REFLECTIONS ON THE SELF

Five African Women Photographers

Senayt Samuel, ID series, 2003. Courtesy of the artist.

The new Hayward Touring exhibition Reflections on the Self presents women’s visual narratives, as told through self-portraits and portraits of other women. The photographers are women whose views of the world have been shaped by their own experiences in Africa and the diaspora. Reflections on the Self is curated by Christine Eyene. She is Curator of Gwanza, Month of Photography 2011, Zimbabwe, and the African section of Photoquai 2011, Biennial of World Images, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris. The exhibition forms part of Southbank Centre’s Women of the World – WOW, a three-day Festival, (11-13 March) celebrating and promoting women.

The photographers are Hélène Amouzou (Togo; lives and works Belgium); Majida Khattari (Morocco; lives and works France); Zanele Muholi (South Africa); Senayt Samuel (Eritrea, lives and works in the UK); Nontsikelelo Veleko (South Africa).  These five photographers engage with issues such as identity, sexuality and displacement, and their work often overturns stereotypical expectations. Ranging from the beauty contest, street fashion and the veiled body in Orientalist paintings, the imagery here acts as a means of thinking about the ‘self’, both as subject and as object. These photographs reveal some of the ways in which women see themselves, and also how the female gaze is informed by the politics of representation.

Christine Eyene will give an introductory talk on Friday 18 March at 7.30pm in the Blue Room, Spirit Level, Royal Festival Hall. Admission free.  

For further information, visit the Southbank Centre website.

Hélène Amouzou (b. 1969) created her series of self-portraits, 'Between the Wallpaper and the Wall', during a ten year period whilst she was in limbo in Belgium waiting for her identity papers. Using double-exposure and movement to blur or dissolve her image, she leaves ghostly traces that seem on the verge of disappearance. The empty suitcase, her only prop, becomes a symbol of her precarious existence.

Majida Khattari (b. 1966) is an artist, designer and photographer who challenges the stigma of the veil and preconceived ideas about Muslim women in France. In her new series, she explores sensuality and desire, evoking Orientalist paintings by artists such as Delacroix, and making visual play with the veiled or partially concealed body.

Zanele Muholi's (b. 1972) work looks at women's experiences and histories, particularly black lesbian identities. She made the two series of work featured in this show, Miss Lesbian and Being (T)here, in collaboration with photographer Sean Fitzpatrick during her residency at the Thami Mnyele Foundation in Amsterdam in 2009. Her work has been shown widely across the world and will feature in the V&A's exhibition 'Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography' in the summer of 2011. 

Senayt Samuel (b. 1969) settled in London in 2002 after her family's deportation from Ethiopia. The series in this exhibition consists of self-portraits exploring the notion of framing and mirrored reflections, both as an art-historical device and as a means of defining the parameters of identity. Her work was included in Tate Britain's 2008 exhibition 'Imagine Art After'. 

Nontsikelelo Veleko (b. 1977) currently lives and works in Johannesburg. Her signature

images captured alternative youth fashion in contemporary South Africa, focusing on funky and provocative street style. They featured in the 2006 exhibition 'Snap Judgments' in New York, curated by Okwui Enwezor and will be included in 'Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography' at the V&A in 2011.

The exhibition will tour nationally later in the year, venues to be confirmed. Please contact the press office for further details. 

For further PRESS information please contact Sarah Ragsdale, Tel: 020 7921 0887 or sarah.ragsdale@southbankcentre.co.uk

 

REFLECTIONS ON THE SELF

Five African Women Photographers

8 March – 3 April 2011

Spirit Level, Royal Festival Hall

Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX

Open daily 10am – 11pm. Admission free. 

 

Notes to Editors

Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. 

Hayward Touring produces exhibitions that tour to galleries, museums and other publicly-funded venues throughout Britain. Hayward Touring collaborate with artists, independent curators, writers and partner institutions to develop and tour imaginative exhibitions that are seen by approximately half a million people in over 100 cities and towns each year. Hayward Touring also extends to smaller monographic print, photography or new media exhibitions touring to a variety of venues, including galleries, libraries, universities, colleges and schools, arts centres and historic sites. Current and recent exhibitions include John Cage: Every Day is a Good Day (opening 19 Feb at the Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery, Glasgow) Magic Show; Mark Wallinger curates: The Russian Linesman; Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery and Unpopular Culture: Grayson Perry Selects from the Arts Council Collection.