Ask Marshay: Honoring the Work of Zanele Muholi

Honoring The Work of Zanele Muholi

This month’s theme is one of my ultimate favorites. I love that we continue to shine the spotlight on different areas of influence that can meld us and serve a higher purpose of bringing us together in an immaculate way! Art & Qulture, darling! I’ve chosen to highlight some of the progressive work of the one and only South African visual activist and artiste, Zanele Muholi.

Despite South Africa being the fifth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, you can imagine the need for a 100MM macro lens close-up that truly captures the untold story of South African queer people of color. Muholi dedicates their focus to race, gender and sexuality. One fact of Muholi’s life that particularly resonated with me was their upbringing. Muholi’s father died shortly after their birth and they were separated from their mother leaving them to be raised by extended family. I have so much respect for those of us who were short changed early in life and used those experiences to cultivate a new understanding of the world around us. I definitely think it serves as a reminder for the rest of us that no matter how rough you think you have it, there is someone somewhere else making the best of their situation with seemingly less of an advantage than you. So no excuses!

Muholi dedicated an exhibition to the research and documentation of stories of hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community with the purpose of bringing awareness to the realities of corrective rape, assault and HIV/AIDS. This was one of the most influential moments in their career, in my opinion. If you have time, I’d definitely recommend reviewing that exhibition which they titled Only Half The Picture. For me, this exhibition equally shed light on the ruthless and violent discrimination black lesbians in South Africa faced while also supplying them with a sense of power by reclaiming their stories and uniting them as survivors. What a completely riveting and innovative way to embrace the community, share the pain and uplift them all at the same time!

Now that we’ve discussed some of Zanele Muholi’s most inspiring successes, I’d like to hone the focus on one of my favorite pieces. Brave Beauties is a series of portraits taken of Transwomen in South Africa. The above pictured image from that collection has enlightened the art exhibitionist within me and I’d like to share what I’ve experienced while reviewing it. While I’m no professional, I love that Muholi’s pieces are not so complex that the average onlooker can’t get something out of the experience. In this piece, we see the incomparable Yaya Mavundla II in a natural setting with a telling smirk on their face. The smirk to me represents the hidden joy that you possess when you’ve succeeded at surviving life’s most treacherous moments. It’s not like Yaya is surrounded by material things or outside influences contributing to that secret smile…so the influence must be internal. It also really spoke to me that Yaya is wrapped in a feathery black fabric that completely encompasses their figure. This for me, perpetuates the reality that we are not GENDER…we are HUMAN BEINGS. This is another motivator behind Muholi’s vision to create awareness to the struggles the community faces. The fabric appears to

Dimpho Tsotetsi, Parktown, Johannesburg, 2014; Dimpho Tsotetsi, Pretoria, 2017 © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, New York

Dimpho Tstetsi, Parktown, Johannesburg, 2014; Dimpho Tstetsi, Pretpria, 2017

@Zanele Muholo

The fabric appears to be “swaddling” Yaya almost as if comparing their state of solitude and secret joy to that of a womb. These are just a few of the things that spoke to me in this piece but feel free to review and analyze the piece for yourself.

As always, it’s my greatest hope that we connect and unite all across the globe to really bring awareness and use our collective gifts to achieve the unachievable. Zanele Muholi is an amazing representative of the South African movement for the culture but we ultimately are all fighting the same fight, even from different soils. Please give them a google search and support their efforts to continue the fight. I promise you will not be disappointed and will instead have a newfound perspective on the pursuit of happiness no matter what that may look like to you. Continue to take care of yourselves and one another.

Eternally & truly yours,

Marshay

Citations: Zanele Muholi Biography: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanele_Muholi

Brave Beauties: https://www.yanceyrichardson.com/exhibitions/zanele-muholi4/ images?view=slider#21

LGBT Rights in South Africa: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_South_Africa

Dimpho Tsotetsi, Parktown, Johannesburg, 2014; Dimpho Tsotetsi, Pretoria, 2017 © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, New York