World-renowned South African artist Zanele Muholi is in Cape Town for the opening of her latest exhibition, an extension of her body of work in which she captures South Africa’s marginalised LGBTIQ community in photographs.
“I’ve got two bodies of work. It’s taken time to shape it the way I wanted,” said Muholi of the latest show of her works, which opens at the Stevenson gallery in Woodstock at 8o'clock tonight.
Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lionesss) looks at the politics of race and gender in photography. Muholi says that as an artist she is comfortable both in front and behind the camera, “observing and being observed”.
“The show is about work, my friends and the people that I work with. It’s political; my one is about gender politics and looking at South Africa 23 years into this democracy.”
Touching on the abuse of women and children at the hands of men, Muholi said her next project would probe masculinity, asking: “Who is a man, and what makes a man? This exhibition is special because for the first time we’re focusing on transwomen in Women’s Month. We are celebrating many things but we’re also commemorating many lives lost.”
While South Africans boast about having the most progressive constitution in the world, these were not the experiences of the black LGBTIQ community.
“With my exhibition, I’m claiming my full human rights,” said Muholi.
Openly lesbian, she says several transwomen have been raped and murdered because of their gender identity. “Their cases have not received the attention from police,” said Muholi.
She said South Africa was no different when it comes to violence against women and children - the only difference being that South Africans reported these crimes to the police.
One of Muholi’s subjects for her exhibition, Katlego Serame, an openly transwoman, says she discovered her sexuality after high school.
She said her problems started when she entered the banking industry and had her first experience of transphobia when some of her female colleagues objected to her using the female toilet.
“Instead they wanted me to use the disabled toilet,” she said.
Yaya Mavundla, who also features in the exhibition, was born in Kranskop, KwaZulu-Natal. She said her conservative background could never diminish how she felt, and that growing up there was a battle.
“You are going to face challenges differently. It’s very important to have such projects open people’s minds,” said Mavundla.