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Esmaa Mohamoud: To Play in the Face of Certain Defeat: Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON, CA

Past exhibition
4 December 2021 - 27 March 2022
  • Overview
  • Works
Overview
Esmaa Mohamoud, "One of the Boys (Black)," 2019. Archival pigment print, 61 x 41 x 2 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Esmaa Mohamoud, "One of the Boys (Black)," 2019. Archival pigment print, 61 x 41 x 2 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me… When they approach me, they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me."

―Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

To Play in the Face of Certain Defeat is a celebration of diversity and an urgent call to action around issues of racial marginalization. Taking inspiration from the African American writer Ralph Ellison, artist Esmaa Mohamoud explores the ways in which Black bodies at once appear—and yet are rendered metaphorically invisible—within the spaces they navigate. She re-examines understandings of contemporary Blackness, questioning the definitions of Blackness as a colour and shade, and/or as a societal or cultural construction.

 

Mohamoud draws on the modern industry of professional sports, which she equates with a covert form of neo-slavery. The London, Ontario-born artist transforms athletic equipment and symbols to illustrate pervasive, discriminatory behaviours and attitudes based on race, class, gender, and sexuality. She examines collective and individual struggle, focusing on the homogenization of bodies within professional sports, and the enforced playout of competitive violence between Black subjects. Through sculpture, photography, video, and installation, she investigates how high-level athletics operate as sites of corporate profit and discrimination.

 

This exhibition considers a variety of concerns. Mohamoud’s appropriation of basketball jerseys and Victorian ballgowns, for example, complicates the sport’s fraught relationship with queer, gender-fluid, and female identities. Hockey mesh becomes a physical barrier articulating economic barriers that define contemporary sport. Reconstructed football equipment celebrates cultural plurality through exuberant, diverse designs, while also protesting the staged enactment of Black violence for entertainment. To Play in the Face of Certain Defeat is a plea to address the inequities driving contemporary sports entertainment systems, while envisioning agency, resilience, and collective strength.

 

Curated by Matt Kyba
Organized and circulated by Museum London

  • Ottawa Art Gallery
  • Press Release
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Works
  • Esmaa Mohamoud One of the Boys (White), 2017 Silk, velvet, jersey, repurposed jersey, shoe laces; mannequin frame stand 60 x 60 x 60 in
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    One of the Boys (White), 2017
    Silk, velvet, jersey, repurposed jersey, shoe laces; mannequin frame stand
    60 x 60 x 60 in
  • Esmaa Mohamoud Heavy, Heavy (Hoop Dreams), 2016 Solid concrete 120 x 120 in 304.8 x 304.8 cm
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    Heavy, Heavy (Hoop Dreams), 2016
    Solid concrete
    120 x 120 in
    304.8 x 304.8 cm
  • Esmaa Mohamoud Glorious Bones, 2019 Repurposed helmets, kente pattern cloth and recycled tires Dimensions variable
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    Glorious Bones, 2019
    Repurposed helmets, kente pattern cloth and recycled tires
    Dimensions variable
  • Esmaa Mohamoud One Of The Boys (Black), 2019 Archival pigment print 61 x 41 x 2 in 154.9 x 104.1 x 5.1 cm Edition 4 of 5 plus 1 artist's proof
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    One Of The Boys (Black), 2019
    Archival pigment print
    61 x 41 x 2 in
    154.9 x 104.1 x 5.1 cm
    Edition 4 of 5 plus 1 artist's proof
  • Esmaa Mohamoud Chain Gang 1, 2018 Metal chain, 6 pairs of used football cleats 120 x 24 in 304.8 x 61 cm
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    Chain Gang 1, 2018
    Metal chain, 6 pairs of used football cleats
    120 x 24 in
    304.8 x 61 cm

Related artist

  • Esmaa Mohamoud

    Esmaa Mohamoud

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