Zanele Muholi's Queer South Africa On View At The Brooklyn Museum

Zanele Muholi's work documenting members of South Africa's LGBTI community is on view at the Brooklyn Museum beginning May 1st.

Zanele Muholi's Queer South Africa On View At The Brooklyn Museum

All images courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum


Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence is a forthcoming major exhibition of work by renowned South African artist, community organizer and LGBTQI activist Zanele Muholi. The multimedia show, which opens May 1st at the Brooklyn Museum, highlights Muholi's photography, video and installation projects created over the last eight years that center and affirm the lives of black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals and communities in South Africa today.

As the largest museum exhibition of Muholi's output to date, Isibonelo/Evidence contains selections from her ongoing Faces and Phases portrait series, which she says began as a way of documenting "the histories and struggles that [black queers (especially lesbians)] face in South African society." The exhibition also features Being Scene, a video project focusing on the love, intimacy, and inner lives of Muholi's close-knit community. Rounding out the showcase is Muholi's joyful Weddings series, where she takes on the role of wedding photographer to document same-sex marriage ceremonies in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Click through the gallery above for a preview of Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence. For more images from Muholi's Faces and Phases series, revisit our previous coverage on her work here.

'Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence' is on view at the Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway) May 1st through November 1st.

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