Thembela Dick
Exhibitions
Khwela Ngam
The term, ‘Khwela Ngam’ can be loosely translated as ‘It’s on Me’, it was coined by Zanele Muholi for the LGBTQIA+ community, whereas a manifesto she called on queers to work together. The exhibition by Thembela Dick is a response to the call out, where they celebrate the artist Muholi from a different lens, and as Muholi’s protégé they intentionally portray their mentor’s style.
Dick is a documentarian in film as can be witnessed with her work on streettalktv.com, a photographer, educator and visual activist. With 13 years of experience their focus is on the youth, women, children and the LGBTQIA+ community, locally and abroad. They hold multiple photography and filmmaking qualifications from various institutions such as; University of Cape Town, The Market Photo Workshop and World Film Collective amongst others. Dick directed a 22-minute documentary called Thokozani Football Club (Team Spirit) in Umlazi, KwaZulu Natal. The film has been showcased in more than 38 countries in LGBTQIA+ film festivals worldwide and continues to be used as an educational resource to educate communities about the LGBTQIA+ people in South Africa. They have shot over 250 films with the Street Talk TV channel; season 2-6 and co-directed a documentary called Foot for Love of Le De Gommes in Paris and Gugulethu 60 as a videographer and participant. Volunteer work include; Director of Photography (DOP), Photographer and Lecturer for Inkanyiso Organization, documenting and travelling worldwide with the founder of the organization Professor Muholi, and filming Talks at BAAD, Vassar Colleges, New York University and Duke University in the USA amongst other institutions.
Dick’s work for the exhibition as opposed to their documentarian style is composed of posed imagery, contrarily documenting the real lifestyle of a queer, almost like a character on reality TV. Even though the images are still, they give the same type of exposure, where ordinary citizens share their private behaviors with a broad audience. Their use of Muholi, who is already a popular figure, becomes a device to contextualize the narration of normalizing the queer. With an understanding of classical interpretations of women as beautiful unrealistic and fantastical creatures, the artist is portraying figures categorized as strange in the most normal state, with natural nakedness familiar to all humans. The idealistic nudity of women is further explored with the image, Tempile,2017, meaning Temple, where the artist’s face and breasts are covered with sanitary pads. These are fundamental issues tackled by the LGBTQIA+ community, where being queer does not take away the nature of a person, the genitalia of the artist are covered by a black plastic bag in a black and white photograph, rendering the bottom half almost invisible, and maintaining the focus on the torso and face, where the white sanitary pads are incredibly invasive. Visually demanding the attention of the viewer to the concern at hand without the disturbance of sexual confusion.
Muholi within the exhibition images is portrayed as a model not as an artist who took a self-portrait, where Dick emphasizes their intention to showcase elements of ordinary life, such as intimacy, laughter and emotion, keeping within the framework of working with a recognized figure as an equal, stipulated by the pronouncement of the expression, Khwela Ngam.