Zanele Muholi

The Bronze Age

-  Jonathan Caver Moore

During a visit to the Ottawa Art Gallery a few years ago, I finally felt able to truly see myself in a museum. It was visual activist, Zanele Muholi's (who uses they/ them pronouns) self-portrait, Faniswa, that commanded my attention. Seeing that photograph of a Black queer person on the wall really resonated with me. So you’d better understand, I am Black. I am gay, and I am a man. Historically, it hasn’t been often that I walk into a space, particularly in the art world, and see myself in the work, although many times I’ve closed my eyes and reimagined the photographs and paintings to authentically resemble the appearance of people like me. The great thing about this moment on this day in the museum was that Zanele Muholi's work made my imagination a reality, one to which so many of us can relate.

Of course, I immediately posted a photo of Faniswa on Instagram tagging Zanele Muholi, and the next day got a direct message from them thanking me for posting. To be honest, though, that post was a tribute to them and my way of saying thank you for showing me, allowing me to see someone like me—someone like us on these walls. I thought it would be a short-lived conversation over Instagram. It was not and still is not. Since that day Muholi and I have been in constant contact with each other. We have had numerous conversations over the phone as well as several FaceTimes to connect (I live in San Francisco and Muholi lives between Capetown, Durban, and Johannesburg.) We finally met in person last summer during their visit to San Francisco, and just recently I traveled to Cape Town for ten days to spend time with them. On that trip, I visited the foundry where the sculptures are made, spent time in the studio with them, and conducted this interview.