The Dalhousie Art Gallery is showcasing three exhibits celebrating African Nova Scotian history, community and craftsmanship from Feb. 6 to April 27.
Pamela Edmonds, director and curator of the Dalhousie Art Gallery, spoke about the objective of the display.
“What I’m interested in is providing a voice in HRM about who’s included in the national narratives within art and the broader story of the country,” said Edmonds. “It’s three different exhibitions interconnected through stories of faith and resilience and unity, really. It’s looking at the past and the present of these communities, and the different innovations that they are composed of — their resilience and faith.”
The exhibits, Oluseye: by Faith and Grit, Down Home: Portraits of Resilience and Theaster Gates, Billy Sings Amazing Grace, each highlight the past, present and future contributions and resilience of Black Nova Scotian communities.
Edmonds primarily curated Oluseye: by Faith and Grit.
“Oluseye wanted to shine a light on these distinct communities in honour of their history. He has highlighted particular people like Edith Clayton in honour of her practice as a maker,” said Edmonds.
Clayton was an African Nova Scotian basket weaver, known globally for her historical contributions to the art and narrative of African Canadian storytelling and culture.
Oluseye continues to monumentalize history and culture through his “diasporic debris” — reclaimed materials rich with historical and cultural significance.
“I’m interested in artists who use assemblage and recycled material to give them new life. I think it’s part of what we do as Black folk,” said Edmonds. “We take the remnants of things and turn them into something else; it’s very much part of our creative language.”
In a set of six works, Oluseye pays homage to other Black Canadian artists, Loyalists and key contributors to communities across the Atlantic coast.
“I feel like the Subject to the Tide work, named after David Hammons, is notable,” said Edmonds. “This work takes the Canadian flag, recreates it in pan-African colours, which is really about the unification of different communities from different countries, and puts it with an object that has sat in the Bedford Basin, by what was Africville, for years.”
The piece features a 183 by 355 centimetre reconstructed Canadian flag, framed by reclaimed fencing unearthed from the historic community of Africville. The piece speaks to resilience and reclamation, a persistent theme throughout the exhibit.
“In one work, Ploughing Liberty, he fuses hockey sticks with farm tools,” said Edmonds. “It is a reminder of the work and toil that it took for the communities to stay on the land, but also speaks to the symbol of Canada: hockey. There were segregated leagues here, but the Black leagues really did innovate — the slap shot, for example.”
The focus on sport and recreation tracks to two other works: Muhammad Had a Dream and Eureka. In Muhammad Had a Dream, two strands of black materials, sourced from athletic and industrial components, hang from the ceiling, each capped with matching boxing gloves.
“The piece has a combination of strength and haunting-ness about it,” said Edmonds. “Muhammad Ali was considered one of the best of all time, as a sports hero. He was also an activist, and so he was also focused on the unification of people.”
Eureka, a leather baseball glove holding a symbolistic cowrie shell, representing African wealth, heritage and spirituality, also connects the resilience of sport with the resilience of communities.
Oluseye highlighted modern Black communities in Nova Scotia through pieces like Meet the Ferrons, a series of photographs of the Ferron Family Farms in New Brunswick.
As the Ferrons themselves put it, they are “building on the dream of [their] ancestors.”
“I’m interested in having the communities referenced to acknowledge that they are not forgotten,” said Edmonds. “I see Oluseye’s works as monuments to those named or unnamed in the work.”
Edmonds hopes visitors will recognize the value and strength of these showcased communities.
“I’d love for people to recognize that these communities are still here, and what it took for those communities to survive and thrive. I would like for people to remember the people who made a mark and are starting to make a mark here,” said Edmonds.
Oluseye’s work is an instruction to a much larger reminder.
“People have gone through hardships and have survived.” says Edmonds, “Have faith, have hope and have resilience. That’s how we survive.”
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