Sonke’s Board Chair Kopano Ratele in front of an image photographer Jodi Bieber took of him as part of a series of work examining masculinities. The photograph is part of a solo exhibition QUIET, currently on show at the Goodman Gallery. Kopano told an audience at a dialogue on “Masculinity, Power, Equality and Justice” at the gallery that he was trying to get comfortable with seeing his image in the gallery and that he wondered what people, and specifically his students, would say about it.
Sonke’s Mbuyiselo Botha, who also participated in the dialogue admitted that he had “chickened out” of the artist’s invitation to pose and said this speaks to the difficulty that men in power encounter when challenged to be seen in more exposed and vulnerable moments and spaces.
