Close Looking: Queer African Art and BELONG
- Paul Emmanuel
- Apr 16
- 1 min read
Updated: Apr 24
What does it mean to belong—and who gets to decide?
The works in this section explore belonging as something fluid rather than fixed. Through performance, self-portraiture, and transformation, artists reimagine identity as something shaped through movement, expression, and choice.
Here, belonging is not always inherited or granted. It can be constructed, negotiated, and sometimes claimed in defiance of expectation. These works ask us to consider how identity is formed across cultures, histories, and personal experience, and how new forms of connection might emerge from that complexity.
As you explore, consider where belonging feels certain, where it feels fragile, and where it is still becoming.
Athi-Patra Ruga
Versatile Queen: A Transhuman Proposal (2016)
A student perspective by Angeni Shahi and Benny Geller
A self-portrait that reimagines belonging through performance, where identity is fluid, constructed, and powerfully claimed.
Athi-Patra Ruga
Versatile Queen: A Transhuman Proposal (2016)
A student perspective by Isaiah Mourning and Camila Calero
A self-portrait that reimagines belonging through performance, where identity is fluid, constructed, and powerfully claimed.
Leilah Babirye
Nansamba II from the Kuchu Ngabi (Antelope) Clan (2021)
A sculptural portrait that reclaims belonging through naming, ancestry, and the transformation of discarded materials into dignity and presence.
Zanele Muholi
Muholi Muholi, Parktown (2016)
A self-portrait that claims visibility on its own terms, turning Blackness, labor, and self-representation into forms of power and belonging.
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