Exhibition brings large-scale artworks by Black artists into Toronto's Union Station

For the third year in a row MakeRoom — a curatorial agency that focuses on finding paid exhibitions for BIPOC and emerging artists — is presenting an exhibition of large-scale work by Black artists at Toronto's Union Station. This year's theme, "A Transit Through Time" owes a lot to sci-fi writer and Afrofuturism pioneer Octavia E. Butler says MakeRoom's founder Trevor Twells 

"[The theme] was heavily inspired by this quote that kept resonating with us, from Octavia Butler," he says. "[She said] 'I wrote myself in because I'm me, I'm here, and I'm writing.' Like, literally making room for yourself."

From there, Twells put out a call for works that, in one way or another, explore the links between past, present, and future in Black cultural communities around the globe.

"Black creativity has permeated the culture for centuries. We're standing on the shoulders of giants, like the movers, the shakers and the revolutionaries," says Twells. "We wanted to honour the traditions that they created."

Over 100 artists submitted work, and six were eventually selected to exhibit at Union Station. 

For Destinie Adélakun, an exploration of time meant imagining an alternate version of history. Her piece, Gélédé Queens, showcases performers in traditional Yoruba Gélédé regalia.

"Gélédé is essentially a masquerade that started in the 13th Century," she says. "The tradition honours the powers of women, and the ancestral mothers. Traditionally, the masquerades are performed by men who wear these elaborate masks… They wear costumes to embody the divine feminine."

The twist in Adélakun's masquerade is that the Gélédé performers are shot inside Spadina House, a historical mansion originally built in 1866 by Dominion Bank founder James Austin, which now functions as a museum. 

"In a way I'm thinking about reclamation… thinking or reimagining 'What would it be like if the African diaspora's ancestors came [to North America] as free people?" she says. "If we were able to come in, be in these colonial spaces as free people, and be able to practice our traditions and our spirituality, what would that look like?"

She adds that, for her, showing the piece at Union Station, itself a Beaux-Arts monument to European-influenced aesthetics, is yet another reclamation.

"I think it's something like 300,000 people move through this space every day," she says. "My work stands as an interruption, as a visual and spiritual call to engage with histories that are often erased in public spaces."

Rico Poku, whose work often focuses on themes of sustainability and the environment, says that he wants his work "Celestial Echoes," to get people asking how Africa wound up in a state of what he calls "resource exploitation and systemic dependency."

 "'Celestial Echoes' is a call to action, an invitation to recognize Africa's immense potential and to question the systems that have hindered it," he says. 

He wants his works to help people imagine a better, more sustainable future, and hopes it "will spark conversations about self-sufficiency, sustainability, and the need for economic structures potentially to serve the people rather than external interests."

Twells says that he hopes that this exhibit will get the artists involved thinking about how they want to inspire the next generation, create legacies, and break out of the constraints that are often placed on Black artists.

"What traditions do you want to inspire in the future?" he says. "What type of movements do you want to create, and how do you hold on to your cultural identity?...  Black artists are often put into boxes and told to kind of stick to specific topics and areas, but good art offers fresh perspectives and fresh narratives."