Name: TVO Arts - Esmaa Mohamoud, One of the Boys (Black)
Description: Part basketball jersey, part ball gown — this whimsical artwork defies expectations and plays with possibility.

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I was just a little girl who wanted to be Vince Carter and didn't know how to be.

What do you think of Mohamoud’s use of sports in art? 


Part basketball jersey, part ball gown — this whimsical artwork defies expectations and plays with possibility. 

TVO Arts - Esmaa Mohamoud, One of the Boys (Black)

Narrator (00:02):
Art can challenge our expectations and open a world of possibility. This is "One of the Boys" (Black) by the artist Esmaa Mohamoud. She created the artwork in 2019. It's part of an acclaimed series of sculpture and photography centered around the artist's whimsical interpretation of a dress, as well as powerful questions about race and gender.
Holly (00:28):
Okay, so what I'm seeing is a Black Raptors jersey as sort of like a core setted top, and then the other half of the piece is a ball gown with some kind of silk or a satin fabric draped over it, and it's very voluminous and long.
Andre (00:48):
It's like street wear on top, but bridal on the bottom.
Alex (00:52):
It's very different from any kind of dress I've ever seen before.
Narrator (00:58):
Extravagant and entirely unexpected. The artwork is a hybrid of two very different kinds of uniforms. One part is a magnificent black ballgown with a dramatic hoop skirt and a long flowing train that drapes on the ground behind. While the other part resembles a sleeveless basketball jersey with the Toronto Raptors logo emblazoned on the bodice, along with the name and number of Raptor legend Vince Carter.
(01:28):
Notice that the size of the dress are laced like a corset, but using the laces of basketball shoes, the garment combines elements that might be considered masculine with elements that might be considered feminine, which brings up all sorts of questions about the ways we define and experience gender. This black version is actually one of nine dresses in the series with variations in other colors and featuring other teams.
(01:58):
The dresses are often exhibited alongside a series of photographs, showing models wearing each of the gowns while striking dramatic poses. These photos are usually shot in three quarter length and almost always from behind, which the artist does to intercept the viewer's gaze. She doesn't want to let you see them all at once in every photo. The model is black, but their gender is often ambiguous.
Holly (02:24):
I think that's probably why this piece is so powerful. It's because everyone knows what a jersey is and everyone knows what a ball gown is, and kind of questioning what these two things mean together.
Uju (02:34):
There's so much power in how we adorn ourselves and the choice that this artist has taken. It's very fraught with te nsion.
Narrator (02:45):
Esmaa Mohamoud was born in London, Ontario in 1992. She's the middle child and the only girl with four brothers who all played basketball through high school sports were at the center of her suburban childhood, and young saw them as a way to connect with her brothers.
Esmaa Mohamoud (Artist) (03:02):
When you're a kid, you're playing sports with your siblings as a way to bond, and that's how I saw it. It was like a bonding time, so even though I was on the curb dribbling the ball and watching them play, it was still a bonding experience for me.
Narrator (03:15):
Growing up, not far from Toronto in a family, obsessed with basketball. The Mohamouds were huge Raptors fans, but it was the team's star shooting guard, Vince Carter, who really captured Es asthma's imagination.
Esmaa Mohamoud (Artist) (03:28):
He just had swag and charisma, and I love the way he played, and the man is a dunk master. So anytime the dunk competition came up, I was like, this guy is not human.
Narrator (03:41):
Off the court art was another early passion. Esmaa would rush home from school every day to craft along to a popular children's TV art program, and by 16, she knew she wanted to be an artist. Today, Mohamoud is at the forefront of contemporary Canadian art with work across multiple disciplines, including sculpture, photography, textiles, video performance and installation. Her art uses pop culture, especially sports as a lens to explore the dynamics of race, gender, and class. It's important to note that those sports have played a big part in much of Mohamoud's work. The work isn't about sports. Rather, she uses the subject as a sort of backdoor to stage more difficult conversations.
Esmaa Mohamoud (Artist) (04:31):
As I realized, sure, people are uncomfortable to talk about race, but no one's uncomfortable talking about sports. So I kind of used it as a trick to get people to talk about race. And you know what? To be honest, it worked.
Andre (04:43):
She's almost using it as like a landing pad or like an airbag to kind of soften the blow. It's like an easy way to bring her message forward, right?
Uju (04:53):
It's quite clever because people will examine what you've done for quite some time before they realize what you've done.
Narrator (05:00):
The concept for "One of the Boys" comes from a significant childhood memory for the artist. One day she was on her way to go play with her brothers when her mom stopped her and said, if you want to play outside, you've got to put on a dress. So the young asthma went upstairs and put on a dress. She knew her mom liked fuchsia and frilly almost like a tutu, but then in a small act of rebellion, she popped her favorite basketball jersey over the top. It was a black Vince Carter jersey,
Esmaa Mohamoud (Artist) (05:30):
And when I came down, she said to me in Arabic, "You're not one of the boys. You got to take it off." and that "you're not one of the boys" really stuck with me. That phrase, and it was a hard pill to swallow, and I had many conversations with my mother after it.
Narrator (05:48):
This was a painful lesson for Mohamoud about gender and the roles we feel expected to play. The artist and her mom have since talked about the moment, and her mother has apologized. She didn't recognize what it meant to a young person forming ideas about their identity and how they wish to express themselves. Nonetheless, the sense of rejection is a feeling that stayed with the artist for a long time.
Andre (06:10):
I like that this was something that stayed with her, and then she thought to herself that, I'm going to break this. I'm going to break the status quo. This rule,
Victoria (06:21):
I know that art can come from a place of difficulty and challenge and hardships, so I can very much see how that story has come to life in these pieces.
Uju (06:31):
It's a lot of stuff that has to be undone to get to a space to create this beauty.
Narrator (06:35):
For Mohamoud who's made artwork for materials as diverse as Shea butter chain and ratan concept always comes first, she selects the art medium that best serves her idea.
(06:47):
"One of the Boys" is an example of wearable art. Wearable art refers to artworks that take the form of clothing, jewelry, or other accessories. It emerged in the 1960s developed by mixed media artists who were designing works around the body to produce the first dresses.
(07:09):
Mohamoud collaborated with another young artist named Qendrim Hoti, and the pair hired a seamstress to realize their designs. The artwork is made from silk velvet jersey, repurposed components of a Toronto Raptors, jersey shoelaces and metal boning. Esmaa worked closely with the seamstress, perfecting the proportions of the hoop and bust. The dress required a large dramatic effect, but it could not be so over the top as not to be wearable. Laced on the sides the gowns are crafted to be adjustable to various body types. The first two dresses, one red and one purple debuted at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2017.
Andre (07:51):
We should have that freedom to be able to express ourselves and do what we want, wear what we want. That's feeling I'm getting here.
Narrator (07:59):
"One of the Boys" comes directly from the artist's childhood experience bumping against gender roles where she once felt rejected for expressing herself this way. The artwork revives her childhood vision. Now as a glorious and dignified statement,
Esmaa Mohamoud (Artist) (08:14):
"One of the Boys" was kind of this amazing safe space to be who you are, and I really appreciated that and wish I had that as a child.
Narrator (08:23):
The sculpture raises a range of related discussions about gender and expectation from male fragility to the underrepresentation of women in sports. Meanwhile, the photographs which show the dresses being worn steer the conversation toward the black bodies wearing them. Especially the stereotypes black men face about showing vulnerability, mixing the garments, Mohamoud mixes the codes that everyday items like clothing can represent. "One of the Boys" presents a broader, more fluid and freer notion of gender, one that fits the artist's own experience. It upends expectation and imagines new ways of being, and it tells us that we all have permission to go out and play.
(09:14):
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Part basketball jersey, part ball gown — this whimsical artwork defies expectations and plays with possibility. 


Esmaa Mohamoud – One of The Boys

One of The Boys (Black)

This is One of the Boys (Black), made in 2019 by the multidisciplinary artist Esmaa Mohamoud. It’s extravagant and maybe even a little surprising, combining two very different kinds of uniforms. The bottom is a billowing ball gown, while the top resembles a sporty basketball jersey.This striking black design is actually one of nine jersey-gowns created by the artist. It’s part of an acclaimed series of wearable sculptures and photography centred around Mohamoud’s whimsical interpretation of a dress and the way it challenges expectations.

One of The Boys (Black)One of The Boys (Black)

Esmaa Mohamoud

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One of The Boys (Black)