Zwelethu Mthethwa-Interiors- The Studio Museum in Harlem Assignment

Zwelethu Mthethwa, Interiors, Untitled

In this image I see an older African woman in what appears to be her home. Her walls are cluttered with clipping from grocery circulars containing photographs of different foods and house hold items and on occasion the word “SALE” going across the paper. The doorway leading into her bedroom is boarded up on the sides with pieces of cardboard boxes. Her floor has a turquoise colored matting over it. The part of her room that is visible is pretty sparse, containing what appears to be a plain white garbage pale, a bed with a blue blanket and white pillows both of which look dirty, and the same cluttered grocery circular clippings on the wall. The woman herself is wearing a greenish bluish skirt a white shirt with a blue and pink floral pattern and a cloth or bandana on her head. She has her arms over her head grasping onto what appears to be a support beam behind her. She has an expression that is a bit hard to define. It looks like she is worn out, as though she has gone through some type of ordeal and has no more energy to care but at the same time it looks like she has somewhat of a smirk on her face, like a “there’s still hope yet” kind of mentality. The overall photograph is very colorful. The colors are vibrant and almost work as a contrast to the worn out, sad mood created by the image and at the same time it helps to emphasis the idea that this woman still has hope.

This photograph makes me think that this woman is from a poor area. Her clothes are a bit outdated and her home looks like it’s a bit broken down, almost like a work in progress. It makes me think that this woman is alone. Maybe she had a family but some awful tragedy took them away from her and she’s trying to rebuild. Its strange how the composition of the photograph and of the room gives off a feeling of emptiness and being alone in your own cluttered messy world, whereas the colors in the photograph help to represent the glimmer of hope aspect of the photograph. It makes me think that the photograph was well planned out even though it doesn’t appear to be staged. I think that the use of composition contrasts helps to give this photograph a story that has more layers than simply being a sad woman or a woman with hope or a poor woman. It combines many different elements to give this woman a deeper story. It makes her a character with many layers and elements to her personality. This photograph makes me feel sad, empathetic and hopeful at the same time. I feel sad because the woman appears to be down trodden and somewhat depressed. I feel empathy for her because again she looks sad and her surroundings look empty yet cluttered and she looks as though she is alone. I feel hope because of the slight smile the woman is giving and because of the vibrant bright colors used in the scene.

I feel like all of the images from Interiors flowed well together as they were all different portrayals of South Africans from impoverished communities in their domestic settings. All of the photographs looked like they were staged even though they weren’t because of the vibrant colors of all of the photographs. The photos are all informal, with the subjects just standing or sitting in their homes as they would if no one was with them. I found the whole series to be very interesting, very sad, and very beautiful at the same time. I felt that the series “empty beds” was also very strong and sort of complimented the interiors project. The loneliness of the subjects in “interiors” along with the empty beds in “empty beds“which were literally empty and alone went hand in hand with the moods that they both created.