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Facing Up to Queer Representation: Zanele Muholi’s Faces and Phases Series, a Tool for Visual Activism
Fourie, Gabriella Louise
Fourie, Gabriella Louise
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Abstract
This thesis explores Zanele Muholi's approach to portraiture in the Faces and Phases series as a tool for visual activism to normalize homosexuality in South Africa. The photograph entitled Cleo Dladia, KwaThema Community Hall, Springs, Johannesburg, 2011 will serve as a case study to assess Muholi's investment in social change and their stated goal of challenging national norms of representation by raising awareness on injustices committed towards LGBTQIA+ community members. The individual narratives recounted through over 300 portraits photographed between 2006 and 2014 contribute to larger conversations within the national socio-political context, such as discrimination and violence towards these marginalized communities. Existing scholarship has established how global exhibitions and the international art market have become major contenders in Muholi’s work, having their photographs on display in recognizable international institutions or sold to private collectors, and has ultimately aided in the development of queer-artistic practice within contemporary South Africa. Nevertheless, the viewing reception of Muholi’s Faces and Phases series, which endeavors to raise awareness of critical issues stemming from homophobia and transphobia within South African communities, has been overlooked by scholars. Despite South Africa’s legal forward-thinking, as a result of the cultural beliefs prominent within local townships, there is the misconception that to identify as queer is un-African. This, in turn, causes a percentage of LGBTQIA+ members to fall victim to corrective rape, which has increased the cases of HIV/AIDS within the country. Although Muholi’s work aims at breaking the silence around targeted violence towards queer community members, their portraits are not accessible to South African communities where a heteronormative narrative still prevails. Therefore, to assess the effectiveness of expanding the identity dialogue within local townships, this thesis will examine the artist’s writings and interviews to conduct a comparison of the reception and curatorial setting of the series when exhibited in formal institutions versus that of the artist’s traveling mobile museum and nonprofit organisations. Through an examination of Muholi’s artistic practice, its accessibility, and cultural perceptions, this study aims to shed light on expanding the relevant dialogue of social change within marginalized communities.
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Thesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Business Administration)--John Cabot University, Fall 2024.
Date
2024
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Keywords
Portrait photography, LGBTQ+ people, Gender identity in art, Human rights in art
Citation
Fourie, Gabriella Louise. "Facing Up to Queer Representation: Zanele Muholi’s Faces and Phases Series, a Tool for Visual Activism". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2024.