Human face given to freedom of expression
- By Vivienne Rowland
The pictures of the naked woman under a bed of leaves shock you.
Buried to hush up the horrendous crime that took place, her naked body lies under rubble, her ankles tied with a man’s belt and her pants pulled down. It is a silent testimony to the crime of force she had to endure before she was silenced forever.
The pictures are some of the poignant artworks displayed as part of a new exhibition entitled Queer and Trans Art-iculations: Collaborative Art for Social Change by the two well-known visual activists Zanele Muholi (Mo(u)rning) and Gabrielle Le Roux (Proudly African & Transgender and Proudly Trans in Turkey). The exhibition opened at the Wits Art Museum on Wednesday, 29 January 2014.
The interactive, socially relevant exhibition stressing the plight of homosexual and gender non-conforming people who are discriminated against, victimised, penalised and criminalised, is brought to the public sphere by the Wits Art Museum, in partnership with the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies and Inkanyiso.
The project exhibition is a prelude to the official launch of the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies later in February 2014, and is also the first exhibition at the Wits Art Museum for the year.
The opening address was delivered by Pregs Govender, South African Human Rights Commission Deputy Chair.
“As I walked through the gallery and looked around, I saw that this is a celebration of freedom, of the right to live and love who we want in a time when across this continent, and in our country, those who love each other, are being prosecuted by the law. It is important to remember that no-one can undermine those rights,” said Govender.
The exhibition is not all depressing and morbid. Smiling, happy photographs of people of all walks of life, living a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and ally (LGBTQIA) lifestyle, are also displayed, driving home the message that we are all equal, no matter where we come from, or how we choose to live our lives.
A wall where visitors can write their thoughts has drawn attention of a few brutally honest tales, providing a space for victims and supporters to give expression to their deepest thoughts.
“This event fits into the kind of activism in which we would like to situate our Centre. This exhibition teaches us that such spaces are often spaces of real, profound suffering and even peril. As long as that is the case, questions of categories and power, are questions we should all be concerned with and are in fact issues we should all feel strongly about,” said Prof. Melissa Steyn, Director of the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies.
Queer and Trans Art-iculations: Collaborative Art for Social Change ends on 30 March 2014.
Read more about the exhibition