Chameleon

Ugo Woatzi’s photographs reference spaces both real and imagined, caught between worlds of freedom and restriction. He reveals and yet conceals, like a chameleon hiding, blending and adapting – as a means of preservation and queer resilience. His collaborative process expresses the desires and struggles of his community, together creating a more sensitive and accepting world, escaping and confronting the harsh realities of divisive heteronormative structures. The images, both tender and defiant, transmute feelings of love and conflict, a sense of longing that is relatable and universally accessible. The sensuosity of his gaze taps into subtler aspects of human desire with a quiet intimacy, yet this seemingly easy translation of emotions is quickly blocked / rendered inaccessible in the simultaneous act of hiding or obscuring what he intends to express. Ugo invites us to consider and celebrate a range of masculinities, performative bodies, psyches, and experiences; exploring the idea of ‘visibility’ as one fraught with both fear and excitement. It is this very sense of duality which Ugo expresses so strongly and eloquently in his work - both a performance, and a lived reality, speaking of truth and yet creating fiction - akin to the complex nature of photography; where new worlds are created from fragments of a previous one. It is in this new world, in the tender sensitivity of Ugo’s gaze that we finally access a space of acceptance. Text by Michelle Harris Art historian / Johannesburg