Ebony in Ivory, I

This work plays on the tension between the expression of beauty, the symbol of intense labour and the objectification of the model. The artist represents in shea butter a young African girl with braided hair to draw attention to the exploitation of racialized women workers who harvest nuts, and whose underpaid labour is vital to the beauty product industry. By reappropriating the codes of classical sculpture, Esmaa Mohamoud magnifies the African girl as a worthy subject, the hairstyle as expert skill and expression of identity among African and Afro‑descendent communities, as well as shea butter as a cultural and economic symbol.