(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The fact that artists create portraits of themselves has long traditions in art history. We all know Munch's famous Self portrait with cigarette (1895) and van Gogh's self-portrait without ear, but also abstract artists such as Jackson Pollock, known for his action paintings, has painted self portraits. Self-portrait is also a crucial part of American photographer Robert Mapplethorpes at times controversial artwork which deals with sexuality, eroticism, gender and identity. And it's hard to think of staged, photographic self-portraits without the images of the actual queen of genre Cindy Sherman showing up on the retina. Her first project Untitled Film Stills (1977 – 80), based on Hollywood's portrayal of the woman, went straight into that era's debate on gender and identity, stereotypes and the role of women.
Today, we can all construct our identity by staging our lives through the images we share – or choose not to share – on different social platforms. The term Selfie became a fashion word in 2012, but to produce images where we stage ourselves we have been doing since the dawn of time. The word Selfie is defined as an image one takes of oneself and shares on social media, but in practice I read it as more significant to the genre that it is a social gesture, and a way to position yourself in different environments. Often it can be extremely superficial, at the same time it can be close and revealing. The self-portrait, in turn, has an opportunity to explore one's self, perhaps even an opportunity to gain self-insight.
Activism. South African Zanele Muholi himself has defined self-portraiture as confrontational and a self-examination so strong that it can limit violence; repressed feelings and hurtful memories must be brought forth in order for her to express something through the picture.
Muholi's staged portraits speak a language that links them to something bigger than herself.
Muholi started his photography project heavily inspired by Nan Goldin, who is known for his intimate photographic narratives of his immediate circle. After targeting cameras in people in South African LGBT environments for ten years, she asked herself: When will photographers get the opportunity to work on their own suffering? In this new project, Hail the Dark Lioness, she explores her own identity – as a woman, black, South African and lesbian.
Staging yourself is a language we know because it has become part of our daily communication – whether the images we publish are of ourselves, our children or our surroundings. In the art-historical context, using attributes or symbolic objects in portrait images is a well-used approach. Muholi's staged portraits speak a representative language that links them to something bigger than herself. But the fact that self-portraiture speaks to us from a clear personal and close point of view is perhaps what gives these images the greatest potential as social activism? Muholi defines himself as a visual activist. Her previous project Faces and Phases (2008–2015) started as a direct response to an increasing hate crime and homicide rate in South Africa. Muholi believed that photography could counteract the fears that are at the core of hate and help normalize homosexuality. Her career as an artist has come as a result of her activist role. She started the Ikanyso organization in 2009, which works with visual activism, art and media attention around the LGBT community. When she has exhibitions, she is often in partnership with the local art scene or queer environments in the form of workshops and various forms of interdisciplinary collaboration. This is how she builds ever-larger networks and makes the exhibits dynamic gathering points.
Gaze. Muholi was born in 1972 and grew up with apartheid – a society where race defined your human dignity. The South African Constitution of 1996 prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexuality orientering, and South Africa was the first country in Africa (and the fifth country in the world) to legalize same-sex marriage. Nevertheless, hate crimes and homicides of gays abound in the country, and black lesbians are subjected to "corrective" rapes.
In the encounter with Muholi's portraits, it is first and foremost the eye that strikes me. Direct, challenging and at the same time emptied, hurt and exposed she confronts me. I first read the head creations as a decorative headgear, as something exotic. Upon closer inspection, I discover that there are ordinary clothes clips, scrubbers, a shoulder bag, a curtain. Where have I seen these pictures before, and what preconceptions or clichés are driving my reading?
Last year I saw the exhibition Distance and Desire; Encounters with the African Archive at C / O Berlin in Germany. In dimly lit rooms I could see a large selection of photographs that showed me the exotic Africa seen with the western eyes of the colonial era. Heroic portraits of chieftains, kings and war heroes, Carte de Visite portraits, family albums and postcards with natural motifs from The Walter Collection archive were exhibited in glass fittings and in small frames on the wall. With the camera in hand, the colonists were able to stage the exotic in their image, but the collection also contains many images taken by skilled South African photographers. The meaning and intention of the archive change with the time it is viewed and with the cultural context. What, in one epoch, can be understood as ethnographic studies or a way of acquiring power, can at another time become a melancholy staging or satirical performance.
Alongside the presentation of the archive, the exhibition contained works by contemporary South African artists, including Muholi. The contemporary gaze opens the images in the archive to a new and expanded reading and understanding of colonialism, exoticism and looking at "the other." It was fascinating to see that today's complex issues of gender, race and identity are reflected in these early images as well. It is this historical imagery that forms an understanding framework for Muholi's project, and which opens it up to contain an important chapter in the history of humanity's suffering. By using himself as a framework, Muholi can ask the big questions: What is race really? And what exactly is gender?
In Ny Tids column Fokus på fotografi, visual artist Nina Toft presents a new photo project or a photo book.
