Feminists Around the World: Zanele Muholi

Today we're focusing on Zanele Muholi, visual activist and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Stuff Wh've never told you, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
And today for activists around the world, we are featuring
the works and afficacy of South African artists Zanelli Moholy.
They go by bathim and describes themselves as a visual
activist who uses their works as way to advocate for
the rights and protection of the South African queer community,

(00:39):
specifically the lesbian and non binary and trans community. They
do a lot of work in that field in specific areas. First,
if you haven't go and followed their works on social media,
they have updated and shown new shows that they're happening
on their site and is under their name and I
will spell it correctly this time A N E L

(01:01):
E M the UHO l I. So you should go
and follow their works. They have some great content on there.
They have some good like meditation stuff, vibration stuff. You know,
we love that over here. So if you need that
in your feed go follow them first and foremost. So
here's a bit about them from the Britannica dot com
Because yes they are pretty big, but I mean for

(01:23):
those who are not in the art world at the
we need to feature them obviously, so Zanelli Maholy born
July nineteen, nineteen seventy two. They identify as visual artists
rather than an artist, and is non binary using vadim pronouns.
Their work, primarily photography, seeks to make more visible the
black l gpt quia plus community in South Africa, where

(01:45):
discrimination has often repressed queer and trans stories. Mohoy says
of their work that my mission to rewrite a Black,
queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the
world to know of our resistance and existence at the
height of hate crimes in South Africa and beyond. They
are the youngest of eight children from the town of Umlazi.

(02:06):
Growing up during the time of apartheid in their country,
Mohoy worked to fight against the violence and belittling rhetoric
that was prevalent and kind of still is against the
lgbtqia plus community. As they advanced their career and passion,
their work was used as their own activism around the world.
Working with publications like Behind the Mask, they made sure

(02:27):
to show the struggles women, especially queer women, experience in
a country that tried to silence them and that tries
to silence them. Yeah. Work like this led them into
co founding organizations like Forum for the Empowerment of Women
or a Few, which worked to advocate and provide safety
for women in the community. At the same time, Moholy

(02:48):
continued in getting their education and advanced in their arts.
After getting their MFA at Ryerson University in Toronto, they
founded another nonprofit in Concio, which specifically worked on queer
media advocacy and activism. So they're already doing a lot.
Going by the term visual activists. Maholly has talked about
using their art as tool to bring change. Here's a

(03:09):
bit from sfmoma dot org. What does it mean to
be a visual activist? For South African artists? Zanelli Mahoy,
art is a tool of for social change. My practice
as a visual artist looks at black resistance existence as
well as insistence, Mahoy explained in an interview published by
Autograph App. Most of the work I've done over the

(03:30):
years focuses exclusively on black LGBTQIA and gender nonconforming individuals,
making sure we exist in the visual archive. So they
have done a lot of interviews. They did a great
YouTube series about their exhibits and talking about how their
work is political is political because they are talking about
resistance and it will never not be which I think

(03:52):
is something important that we have to talk about because
in this day and the age of people being like,
why does it all have to be political? Because if
we want to make change of resistance, it is political.
And the article goes on to talk about their works
of saying a self described visual activist, Zanelli Moholy uses
the camera to explore issues of gender, identity, representation, and race,

(04:15):
often photographing their own body or members of their LGBTQ
plus community in South Africa. Moholy calls attention to the
trauma and violence enacted on queer people while celebrating their
beauty and resilience. Activism essential to Moholly's artistic practice, from
their early work contending with the dangers of being queer
in South Africa to their more recent work embracing their

(04:35):
own blackness and gender expression. So in two thousand and four,
they did their first solo show in Johannesburg featuring photos
from her series Only Half the Picture. So this is
kind of one of her earliest works. And a bit
more from the Britannica article shot in black and white,
the works document members of the black LGBTQIA plus community
and intimate moments that defy taboos. Participants' faces are not shown,

(05:00):
only isolated parts of the body, such as a hairy
chest and a lace spra or a thigh showing a long,
thick scar. The show was met with critical acclaim and
Maholly was soon showing internationally, including in Vienna, Amsterdam, Milan
and Lagos and obviously more. And They emphasize the term
participants instead of subjects due to the fact that they

(05:21):
feel that the people involved are collaborators of activism and advocacy.
They have talked about the importance of empowering their participants
and allowing them to have a say in the artwork,
especially as they're being represented, and though their photography has
been their main focus around the world, they also love
other artistic expressions, such as painting and even directing. During

(05:43):
the pandemic, they focused more on painting due to the
lack of opportunities of social events and gathering, so you know,
you got to express yourself some way, even if it's
not with other people. And they've also directed several documentaries.
In twenty ten, they did one title Difficult Love, which
gives a bit of insight into the lives of Moholly
and other black lesbians in South Africa. So they go

(06:04):
around telling those stories, which was actually broadcast around the world.
Then they did another one later titled We Live in Fear,
which was released by the Human Rights Watch. So they've
done a lot of this type of work. I think
it's important to note, and they've still done a lot
of works since the pandemic twenty twenty and beyond, including
a show they did titled Sunyama in Yan Gamma, which

(06:28):
this is what the Britannica wrote about that their colorful
self portraits recall the compositions of Sanyama in ghan Yama
and continue Maholly's investigation of the black body, gender and representation.
So that specific one was based on their own self portrait.
They're taking like different types of pictures of them and

(06:48):
how they envisioned where they would be, what they would
look like during different timelines. So they talked about this
work specifically and like envisioning and fantasizing what it would
have been like had they been there during that time,
or had had black bodies and black women been included
so beautiful work. I think one of the pictures were
actually shared or was actually on the cover of the

(07:10):
National Geographic, So you know, pretty big deal, pretty big deal.
The article continues. That same year, a major survey of
their work was held at Tate Modern, London. Other exhibits
include Zanelli Moholy I Me, which was released in twenty
twenty four at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
Being Moholy Portraits as Resistance at the Gardner Museum Boston,

(07:34):
and Zanelli Moholly twenty twenty one in Berlin. Their photos
are in the collections of many world renowned institutions, including
Central Pompadou Paris, the Gougenheim Museum, New York, and the
Zeit's Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town. So they've
got a lot of work going on, and in fact,
according to their Instagram, they have an upcoming show in Miami, Florida. Interesting, right,

(07:57):
I'm telling you. They're all three local. They had a
show in Nola as well, New Orleans, so they are
about the world. So if you get an opportunity, it's
definitely something worth going to check out and seeing it
as beautiful works, and they have tons and tons and
tons of accolades, and we're just going to name a few,
including the Federal Award in twenty thirteen, which was the

(08:17):
South Africa's LGBTI Awards. They won the twenty sixteen Outstanding
International Alumni Award from Ryerson University. They won the Honor
Fellowship of the Royal Photographics Society in Bath, England in
twenty eighteen, the Lucy Humanitarian Award in twenty nineteen, and
I do believe her work has been featured and released

(08:38):
in award winning books as well. So if you want
to look for those out there in the world, you
should again go and check out their social media, their
Instagram because they have a lot of work up and
I think it's amazing as they continue their work and
continue their artistry and celebrating their visual activism.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yes, yes, go check all of that stuff out if
you have not already. Listeners and as always, if you
have any suggestions, let us know any resources, anything we
should check out. You can email us at Hello at
stuffannevertold you dot com. You can find us on blue
Sky app also podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at

(09:18):
stuff one Never told you We're ls on YouTube. We
have some new merchandise at common Buro and we have
a book you can get wherever you get your books.
Thanks as always too our superprendews Christina, our secretive producer Maya,
and your contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you
for listening stuff Never told you. Dispection by Heart Radio.
For more podcast from my heart Radio, you can check
out the heart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or you listen
to your favorite shows