ART | Brooklyn Museum - Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence

Hey Creatives,

In continuation of The Brooklyn Museum visit, I also visited the Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence exhibit. The artist Zanele Muholi, joins photography and video to raise visibility for human rights for black LGBT communities of South Africa.

This exhibit features several projects about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) communities, both in South Africa and abroad. The exhibition presents eighty-seven works created between 2007 and 2014, including Muholi’s Faces and Phases portrait series, which uses firsthand accounts to speak to the experience of living in a country that constitutionally protects the rights of LGBTI people but often fails to defend them from targeted violence. Also included is the new series Weddings and the video Being Scene, both of which focus on love, intimacy, and daily life within Muholi’s close-knit community.

                                 

Panoramic view of the exhibit 

Timeline of  the LGBT victimization in Southern Africa 

A newly-wedded lesbian Southern African couple

A picture of a victim in a casket

Stories of some victims

Victims' personal account of their of assaults, rape, mutilation, harassment and much more 

This is the passport of Disebo Gift Makau, a South African lesbian who was raped and murdered last year, her body was found half-naked with a pipe shoved down her throat.  

Without a doubt, this is one of the most touching exhibits I have ever been to. Isibonelo in Zulu translates to "example" and it is unfortunate that these people were used as examples and killed solely for their lifestyles and sexual orientation. May their souls all rest in peace and a major salute for those that are continuously fighting the fight. The exhibit ends on November 1st. 2015.

xo, Zaddy