COMPLY | A Photo Series Evoking Thought On Topics Concerning Race & Slavery etc.
Stephanie Mzee widely known as Kenyaa is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Cape Town. Earlier this year she was named one of Design Indaba's forty Emerging South African Creatives.
Her latest series titled "COMPLY- COMPLY- COMPLY " comprises of four images each aiming to evoke thought and dialogue concerning topics around race, slavery, purity, domestic workers and so forth. With these pieces it is not so much what she as the artist envisioned but more so what the viewer can take away from the images and how it makes them feel.
The series is a conceptual photography series that interrogates, visualises and dares to evoke thought, comments and healthy debates on the lived experiences, mistreatment and fetishisation of the black female 'house niggers' in colonial times or slavery. The series' name describes how many of the house slaves at the time were told and made to 'comply'.