Public Art Commissions

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh + Love in South Africa: Brooklyn, NY and South Africa

AFRICA’SOUT! has invited Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, artist and creator of the Stop Telling Women to Smile art series, and Nairobi based, None on Record to collaborate on Love in South Africa, a public art project that celebrates the black queer community in South Africa. With large-scale wheat pasted posters, Tatyana creates a series of portraits of queer and lesbian couples from various cities in South Africa to New York City. Pasted in neighborhoods around New York City, the work pushes for the acceptance of African queer lives by placing the narratives and images of queer couples, cis and trans, into the public through street art. None on Record interviewed four queer couples in South Africa, and based on digital images from those interviewed, Fazlalizadeh, sketched the couples. Her hand drawn sketches were then reproduced on posters and pasted in New York City in June of 2016. Fazlalizadeh now plans to head to South Africa to paste posters there as well.

Love in South Africa, an expansion on the Stop Telling Women to Smile project, looks at how homophobia and sexism intersect to influence how queer black women and transgender people in South Africa are treated in outdoor spaces. Similarly Love in South Africa uses street art and the outdoors as a medium to address the harassment and violence that many women face in the outdoor space and to speak back to the perpetrators.

Artist, Activist and AFRICA’SOUT! founder, Wangechi Mutu explains: “This work is what we mean when we say ‘imaginative activism’: how do we creatively influence people and make change? Tatyana has successfully done this with Stop Telling Women to Smile and we commissioned her to do the same for LGBTQI communities. She retells people’s stories in a single sketch that makes you think differently about other people’s lives and about yourself. What Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is doing is art as activism and supporting her work is our mission.”

None on Record produces the digital media component of Love in South Africa, in a 4 minute documentary. Lead by director/producer Selly Thiam, None on Record is an African LGBT digital media organization that produces multi- media documentaries about the experiences of LGBT people on the Continent and in the diaspora. The team at None on Record believes that a story is the shortest distance between two people and that narratives do transform people’s lives.

“Collaborating on Love in South Africa is another opportunity to produce complex and powerful narratives about African LGBT people that challenge the status quo.” Selly Thiam, Spring 2016

A limited run of lithograph prints are available as a thank you for your support in the generous amount of $300 or more. Please select your preferred image HERE. Proceeds from all sales will support AFRICA’SOUT! Initiatives and more work like Love in South Africa.

For more information on how to support or be involved with Love in South Africa, please contact us at team@africasout.com. Learn more about Tatyana Fazalizadeh and her work here at tlynnfaz.com. Learn more about None on Record at www.noneonrecord.com.