Visiting the SFMOMA

     Amongst the hustle and bustle of the San Francisco city streets lies one of the largest and most popular modern and contemporary art museums in California, the SFMOMA. As a Bay Area native, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has been a source of inspiration in my artistic journey since I was a teenager. I visited the museum for the first time with my mom on a nice chilly Saturday morning when I was in the 8^th or 9^th grade. As most kids transitioning from middle to high school, I did not know what kind of college career I wanted to pursue but I always knew I loved to make art. That first time visiting the SFMOMA opened my eyes to the immeasurability of artistic possibilities and creations in which I instantly knew I wanted to be a part of. To this day, I am still witnessing ways in which art concepts, processes, and boundaries are being explored and contorted.

 

An exhibition I visited recently this month at the SFMOMA, that exemplifies how these boundaries are still being pushed today, is Zanele Muholi’s “Eye Me”.  Zanele Muholi is a South African artist who mainly uses photography as their prime medium. Muholi is an activist for the Black and LGBTQ+ community. With the help of Muholi’s camera they can capture beautiful moments between the subject and their connection to their environment and their sexuality. This exhibition shows the celebration of these marginalized groups of people while also reminding people that they are in control of the acceptance and normalization of the community. In Muholi’s artist statement, they write, “While visual representation of queer people is an act of defiance that comes with risk, rendering those pictures vulnerable to anti-queer violence, it is ultimately an important statement of pride and an avenue toward acceptance by the wider community.” I found this sentence in their statement quite powerful. Muholi is taking something vulnerable and letting us decide to look at these people and embrace them. 

 

 

 The exhibition is split into three rooms and a hallway. Right as you turn the corner into the exhibition, you can read the artist statement that gives a bit of background about the artist and the subjects in which are dear to her especially pertaining this exhibition. Right from the start you can tell this exhibition is about celebrating the beauty of the LGBTQ+ community in South Africa despite the violent challenges they have faced and still face today. 

 

 

            The first piece that was strikingly interesting to me was a set of four black and white portraits in which Muholi titled “Brave Beauties”. In these portraits the artist shows trans women, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming people in self-assuring powerful poses. These poses connotate being slightly vulnerable yet dynamically confident. The way in which Muholi portrays this selection is alluring. When looking at this piece I wondered to myself that if more young adults saw this version of strong independent representations of LGBTQ+ identities, if that would have helped them gain more of a sense of belonging and confidence early on.  

  

Another part of the exhibition was the audio section. In the middle area of the show, there are four audio stations available with a set of headphones attached to each screen. Each screen was showing a different speaker who was sharing their personal story or connection to the exhibition subject. When I approached the section there was only one spot open for me to sit at. The 8 min and 5 sec film was about Mantedieng Mamabolo, also known as “Mantis”, talking about their upbringing and their inspiration behind writing the children’s book, Boipelo’s Family Tree.  Mantedieng Mamabolo is a business analyst who What stood out to me the most about Mamabolo’s book is that it is based on a black girl growing up with same-sex parents. As a queer person, Mamabolo wanted to make a book about different representations of family life especially households that are somewhat involved in the LGBTQ+ community.  The focus is to expose children to the different possibilities of family dynamics so that they do not become ignorant to them in the future and learn to understand them instead of discriminate. 

 

 

“Eye Me” by Zanele Muholi is worth experiencing in person. I believe that Muholi successfully educated their audience and introduced a different light in which to celebrate and show honor to these beautiful individuals. I went to this Exhibition with my mother, and she was absolutely in Awe of the collection of photographs, sculptural pieces, and paintings. This gathering of people with different identities and backgrounds all coming together under the same community was delightful and important. From the presentation of people in their photographs, to the surrealism and assemblage of their paintings and sculpture, this exhibition was amazing. I would love to come back and see more work by Zanele Muholi.