Introduction

0:15

hi there my name is matthew kaiba i’m

0:17

the curator of exhibitions i’m here with

0:19

artist esma mahmoud a multi-disciplinary

0:23

artist from toronto and we’re here to

0:25

present the exhibition to play in the

0:26

face of certain defeat

0:29

a lot of this exhibition plays with the

0:31

notions of invisibility and visibility

0:34

seeing and not seeing the multiplicity

0:36

of blackness versus the monolith of

0:38

blackness

0:39

all through the realm of athleticism

0:41

throughout the show we have a number of

0:43

works that

0:44

talk to different aspects of black

0:46

identity but also gender hyper

0:48

masculinity

0:50

economic subjugation

0:52

the destruction of black bodies so it’s

0:54

quite a full show

0:56

with

0:57

a number of these works that are very

0:59

poignant and and sombra really

Glorious Bones

1:05

one of the first works in the show is

1:07

glorious bones it’s an installation of

1:09

46 helmets that have been covered in

1:12

kente pattern cloth

1:13

and it’s sitting on a bed

1:16

of recycled tires which is meant to be

1:19

evocative of earth

1:21

as you can see

1:22

with this installation all of these

1:24

helmets they almost follow you peering

1:27

out as these

1:28

raised memorials

1:31

because of the joyful colors that are

1:34

implied in it it no longer feels like an

1:36

attack on the viewer

1:38

even though all the helmets are facing

1:40

back in a very voyeuristic way and

1:42

returning the gaze to the viewer it

1:44

doesn’t feel as intimidating as it would

1:47

if all the helmets were one solid color

1:50

for example

1:52

[Music]

Randall Cunningham

1:55

the seat above the table randall

1:57

cunningham was inspired by the lack of

2:00

representation in positions of power

2:02

i always felt that if there was seats

2:05

that were available at the table there

2:07

were seats that didn’t actually

2:08

accompany power

2:09

and they were seats that were meant to

2:12

be tokenizing or

2:14

were meant as a facade to power so i

2:17

wanted to build a seat that rose above

2:19

the table

2:20

randall cunningham was an extremely

2:23

prolific passer and

2:25

rusher as a quarterback in the nfl and

2:29

why this is of note is because there are

2:32

so few black quarterbacks black head

2:35

coaches black owners if you look at the

2:39

discrepancy between

2:41

races within positions of power within

2:43

the nfl there’s very little

2:46

heterogeneity

Blood Tears

2:49

the piece that we’re looking at here is

2:50

blood and tears instead of milk and

2:52

honey

2:53

it’s an installation of 22 branded

2:55

footballs

2:56

that are installed in a circle on the

2:58

wall

3:00

one of the most important aspects of

3:02

this work is the multiplicity versus the

3:04

monolith and it’s directly speaking to

3:06

what this exhibition is about from a

3:08

distance all the footballs are black you

3:11

can’t even tell that they have patterns

3:12

and it’s only upon getting closer to the

3:14

work that you actually realize that each

3:16

football is branded and to me it was to

3:19

highlight this idea of the monolith

3:20

versus the multiplicity the invisible

3:23

versus visible

3:24

and to highlight this singular note of

3:27

blackness and what does that mean when

3:28

we’re all collectively lumped into one

3:31

identity

Hoop Dreams

3:34

the piece that we’re looking at here is

3:35

heavy heavy hoop dreams

3:38

and it’s an installation of 60 concrete

3:40

basketballs sitting on black plexiglas

3:43

each individual ball is indented in its

3:46

own particular way

3:48

despite all of the balls originating

3:49

from the exact same mold

3:52

so with this work i was really trying to

3:53

highlight the reality of what so many

3:56

black men go through when they’re geared

3:57

towards sports their entire life and

4:00

what it actually means when they don’t

4:01

make it to these goals and that reality

4:03

felt very heavy to me

4:06

collectively this installation weighs

4:08

1800 pounds each ball weighing 30 pounds

4:12

and i just wanted the weight of the work

4:14

to pull through

4:15

[Music]

4:16

i wanted a material that would be both

4:19

heavy strong but also fragile in its way

4:22

because i wanted to highlight the

4:24

fragility of black masculinity

The Boys

4:27

what we’re looking at here is one of the

4:28

boys black the reason that i shoot my

4:31

figures from behind is because i don’t

4:32

want them to be subjected to the

4:34

voyeurism that the viewer inherently

4:36

subjects them to so for me shooting them

4:39

from behind also

4:40

causes a barrier for whether or not that

4:42

subject is male or female

4:44

both the subject in black and the

4:46

subject in one of the boys white are the

4:48

same person

4:50

these works

4:51

are indicative of

4:54

what esma i think felt growing up where

4:57

it’s so taboo

4:58

to

4:59

operate within a non-conventional

5:01

understanding of black masculine but

5:04

also black femininity

5:05

what we’re looking at here is chain gang

Chain Gang

5:07

which is a 30-foot industrial chain that

5:10

has six cleats that hang off of it hung

5:12

from the ceiling down to challenge the

5:15

conventional ways that chain gangs have

5:17

been used throughout history which is in

5:19

a

5:20

line that goes on the ground rather than

5:22

a line that reaches up

5:24

the

5:25

length of 30 feet or 10 yards represents

5:28

the first down marker in football

5:30

but the term chain gang that actually is

5:34

borrowed

5:35

and used for nfl refs ironically enough

5:38

was born out of the

5:40

carceral system in the 1920s when

5:43

america started to privatize

5:45

prison systems and therefore had slave

5:49

labor again predominantly black men who

5:52

would do

5:54

extremely arduous tasks out in the hot

5:57

sun

5:58

for

5:59

basically no compensation whatsoever

6:05

so what we’re looking at here is

6:07

one of the boys black and one of the

6:10

boys white in the dress installation

6:13

this installation is made up of

6:15

repurposed jersey it’s made up of silk

6:18

this work is a very personal work to me

6:21

because it came out of a childhood

6:22

experience that i had where i was told

6:24

that i was not one of the boys and this

6:27

was my reaction

6:29

this work has been performed in but now

6:32

it’s lived in a series of gowns that are

6:35

vacant with an invisible mannequin

6:40

these victorian dresses and dresses of

6:41

that era were such a grand statement of

6:45

femininity so appropriating the

6:48

basketball jerseys here really causes a

6:51

schism or friction

6:53

between

6:55

the

6:56

performativity of femininity and also

6:58

the performativity of

6:59

male identity

Mouth Guard

7:03

we’re going to move on to one of my

7:05

favorite works in the show it is a 16

7:07

karat gold mouth guard inside the wall

7:11

guarded by a sheet of plexiglas

7:14

when you have a mouth guard in a player

7:16

it effectively silences them it’s very

7:19

hard to talk and it’s made of

7:21

16-karat gold and you have that

7:24

connection between wealth and affluence

7:26

and silencing

From the Ground We Fall

7:34

the video that we’re looking at here is

7:35

a three channel video the title of this

7:37

work is from the ground we fall and in

7:39

this video there are two men one of

7:42

which is my brother and one of his

7:45

childhood friends

7:47

they were attached by

7:49

chains

7:50

and told to tear each other apart for

7:52

the duration of the video so they were

7:55

pulling each other apart literally all

7:57

day

7:58

under the beating sun and to me it was

8:00

evocative on

8:02

the ways in which black people have been

8:04

pitted against each other especially in

8:06

sports

8:08

i think it makes conscious

8:10

the viewers complicity

8:13

in

8:14

the overall entertainment system that

8:16

feeds us the degradation and the

8:19

destruction of black bodies at the very

8:22

basic level this is the entertainment

8:25

that we consume that we spend

8:27

billions of dollars on each year to see

8:32

one person defeat

8:35

another

8:36

i really wanted to open up the

8:37

vulnerability of black masculinity and i

8:39

wanted to show the softer side because i

8:42

don’t think that we we really think of

8:44

black bodies being deteriorated in this

8:46

way because we say they’re being

Black Masculinity

8:49

compensated with money these football

8:51

players make millions of dollars

8:52

therefore it’s okay to do this and the

8:55

reality is these men are tearing each

8:58

other apart

9:01

we have conversations about invisibility

9:03

and visibility we have the conversation

9:05

of fragility versus hyper masculinity

9:07

we’re having all these conversations but

9:09

this work is the pinnacle of all of

9:11

those conversations

9:14

the idea of change it’s such a perfect

9:17

metaphor for

9:19

the entire show

9:21

where of course you know they’re shiny

9:23

they have such a presence

9:25

but at the base level for the person

9:28

wearing this it’s almost impossible to

9:31

move

9:32

i’m making this work for the viewer but

Conclusion

9:34

i want the viewer to take away

9:36

their own homework and really rethink

9:38

the negative associations to blackness

9:40

that we’ve had through the

9:43

vernacular of athleticism

9:46

yes this is a show about sports but it’s

9:48

grounding force is about race and black

9:51

bodies

9:53

i hope that people actually take

9:55

something from the show in terms of

9:57

their own preconceptions of blackness

10:00

and black people and black culture

10:32

[Music]

10:45

you

No results found