Esmaa Mohamoud

Esmaa Mohamoud, also known as "E," (born 25 November 1992) is an African-Canadian sculpture and installation artist who grew up in London, Ontario, and currently practices in Toronto, Ontario.[1] Her work has been shown with ltd Los Angeles[2] (including NADA Miami[3] and Art Toronto), and in the Royal Ontario Museum,[4] McGill University,[5] The Art Gallery of Ontario,[6][7] YYZ Artist Outlet,[8] The Drake Devonshire Gallery,[9] Art Lab Gallery at Western University,[10] Georgia Scherman Projects,[1] amongst others.

Mohamoud graduated from Western University with a Bachelor's in fine art in 2014 and later from Ontario College of Art and Design University, in June 2016, with a master's degree in fine arts.[11] Her art focuses on interrogating issues around black masculinity culturally in sports (in the NBA and NFL) and politically in North American society at large.[12] She creates sculptures, photography, and drawings to bring awareness to and to expose these specific issues in today's society. Mohamoud's outstanding notable works include exhibits One of the Boys, Heavy, Heavy (Hoop Dreams),[13] Glorious Bones, Blood and Tears Instead of Milk and Honey, A Seat Above the Table,[14] Untitled (No Fields) Why See the World When You’ve Got the Beach?, Chain Gang, I Am Series, and Unholy Matrimony.

Selected Works

One of the Boys (2017-2018)

From 2017-2018, Mohamoud collaborated with Qendrim Hoti to create and photograph sculptures that are designed to be worn by black, male-presenting models.[15] In One of the Boys, men and women wear custom-made ball gown jerseys, thus pointing to gender fluidity and race through their use of fashion. Mohamoud uses Vince Carter’s Raptors jerseys for the top half of the gown and the bottom half is a beautiful puffy dress. The jersey itself is not of the usual sports mesh, but is made of velvet and contains corset lacings on both sides an allusion both to basketball through the use of shoelaces and to high fashion through the use of corseted tops. Some of the models can be seen wearing jewelry such as earrings, rings, necklaces, colorful hair ties, braids, and tattoos. Amanda Parris points out that some of the models in this series face away from the camera or conversely they stare directly at it, something Mohamoud terms the “power stance."[16]

The fashion and body language is this piece work in tandem to create a harmonious balance between femininity and masculinity.[17] This balance of feminine and masculine objects and poise convey the overarching theme of gender fluidity depicted on and through black, male bodies. Mohamoud's design of the jersey and the ballgown is meant to convey gender fluidity in a way in which it is difficult for viewers to categorize the subject of the photographs in a binary fashion. The Raptors jersey itself is meant to symbolize masculinity, as athleticism is usually thought to be masculine, and the ballgowns are meant to symbolize femininity.[16]

The title of the series, One of the Boys, is derived from the artist's personal experiences.[18] Mohamoud recalls her mother requiring that she wear a dress when she wanted play basketball with the neighborhood boys. Mohamoud stated that she wore a dress and put a Raptors jersey on top to which her mother reprimanded, “you are not one of the boys.”[18] Mohamoud reflects on what this statement meant to her during her childhood, when a tension existed between her wanting to play basketball like Vince Carter and her societal obligation to align herself with feminine ideals.[18] One of the Boys is meant to dissipate this tension Mohamoud felt throughout her childhood and the tension that many others, specifically young, black men may feel.

One of the Boys explore and exposes how black male bodies and notions of masculinity have been shaped and viewed by society.[19] Mohamoud focuses on black men in sports and uses basketball specifically to explore societal problems around the construction of black masculinity. In the book Black Sexual Politics, Patricia Hills Collins explains how and why black masculinity is treated and viewed the way it is in sports, specifically in basketball. Collins shares the story about a professional black basketball player named Latrell Sprewell, playing for the Golden State Warriors at the time, who choked his coach P. J. Carlesimo. Collins says Sprewell was viewed “as the worst of basketball”[20] and his actions gave a bad reputation to all black basketball players. Collins notes that black basketball players are thought of as irrational “bad boys” that are too sensitive and can't control their aggressive nature when provoked.[20] Collins states Sprewell's mistake contributed to a societal belief that black basketball players are a bad example of masculinity and establishes the idea that all black men are violent, greedy, childish, rule breakers, and “too black”.[20] Since black male masculinity was deemed out of control, sports have been used to control and polish black masculinity to be more like white masculinity.[20] Collins argues that it is clear that society believes people must “submit to White male authority in order to learn how to be a man,"[20] and this is what Esmaa Mohamoud is fighting against with and through her art. Mohamoud argues that, "[i]f we don't take up space, a white body will."[16]

Through this series, Mohamoud attempts to combat pervasive associations of black male bodies with hypermasculinity, violence, and ruggedness, by engaging the models in hyper-feminine clothes and poses. The artists recalls that many people in her hometown of London, Canada were fearful of blackness as Black people, particularly Black men, are perceived in violent light.[21] Author and activist, bell hooks, has acknowledged in her book, We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity, the long-standing belief that black men are the embodiment of violence and aggression, stating “read any article or book on black masculinity and it will convey the message that Black men are violent.”[22] This image of violence can be dangerous for black men as they navigate their way through the world.[22] To counter this, Mohamoud attempts to offer black men the freedom of gender fluidity. By clothing black, male models in velvet gowns, Mohamoud shields them with the notion that black men can too possess the ability to be fragile and soft.[23]

Through her art, Mohamoud brings awareness to a current and problematic view of black masculinity in order to shift it and reclaim it is as her own through a subversion of gender norms, "power stances," and the use of bell hooks' the "oppositional gaze."[24]

gollark: The python one is out of order compared to both actual `if` statements and other languages' ternary operators.
gollark: `x if condition else y`
gollark: Python has a ternary operator too, actually, but it's weird and not widely known.
gollark: Is this some kind of microcontroller microcontrolling stream?
gollark: <@!220691068654452736> I'm curious, what exactly is the weird project you have going on with the ominous barcodes?

References
  1. "Georgia Scherman Projects". georgiascherman.com. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  2. "ltd los angeles". ltdlosangeles.com. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  3. "ltd los angeles". ltdlosangeles.com. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  4. "Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art". Royal Ontario Museum. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  5. "Esmaa Mohamoud". Arts Against PostRacialism. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  6. "Canadian Artist Esmaa Mohamoud Confronts Injustice and Her Critics". S/ magazine. 2018-07-09. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  7. "Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood". Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  8. 134851139863553; 134851139863553 (2016-03-29). "Esmaa Mohamoud: #000000 VIOLENCE". OCAD UNIVERSITY. Retrieved 2019-06-15.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. "thedrakeblog". thedrakeblog. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  10. "14 Emerging Women Artists to Watch in 2017". artnet News. 2016-12-21. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  11. "ESMAA MOHAMOUD". Light Grows the Tree. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  12. "Sports Culture Is The Catalyst For Esmaa Mohamoud's Art". The FADER. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  13. 134851139863553; 134851139863553 (2018-10-01). "Esmaa Mohamoud: "My practice is unapologetically black and industrial"". OCAD UNIVERSITY. Retrieved 2019-06-15.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. "How Artist Esmaa Mohamoud Reveals the Dark Heart of American Athletics". frieze.com. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  15. Newell-Hanson, Alice; Loiseau, Benoit (2017-12-15). "meet the artist who dresses basketball players in ball gowns". I-D. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  16. Parris, Amanda (July 20, 2017). "Why Esmaa Mohamoud is bringing blackness and basketball into the gallery". CBC. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
  17. "This Artist Takes Masculinity To A Different Level By Making Basketball Ball GOWNS For Players!". veri-art.net. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  18. "YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  19. "Back Matter". Transition (124). 2017. doi:10.2979/transition.124.bm. JSTOR 10.2979/transition.124.bm.
  20. Hill Collins, Patricia. (2004). Black sexual politics : African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415930995. OCLC 53284925.
  21. Earnshaw, Doris; McClatchy, J. D. (1979). "Anne Sexton: The Artist and Her Critics". World Literature Today. 53 (2): 299. doi:10.2307/40133708. ISSN 0196-3570. JSTOR 40133708.
  22. Hooks, Bell, 1952- (2004). We real cool : black men and masculinity. New York. ISBN 0415969263. OCLC 52819816.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. "THE ART OF ESMAA MOHAMOUD". RedMilk. 2018-01-17. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  24. Hooks, Bell, 1952- (1992). Black looks : race and representation. Boston, MA: South End Press. ISBN 0896084337. OCLC 25281874.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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