ID Crisis, 2003
Zanele Muholi
Observation: The photo is taken in black in white. The main focus is a figure of a black woman. She is bare breasted and wears what appear to be basketball shorts. Her chest is partially covered with a cloth-like material, which she also holds in her hands. She is looking down at the cloth in her hands and is standing in a room that appears to be quite dark, aside from the light streaming in one window. The door behind her is wooden and resembles that of a barn door.
Inference: This photograph, taken by Zanele Muholi, was created during a time when Muholi was working particularly hard to break boundaries and push past limits set by society. Muholi, as a black South African lesbian, focuses her work on others who fit that same mold. The reason that she does this is to shed a light on the very much alive LGBTQA community that is thriving in South Africa, contrary to what the rest of her society wants everyone to believe. On an even broader scale, Muholi is lashing out against the completely uninformed stigma that blackness and homosexuality cannot mix. In this photo, many other photos, and particularly in her current Isibonelo/Evidence exhibit, she is blatantly showing that yes, there are black lesbians and yes, she has proof. As Kylie Thomas states in her article Passing and the Politics of Queer Loss Post-Apartheid, what Muholi is working towards is "claiming of a vizual space for [the] embodied black lesbian experience" (38). The subject in this photograph is experiencing exactly what the title tells the viewer, an identity crisis and the reason that it is so easily labeled a crisis by Muholi, is because as a black lesbian in South Africa, wanting to embrace your sexuality (if it is not heterosexual) and allow your body to match those feelings is something that is looked down upon and becomes grounds for ostracism. By making photographs like this one public, Muholi is working to make strides within South African lesbian culture and making something that on many levels is considered taboo, become something much more publicized and seen by the public.
Works Cited:
Thomas, Kylie. "Passing and the Politics of Queer Loss Post-Apartheid."Impossible Mourning: HIV/AIDS and Visuality after Apartheid. Print.
"Zanele Muholi: Only Half the Picture." Michael Stevenson, 2006. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
Diary of a Victorian Dandy: 11.00 hours
Yinka Shonibare
Observation: This color photograph contains six people, five of which are white and one of which is black. The black man is the central focus of the photograph. He is laying in a large double bed under the covers, dressed in what appears to be a red robe. Four of the white people are female and one is male. The women are all leaning over the black man, attending to him and the white man is standing by with a towel. They all have their eyes trained on the black man. The way that they are dressed indicates a Victorian time period is being depicted. Each woman wears a bonnet, apron, and long dress. The man wears tights and a long coat. Pictures are hung on the walls in what seems to be gold frames. A basin of water sits on a wooden table at the end of the large bed.
Inference: As mentioned by Okwui Enwezor in his article pertaining to Shonibare, the photographs done by him often have to do with historical events. However what he seems to do with these historical facts and events is pair them up in ways that make them seem incompatible (160). This particular photograph is a part of the Diary of a Victorian Dandy series. What Shonibare did was create a collection of photographs that can be seen as parallel to William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress (Smithsonian). While these photographs depict them nearly exactly, the one major difference is that Shonibare inserts himself, as a black man, into the photograph as the main subject (the Victorian dandy). This is where he begins pushing on boundaries as he allows himself, as a black man, be depicted as essentially a wealthy socialite with groups of white people being shown as his servants, or people that are lower than him on the social totem pole. This is one of the ways that his art can be seen as ground breaking and to many people, controversial.
Works Cited:
Enwezor, O. "The Joke Is on You: The Work of Yinka Shonibare." Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art 1997.6-7 (1997): 160-162.
"Yinka Shonibare MBE || Diary of a Victorian Dandy." Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Smithsonian, 2015. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
Converging Territories #24
Lalla Essaydi
Observation: This is a color photograph that has been sort of sectioned off into four different areas. It is a close up of a woman wearing what appears to be a hijab. She does not seem to have any particular expression on her face. She has henna tattoos on her face and her eyes are lined with thick black liner. There is no background aside from the design of her hijab. Her eyes are dark brown and her skin is a deep tan color.
Inference: The main reason that I chose this photograph is because of what Lalla Essaydi said about her art relating to other Arab women. This woman has henna tattoos on her face and the design of her hijab appears to be similar to henna designs. Essaydi says in her statement, "Henna is a crucial element in the life of a Moroccan woman, and is associated with the major celebrations in her life" (26). I believe that this photograph really works well to highlight the significance of henna to the culture of these women. Also, I think that this goes hand in hand with her statement that, "while [her] photographs are expressions of [her] personal history, they can also be taken as reflections of the life of Arab women in general" (26). I feel this way because the photograph can be connected to a broad part of the culture of Arab women that could be easily related to for any of them.
Works Cited:
Lalla Essaydi's artist statement.
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