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Nancy Mteki

Own Correspondent
Award-winning photographer Nancy Mteki is taking photography to a whole new level in a solo exhibition titled “Honai” by turning the camera on herself to document her experience as a woman in a largely patriarchal society.

The exhibition, scheduled to open at Njelele Art Station today, utilises self-portraiture to question how female bodies are perceived and to ultimately subvert gender norms.

According to Mteki, images have power to challenge the rigid notions of gender. Through the series, Mteki’s body transcends space encountering and challenging the public gaze, revealing her vulnerability and displaying her power.

Equipped with the camera and experience of rejection, mothering and loss she invites the audience to her reawakening. Each image is layered with political force, freezing time and space, pushing one to re-imagine what defines a woman.

What Mteki manages to do in the photographic offering is to redefine sexuality, pioneer the female gaze and tell a visual story of femininity in Zimbabwe.

“My work emphasises women and daily life in my society. In the series ‘Honai’ the kitchen is a metaphor of women’s identity and the newspaper background represents the society surrounding us. I used my personal experience to explore and revisit many issues faced in society by women who have been through the same situation, and again being a voice to the voiceless,” said Mteki.

In the photo series, Mteki explores the shifts that she has undergone in her life, peeling into the psychological impacts of societal perceptions and expectations of her body and being.

“The intention of my work is to create dialogue amongst the audience on how ignorance and criticism affects women. Ignorance affects women and leads to trauma for some victims. Depression, miscarriage and fake marriages are some of the tragedies that occur because of this pres- sure.”

According to Dana Whabira, curator of the photography exhibition and artistic director of Njelele Art Station, the series is at once personal and universal and puts the power back in the hand of a woman to tell her own story in a context where the female body is often vilified, objectified and sexualised.

By bringing her camera into her domestic space, Mteki contests and challenges the positioning of the black female body with regard to racial and gender representations, dominant beauty ideals and femininity.

“Honai is a ground-breaking exhibition in which the fearless young photographer, Nancy Mteki unveils her vulnerability in front of the camera while simultaneously asserting her power. Mteki has produced exciting new representations of young female identity in Zimbabwe — it’s definitely a must-see exhibition,” said Whabira.

“Nancy Mteki is at the forefront of contemporary fine art photography, a medium that is underrepresented in our country. Njelele Art Station is excited to host this seminal show.”

In her artist statement, Mteki astutely notes that she uses her body as a medium to assert her identity and to disengage limitations forced on women’s subjectivity. Her photography undoubtedly reveals this and is worth witnessing. Mteki recently returned from Maputo where she participated in the Asiko 2015 programme, an initiative by CCA Lagos, and in the past she has exhibited her work in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Dakar, Aberdeenshire, Abu Dhabi and Harare.

Mteki’s solo exhibition ‘‘Honai’’ runs today August 28 at Njelele Art Station along Kaguvi Street.