Mary Sibande

Mary Sibande currently lives and works in Johannesburg. She obtained an Honours degree from the University of Johannesburg in 2007, following a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Witwatersrand Technical College, South Africa, in 2004. Sibande’s work engages counter-historical narratives and the language of dress to animate the stories of South African women and critique western imperialist depictions of their lives. Drawing heavily from fashion design, she uses colour symbolism and coded motifs to construct her characters' identities. Working primarily in large-scale installation and photography, Sibande introduces viewers to her alter ego, Sophie, whose evolving form pays tribute to the lives of her mother and grandmother under apartheid. Though Sophie's attire references domestic servitude, Sibande reimagines her in a richly symbolic, dreamlike realm of empowerment and transformation.