The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is delighted to present Zanele Muholi’s first major West Coast exhibition in its art space. Entitled “Eye Me” and on show until 11 August 2024, the exhibition features a selection of over 100 works combining contemporary photography, painting, sculpture and video, all created by the South African artist between 2002 and the present day. Through this major contemporary presentation, Zanele Muholi invites viewers to discover her artistic project, which aims to honour and give visibility through the power of her art to the black homosexual community in post-apartheid South Africa.
Born in 1972 in Umlazi, South Africa, Zanele Muholi is seen as a self-proclaimed visual activist, using her camera lens to explore issues of gender identity, representation and race. In her art practice, the committed artist makes photographs of her own body and also of members of their LGBTQ+ community in South Africa in order to focus public attention on the trauma and violence inflicted on queer people while highlighting their beauty, strength and resilience.
Zanele Muholi’s portraits and images exude a profound tenderness and intimacy that is immediately perceptible. These are states and emotions that can only be expressed in her work by establishing a relationship of trust between herself and the people she portrays. The artist sees her protagonists as collaborators who play an active role in the composition of her visual creations, from the location to the poses.
Zanele Muholi has placed activism at the very heart of her practice, from her early work combating the dangers of being gay in South Africa to her more recent work embracing her own blackness and gender expression. Through her project, the activist artist hopes to wrest the right to appear and live from black homosexuals in museums. For Zanele Muholi, the best way to achieve this is through photography, which she sees as an excellent tool for resistance and social change.
Eye Me: the artist’s photographs
Most of the works in the Eye Me exhibition are photographs by the South African artist. She produced Only Half the Picture (2002-2006), a series of photographs conceived as part of her involvement with the Women’s Empowerment Forum, which she co-founded. This selection of works reveals in images the survivors of hate crimes committed against members of the homosexual community. Taken in the townships of South Africa, Zanele Muholi highlights the violence suffered by these characters, but also moments of affection, to bring a touch of hope for the full acceptance of the LGBT+ community.
She offers a touching depiction of queer love in the Being series, in which couples appear in everyday moments. The contemporary artist takes her activism a step further by consciously challenging a culture that bullies the queer community with the Brave Beauties series (2014- ongoing). This series consists of photographs of gender non-conforming figures, including transgender women and binary people in the throes of emancipation.
She reveals another photographic series entitled Faces and Phases (2006-present), which this time brings together visual archives of the lives of black homosexuals. This is part of a wider initiative to pass on these photographs as a legacy to present and future generations. To maintain a sense of the past, the artist will be presenting traditional black-and-white portraits with characters initiating their own poses, outfits and settings. The gallery will be exhibiting 36 of these images, which now number over 500.
In Somnyama Ngonyama, Zulu for Hail the Dark Lioness, Zanele Muholi becomes the subject of her art. In this deeply personal and political series of works, produced from 2012 to the present day, she explores self-portraiture by taking on the roles of different characters and archetypes, transforming everyday objects into props and clothing, in reference to the South African socio-political narrative, contemporary culture or personal events in her own life.
Eye Me: video works by Zaneli Muholi
The ‘Eye Me‘ exhibition also features a selection of previously unseen video works relating to the activism and visual art practice of the South African artist. In addition to 36 black and white photographs from the Faces and Phases series (2006 to date), the SFMOMA art space will be showing a selection of video interviews with the contributors. This initiative gives a voice to members of the artist’s community and their individual stories.
The documentary Difficult Love, made in 2010 by Zaneli Muholi and Peter Goldsmid, will also be on show. A highly personal, intimate and thought-provoking film, it explores the experiences of black lesbians in South Africa through interviews with the artist, their friends and colleagues.
Eye Me: paintings and sculptures by Zanele Muholi
In addition to her talent for photographic art, Zanele Muholi has discovered an affinity for new media such as sculpture and painting. The artist discovered this expansiveness during the pandemic, and is working to expand her practice of self-portraiture. She uses bright colours and disparate motifs to examine issues of representation. The ‘Eye Me‘ exhibition brings together these new paintings and a sculpture in bronze, a symbolic material used to celebrate figures of power.
