EYE AM WOMAN

THE ONTOLOGY AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE ‘WOMAN’

Written by: Lebohang Molotsi

June, 2026

Reimagining the “movement”

Oftentimes, concepts like revolutionary change, non-conformity, power, identity, and resistance instantly spark ideologies of decolonisation and/or feminism. The main goal of such ideologies is to overcome inequality and suppression in the social, political, and economic context; thus, came the rise of several opposing forms of feminism. While earlier forms of Western-centric feminism, focusing on the experiences of the hegemonic woman, fail to adequately represent and/or advocate for the multiple identities that encompass the very being of the ordinary woman. Contrary to this, decolonial and postcolonial feminism highlight the intersectional experiences that govern womanhood. At the core of the heterogeneous nature of femininity lies an irreducible identity framed by historically, politically, and socially situated experiences, cultivating womanhood as context-specific in its emergence, production, and operationalisation.

Although I would like to think that no one person wakes up every morning with a burning fire to fight against the status quo, or to change the world, or to be an outlier in society, but rather as a people, we seek the safety and comfortability to simply be ourselves. In this world of dominant truths of being and common-sense knowledge, being yourself is as radical as it gets. Whether we choose to or not, whether we are oblivious to it or not, we’re in it – the constant battle to exist, to live, to survive, and to thrive. The time has come to reimagine this so-called “movement” and to fashion our own opposing form of feminism. This is where exhibitions like Eye Am Woman shine – meticulously curating spaces where one can indeed be themselves.

The Exhibition that Reimagines

The Eye Am Woman exhibition, which opened on the 9th of August 2025 (Women’s Day), serves as an opening of the self to the structured gaze of society – providing an alternative, non-confirmative lens that highlights the intersectional domains of reality. Through this exhibition, we see how one comes to know themselves and how one chooses to represent themselves by means of multifaceted forms of artwork that mirror the complexities of identity formation. This exhibition boldly demonstrates the artistic outcomes of pain, joy, happiness, power, suffering, resistance, vulnerability, and reconfiguration, established in lived experiences and perspectives – where artists reclaim their subjectivities. As a result, the exhibition interrogates the dominant constructs of womanhood.

These said dominant constructs – embedded within colonial and racialised systems on an ideological and operational level – persist that the woman is domestic, submissive, passive, emotional, and subordinate. Through this historically charged discourse, the woman is repeatedly performed through the sanctioning and surveillance of socio-cultural norms. Ultimately, this produces a one-eyed lens of womanhood, and it is within this context that Eye Am Woman materialises as both a response to and a reimagining of womanhood. Consequently, the exhibition situates itself within the ontological disruption of womanhood, while dismantling the epistemological frameworks through which women have been historically understood.

The artworks span diverse mediums, such as paintings, sculptures, and photography. This multiplicity in form further reflects the exhibition’s conceptual commitment to pluralism, emphasising that no single medium can fully encapsulate the intersectional woman. Several pieces confront the politics of the gaze, challenging the authorities that define womanhood, its internalisation, and its resistance and/or rejection. Others centre vulnerability, intimacy, and emotional labour, offering tender portrayals of care, grief, joy, and longing. Together, these pieces establish a dynamic emotional landscape that invites viewers into a shared process of reflection and relational meaning-making.

Eye Am Woman affirms art’s capacity not only to represent reality but to actively reshape the symbolic landscapes through which identities are lived and understood. In this sense, the exhibition becomes not merely a display of artworks but a participatory space for dialogue.

References

Beauvoir, S. de. (2011). The second sex (C. Borde & S. Malovany-Chevallier, Trans.). Vintage. (Original work published 1949)

Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.

Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Musingafi, Maxwell Constantine Chando. “Conceptualising Feminism in Africa.” Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies, 24 Oct. 2023, pp. 1–19, https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1 6684-9721-0.ch001.

O’Reilly, Karen. Ethnographic Methods. Routledge, 12 Mar. 2012, DOI:10.4324/9780203864722.