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| by Zanele Muholi, courtesy of Wits Art Museum |
Zenele Muholi
QUEER AND TRANS ART-ICULATIONS
AN EXHIBITION
I had never attended an art exhibition opening with so many people before. Bodies overflowed from the Wits Art Museum onto the streets. Bodies dressed in waistcoats, slender neck ties, skinny black pants and All-Star sneakers. Bodies squeezed into tight lace dresses. Bodies walking around confidently, aware that this exhibition was, more than anything, about them. And indeed, this particular exhibition’s subjects were to be found among the crowd. Having never been to a gay parade, I had never been exposed to such a high concentration of homosexuality.
Queer and Trans Art-iculations is a collaboration of two incredible visual activists: Zanele Muholi and Gabrielle Le Roux. Hosted by the Wits Art Museum in partnership with the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies and Inkanyiso, the exhibition opened up with the popular freedom cry ‘Amandla!’ and the lively crowd did not disappoint: ‘Amandla!’ they shouted back, fists in the air. For a while it seemed I had come to the wrong place.
