ONYX COLLECTIVE, NORTHSIDEHIPHOP.CA and NIA CENTRE FOR THE ARTS PRESENT
TPIONEERS DOT
3.0
THE FUTURE MUST BE REPLENISHED
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Olayide G. Madamidola Bianca Channer Mistee Clarke Candace Nyaomi Boogs Tamu Beatrice Michael Hemans Carolyn Douse Joathan McMahon Jessica Bernard
T-DOT PIONEERS 3.0:
THE FUTURE MUST BE REPLENISHED
B
uilding on the tremendous success of T-Dot Pioneers in 2010 and T-Dot Pioneers, The Glenn Gould Remix in 2011, the third and final exhibition in this trilogy radically departs from a historical archivist perspective towards a futuristic instigator of creativity approach. Completing the trilogy, T-Dot Pioneers 3.0: The Future Must Be Replenished, radically envisions how the historical archive might reside within the very aesthetic innovations that make hip hop culture always fresh. Moving away from just documenting the historical through archival material, the Onyx Society at OCAD University, in partnership with Nia Centre for the Arts and Northsidehiphop.ca explore the following questions: where does hip hop’s future lay? How does hip hop archive its history? And what role does the visual Artist play in replenishing (not preserving) hip hop’s aesthetic freshness? T-Dot Pioneers 3.0: The Future Must Be Replenished features the creative ingenuity of nine emerging visual and mixed media artists exploring the foundation of Toronto’s hip hop scene. Asked to reflect on how hip hop culture has influenced their aesthetic style, the emerging artists showcase in the 2013 exhibition explore a variety of themes connected to the idea of replenishment. By interrogating the archive, envisioning the role of the artists in documenting and promoting historical culture, the artists push us to think about the impact of hip hop culture beyond the monetary calculations of album sales. The artists on exhibition for T-Dot Pioneers 3.0 are members of the Onyx Society at OCAD, a student-run community and support network for students of African descent. Rather than solely focusing on the nostalgia of hip hop’s golden years, The Future Must Be Replenished offers us a vision of the aesthetic legacies and futures of hip hop cultures in Toronto and beyond. T-Dot Pioneers 3.0 provides artistic insights of a generation of youth born after Maestro’s Fresh Wes’ debut platinum album Symphony in Effect (1989), an invaluable window into the future of aesthetic culture in Toronto. The mixed media pieces in the exhibition range from acrylic portraits, to wood sculptures, to meditative mandalas—all expressing the diverse and lasting impact of hip hop cultures. The Future is to be Replenished is an urgent call to tomorrow’s creative agents, to continue to strive forward with the nourishment of hip hop’s founding innovators. Thus, the artists from the Onyx Society at OCAD creatively interrupt what it might mean to replenish the future by interrogating the ways in which hip hop culture has influenced their aesthetic and artistic style.
— Dr. Mark V. Campbell
“TRIP’TIK”
OLAYIDE G. Madamidola and Bianca Channer
W
ho is remembered within the context of history? The act of archiving through storytelling is Hip Hop. Thus, archiving is integral to the act of replenishment. How do you reinvent representation?
Unsung Heroes, The Blueprint, and Tableau Rasa of the ‘Triptik series utilize archiving to play on the themes of visibility, access, and representation within the hip-hop framework.
HIPHOPMANDALA
MISTEE J. CLARKE
T
he Hip Hop Mandala is a tool for meditation, reflecting on the nature and importance of reciprocity and collaboration within Hip Hop culture. It insists that to learn and understand the cultures patterns and approaching trends, you must first genuinely contribute to it and then take a step back to see “the bigger picture” it projects. Displayed as a large cardboard cutout, the viewers will be encouraged to approach the Mandala and respond to or interact with it. Through these actions the Mandala will be replenished and become an abstract vision of Hip Hop’s future to contemplate with intentions to decode.
THE REBELLION
Candace nYaomi BOOGS
I
wanted to showcase images that celebrate old school hip-hop and its culture, which many claim is dead and gone. However there are still artists who pay homage to the origins of hip-hop and when we support them, we’re helping to keep it alive. This series was inspired by Wild Style, an 80’s movie known for capturing the atmosphere of hip-hop duirng that time. The film features MCing, turntablism, B-boying and graffiti.
Graffiti was a form of artistic expression for young adolescents looking for a way to express themselves. Unfortunately, graffiti was seen as being gang related and a destruction of property, eventually leading to communities putting pressure on politicians to have it outlawed. Since hip-hop and graffiti emerged around the same time, people who were involved in one were usually involved in the other. Although hip-hop and graffiti will never be exactly the same as it was in the past, there are still artists today who continue to use them as their form of communication.
“THE LIGHT...”
Tamu BEATRICE
W
ithin our modern world, music significantly shapes our outlooks on life. Within hip hop cultures, young adults are not always depicted positively. This piece “The Light” explores how societies misunderstand and depict people in a stereotypical light by*creating* elusions of images, each object’s metamorphosis depends on what the viewer is willing to discover by removing the “stereotypical” layers of the piece. Please don’t be shy, discover what lays beneath each object.
“WHERE I MET HIP-HOP”
CAROLYN DOUSE
G
rowing up hip-hop was all around me. It was everywhere I took a seat to observe what was going on around me. From the barbershop and salons to right in front of my TV watching Rap City. This piece embodies the chairs/seats where I experienced hip-hop “the hot seat”. In life we all overlook the furniture in the rooms where we create our greatest experiences. The simple couch we sit in the chair we get our hair cut; our memories are imprinted in these simple objects that we interact with everyday. Therefore, this series of pieces bring to light not just when I met hip-hop and how I met Hip-Hop but where I met Hip-hop. The future becomes about the evolution of the furniture in our everyday spaces. Creating meaning and archiving through refurbishing pieces of the past to create new experiences.
TRAPESTRY VOL.1
MICHAEL HEMANS
T
rapestry Volume 1 is a sewn tapestry type installation composed of paisley bandanas. It celebrates the iconic paisley bandanna as a recurring symbol and style accessory, throughout hip-hop’s prolific history. Donned by the likes of Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Young Jeezy among many more, the paisley bandanna survives today as a symbol of the rebellious individualism of hip hop and its unique sense of style.
“ABSTRACTION...�
JESSICA BERNARD
H
ip-hop influences all aspects of our life, from the clothes we wear to the attitudes we perform, hip-hop influence our daily routines. Abstraction explores different aspects of the 90s, creating lifestyle out of a variety of symbols and images. Whether we are fighting to be heard above the hustle and bustle of life or just kicking back and enjoy the groove, Abstraction captures these various aspects of our life. From the harsh truth of gun play, drugs and incarceration, to the intricate fundamentals behind the catchy beats laced with a sassy saxophone sample, soothing piano keys and a steady beat of the 808 drums.Abstraction is animated yet simple, touching on the key parts of what hip-hop means from a personal standpoint.
GAME GEAR
JOATHAN MCMAHON
G
ame Gear is a set of illustrated portraits of three of my favourite producers/DJs in hip-hop from its origins to today. Composed from smaller drawings of the types of equipment that you would find at either their studios, or one of their performances Game Gear highlights these important aspects of hip hop culture. The producers and DJs showcased here, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc, J-Dilla, T- Minus represent the past, the present, and the future of hip hop production culture.
THE ONYX COLLECTIVE
B
orn out of the spirit of the Onyx Society at OCAD University (OSO), the Onyx Collective is but a continuation of the journey.
Based in Toronto, the Onyx Collective is a group of young Afro Diaspora artists and designers. Despite the focus of our efforts, or the mediums in which we speak, we are stitched together with the mutual love of storytelling through creation. The collective has grown to become an extended family, community, and vehicle for conceptual thought. The Onyx Collective strives to offer experiences through our respective creative forms, to teach, support, inspire, and offer a different perspective to viewing our societies.
NIA CENTRE OF THE ARTS
F
ounded in 2009, Nia Centre for the Arts is a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization focused on the holistic development of Afro-diasporic young people through photography, music, videography, drama, visual arts, dance, spoken word, and other community arts. Nia Centre provides programming and services to engage young people artistically, politically, emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually in order to support the development of healthy identities and positive life choices.
OUR SUPPORT
SOHOLOBBYGALLERY