Hi all,

 

It’s an exciting week in Toronto, with both the Interior Design Show and DesignTO Festival kicking off in the coming days. Most of the real estate in this dispatch is dedicated to a Q&A with Ehiko Odeh – a thoughtful and thought-provoking creative whose work is generating a lot of buzz right now – as well as what else I'd like to see at the Festival. And don’t forget that I’m moderating a fabulous IDS panel with a few fine folks from this past weekend’s Designing Canada feature in The Globe and Mail.

 

I'm also excited to announce a new project I have in the works that I would love your feedback on – #OpalomaTours! Many of you have asked if I'd ever consider doing them and after a few brainstorming sessions, I've got plenty of ideas. If you'd like to share what your ideal tour with me would be, drop me a line at opaloma@opaloma.ca! Watch this space (and this space) for more information….

Ehiko Odeh, One Luv Hair Salon Poster #10, 2022. Oil paint and pastels on canvas (42 x 54 inches).

95 St. Clair Avenue West

On until January 28

 

Ehiko Odeh is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist originally from Lagos, Nigeria. Her upcoming exhibition caught my eye as I perused the offerings at this year’s DesignTO, and not only because of the theme; I’ve noticed Black hair appear as subject matter and muse in several shows in the recent past, and I’m hoping to write a story about it when the Opaloma website launches. But also, the inspiration for Odeh’s project is uniquely of the city.

 

Golden Beauty Supply, which opens this Friday at 95 St. Clair Avenue West, is described by Odeh as an art installation-slash-exhibition which borrows the name and influence from a decades-old multi-use space on Bathurst Street. Retailer, barber shop and salon, Golden Beauty Supply has become a trove for Odeh as she researches her artistic projects.

 

Odeh's work examines “Decolonization, Health and Wellness, Unravelling Spirituality linked to traditional Afrakan masks, Sexual Violence, and the Representation of Melanated Hair” as per the description on her Helloart.com page (where you can buy her pieces, too!); and she spoke to me in the midst of DesignTO preparations about the exhibition’s genesis and what visitors will experience. She sounded super jazzed about it, and I am too!

 

The exhibition is also part of the DesignTO Tours: Space & Sanctuary event happening on Sunday, January 28 between 2-3pm; you can learn more and RSVP here. PLUS, Odeh has a show on at the Richmond Hill Public Library until February 24 called Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow *and* is part of the group show Girl Dinner, which opens on Friday, January 26 at Abbozzo Gallery. If our conversation is any indication, she won’t be slowing down any time soon, either. 

 

It started with a project for school when I was at OCAD. The assignment was to create something that reminded us of home. My mom would always do my hair and my older sisters’ hair before we went to school; my sisters had big, long hair and it took a long time. I remember either dreading or looking forward to it, there was no in-between – I either wanted to go first or I wanted to go last. It became a big part of my identity at that time because my hair wasn’t as long as my sisters’ hair, and I would always get compared to them.

 

It's personal for me, and I think a lot of people are now talking about it because there's so much to say. People are also trying to celebrate their hair more; it's really like a walking protest in being able to be yourself. A lot of people still have so many preconceived notions of who I am based off of my hairstyle. And beauty is a huge part of our society in that people who are of a race outside of white have to put more effort into how they look to get opportunities.

Ehiko Odeh, Summit Curl, 2 Step Cold Wave Treatment, 1980. 

Initially in my work I started drawing on the products that I used growing up, which would be considered more archival. Some of the brands still exist today, but their packaging is not the same. I wanted to capture that timeline, going back and taking it through to the present – which if you think about it is also looking at the past, in a way, as more people start to wear their natural hair more often nowadays.

 

I was doing research around this theme leading up to my exhibition Our Hair Holds Memories, which opened last October; at the same time, I was looking for a specific crochet hook for my locs. After searching for them online, I found Golden Beauty Supply by walking around my neighbourhood; I had never heard of it, despite only living a few blocks away. I remember going in and being taken aback. I had been looking for archival products online, and they were so hard to find. It literally felt like God sent me there because they had every single product I was looking for!

 

I told the owner, who goes by the name G, about my show and she was so welcoming and willing to share resources. I don't think I would have been able to create as much work as I did for that show, and even for this new exhibition, without her help. I also deeply admire the design of the space, and how she was able to capture the essence of different decades between the store and the hair salon and barbershop that are also part of the building. When I’m there, I feel like I’m walking through a time capsule.

 

I was just so grateful that God sent me to that place because I didn't need to do any further research – everything I needed was right there. There’s something to be said about the fact that sometimes what you need is already in front of you; you just have to do the work and look at what’s in your own environment instead of searching for it externally.

 

Some people might not know this space exists, and that this area of Bathurst Street has the nickname “Blackhurst” because so many Black-owned businesses were, and continue to be there. Now that the building where Golden Beauty Supply is up for sale and the owner is thinking of retiring, I hope whoever buys it does it justice; they should recognize it as a historical site.

 

Originally, I wanted the DesignTO project to be like an abstracted version of Golden Beauty Supply. Then I started to think, how can I make it more my own while also stepping into the realm of interior design? I looked at it from the point of view of, if I were to buy Golden Beauty Supply today, what would I want it to look like now given what I know about it? And I’m also looking at it as an artist trying to portray such an important place for a lot of people in the community.

“It's personal for me, and I think a lot of people are now talking about it because there's so much to say. People are also trying to celebrate their hair more; it's really like a walking protest in being able to be yourself. A lot of people still have so many preconceived notions of who I am based off of my hairstyle. And beauty is a huge part of our society in that people who are of a race outside of white have to put more effort into how they look to get opportunities.”

Ehiko Odeh, Fast & Easy, 2023. Oil paint and acrylic markers on canvas (48 x 48 inches).

It’s going be an art installation-slash-exhibition, where you can come in and sit down and immerse yourself in the space and take photos. There's going to be paintings, there's going to be digital work, there’s going to be products on display, and there's going to be books about hair. I will also be sharing information about natural substitutes and recipes for products that people can use.

 

People will even get to see some archival products from Golden Beauty Supply specifically, because they have a whole collection of their own. I'm talking hair cream, cologne, makeup – they really built an empire outside of selling other brands’ products. I want people to see the hard work that they put into their business to provide products in an age where people didn’t really see a lot of Black-owned businesses doing that.

 

I’ve come to realize that a lot of people that make work about Black hair, in my opinion, mostly focus on hairstyles and maybe the products, too. But I'm also talking about the behind-the-scenes – the ingredients, who makes these products, the marketing and the language that comes with selling things to us.

 

There are so many! I am very big on holistic medicine so I'm very cautious about what I consume. Some of these products have a dark side to them. As I was doing my research, I learned that one brand that made relaxers was actually just a chemical manufacturing company. This kind of information is very interesting to me and important in terms of my community, and I really hope that I can expand on that more in my practice moving forward. This project is really a labour of love; I hope I can cover the past, present and future in one space, and that people can learn something by experiencing it.

10 Things to See at DesignTO

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