Mumu XV, Newington, London, 2016

The present lot is an example of one of Zanele Muholi’s evocative self-portraits similar to those featured in the Aperture text Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness. Each image is drafted from material props in Muholi’s immediate environment that somehow manage to achieve a regal and otherworldly effect. Muholi seeks to create images of the Black LGBTQ+ community in South Africa and in capturing these individuals they present a culture and lifestyle that is often persecuted and endangered—their work is an act of both perseverance and preservation. Mumu XV, Newington, London, 2016 and the artist’s other striking self-portraits are moments in which Muholi has taken time to pause, reflect and express their own individual experience and take their turn in front of the scrutiny of the lens.