Mobile Studios
Zanele Muholi
One of five new films from Art21’s spring/summer 2019 programming
Visual activist Zanele Muholi explains the impetus behind creating what they call “mobile studios” to photograph members of the LGBTI community in South Africa. Freed from the limitations of a single studio space, Muholi travels to the homes and community spaces shared by the people depicted in their photographs. As a way to create work in which the participants feel most comfortable, these mobile studios allow Muholi to empower those around them, particularly the group of trans women featured in the Brave Beauties series.
When the Brave Beauties photographs are exhibited at Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town, Muholi invites the participants to visit the show and write testimonials directly on the gallery wall, so that viewers may learn more about their lives. As the participants explain, this act allows them to be seen and to speak for themselves. For Muholi, the photographs and the “activist wall” not only give voices to trans women in arts spaces but also write them into South Africa’s history.
Featured artists
About the artists
Zanele Muholi was born in Umlazi, a township southwest of Durban, South Africa, in 1972. From self-portraiture to photographs of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people living in South Africa, Muholi creates work that asserts the presence of South Africa’s historically marginalized and discriminated LGBTI community. Both joyful and courageous, Muholi self-identifies as a visual activist, driven by a dedication to owning their voice, identity, and history and providing space for others in their community to do the same.
