness Doesn’t Rise To The Sun But We Do, the work is a tribute to resilience and a critique of stereotypes against people of color. Mohamoud chose the dandelion for this body of work because of the plant’s arbitrary status as a despised weed in contemporary Western society, despite the fact that it has been utilized for millennia by cultures around the world both as a symbol of poetic beauty and as a tremendous source of nutrition.

Says Mohamoud, “The dandelion, though a wildflower, is commonly labeled as a weed to be eradicated at all costs, believed to ruin landscapes with its pervasiveness. Due to many qualities, including its strong roots, the dandelion is one of the most resilient plants—thriving in many difficult conditions. One of the most magical aspects of the dandelion is its ability to spread its seeds through the air to grow and thrive in new places. This makes me think of the African diaspora and how we, as Black people, have had to spread our seeds and thrive and grow in new places. As such, this wildflower is here used to symbolize the ability to rise above life’s challenges.”