Kanbi Projects is delighted to present an exclusive online solo exhibition of works by Congolese-born photographer Glodi Bahati. In her new body of work titled 'Fragments of Self', Bahati interrogates the politics of selfhood through a series of self-portraits.
In Fragments of Self, Bahati questions how we conform the self in order to be accepted, and how existing in the oppressive structures of capitalism, patriarchy, white privilege and other forms of oppressive systems dictates our performance and expression of self and limits our intersecting identities. In these vibrant, intimate self-portraits, striking and ever in motion, Bahati positions herself in conversation with this question.
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The works presented in the exhibition are deeply invested in Bahati's own intersecting identities: young, plus size, refugee black woman of African descent living in a western-dominated, globalised and social-media driven consumerism contemporary society. These identities speak to the complexity of self, fluid and intricate, navigating through an intersection of structural terrains of overlapping systems of privilege and oppression as described by transnational feminist scholars Linda E. Carty and Chandra Talpade Mohanty.Yet, Bahati strive to frame and represent an idea of self albeit in fragments, employing performativity, abstraction and photographic composition to capture intimate expressions of beauty and vulnerability while confronting issues of identity politics, selfhood and social visibility.
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WORKS
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" Growing up as a refugee, I understood the self as an everchanging phenomenon, it meant assimilating to whichever environment I was put in, in order to survive. It was never something real to hold on to, always in motion. Living under patriarchy, white supremacy, Fatphobia, and other forms of oppressive systems defined how I understood my intersecting identities.
Fragments of Self is an ongoing series attempting to understand the fluid politics of selfhood. Questioning the ways we reduce and shrink the self in order to appear palatable by the gaze. In these vibrant, intimate self-portraits, striking and ever in motion, I position myself in conversation with this question."
GLODI BAHATI
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GLODI BAHATI: INTERVIEW WITH MAHLET CUFF
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GLODI BAHATI
Image by Jeremy Lee.
