The illustrative designs and augmented reality components of the Roots to Rebellion immersive exhibit were designed by Oddside Arts, a cultural not-for-profit and creative technology collective that merges art, technology and wellness through Black speculative design.
Meet The Team
Immersive Designers
Nicole “Nico” Taylor
Nico Taylor is a performance and digital artist, and scholar of Afro-Caribbean descent, whose work dissects social constructions surrounding race and representation. As a scholar, her interest in pop culture spurred the pursuit of a Master of Arts at Concordia University on decolonial practices, feminism, cosplay subculture, and Afrofuturism. As co-founder and practicing artist at Oddside Arts, she has contributed to the creation and curation of mixed media exhibits (Beyond the Soil 2023, IMAGInuity 2022, Love Letters 2021), short films and community events. Her work has been featured and presented in BlogTO, CTV News, CP24, Toronto’s City Hall and Love Park, to name a few.
Queen Kukoyi
Queen Kukoyi gender-queer, neurodivergent activist, curator, and award-winning multidisciplinary artist and co-founder of Oddside Arts. As a creative, their work explores spoken concepts surrounding the Afrofuturistic meditative space. Queen’s art is a meta-analytical convergence of meditation, music, art, and noetic sciences through spoken word poetry, digital collage, animations, and installation work as performed and lived through intersectional Blackness. Queen’s practice is deeply informed by 15+ years of community work combating structural violence against Black and Indigenous youth through youth service resources, arts education programs in schools, community centres and justice advocacy.
karen darricades
karen darricades is a multidisciplinary artist and educator. Her interactive installations, new media and augmented reality works have been exhibited internationally. Recent exhibitions include Water Wars (Karachi Biennial, 2022), Translunar Formations (Artificial Museum at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square and Vienna Art Week, 2023). She is currently researching innovation in the field of museum digitalization processes and collections preservation with the generous support of a Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council. Her research is interested in innovative practices that engaged the public in our cultural commons through exhibitions that use technology to pair digital assets with physical artifacts.
Illustrators
Roots to Rebellion Short Film
Aisha Momoh
Aisha Momoh is a digital and 2D Harmony Builds artist attending Sheridan College for the Bachelor of Animation program, graduating 2024. Her artistic style is influenced by her daily experiences, music, friends, and fellow artists. Aisha is committed to assisting individuals and organizations in realizing their potential and is dedicated to lifelong learning and teaching.
Augmented Reality Illustrator
Janine Carrington
Janine Carrington is a Canadian Illustrator that specializes in BIPOC centred Black affirming Children's books, Comics and animation. She was born in Toronto, Ontario and taught the basics of drawing by her father. She went on to study art in high school and at the Ontario College of Art and Design. After completing her last year of college in Florence, Italy, she took time to travel the world before settling in Toronto again. She has been working professionally since 2008 with authors from Canada, the United States and England. She is currently inspired by her wonderful son to create art that uplifts all children, especially those of colour.
Special thanks to additional creative members for their contributions to the development of the immersive exhibit
Historical Consultant
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Anique Jordan
Anique Jordan is an artist, writer and curator who looks to answer the question of possibility in everything she creates. As an artist, Anique works in photography, sculpture and performance often employing the theory of hauntology to challenge historical or dominant narratives and creating, what she calls, impossible images. Recently, she has been thinking about time, the surreal, and the rejection of the singular and linear ways of thinking or being in the world. Anique has lectured on her artistic and community engaged curatorial practice as a 2017 Canada Seminar speaker at Harvard University and in numerous institutions across the Americas. In 2017 she co-curated the exhibition Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood at the Art Gallery of Ontario. As an artist, she has exhibited in galleries such as Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), Art Gallery of Guelph, Doris McCarthy Gallery, German Gallery, Art Gallery of Windsor, Gallery 44, and Y+ Contemporary. She has received numerous awards, grants and fellowships and in 2017 was awarded the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist of the Year award. Anique is currently completing her MFA in Photography at Rhode Island School of Design.
Voice Actor: Josiah Henson
Duwayne Wright
Duwayne Wright is a Canadian Producer/Engineer who cut his teeth in NYC & Miami at the world-famous Hit Factory Studios. He gained a wealth of experience producing and/or engineering music for artists, other producers, film & television, commercials, podcasts, art installations and video games across wide-array genres. His clients have included Universal Records, Sony Records, RCA, The Globe & Mail, Nike, Roots, Gillette, CBC, Amazon Studios, Shadow Pine Studios, Activision and many more. When asked about his process Duwayne responded with, "... all the things that go into making great original music, I’m there from start to finish”.
Learn more about Oddside Arts by visiting: oddsidearts.ca