Post-Democratic South African Art (1994-)
Background:
● Mandela released from jail 1992
● Apartheid abolished (1994)
● 1st democratically elected president April 1994
● Nobel Peace Prize shared by N Mandela and FW de Klerk
● No sudden healing, new circumstances and rules
● New Constitution established to protect human rights
● Truth & Reconciliation Commission established to address crimes committed during
apartheid.
Themes:
● Search for identity
● Establishing a proud African identity
● Issues of language, ethnicity and urbanisation
● New media used
● Issues of self and “other”
● Reconciliation between races
● Breaking down of colonialism
Mary Sibande
● Characteristics: life size sculptures and photographic prints about Sophie, a body cast of
own body made of fibreglass and silicone as for shop mannequins
● Sibandes' alter ego Sophie, a domestic worker who finds refuge in dreams where she
emancipates herself from the ghoulish realism of an ordinary existence, cleaning other
people’s homes.
● She explores the construction of identity in post apartheid SA, and probes the
stereotypical contextualisation of the black female body.
● The closed eyes and calm demeanour, large blue dress with crisp white apron is a hybrid
of Victorian clothing and a gateway to uncharted places. The working uniform is
transmuted into a magnificent, huge ball gown, reminiscent of exaggerated colonial ball
gowns.
● Sibande is the first woman of her family to achieve academically and by implication her
freedom. Both her mother and grandmother were domestic workers.
● Sibande sheds light on race and gender; slave/master- but inverted: the slave has
become the master. At the same time the dress is a symbol of colonialism, it overpowers
the black body, as the black woman was overpowered for years.
● The bodies are painted flat black, Sibande models these figures of Sophie on herself.
Sibande, They don’t make them like they used to (2008)
● Original fibreglass and clothing sculpture, now also digital print.
● Sophie knits a superhero outfit, dressed in an elaborate crinoline dress resembling a
voluminous blue Victorian ball gown with a white doek and stiff collar and cuffs like a
domestic uniform, the dress is impractical for domestic work.
● Sophie’s eyes are closed - fantasy or dream world, a state of transformation
, ● It is a protest against servitude: domestic workers are celebrated, domestic workers who
were previously victimised.
● Critiques stereotypical depictions of black women under apartheid.
● Refers to relationship between madam and maid: Sophie has appropriated the madams
dress and she reclaims power for the black female body in post apartheid SA.
● Hints at being a superhero, or knitting one for someone else.
In ‘they don't make them like they used to’ when
Sibande portrays Sophie as knitting a superhero
outfit. It is unclear if she is knitting it for herself or
somebody else. Her elaborate blue dress is
easily recognisable as a typical maid's uniform
with the white collar and cuffs. The dress is,
however, changed into an elaborate Victorian
dress with a huge crinoline skirt. The outfit is
completed with a pristine white apron and the
doek' covering her head. The blue of the dress
refers not only to a maid's uniform but also to the
overalls worn by labourers and the Sunday
uniforms of Zionist Church members. Sophie's
eyes are closed as she escapes into a fantasy
dream world where everything is possible, even
becoming a superhero. If she opened her eyes,
she would be back at work, cleaning the house.
Her dress shows this fantasy as it is not practical
for domestic work with all its folds and pleats. It
therefore shows Sophie's protest against a life of
servitude.
Sibande, The Purple Shall Govern, A Terrible Beauty is Born (2013)
● Refers to an incident in 1989 when anti-apartheid protests were sprayed with purple dye
to be easily identified later.
● Tangled mass of vines and tentacles that surrounds this sculpture is about the feelings of
the people .
● Themes: confrontational, perplexing, bizarre, alien .
● Purple Sophie vs Blue Sophie: blue is conservative conventional, whereas purple
suggests impulsivity, instinct driven, but also regal.
● Sibande sees purple as a colour of privilege.
● Tentacles refer to rhizomes that have no beginning or end, only a middle - no roots,
gestures neither violent nor defensive, they are like intestines turned out - the mess
within - deconstructing Sophie, questioning what Sophie wanted/dreamed of.
