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.

Provenance

Kindly donated by the artist.