Strauss & co - 9 December 2021, Cape Town

ITEM NOTES The present lot is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. This artwork is drawn from Songyama Ngonyama , a series of more than 80 self-portraits, in which celebrated visual activist Zanele Muholi uses their body as a canvas to confront the deeply personal politics of race and representation in the visual archive. In Somnyama Ngonyama , which translates from isiZulu to ‘Hail The Dark Lioness’, Muholi playfully employs the conventions of classical painting, fashion photography, and the familiar tropes of ethnographic imagery to rearticulate contemporary identity politics. Each black and white self-portrait asks critical questions about social (in)justice, human rights, and contested representations of the Black body. Taken in Windhoek, Namibia, Muholi transforms found objects into dramatic and historically loaded props, merging the political with the personal, aesthetics with history. ARTIST BIO Muholi is a visual activist, humanitarian and photographer from Umlazi, Durban. They currently live and work in Umbumbulu. Muholi’s work has been recognized for its radical emphasis on marginalized communities in South Africa, exploring queerness, blackness, femininity, and the intersections in between. Her photographs are an attempt to create an archive and dialogue surrounding both blatant and epistemic violence against black queer communities in South Africa. They have exhibited extensively internationally and in South Africa, including the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), the Brooklyn Museum (2015), New York, USA, documenta 13 (2021) in Kassel, Germany, Tate Modern (2020 – 21), London, United Kingdom, and Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa. 20 Zanele Muholi SOUTH AFRICAN 1972– Ngizwe I, Apt #2 Paragon Crescent,Windhoek, Namibia 2019 numbered 5/8 on a label on the reverse silver gelatin print, dibond sheet size: 80 by 54 cm R250 000 – 350 000 PROVENANCE Kindly donated by the Artist. BID 50