The "other" Africans : re-examining representations of sexuality in the work of Nicholas Hlobo and Zanele Muholi

Nicholas Hlobo, a sculptor and performance artist, and Zanele Muholi, a photographer and activist, explore different ways of representing sexuality, particularly homosexuality. It is extremely difficult to discuss African sexuality in light of the stain of colonial attitudes that have exoticised and ascribed hypersexuality to African bodies. Moreover, sexuality is often not discussed in the construction of so-called African traditions and this has contributed to rendering African-ness as an exclusive identity. Tensions within and between categories of African-ness are compounded by constituted regulations. For example, Hlobo investigates the obligation of circumcision which seems to contrast the lifestyle and contexts in which he works and resides, and Muholi represents the existence of homosexual and transgender relations, even within conservative categories. The visual imagery of these two artists investigates the boundaries set by different social constructs. These set boundaries have also affected crimes against bisexual, transgender and homosexual individuals, which are reaching an alarming rate. Hlobo questions the validity of structures that marginalise homosexual individuals through drawing attention to the ambivalence of certain statutes. Muholi seeks to publicise the injustices imposed upon homosexual individuals in order to demonstrate the weight of that crisis. Although the South African legal system condones liberated expressions of sexual identity, due to social prejudices homosexual individuals are still treated as if they are not entitled to basic human rights. As a result, hate-crimes are not reported, and when they are they are not taken seriously. Hlobo and Muholi not only bring these issues to light, but also point out the dilemma inscribed in the social and political history of (South) Africa with regards to collective and individual identities. This thesis seeks to provide an analysis of the visual language used by Hlobo and Muholi to subvert the notion that homosexuality is “un-African” and to complicate concepts of gender, sexuality and identity

The fantastic subject: a visio-cultural study of Nollywood video-film

The increasing popularity of Nigerian video-film, defined as the ‘Nollywood phenomenon’ (Barrot 2008, Haynes 2010, Adesokan 2011), has attracted recent interdisciplinary academic attention, now known as ‘Nollywood Studies’. The aesthetics and ideological approach of Nollywood video-film are often differentiated from those of the long-established and illustrious African Cinema. Films of Africa are, however, generally characterised by seemingly unique forms of the fantastic – an uneasy theme in scholarship on Nollywood. Although Nollywood video-film is commended by some scholars, its representation of the supernatural and the fantastic is often perceived to be demeaning. Considering the complexity of fantastic themes in creative arts of Africa, this study contributes to this field of study by positioning Nollywood as an interventionist artistic practice that subverts the division between art and popular culture. Further, it considers how this positioning could shift our thinking about what constitutes art and creative practice in Africa. The distinctions between art and popular culture have been inherited from particularly Western disciplines. A critical analysis of the fantastic in Nollywood could expand interpretations of the broader uses of new media and appropriation and develop the discourse on contemporary creative practices of Africa and the parameters of the art history discipline. I interrogate the visual language of the video-film medium through a discussion of other forms of artistic media such as photography, video art, and performance art. The fantastic themes, such as ‘magic’, ‘fetishism’ and violence, conveyed through new media open up a field of questions regarding contemporary social-political dynamics. The cultural value of Nollywood video-film is often based on who makes it. As a proletarian product, Nollywood has been underestimated as a ‘low’ form of culture. Its use of appropriated material connotes the complex dialectics that formulate class difference. I consider how a positioning of video-film as a creative practice could be complicated by the fact that it also operates as a theocentric implement that is used by churches to evangelise. Moreover, I examine how ‘epic’ films construct idyllic notions of ‘ethnicity’ based on dialectics of rational/irrational or real/fantastic. Nollywood video-film also creates images of fantastic spaces. In this thesis, I address concepts of space in Nollywood from which fantastic desire is constructed

‘This land is not for sale’: Post-1994 resistance art and interventionism in Cape Town’s precarious publics

The control, regulation and commodification of space has been fundamental in reinforcing structural racism and social identities. In a city such as Cape Town, where colonial architecture and heritage as well as apartheid racial zoning forms part of the spectacularisation of the city, racial conflict seems to have deepened. Through dis- cussing public protest, artistic public interventions and live art, we argue that young black artists in South Africa are heralding a new phase of post-1994 resistance art which exposes conflictual cultural politics of public space in Cape Town rather than a healing democracy and multi-culturalism. As protesters and activists, artists deface the myth of a reconciled non-racial post-Apartheid society by targeting officially sanctioned art. Drawing from Faranak Miraftab’s notion of ‘invited’ and ‘invented’ spaces as well as Chris Dixon and Angela Davis’ concept of prefigurative politics, we argue that precarious South African publics are experienced as a ‘battleground’ rather than a space for liberal deliberation and democracy. New resistance art, therefore, tends to be protest-centred in engaging with the conflictual nature of the city

Violence and the cultural logics of pain: representations of sexuality in the work of Nicholas Hlobo and Zanele Muholi

Nicholas Hlobo and Zanele Muholi have raised critical issues regarding sexual identity in patriarchal contexts since they premiered at the Michael Stevenson Gallery in 2005. Nicholas Hlobo, a sculptor and performance artist, and Zanele Muholi, a photographer and activist, explore different ways of representing sexuality – in particular, homosexuality. Hlobo investigates notions of masculinity and the practice of circumcision, while Muholi documents the existence of transgender and homosexuality in township spaces (her recent work expands to various other spaces). This article focuses on the roles that violence plays in the sexual politics represented in Hlobo and Muholi’s work

Open debate: ephemeral democracies: interrogating commonality in South Africa

South Africa's Post-Apartheid era is characterized by the rhetoric of ‘unity in diversity’. However, numerous artist-led public interventions disclose alienating socio-economic conditions. Neoliberal reforms in the context of prevailing structural designs of Apartheid in South Africa weaken the democratization process, making it figurative rather than tangible and participatory. There is a pervasive perception that centres of power within the arts in South Africa are located in institutions of white proprietorship. As a result, young artists create independent establishments where they can have some control over cultural production and dissemination. This article debates the different strategies that are used by young practising artists to confront contemporary challenges in Post-Apartheid South Africa. One of these strategies promotes integration and deracialization through persistent engagement with predominantly white institutions in order to generate a sense of common purpose while the other opts for the power of provocative racialized but marginalized cultural movements

The art of change: perspectives on transformation in South Africa

There have been almost two decades of democracy in South Africa, yet rising anger and violent discontent lay bare continuing inequity. It is timely to ask the question: can South Africans really be frank about how meaningful the transformation from oppressive political and economic structures has been? Does the inclination towards neo-liberalism and capitalism in South Africa’s post-Apartheid democracy allow real change? Where economic inequality and spatial divisions still persist and, indeed, are actively reproduced by current market forces, can South Africans really create inclusive and integrative spaces? The Art of Change: Perspectives on Transformation in South Africa confronts some of these issues, reopening debates and encouraging reflection on cultural dynamics in South Africa during the past two decades

Politics of the strange: revisiting Pieter Hugo's Nollywood

In a photographic essay accomplished between 2008 and 2009, South African photographer Pieter Hugo depicts ambiguous images of “supernatural” characters in Nigeria’s Nollywood.1 The majority of these photographs were taken in Enugu. Hugo’s Nollywood (2008/2009) has been exhibited widely in South Africa and in European, Australian, and American cities such as Rome, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Terragona, New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, and Adelaide as well as Auckland, New Zealand. Each portrait illustrates the grotesque in Nollywood

Àbadakone

" Produced in conjunction with the National Gallery of Canada exhibition Àbadakone | Continuous Fire | Feu continuel, this multifaceted publication features work by more than 70 contemporary Indigenous artists identifying with almost 40 Indigenous nations, ethnicities and tribal affiliations from 16 countries, including Canada. Tapping into the global pulse of Indigenous artistic production, Àbadakone builds upon themes of continuity, activation, and relatedness, exploring the creativity, concerns and vitality of Indigenous art from virtually every continent. " -- Publisher's website