(A
non-winged being by Mary Sibande)
The Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg
is currently hosting The Purple Shall
Govern, an exhibition by Mary Sibande who is this year’s Standard Bank
Young Artist.
Sibande is known for her surreal, dramatic
installations involving an alter-ego figure (Sophie) dressed up in a series of
larger than life costumes, surrounded by other strange objects. The designs and
colours of Sophie's dresses are signifiers that reference uniforms of domestic
workers, overalls of labourers, robes of local Zion Church worshippers and
Victorian garments.
As a young woman, Sibande is concerned
about the meaning of womanhood, especially with respect to perceptions of
birth, rebirth, growth and death. In previous works she explored Sophie's
identity and history, referring to her maternal great grandmother, her
grandmother and her mother.
For her current exhibition, The Purple Shall Govern, she has created
a new body of art works that includes an installation comprised of two
life-size figures, three digital pigment prints of Sophie and an installation
of suspended creatures made of polyester and cotton fabric. The new art works
are about Sibande's me-time and creating of her-self, prioritising her own
desires and experiences without accounting for the three generations of women
in her family.
Since 2006, Sibande has participated in a
number of residencies in France, Switzerland, the USA and Germany. Her work has
been seen in major cultural centres worldwide: Paris, Venice, Helsinki, Rio de
Janeiro and Dakar. In 2010, 19 of her photographic portrayals of Sophie were
wrapped around buildings in Johannesburg. She has been invited to Italy in
2014.
The
Purple Shall Govern runs in the Main Exhibition
Room at the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg until November 3. 2013.
For further information contact Bryony
Clark at 033 392 2825 (mornings only) or email bryony.clark@msunduzi.gov.za
or visit http://www.tatham.org.za/fotag.html
Posts
