This groundbreaking new exhibition explores beauty and queerness all over the world
BY SOPHIE GRIFFITHS
After a delayed opening at the Tate Modern due to a second UK lockdown, Zanele Muholi’s acclaimed work is now available to view until June 2021. It comes as the first major UK showing of the South African visual activist’s work and the largest exhibition of their career to date.
Muholi first came to prominence in the early 200s with photographs that painted a new picture of queer identities and stories in South Africa. The exhibition brings together 260 of their photographs, presenting the full breadth of their career to date – from their first body of work Only Half The Picture, to their ongoing series, Somnyama Ngonyama.
Bona, Charlottesville 2015
Zanele Muholi is rewriting visual history through their work, using it to challenge the ways in which we think about art. It’s bold and breathtaking, with an element of softness and care at it’s core.
Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg 2007
The Black, queer and non-binary artist describes themselves as a visual activist, as the photographs they take are a form of protest against the prejudices faced by the queer community they are a part of in South African society. Despite the country’s liberal reputation, marginalised communities still face violence and prejudice daily.
Through telling the stories of people who are traditionally marginalised due to their ethnicity and sexuality, Muholi instead puts their overlooked beauty on display in images that the community can feel proud of and represented by.
Miss D’vine II 2007
Zanele Muholi’s exhibition at the Tate Modern will run until 6 June 2021. Get your tickets here.
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