Through self-portraits, Zanele Muholi reinvents black identity and challenges the oppressive standards of beauty that often ignore people of color.
Zanele Muholi's face is bright and is framed by a puffy latex headdress. The image is typical of the theatrical self-portraits of photographers in Johannesburg, where hairstyles, hairstyles and objects as diverse as the sumptuous cowrie shell necklace or the wooden stool used as a hat or crown suggest multiple characters and layers of characters. historical, cultural and cultural. political sense
As Muholi said, you can look at latex gloves, "and think about balloons and games, instead of the limitations of work and domestic life or the need to breathe, to feel deflated." Characteristic of Muholi's work, photography is above all things and much more.
This image is one of more than 90 self-portraits of "Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness" (Aperture), a monograph accompanying a traveling exhibition curated by Renee Mussai for Autograph ABP in London and now at Spelman Museum College Of Fine Arts in Atlanta until December 8th. In addition to photographs, the book contains essays, reviews and poems by more than 20 curators, art historians and writers.
Self-portraits work at different levels and pay tribute to the history of black women in Africa and beyond, to the black lionesses of the book's title. They reinvent the black identity in an essentially personal but inevitably political way. And they defy stereotypes and oppressive standards of beauty that often ignore people of color. "All these stereotypes inspire a deep hatred of the black body, from head to toe: eyes, lips, everything, its characteristics," said Muholi in a recent interview with Ms. Mussai.
Muholi, who avoids gender-specific pronouns, is co-founder of the Women's Empowerment Forum, which advocates for the rights of black lesbians in South Africa, and founder of Inkanyiso, a queer activist and visual media collective. . Activism is fundamental to Muholi's photographs, a work that builds on the tradition of empowerment through self-representation of blacks. Since the nineteenth century, the photographic portrait has allowed blacks to represent themselves as they want to be seen, not how others classify them or abandon them.
"I wanted to use my face so that people always remember the importance of our black faces when we face them," said Muholi, who prefers to call himself a "visual activist" rather than an artist. "In order for this black face to be recognized as belonging to sensible and reasonable thought, it is in itself".
The portraits of Muholi inspire self-discovery and resistance by example. They are based on previous series on visual activism, such as "Faces and phases", "Innovative women" and "Transfiguras", which document South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex lesbians in response to persecution, violence and violence. the invisibility they endured.
"Too often, I think we are imitated and distorted by other privileged people," said Muholi. "We are here, we have our own voices, we have our own life." In this sense, the photographer wants to "teach our history to people, rethink what history is, retrieve it for ourselves, encourage people to use artistic tools like cameras to fight". These words echo Gordon Parks, who more than half a century ago described the camera as a "weapon of choice" against racism, poverty and injustice.
Using postures, objects and richly symbolic situations, Muholi's self-portraits portray African identity as nuanced and incongruous, from a stoic figure wrapped in a snake-shaped vacuum hose to a series of images dedicated to Muholi's late sister, Basizeni. . as elegies and as "conversations with the legion of the" ancestral self ", writes Mrs. Mussai.
Among the most moving images of "Somnyama Ngonyama" are those that pay homage to the photographer's mother, Bester Muholi. Muholi wears several headdresses made of scouring pads or clothespins that evoke Bester's work as a servant. These images push the boundaries of the traditional portrait, and serve as respectful homage, sharp satire and thoughtful commentary on a difficult life aggravated by apartheid.
"The Bester headdress appears as a suit that undermines the pretensions of the portrait," writes art historian Tamar Garb in the book. "But he also affirms the decisive role he played in an economy of subordination and spectacle, the figure is framed by his work, pursued by pictorial precedents, captured by the appearance of his desirable daughter, for whom the love of the mother has always been shared. , never enough, he left too soon. "
In the publication of images online, Muholi often uses the hashtag #blackbeauty, stating that the artist takes control of an attribute that is often defined and represented by others. Muholi implores the spectators, like the liberated lioness of "Somnyama Ngonyama", to question and free themselves from the oppressive aesthetic.
"How is black beauty defined? It changes over time, and it always seems to coincide with the consumption of the other," Muholi said. "My point is that blacks should question this idea themselves."
Muholi hopes that "Somnyama Ngonyama" will encourage blacks who face racism, sexism and homophobia in Africa and beyond to resist and transcend the cultural limitations imposed on them.
"The series evokes beauty, evokes historical incidents and gives the affirmation of those who doubt, when they speak, when they look in the mirror, to say:" You are worthy, count, nobody has the right to undermine you ".: be, your race, your gender expression, your sexuality, everything you are. '
"Phila I, Parktown, Johannesburg", 2016
Zanele Muholi's face is bright and is framed by a puffy latex headdress. The image is typical of the theatrical self-portraits of photographers in Johannesburg, where hairstyles, hairstyles and objects as diverse as the sumptuous cowrie shell necklace or the wooden stool used as a hat or crown suggest multiple characters and layers of characters. historical, cultural and cultural. political sense
As Muholi said, you can look at latex gloves, "and think about balloons and games, instead of the limitations of work and domestic life or the need to breathe, to feel deflated." Characteristic of Muholi's work, photography is above all things and much more.
This image is one of more than 90 self-portraits of "Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness" (Aperture), a monograph accompanying a traveling exhibition curated by Renee Mussai for Autograph ABP in London and now at Spelman Museum College Of Fine Arts in Atlanta until December 8th. In addition to photographs, the book contains essays, reviews and poems by more than 20 curators, art historians and writers.
Self-portraits work at different levels and pay tribute to the history of black women in Africa and beyond, to the black lionesses of the book's title. They reinvent the black identity in an essentially personal but inevitably political way. And they defy stereotypes and oppressive standards of beauty that often ignore people of color. "All these stereotypes inspire a deep hatred of the black body, from head to toe: eyes, lips, everything, its characteristics," said Muholi in a recent interview with Ms. Mussai.
"Thembeka II, London", 2014.
"Sebenzile, Parktown, Johannesburg", 2016. Credit
"Sibusiso, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy", 2015.
Muholi, who avoids gender-specific pronouns, is co-founder of the Women's Empowerment Forum, which advocates for the rights of black lesbians in South Africa, and founder of Inkanyiso, a queer activist and visual media collective. . Activism is fundamental to Muholi's photographs, a work that builds on the tradition of empowerment through self-representation of blacks. Since the nineteenth century, the photographic portrait has allowed blacks to represent themselves as they want to be seen, not how others classify them or abandon them.
"I wanted to use my face so that people always remember the importance of our black faces when we face them," said Muholi, who prefers to call himself a "visual activist" rather than an artist. "In order for this black face to be recognized as belonging to sensible and reasonable thought, it is in itself".
The portraits of Muholi inspire self-discovery and resistance by example. They are based on previous series on visual activism, such as "Faces and phases", "Innovative women" and "Transfiguras", which document South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex lesbians in response to persecution, violence and violence. the invisibility they endured.
"Too often, I think we are imitated and distorted by other privileged people," said Muholi. "We are here, we have our own voices, we have our own life." In this sense, the photographer wants to "teach our history to people, rethink what history is, retrieve it for ourselves, encourage people to use artistic tools like cameras to fight". These words echo Gordon Parks, who more than half a century ago described the camera as a "weapon of choice" against racism, poverty and injustice.
“Bester I, Mayotte,” 2015.
“Zowda, Paris,” 2014.
“Bester V, Mayotte,” 2015.
Using postures, objects and richly symbolic situations, Muholi's self-portraits portray African identity as nuanced and incongruous, from a stoic figure wrapped in a snake-shaped vacuum hose to a series of images dedicated to Muholi's late sister, Basizeni. . as elegies and as "conversations with the legion of the" ancestral self ", writes Mrs. Mussai.
Among the most moving images of "Somnyama Ngonyama" are those that pay homage to the photographer's mother, Bester Muholi. Muholi wears several headdresses made of scouring pads or clothespins that evoke Bester's work as a servant. These images push the boundaries of the traditional portrait, and serve as respectful homage, sharp satire and thoughtful commentary on a difficult life aggravated by apartheid.
"The Bester headdress appears as a suit that undermines the pretensions of the portrait," writes art historian Tamar Garb in the book. "But he also affirms the decisive role he played in an economy of subordination and spectacle, the figure is framed by his work, pursued by pictorial precedents, captured by the appearance of his desirable daughter, for whom the love of the mother has always been shared. , never enough, he left too soon. "
"Ntozabantu VI, Parktown, Johannesburg", 2016.
"Somandla, Parktown, Johannesburg", 2014.
"Basizeni XI, Cassilhaus, Chapel Hill, North Carolina", 2016.
In the publication of images online, Muholi often uses the hashtag #blackbeauty, stating that the artist takes control of an attribute that is often defined and represented by others. Muholi implores the spectators, like the liberated lioness of "Somnyama Ngonyama", to question and free themselves from the oppressive aesthetic.
"How is black beauty defined? It changes over time, and it always seems to coincide with the consumption of the other," Muholi said. "My point is that blacks should question this idea themselves."
Muholi hopes that "Somnyama Ngonyama" will encourage blacks who face racism, sexism and homophobia in Africa and beyond to resist and transcend the cultural limitations imposed on them.
"The series evokes beauty, evokes historical incidents and gives the affirmation of those who doubt, when they speak, when they look in the mirror, to say:" You are worthy, count, nobody has the right to undermine you ".: be, your race, your gender expression, your sexuality, everything you are. '
"Ntozakhe II, Parktown, Johannesburg", 2016.
Zanele Muholi: Paying Homage to the History of Black Women
Reviewed by Musa Ali
on
21:10
Rating:
Reviewed by Musa Ali
on
21:10
Rating:
