Capturing vulnerability
Bona III, ISGM, Boston, 2019 © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of the artist, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York and Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town/Johannesburg
The Gardner Museum’s Being Muholi: Portraits as Resistance was a celebration of the life and work of renowned South African photographer Sir Zanele Muholi. For a decade, Muholi, who uses they/them/their pronouns, has documented South Africa’s Black LGBTQIA+ community. Through their visual archive of representation, the artist captures intimate expressions of beauty, vulnerability, love, loss, and belonging, while simultaneously confronting issues of identity politics, selfhood, and Black queer visibility.
The exhibition featured self-portraits in black and white, the US debut of Muholi’s colourful and expressive new paintings and a new bronze sculptural work. On view were rarely seen images from the artist and visual activist’s ongoing, critically-acclaimed series, Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, several of which were made during Muholi’s 2019 residency at the Gardner.
Self-portraits made before and after the global health crisis used found objects to address economic and environmental inequities. The exhibition also featured poetic responses inspired by Muholi’s artistry penned by Boston Poet Laureate and 2021 artist-in-residence Porsha Olayiwola.
Phila I, Parktown, Johannesburg 2016 © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of the artist, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, and Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town/Johannesburg
Bester V, Mayotte, 2015 © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of the artist, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, and Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town/Johannesburg
Aphelile IV, Durban, 2020 © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of the artist, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York and Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town/Johannesburg
A Being Muholi: Portraits as Resistance installation; photo by Sean Dungan
Miss D'vine II, 2007 © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of the artist, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York and Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town/Johannesburg
Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg, 2007 © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of the artist, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, and Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town/Johannesburg
According to the Gardner Museum, Muholi embodies the spirit of ‘ubuntu’, a Nguni Bantu term meaning “our shared humanity” and expressed in Zulu as “I am because we are.” They bring with them those who are often unseen, vilified, marginalised and misrepresented, helping us see our shared humanity, by making space for Black and LGBTQIA+ people to simply BE.