TO PLAY IN THE FACE OF CERTAIN DEFEAT

Esmaa Mohamoud

Museum London / September 14 to January 5, 2020
Art Gallery of Hamilton / March 20 - October 24, 2021
Ottawa Art Gallery / December 4 2021 - March 27, 2022
Winnipeg Art Gallery / Saturday June 25 - October 17, 2022
Art Gallery of Alberta / January 21 – April 30, 2023

To Play in the Face of Certain Defeat  is a celebration of diversity and an urgent call to action around issues of racial marginalization. Taking inspiration from the African American writer Ralph Ellison, 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 aims to re-examine 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 modern 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 high-level athletics, and the enforced play-out of competitive violence between Black subjects. Through sculpture, photography, video, and installation, she investigates how high-level athletics operate as sites of corporate profit and discrimination.