OBUXUM
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OBUXUM is a Toronto based, Somali-Canadian producer and beatmaker, whose lush and characteristic sound celebrates storytelling. She has made her presence known with notable festival performances at Wavelength Festival (Toronto), Kazoo! Fest (Guelph, Ontario), Electric Eclectics (Big Head Valley, Ontario) and Venus Fest (Toronto). In 2018, NOW Magazine listed her as one of Toronto’s “electronic musicians to watch.” OBUXUM’s project Re-Birth was longlisted for the 2020 Polaris Music Prize. Her live set occurs outdoors for an opportunity to explore her artistic practice in electronic music, In situ. Exploring Afrofuturist configurations of electronic music in reaction to the parallels of the past and recent, post-pandemic environs.
Situated in Toronto’s inner-city areas, OBUXUM’s live performance links past & future. Found hidden in the city’s realm, between the off-the-beaten-paths and hidden graffiti landscapes, her performance surges forth, reclaiming Black freedom and histories that shaped electronic and dance music. Electronic equipment and instruments are brought into context as a sign of privilege underscored by the mise en scène — ultimately becoming the vessel to acknowledge earlier Black struggles — a battle that has been inherited from generation-to-generation and continues to rage on — which brought forth a momentous time in evolutionary innovation to Black culture, Black music, and Black freedoms. The artist´s examination of sonic landscapes, on these ‘privileged' electronic tools, has a deep-rooted history in the socioeconomic gaps found between the privilege of capitalist dreams and the realities of inaccessible resources found in Black communities. In this visual and audio examination of juxtaposing OBUXUM’s electro explorations with archival footage of graffiti, birth of Hip-Hop, electro innovations by Black musicians, Black Panthers & activists, and the looting of stores, reveals a systemic pattern of mutually assured battles for cosmopolitan consumptions for accessibility, freedom, and socioeconomic resources.
