ID Crisis

Zanele Muholi, South African, born 1972

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2003

Gelatin silver print

1/8

Overall: 20 7/8 × 27 5/8 in. (53 × 70.2 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Hood Museum of Art Acquisitions Fund

© Zanele Muholi

2006.42

Portfolio / Series Title

Only Half the Picture

Geography

Place Made: South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa

Period

21st century

Object Name

Photograph

Research Area

Africa

Photograph

Not on view

Label

In a cropped domestic scene with dim lighting, a South African person is binding their chest. Such an image reflects Zanele Muholi’s desire to document and uplift the lives of trans and queer South Africans in loving and profound ways. The dark lighting conceals much of the scene—illuminating the intimacy of an act of gendered becoming.

From the 2023 exhibition Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art, curated by Alexandra Thomas, Curatorial Research Associate

Course History

HIST 6.3, AAAS 88.2, WGST 38.2, Women and Gender in the African Diaspora, Rashauna Chenault, Spring 2012

AAAS 11, Introduction to African Studies, Naaborko Sackeyfio, Spring 2013

WRIT 5, Memoirs of Family, Ellen Rockmore, Fall 2013

WGST 10, Sex, Gender, and Society, Giavanna Munafo, Fall 2013

WGST 37.2, GEOG 41, Gender, Space and Islam, Jennifer Fluri, Fall 2013

NAS 42, WGST 40, Gender Topics in Native American Life, Vera Palmer, Fall 2013

ANTH 31, WGST 36, Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Lauren Gulbas, Fall 2013

NAS 42, WGST 40, Gender Topics in Native American Life, Vera Palmer, Fall 2013

SART 30, Photography II, Fall 2013

SART 29, Photography I, Fall 2013

WRIT 5, Memoirs of Family, Ellen Rockmore, Winter 2014

WGST 7, Masculinities Go In Between, Klaus Milich, Winter 2014

WGST 65, Queer Visual Culture, Gabriele Dietze, Winter 2014

COLT 67, AAAS 67, ENGL 54, WGST 52.1, Colonial and Postcolonial Masculinities, Ayo Coly, Winter 2014

WGST 96, Times of Crisis, Annabelle Martin, Spring 2014

ANTH 3, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Winter 2015

ANTH 3, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Winter 2015

WGSS 10.01, Sex, Gender, and Society, Douglas Moody, Fall 2019

WGSS 10.02, Sex, Gender, and Society, Kristen O'Rourke, Fall 2019

WGSS 10.03, Sex, Gender, and Society, Jenn Sargent, Fall 2019

WGSS 10.04, Sex, Gender, and Society, Susan Brison, Fall 2019

WGSS 10.01, Sex, Gender, and Society, Susan Overton, Winter 2020

WGSS 10.01, Sex, Gender and Society, Douglas Moody, Winter 2021

WGSS 10.01 , Sex, Gender and Society, Francine A'Ness, Fall 2021

THEA 10.64/AAAS 54.05/WGSS 66.15, Feminist and Queer Africa on Stage and Screen, Laura Edmondson, Winter 2022

WGSS 10.01, Sex, Gender, and Society, Doug Moody, Winter 2022

THEA 21/WGSS 59.04, Race, Gender, Performance, Laura Edmondson, Spring 2022

WGSS 16.01, Contemporary Issues in Feminism, Mingwei Huang, Spring 2021

ANTH 50.21/AAAS 88.17, Filmmaking & Visual Culture, Jesse Shipley, Summer 2022

WRIT 5.05, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2022

WRIT 5.06, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2022

Theater 10.64, African and African-American Studies 54.05, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 66.15, Feminist and Queer Africa, Laura Edmondson, Spring 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program – Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Colleen Lannon, Summer 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Mokhtar Bouba, Summer 2023

Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023

Writing 2.05, Why Write, Anyway?, Erkki Mackey, Fall 2023

Writing 5.24, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2023

Writing 5.25, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2023

Exhibition History

Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 1-August 10, 2008; Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, September 10-December 10, 2008; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California, January 21-

Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, and Northeast Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 22, 2023–May 25, 2024.

Made in the Middle: Constructing Black Identities across the African Diaspora, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology 3, Winter 2015, Chelsey Kivland, Teaching Exhibition, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 15, 2014-March 15,2015.

Made Visible: Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, February 2-May 12, 2019. Body Politics: Art and Fashion from South Africa, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, February 2-May 12, 2019.

Shadowplay: Transgressive Photography from the Hood Museum of Art, Owen Robertson Cheatham and Friends Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 10-December 8, 2013.

Publication History

Barbara Thompson, Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body, Seattle: University of Washington Press [Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College], 2008, p. 342, plate 122.

Provenance

Michael Stevenson Fine Art CC, Cape Town, South Africa; sold to present collection, 2006.

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