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Esmaa Mohamoud: To Play in the Face of Certain Defeat: Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Past exhibition
25 June - 16 October 2022
  • Overview
  • Works
  • Press
Overview
Esmaa Mohamoud, From the Ground We Fall, 2019. Repurposed football gear, textiles, chains. All images courtesy of the artist & Winnipeg Art Gallery.
Esmaa Mohamoud, From the Ground We Fall, 2019. Repurposed football gear, textiles, chains. All images courtesy of the artist & Winnipeg Art Gallery.
"To Play in the Face of Certain Defeat is a celebration of diversity and an urgent call to action around issues of racial marginalization."

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 contemporary 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, Mohamoud investigates how high-level athletics operate as sites of corporate profit and discrimination. Reconstructed equipment also celebrates individuality and cultural plurality through exuberant, diverse designs. 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 Matthew Kyba (Guest curator at Museum London)


  • Winnipeg Art Gallery
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Works
  • Esmaa Mohamoud From the Ground We Fall, 2019 Repurposed football gear, textiles, chains
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    From the Ground We Fall, 2019  
    Repurposed football gear, textiles, chains
  • Esmaa Mohamoud One of the Boys (Black and White), 2019 Archival pigment prints
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    One of the Boys (Black and White), 2019
    Archival pigment prints
  • Esmaa Mohamoud Glorious Bones, 2018-19 46 repurposed football helmets, textiles, recycled tires, steel stands
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    Glorious Bones, 2018-19
    46 repurposed football helmets, textiles, recycled tires, steel stands
  • Esmaa Mohamoud From the Ground We Fall, 2019 Three-channel digital video, colour, sound
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    From the Ground We Fall, 2019
    Three-channel digital video, colour, sound
  • Esmaa Mohamoud Heavy Heavy (Hoop Dreams), 2016-19 60 concrete basketballs, black acrylic
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    Heavy Heavy (Hoop Dreams), 2016-19
    60 concrete basketballs, black acrylic
  • Esmaa Mohamoud One of the Boys (White), 2019 Repurposed jersey, satin, jersey mesh, velvet, shoe lace
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    One of the Boys (White), 2019
    Repurposed jersey, satin, jersey mesh, velvet, shoe lace
  • Esmaa Mohamoud Anything and Everything, Except Me, 2019 Vinyl text
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    Anything and Everything, Except Me, 2019
    Vinyl text
  • Esmaa Mohamoud Anything and Everything, Except Me, 2019 Vinyl text
    Esmaa Mohamoud
    Anything and Everything, Except Me, 2019
    Vinyl text
Close
Press
  • Esmaa Mohamoud, One of the Boys (White), 2019. Repurposed jersey, satin, jersey mesh, velvet and shoe lace, installation view at Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2021 (courtesy the artist)

    Esmaa Mohamoud: Blackness and the deceptive seduction of professional athletics.

    Alison Gillmor, galleries west, August 8, 2022

Related artist

  • Esmaa Mohamoud

    Esmaa Mohamoud

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