MEDIATING REPRESENTATIONS: DEPICTIONS OF QUEER BODIES IN THE MEDIA
An exhibition of works by Emma Prior

31 October 2021
META foundation, August House –
76 End Street, New Doornfontein

Participating artists
include:

While South Africa was the first country in Africa to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and legalise same-sex marriage in 2006, prejudice, unfortunately, remains a part of the lives of LGBTQIA+ individuals.

From the lens of basic human rights, this exhibition focuses on how homophobia resides in the world around us, and the ways in which popular culture perpetuates queerphobic stereotypes and beliefs; while commenting on the suppression of sexual identity in various spaces, where LGBTQIA+ individuals assimilate to heteronormative ideals to avoid discrimination, violence and social rejection. This assimilation is a fundamental threat to the freedom of identity, which begs the question: does the representation of queer bodies in media perpetuate this kind of violence?

Prior draws attention to individuals who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community while being sensitive to and acknowledging her own limits in understanding the realities and lived experiences of queer individuals. While she cannot speak for, nor understand the lived experiences of other LGBTQIA+ individuals, this exhibition uncovers and navigates this space to build on questions of violence, fear and assimilation of identity.

In this exhibition, the artist does not take the role of the narrator, nor constructs stories. Rather, Prior critically thinks about representations and engages emotionally with queer individuals. This exhibition creates a safe space where our sexualities can speak freely; and where sexual identity can be represented in its diversity; and the aim of this exhibition is to begin a conversation where all LGBTQIA+ individuals can reflect and question how they are being portrayed in the media. This exhibition is merely the foundation of an ongoing discussion that must take place.

The exhibition does not replace the voices of the traumatised, but rather highlights the traumas experiences by the LGBTQIA+ community in such a way that comments on the role of popular culture and media in the dissemination of information relating to violence against LGBTQIA+ individuals as well as perpetuating homophobic stereotypes and widening the divide between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Artists

Artist’s statement

When queerness is portrayed outside the confines of safe spaces, we are all in danger and thus, the shame of being queer is profoundly disempowering. Different privileges exist in our lives, and we must use those privileges to bring attention to the rights of LGBTQIA+ communities. There is no peace for any person if an individual is being discriminated against, socially outcasted or killed on the basis of sexuality.

From the lens of basic human rights, this exhibition focuses on how homophobia resides in the world around us, and the ways in which popular culture perpetuates queerphobic stereotypes and beliefs; while commenting on the suppression of sexual identity in various spaces, where LGBTQIA+ individuals assimilate into heteronormative ideals to avoid discrimination, violence and social rejection.

If the visibility of the body shapes its public significance, then the performances of the body can be seen as a presentation of oneself. The more we engage with harmful stereotypes, the more popularity they gain. And thus, more stereotypes are produced; conforming to an algorithmic loop of production and consumption. Here lies the potential to reject and destabilise heteronormative behaviours and ideals. Imitation lies at the very nature of stereotyping – and here, a consumable queerness is born – a single constructed and unwavering image of what queerness looks like and sounds like. As a consequence, a certain set of expectations are set out for queer bodies, often made to feel the need to conform to these stereotypes as a means of validating our queerness. This cyclical recreation of these images works to reinforce the difference in a homogenised community which is already built on difference, creating and perpetuating divisions.

With the nature of media, the performance of the body is chained to a perpetual cycle of presentation and representation. The shaping and reshaping of oneself seem centered on negotiating stereotypes of oneself, mainly gendered images of masculinity and femininity as well as images of heterosexuality and homosexuality in relation to sexual identities. The presentation of sexuality is linked to visual displays of the body. Visual aesthetics and curatorial decisions have the potential to destabilise the norms of sexual representations; allowing individuals to exist outside of heteronormative binaries, reclaiming their rhetoric of shame and discrimination surrounding queerness; thus undoing the representational praxis that rejects bodies that do not fit a governing ideal.


Gallery