A prophet in her own land

VISUAL activist and photographer Zanele Muholi was honoured with the Prince Claus Award on Friday.

The award was presented to Muholi on the same night as the opening of her exhibition at the Stevenson Gallery in Braamfontein, Joburg, for her work on the black LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) community.

The awards - sponsored by the Prince Claus Fund, based in Amsterdam in the Netherlands - annually recognise 11 artists from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean whose work has had a positive impact on the communities they represent.

The main winner gets ?100000 (R1.5-million).

This year it went to Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm.

Muholi, one of the 10 runners-up who received ?25000 (R375000) each, was presented with the award during the opening of Of Love & Loss which tackles the binary of life, in this instance of love and loss, and in particular in the LGBTI community.

An excited Muholi told Sunday World that receiving the award meant that she and the gay and lesbian community at large finally got the recognition they deserved.

"I receive [the award] on behalf of the community and the awards are not about me," she said.

"They are about the people being featured in the work; it means recognition, it means respect. and it means a different kind of exposure beyond the crime."

For the past 10 years, Muholi (42) has been documenting weddings and funerals of gay black South Africans.

One of the pieces at the exhibition is pinned photographs of the funeral of Duduzile Zozo.

Zozo's story made headlines last June when she was found dead with a toilet brush lodged in her vagina.

Zozo is one of many who have been killed because of their sexual orientation.

Muholi said the six-part exhibition series highlighted the tragic moments experienced by some of those whose lives she had documented.

It also showed moments of love. This comes in the form of a video installation that captures the wedding celebration of lesbian couple Ayanda and Nhlanhla Magoloza in Katlehong, on the East Rand, last year.

Muholi also shares intimate pictures of her and her partner, Valerie Thomas.

"You can't distance yourself in your reality; I'm just trying to face my body. and changing the notion of how black bodies are seen."

Her exhibition also addressed the context of history; the documentation of interracial relationships and of gay people in spaces such as galleries and museums, one of the reasons she does what she does.

"It's 20 years of democracy and there hasn't been much work on interracial relationships. how often do we see ourselves in museums as gays and lesbians?

"How often do you find this work seen anywhere unless it's the headlines of a funeral or the brutal murder of lesbians?"

Of Love & Loss runs until April 4 at the Stevenson Gallery.

• tlhoaeleb@sundayworld.co.za