Sophie-Ntombikayise, Mary Sibande

Artwork Overview

Mary Sibande, Sophie-Ntombikayise
Mary Sibande, Sophie-Ntombikayise
Mary Sibande
Sophie-Ntombikayise
2009
Mary Sibande, artist
born 1982
Sophie-Ntombikayise, 2009
Where object was made: Johannesburg, South Africa
Material/technique: tulle; cotton; fiberglass; cast resin
Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 198.1 x 360.7 x 360.7 cm
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 78 x 142 x 142 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: R. Charles and Mary Margaret Clevenger Art Acquisition Fund
Accession number: 2011.0007
On display: Simons Gallery
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Exhibition Label: "Mary Sibande and Sophie Ntombikayise Take Central Court," Aug-2012, Megan Koza Young Sophie-Ntombikayise culminates Sibande’s series of sculptural installations featuring four generations of women in her family, all of whom worked as domestic servants. These women represent Sibande’s impetus to transcend and interrogate constructions of domestic servitude and expectations of simplicity and submission based on race and gender. As a self-portrait, Sophie-Ntombikayise interjects the artist into the guise of domestic worker. Sibande states, “Adopting a new position as artist, yet celebrating the women in my family, this figure represents my appreciation and acknowledgement of the hardships borne by my family and countless others in South Africa.” With arms outstretched in a dual gesture of resignation and jubilation, Sophie-Ntombikayise transports viewers to an alternate realm where history, fantasy, and identity become outwardly expressed through clothing and cultural stereotypes are dismissed. By altering the maid’s uniform which typically identifies the wearer in terms of ethnic or cultural heritage, Sibande hopes to reveal the individuality that years of stereotypes have concealed.