Sakhile&Me shows self-portrait photographs by Prof. Zanele Muholi and Lindeka Qampi. The exhibition Limise pays homage to the 63rd anniversary of the 1956 Women’s March during Apartheid South Africa and coincides with South Africa’s 25th year of independence.

Sakhile&Me presents Limise – a selection of photographs by South African visual activist Zanele Muholi and photographer Lindeka Qampi. The exhibition pays homage to the 63rd anniversary of the iconic 1956 Women’s March during Apartheid South Africa and will run from August 8 until September 7, 2019. The exhibition is guest-curated by compatriot Lerato Dumse who has collaborated with the duo since 2013.

Limise shows a series of iconic high-contrasted black-and-white self-portrait photographs by Prof. Zanele Muholi from the award winning Somnyama Ngonyama series and color selfportrait photographs by fellow long-time activist and ally Lindeka Qampi. The duo-exhibition comes at a crucial moment in both their careers as 2019 marks South Africa’s 25th year of independence and the show highlights their long-standing contributions as human rights advocates and dedicated members of South Africa’s photography community

Limise is an isiXhosa word, meaning to build. The two photographers’ work side-by-side in Limise culminates in a timely and intimate appreciation of their contributions for more than a decade to the history of South Africa’s photography and contemporary art. In her body of work, Muholi tackles issues of race and gender specifically: “My aim is to produce 365 selfportraits to represent each day of the year because I live as a black person 365 days in a year”. Qampi’s series touches on the universal topic of sexual violence. She too approaches the topic from an insider’s perspective, exposing, confronting, and rising above traumatic personal experiences from her childhood. She employs metaphorical re-enactments to raise awareness while administering healing for herself. In Limise, both photographers speak to and remember their relationships with their mothers, their community work, and the power of telling stories through photography.

Since 2002, Prof. Muholi has been best known for advocacy work supporting the rights of LGBTQI communities in South Africa, training a younger generation of photographers and building an archive of testimonials for and with the LGBTQI community, using photography as a tool to document and tell their stories. As part of the Somnyama Ngonyama series, Muholi denounces social injustice and racism.

Qampi started doing photography in 2006 at Iliso Labantu (“the eye of the people”), a photographers collective, spending the first decade of her photography career focusing on daily township life. Lindeka Qampi’s photography also developed from her human rights work, especially focusing on anti-xenophobia, anti-sexism, and anti-homophobia. Qampi develops a series of color self-portraits that collectively tell an interconnected narrative. In Limise, both Muholi and Qampi develop on their past work taking portraits of friends and close associates and turn to face the lens.

Zanele Muholi was born in 1972 in Umlazi (South Africa). In 2002, Muholi co-founded the Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW). In 2009, Muholi was awarded their Master of Fine Arts degree from Ryerson University in Toronto and founded the INKANYISO collective in the same year. Muholi has exhibited at institutions such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Brooklyn Museum, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. Muholi’s work is currently on display at the Central Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, with the traveling exhibition “Somnyama Ngonyama” recently opening at the Seattle Art Museum in July 2019. Muholi is also an Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts/Hochschule der Künste Bremen and has won numerous awards, including Book of the Year for “Somnyama Ngonyama” during the prestigious Kraszna-Krausz Awards (2019), Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from French Embassy (2017), and the Prince Claus Foundation Laureate (2013). Muholi was also shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2015).

Lindeka Qampi was born in 1969 in Bolotwa (South Africa) and her work is part of collections in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the University of Cape Town. Her awards include the Mbokodo Award (2015) in the category “Creative Photographer” and the Brave Award (2016) with Muholi, acknowledging their outreach work.

About the gallery

Sakhile&Me is a contemporary art space based in downtown Frankfurt working with emerging and established international artists, creative entrepreneurs and curators, with a particular focus on Africa and its many diasporas. The gallery’s two founders, Sakhile Matlhare and Daniel Hagemeier, received bachelor’s degrees from Hamilton College and master’s degrees from the University of Sydney. Matlhare then pursued a doctoral degree at Northwestern University focusing on how contemporary artists work alongside curators, art historians, and other art experts in the gatekeeping process, within and beyond the rubric of contemporary African art. Hagemeier has worked with his father, Achim Hagemeier (Kunsthandel Hagemeier), for the past four years, specializing in German Expressionist and classical modern art.

www.sakhileandme.com