Esmaa Mohamoud: To Play in the Face of Certain Defeat: Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
"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)
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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
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
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
Anything and Everything, Except Me, 2019
Vinyl text -
Esmaa Mohamoud
Anything and Everything, Except Me, 2019
Vinyl text