Zanele Muholi on “Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness” at Seattle Art Museum (2019)

Video (3:44): Queer artist and visual activist Zanele Muholi talks about her series of self portraits: “Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness”.

Taken in Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa between 2014 and 2017, each of the 76 self-portraits in the Somnyama Ngonyama (Zulu for Hail the Dark Lioness) series is distinct and poses critical questions about social injustice, human rights, and contested representations of the black body. (…) In this ongoing series, the portraits often rely on found materials, which become culturally loaded props. (…) These self-reflective and psychologically charged portraits are unapologetic in their exploration of the constraints of history, ideologies, and contemporary realities. – Seattle Art Museum

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