“This body of work explores the duality of Blackness; on one hand vastly diverse ranging across regions, ethnicities, religions, and cultures; yet on the other hand, often seen through the western lens as the monolithic ‘black’. The use of collage in these pieces is meant to mirror the cultural diversity of blackness by drawing together a diverse range of source materials. The symbolism contained in the adornment on each figure is an analogy for the wealth of cultural wisdom and history that we all carry with us. The Afrofuturist approach used in this body of work creates an undefined space that allows for blackness to exist separate from traditional westernized narratives commonly associated with black identity.” – Adeyemi Adegbesan
Adeyemi Adegbesan is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist whose practice aims to examine the intersectionality of Black identity. Reflecting on Black cultural ideologies from pre-colonial, colonial, present day and future timelines; across regions, religions, varying levels of income and political lines, Adegbesan examines the dichotomy of the richness of Black experiences with the imposed societal homogeneity of ‘Blackness’. Through his work Adegbesan pulls from these varying elements to create Afro-futuristic portraits that embody themes of history, fantasy, speculative futures, and spirituality. Adeyemi is a self-taught artist whose practice incorporates photography, mixed media collage, murals and assemblage. He works out of his studio in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighborhood and has shown work in Canada and the United States. He has also worked with brands such as HBO, Instagram, and the Toronto Raptors on commercial collaborations.
https://yungyemi.com/
The works by Adeyemi Adegbesan shown in this video were installed, from June 11 – November 20, 2022, outside the AGGV building and inside the Adorned exhibition.
https://aggv.ca/exhibits/current/ador…
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is located on the traditional territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən speaking peoples, today known as the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations. We extend our gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to live and work on this territory.
Videography and editing by Marina DiMaio.“This body of work explores the duality of Blackness; on one hand vastly diverse ranging across regions, ethnicities, religions, and cultures; yet on the other hand, often seen through the western lens as the monolithic ‘black’. The use of collage in these pieces is meant to mirror the cultural diversity of blackness by drawing together a diverse ran …
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Intro
Intro
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Intro
0:00
What is your work about
What is your work about
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What is your work about
0:28
What do you think about afrofuturism
What do you think about afrofuturism
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What do you think about afrofuturism
1:13
What is your passion
What is your passion
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What is your passion
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diaspora and remix culture
diaspora and remix culture
2:44
diaspora and remix culture
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the importance of remix culture
the importance of remix culture
3:45
the importance of remix culture
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the umbrella of blackness
the umbrella of blackness
4:22
the umbrella of blackness
4:22
black as a monolith
black as a monolith
5:08
black as a monolith
5:08
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Intro
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so my name’s adami adekbuzan i’m a
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multi-disciplinary artist from toronto
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uh canada i work primarily in the field
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of afrofuturism and afro-afro-surrealism
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my process is pretty eclectic like i
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have a background as a commercial
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photographer so a lot of stuff is photo
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based i also work with digital
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illustration collage assemblage and i
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like to source a lot of my images from
What is your work about
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either photos that i’ve taken myself or
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comic books or um
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historic photos stuff like that the
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importance of afrofuturism to me is uh
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the reason that my my work
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centers around it so heavily is that i
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just feel like it’s important to have
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the opportunity to create new narratives
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and to focus on
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creating from imagination rather than
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the
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having the need to tie everything to to
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direct historical
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facts or or things like that like a lot
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of my work is is informed
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by historical events but i also i don’t
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want to be
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uh forced to be hyper literal about
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everything and explaining everything um
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from through that lens and from that
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perspective i think
What do you think about afrofuturism
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i think there’s a lot of value to that
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but i also think it’s it’s there’s a lot
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of artists that already do that i think
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uh the interesting thing about genres
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like afrofuturism and afro-surrealism is
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that they offer an opportunity to to
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sort of create with more of a blank
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slate i know for myself it’s been very
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freeing and i think a lot of other
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artists that work in that field feel
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feel that way as well because so much of
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black art ends up being trauma-based for
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very obvious reasons but yeah it’s also
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it’s also nice to be able to create in
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in a space that’s not you know centered
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around that
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i think pride and empowerment are words
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that i use a lot my hope is to spark a
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little bit of curiosity there’s like
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there’s so much symbolism in the work
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there’s there’s a lot of things embedded
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in these pieces that i think people from
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black communities can
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look at and and see a little piece of
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themself but you know they’re all
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there’s also a lot of stuff that may not
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be familiar and if if that sparks a
What is your passion
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little bit of curiosity and interest to
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pursue it or to find something new
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that’s great too i’m really passionate
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about the idea of sort of remixing and
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and
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repurposing materials i mean it all like
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from my perspective it all sort of boils
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down to sort of collage or assemblage
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practice for and and i think you you see
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that in
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indigenous cultures from across the
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world i think how it takes shapes in
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afro-caribbean uh diaspora
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is like you see it in a lot of
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mask-making traditions from carnaval to
diaspora and remix culture
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you know a lot of the traditions uh in
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you know west west and central africa um
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masquerade traditions there is a lot of
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repurposed materials sort of eclectic
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materials finding their way to
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you know into uh into a piece and the
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other thing that i sort of dawned on me
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as i started creating this work was that
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remix culture is also like it’s it’s
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sort of like the foundation of hip-hop
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as well and when i started to sort of
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draw the correlation between that the
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indigenous practices to to creating art
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and then the the connections to the the
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foundations of hip-hop because a lot of
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uh you know early hip-hop equipment was
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made in a very similar way it’s like
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people breaking down uh
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speakers or radio equipment or bringing
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and sort of like building it back up to
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create their own sound systems hacking
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uh into the electricity on a from a
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public light post or something like that
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to you know to to power it it’s the same
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sort of ideology it’s the same sort of
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approach so all that to say i feel like
the importance of remix culture
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remix culture is like embedded
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or it just goes hand in hand with sort
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of like black creativity and whether
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you’re talking about masquerade culture
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or hip-hop culture all the way up to the
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present i think it’s like a very
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fundamental part of of the creative
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process um i think that’s why i’m so
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drawn to it as a medium so whether
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whether i’m working digitally it’s still
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a collage or if i’m working with
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repasting analog
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techniques i’m still sort of collaging
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pulling in different materials sort of
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creating a final piece out of that
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but also like the the music itself for
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sure like the the sampling the the idea
the umbrella of blackness
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of like finding an old record and
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chopping that tiny little piece out of
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it and turning it into something new but
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it’s still
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it’s still a way of like building on
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history and moving things forward so
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some of the the ideas that i’m playing
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with are exploring the space between
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specific cultural and ethnic identities
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and then the overall
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umbrella of blackness i guess you know
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everybody has their own ethnicity and
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cultural background and you know i think
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for a lot of black people you know in
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canada for instance you know there’s a
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lot there’s a heavy caribbean population
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there’s a lot of people from
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east and and west africa so there’s
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there’s a lot of really rich specific
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cultural traditions but then there’s
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also this other
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thing um it’s sort of like a societal
black as a monolith
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media
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generation this idea of blackness as
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blackness as a monolith and so many
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things get called black and labeled
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black
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um as if it’s just
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one thing and it’s it’s sort of it’s
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it’s kind of crazy in a sense because
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it’s almost like a non-descriptor like
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it’s you’re not
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when you call something black you’re not
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really you’re not necessarily
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um
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explaining
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anything specific because there’s so
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much diversity within blackness um so
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that’s kind of
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that’s kind of
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one of the main themes that i explore
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with the work as well is just
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like all these pieces are are black and
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white um to to represent that idea of
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blackness as a monolith but at the same
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time
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the eclectus the eclectic-ness of the
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symbolism all the you know everything
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that’s collaged into these pieces
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represents like all of the all the
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diversity and all these different
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elements that you know that are
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included under under that umbrella so
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