Exhibition: Zanele Muholi

This summer, the acclaimed exhibition of visual activist Zanele Muholi will return to Tate Modern after it was cut short by the pandemic.

Muholi (b.1972) came to prominence in the early 2000s with photographs that told the stories of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex lives in South Africa.

Over 300 photographs will be brought together to present the breadth of Muholi’s career to date, from their very first body of work to their latest and on-going series.

These images challenge dominant ideologies and present the participants in their photographs as empowered individuals superbly existing in the face of prejudice, intolerance and often violence.

During the 1990s, South Africa underwent major social and political changes. While its 1996 post-apartheid constitution was the first in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, the LGBTQIA+ community remains a target for violence and prejudice to this day.

In the early series Only Half the Picture, Muholi depicted the complexities of gender and sexuality for the queer community, including moments of love and intimacy as well intense images alluding to traumatic events in the lives of the participants. Muholi also began an ongoing visual archive of portraits, Faces and Phases, which celebrates and commemorates Black lesbians, transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. Each participant looks directly at the camera, challenging the viewer to hold their gaze, while individual testimonies capture their stories. The project has become a living archive of this community in South Africa and beyond.

This exhibition – the first major UK survey of the artist’s work – was originally opened at Tate Modern in 2020 but was cut short by the national lockdown. UK visitors will now have the opportunity to see a revised and expanded version of the exhibition, following a highly successful and record-breaking European tour.