SFMoMA Bay Area Exhibition: Zanele Muholi: Eye Me

January 18-August 11, 2024

   Entrance of 'Zanele Muholi: Eye Me' exhibition with attendees

Photographer Zanele Muholi describes herself as a “visual activist.”

“I named my practice “visual activism” to say: I will use visuals to promote a queer political agenda that ensures visibility beyond our borders. It is a community-based activism that transcends time and space, beyond national boundaries.” – Zanele Muholi

'Only Half the Picture' Section

Born in South Africa in 1972, Muholi’s photography has been intrinsically intertwined with her advocation for the rights of Black LGBTQ+ people and bringing them to the forefront. In 2022, Muholi enrolled in artist David Goldblatt’s Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, which was dedicated to training aspiring photographers marginalized by apartheid. During the same year, Muholi co-founded an organization dedicated to providing access to health care, housing, and education for Black lesbians called the Forum for the Empowerment of Women.

Zanele Muholi: Eye Me is the artist’s first large-scale exhibition on the West Coast. It documents queer culture for present and future generations and contains more than a hundred photographs. The show also includes painting, sculpture, and video by the artist.

'Comfort' from the series 'Only Half the Picture' by Zanele Muholi

The exhibition covers a wide range of the artist’s work, balancing the photography of her early career which surrounds queer identity in South Africa, with her recent self-portraiture that celebrates her Blackness and queerness. Walking through this large exhibition, I noticed the gradual chronology of the artist’s work. The pieces progress alongside the attitude the artist has taken during the different periods of her life. The display starts with Only Half the Picture (2002 - 2006) which appears to focus on the display of hurt, violence, and pain perpetuated against Black queer bodies. This display doesn’t sensationalize this violence but embraces the vulnerability found in a mixture of trauma, moments of intimacy, and affection. A sensitive topic, the pain endured by those marginalized transforms into imagery of hope found in love. Muholi finds this love through the intertwining of limbs, strong bodies, and embraces.

Julia Encinas viewing 'Pearl Hlongwane and Katso Makhafola II' in the 'Being' section

The following series, Being (2006 - ongoing), fully embraces the joys found in love. It is through healthy displays of connection and intimacy that the artist provides a platform of hope and endurance. The subjects are always in pairs, supporting one another in mundane moments of intimacy and embracing the human nude completely in its vulnerable state. The couples’ limbs intertwine so closely that the figures can be viewed as a singular body. Touch, affection, and love are visible representations of the everyday normalcy in queer relationships that the artist wasn’t able to see growing up.

 

“Against a larger backdrop of uncertainty for queer safety, Muholi foregrounds intimacy and joy.” 

– San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Miss D'vine I, 2007, printed 2023 from 'Brave Beauties' series, Zanele Muholi

Somnyama Ngonyama II, Oslo, from the series Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail, the Dark Lioness) 2015, printed 2023, Site-specific photographic mural, Zanele Muholi

Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg, 2007, printed 2023, Zanele Muholi

Installation view of 'Being' section in Eye Me: Zanele Muholi (2024)

Pearl Hlongwane and Katso Makhafola II, Masisulu Ladies Hotel, Vosloorus, Johannesburg, 2007, printed 2023, Zanele Muholi

ZaVa III, Paris, 2013, printed 2023, Zanele Muholi

Difficult Love (2010) and Ayanda & Nhlanhla Moremi’s Wedding (2013) were the film pieces at the exhibition made by the artist to raise awareness of injustices, educate, and create positive visual histories for the queer community. Difficult Love features interviews with the artist and their friends, colleagues, and peers to offer an intimate view of Muholi’s artistic practice and a personal understanding of the challenges faced by those in the queer Black community in South Africa. Ayanda & Nhlanhla Moremi’s Wedding is a film of the ceremony, and the family and friends wishing support and love for the newlyweds. Muholi gives a speech to them in this film, delivering a message that emphasized the importance of coming together in moments of happiness and visualizing queer joy as an act of resistance.

Installation view of Eye Me: Zanele Muholi (2024)

Zazi I & II, Boston, 2019, Zanele Muholi

Installation view of 'Somnyama Ngonyama' section in Eye Me: Zanele Muholi (2024)

Bester VIII, Philadelphia, 2018, Site-specific photographic mural, Zanele Muholi

Cwazimula II, Paris, France, from the series Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail, the Dark Lioness) 2019, printed 2023, Site-specific photographic mural, Zanele Muholi

Muholi’s self-portraiture never shies away from confrontation with the viewer. The artist depicts expressions of love and hurt through her work, but the imagery in her Somnyama Ngyonyama (Hail, the Dark Lioness) (2019) series highlights the eyes of the subject, making the viewer very aware that just as much as they are watching her, she is watching them. The artist’s garments and positions in this series have a wide range, and I believe that the exhibition title Eye Me; Zanele Muholi, is meant to be as direct and provocative as many of these pieces are. This exhibition captures the countless complexities of those within the South African LGBTQ+ community in South Africa; pain, love, community, and solidarity, there is no lack of complexities in the presence of these individuals.

I believe viewers are reminded again and again: Against a larger backdrop of uncertainty for safety, joy is resistance.

Installation view of Eye Me: Zanele Muholi (2024)

Tholakele, 2021, Acrylic paint on Canvas (Left) and Manzi I, West Coast, Cape Town, 2022, printed 2023, Site-specific photographic mural (right)

Ayanda Magoloza and Nhlanhla Moremi's Wedding (2013)