South African visual activist Zanele Muholi is renowned for challenging traditional notions of gender, race and sexuality. And a powerful collection of their works to date – celebrating the beauty and resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa and QTIPOC people worldwide – is now on view at London’s Tate Modern. This first major UK survey originally opened in 2020 but was cut short due to the national lockdown. Now making a welcome return, it features over 300 photographs and has been extended to include additional works, notably including Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail, the Dark Lioness). This self-portrait project investigates labour, racism and sexual politics by creating a series of dramatic personas, each with ink black skin. There is also a new soundscape by South African musician Toya Delazy, who, Assistant Curator at Tate Modern Amrita Dhallu says, “sat fastidiously with each of these rooms, really thinking deeply about how they represent a component of the human body.”

With a desire to expand their practice and challenge themselves, Muholi has added sculpture to their repertoire – with four large scale bronze works on display. Three are likenesses of the artist while the fourth brings the female sexual anatomy to grandiose proportions. Mulholi says this new medium allows them to have, “an understanding of how we best read the photographs, because the sculpture pieces are 3D photographs that have been turned into something solid and monumental.” This, Muholi hopes, will allow visitors to learn something more from their visuals as we spend time with these corporeal objects and the subjects they address.

One striking aspect of Muholi's work since the beginning is their use of black-and-white photography to capture intimate moments and emotions. The stark contrasts in their images draw attention to the humanity of their subjects, creating a sense of both vulnerability and strength. Faces and Phases is a body of work that began in 2006 and now includes over 300 portraits of the Black LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa. With a portion of the works on view here, we can see the same subjects depicted at different stages of their lives. Each one stares directly into the camera, challenging our gaze. Dhallu coins it “a living archive” where Muholi shows their “agency and autonomy.” As Muholi says, “they come to shine.”

Through their art, Muholi invites viewers to confront preconceived notions about identity and representation. By focusing on the experiences of marginalised communities, they challenge us to reconsider our own biases and prejudices. Throughout the exhibition, many hard topics, from the 2012 Marikana massacre to the prevalence of curative rape, take centre stage. More recently, Muholi’s focus has been on the politics of movement, looking specifically at water. This is depicted literally in the large-scale self-portrait ‘Manzi I’ (2022) but also as a rolling theme throughout. They mention the segregation of beaches in apartheid as well as the contrasts and contradictions of water, how it can be soft and serene but also wild and dangerous, touching on those who have lost their lives at sea trying to find their way to the Global North.

They also focus on the idea of washing away people's stories and histories. Only Half the Picture is Muholi’s early series documenting the survivors of hate crimes living across South Africa and its townships. The image titled ‘Ordeal’ (2003) depicts a basin with a subject washing some clothes. At first, this seems a relatively normal task, but context implores you to look deeper. “How do you wash away trauma? Yeah, you could learn to heal with time. But the memory remains,” Muholi says.

This exhibition serves as a platform for important conversations about social justice, equality, and human rights but of course their work is not only about struggle. It’s about joy, pride and self-expression, too. For example, Brave Beauties is an empowering series celebrating non-binary people and trans women. While Being is a tender body of work capturing ordinary and personal moments in queer couples' lives. Curator Carine Harmand says this is a testament to “how people really trust Muholi in holding their stories.” Muholi also puts themselves in front of the camera with some of their partners, gloriously highlighting the sensuality of queer love.

Taking the tangible impact of their work forward, the artist opened the Muholi Art Institute in 2021. This incubation initiative in Cape Town offers studio and residency opportunities to artists of different backgrounds and disciplines. “I've created a space in which I wanted to share knowledge and some resources because I know the constraints that many young artists are facing, such as having nowhere to showcase their work,” they say. The Muholi Art Initiative participants are displayed in the last room of the exhibition.

A salute to love, identity and inclusion, this show is a poignant reminder of the power of art to inspire change and promote inclusivity. These photographs, films and sculptures are powerful statements that demand attention and action from viewers. Muholi says, “It might seem like it's a lot of work. But there's something in me that says you have not worked. I still wish I could do more. But what is more? I still look for more.” As individuals wanting to make the world a better place, it is imperative that we critically engage with Muholi's work to further our understanding of the complexities surrounding identity politics in contemporary society. We all have a lot to learn, and as Muholi warmly invites us, “There’s a lot of work to learn from.”