Making the silent violence of rape visible

Abstract

In this research, I investigate the images used for the depiction of black women in South African popular visual culture and the Western Art canon. A primary aim of my research is to highlight visual mechanisms that are deployed to eradicate and subdue black women’s sexual violation. I do a comparison of these images with those created by South African visual artist Zanele Muholi. My analysis of Muholi’s work aims to surface the ways that she unearths the silence surrounding the visual representation of the sexual violence experienced by black women