An audio guide of the artwork Muhammad Had a Dream by Oluseye, exhibited at Dalhousie Art Gallery 2025. Written and read by Geoffrey Webster. 

Muhammad Had a Dream
2021-2024
boxing gloves, rubber, found objects

From the private collection of Jad and Roula Shimal

Oluseye’s Muhammad Had a Dream continues to draw inspiration from Pan-Africanism, this time referencing Muhammad Ali's support towards the movement. The work features two jagged columns, loaded with found objects from the artist's travels, suspended from a pair of black boxing gloves. These elements, connected by components symbolizing nations of the African diaspora, form a powerful sculptural analogy for the collective struggle toward global unity.

To view the Dalhousie Art Gallery virtual tour of Mapping Black Resilience: Three Perspectives visit https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=J9jQY6zy1yo

Oluseye: Muhammad Had a Dream

An audio guide of the artwork Subject to the Tide (After David Hammons) by Oluseye, exhibited at Dalhousie Art Gallery 2025. Written and read by Geoffrey Webster.  

Subject to the Tide (After David Hammons)
2024
twill, found object 

Here we have one of Oluseye's most striking works: a reimagined Canadian flag. Instead of the familiar red and white, you’ll notice the bold use of red, black, and green. These colours represent a connection to Pan- Africanism, a global movement that celebrates unity among people of African descent and a shared vision of liberation and empowerment.

The flag is fused with remnants of a fence from the shores Bedford Basin near Africville, the site of one of Nova Scotia’s most significant Black communities before it was destroyed in the 1960s under the disguise of urban renewal. This work invites us to think about the histories and stories that traditional national symbols, like the Canadian flag, often leave out.



Oluseye: Subject to the Tide (After David Hammons)

An audio guide of the artwork Woven Basket by Oluseye, exhibited at Dalhousie Art Gallery 2025. Written and read by Geoffrey Webster. 

Woven Basket
2022
bicycle tires and inner tubes, rubber, metal, plastic mesh

Courtesy of the artist and Daniel Faria Gallery

Edith Clayton was a master basket maker from Cherry Brook, Nova Scotia, whose work blended African and Mi’kmaq traditions. A descendent of Black Loyalists, her work symbolizes the freedom and resilience of African Nova Scotians, particularly Black women who carried forward cultural practices and heritage in the face of systemic oppression.

Oluseye’s tribute to Clayton draws on the legacy of African Nova Scotians’ determination to preserve their cultural practices and resist assimilation. Oluseye learned much about this cultural resilience when he arrived in Nova Scotia and saw firsthand how the Black community’s history continues to inform and shape their present-day identities.

To view the Dalhousie Art Gallery virtual tour of Mapping Black Resilience: Three Perspectives visit https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=J9jQY6zy1yo

Oluseye: Woven Basket

An audio guide of the artwork Ploughing Liberty by Oluseye, exhibited at Dalhousie Art Gallery 2025. Written and read by Geoffrey Webster.

Ploughing Liberty 
2021-ongoing
antique farm implements, hockey sticks, brass dowels

Courtesy of Dr. Kenneth Montague/The Wedge Collection, Toronto and John Donald

Oluseye's art examines how Canadian identity is often linked to hockey, a sport that historically excluded Black people. He contrasts this with the often-overlooked labour and struggles of Black farmers in the Maritimes, highlighting how their contributions in the region are undervalued.

Also, particularly for the East Coast, Ploughing Liberty can be viewed in relation to the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes. Believed to be the only all-black hockey league at the time, this league provided a sporting haven for Black Maritimers despite of racial barriers. Oluseye’s focus on “ploughing“ the land – as a farmer would in preparation for harvest – can be mirrored with how these Black athletes built the sporting foundation for future generations. Additionally, by juxtaposing these narratives, Oluseye challenges the limited and often exclusionary ways in which Canadian identity is typically represented.

To view the Dalhousie Art Gallery virtual tour of Mapping Black Resilience: Three Perspectives visit my.matterport.com/show/?m=J9jQY6zy1yo

Oluseye: Ploughing Liberty

An audio guide of the artwork Souvenir by Chantal Gibson, exhibited at Dalhousie Art Gallery 2025. Written and read by Geoffrey Webster.

2017
multi-media installation including souvenir spoons, spoon racks, video monitors, book

Collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, purchased with funds donated by the Charles Anthony Law and Jane Shaw Law Charitable Trust, 2021.

This artwork by Chantal Gibson, called Souvenir, uses 2000 souvenir spoons from different countries. It criticizes how often single, simplified and often dismissive stories about Black people are shared through literary, historical and institutional narratives.

In everyday life, these spoons are uniquely identifiable due to their symbols, colours, and details. But in Gibson’s installation, these identifying qualities are masked by black spray paint. This is adjacent to how the real stories of Black people are often ignored or hidden in favour of a simpler, less accurate picture.

To view the Dalhousie Art Gallery virtual tour of Mapping Black Resilience: Three Perspectives visit my.matterport.com/show/?m=J9jQY6zy1yo

Chantal Gibson: Souvenir

An audio guide of the artwork Lobsters & Lighthouses by Letitia Fraser, exhibited at Dalhousie Art Gallery 2025. Written and read by Geoffrey Webster. 

Portraiture has become a vital tool for Black artists to assert identity, challenge stereotypes and showcase & celebrate the Black experience. For Letitia Fraser, who was raised in North Preston, her painted portraits on top of quilted backgrounds are a way to connect the traditions of her community and collective memory while honouring her profound personal stories related to her upbringing.

To view the Dalhousie Art Gallery virtual tour of Mapping Black Resilience: Three Perspectives visit https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=J9jQY6zy1yo

Letitia Fraser: Black Portraiture

An audio guide of the artwork Faith Catchers by Justin Augustine, exhibited at Dalhousie Art Gallery 2025. Written and read by Geoffrey Webster. 

The Faith Catchers by Justine Augustine is another instalment of the artist’s unique way in exploring memory, specifically the way he chooses to remember. For context, Augustine’s work typically involves places like Dominica (his birthplace) and Nova Scotia (where he immigrated to). Then, by placing imagined Black figures within these places, Augustine is able to vividly explore his childhood memories through his paintings.

In the case of this painting, Augustine focuses on faith as we see two young Black men in front of the New Horizons Baptist Church in Halifax’s North End. Through this painting, Augustine reflects on the history of the Baptist faith in African Nova Scotian communities and its powerful contribution to community-building and hope.

To view the Dalhousie Art Gallery virtual tour of Mapping Black Resilience: Three Perspectives visit https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=J9jQY6zy1yo

Justin Augustine: Black Loyalists and the Baptist Church

An audio guide of the artworks Confessions of an Invisible Sister by Rebecca Fisk and American Beauty Made for Me by Chrystal Clements, exhibited at Dalhousie Art Gallery 2025. Written and read by Geoffrey Webster. 

"Confessions of an Invisible Sister" by Rebecca Fisk tackles race, identity, and colorism within the Black community. By overlaying nylons in varying shades, Rebecca highlights the absurdity of racial prejudice and the pressures of conforming to expectations. The artist also grew up in a rural white community and explores the tension between outward perception and personal reality within this piece.

On the other hand, Chrystal Clement explores similar themes yet from her perspective of growing up within the small Black community of Gibson Woods, Nova Scotia. American Beauty Made for Me in particular references the pressure to conform to exclusionary beauty standards, reinforced by the artwork’s repetitive grid and imperfect makeup application.

To view the Dalhousie Art Gallery virtual tour of Mapping Black Resilience: Three Perspectives visit https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=J9jQY6zy1yo

Oluseye: Subject to the Tide (After David Hammons)

Dalhousie Art Gallery

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