CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/23/2019

The Hayward Gallery's acclaimed 'Kiss My Genders' is a new release this week!

Zanele Muholi's "Phila I, Parktown" (2016) is reproduced from Kiss My Genders, published to accompany the Hayward Gallery's critically-acclaimed current exhibition exploring and challenging traditional gender categories. For Muholi, photography is "a space for people to be visible, respected and recognized." In the Somnyama Ngonyama: Hail the Dark Lioness self-portrait series from which this work is drawn (2012–present), Muholi uses everyday, domestic materials—including rubber gloves, clothes pegs and scouring pads—to craft elaborate costumes or backdrops that hold deep psychological importance. Muholi has deliberately altered the contrast of these black-and-white images in order to enhance the dark tones. Speaking of this series, Muholi has said: 'I'm reclaiming my blackness, which I feel is continuously performed by the privileged other.'"