Purple is the new black: Mary Sibande
MARY Sibande's The Purple Shall Govern draws the attention of the curious mind to a place of astonishment.
The work details the figure we've come to know as "Sophie". Shehas swopped the blue Victorian-inspired domestic worker outfit for a lighter and more flowy gown.
One of the installations, A reversed retrogress, scene 1, 2013, can be viewed as a standoff between the old and the new Sophie.
The exhibition - which runs at the Standard Bank Gallery in Joburg until June 7 - includes prints and an installation of purple worm-like creatures. It's a breathtaking affair.
The award-winning Sibande is with her partner, Lawrence Lemaoana, when we meet to talk about the transformation of Sophie.
She's the one Sibande explores, the one who represents the black women and their roles as maids to their masters and mistresses. Sophie is the figure Sibande cannot split from, as her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother had been maids. Sibande now wants to look at the"rebirth" of the character she created in 2007.
"I started conceptualising [The Purple Shall Govern] in 2012 in DC [Washington]. I was going through this process of 'Where do I take Sophie?', because I felt like I've said so much on her, but have not exhausted her yet."
This process took Sibande over two months of solitude during her time in the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship programme in the US.
It's a period Lemaoana remembers well. "There was a search for purity. For me, Mary had to deal with her being female, being human, and being all these elements, kind of like a postmortem, but without the death."
Lemaoana, an artist and a junior lecturer in the visual arts department at Unisa, and has been indirectly involved with Sibande's work since they met during their first year at the University of Johannesburg. They started dating in their second year.
"We fell on top of each other," says Lemaoana. "We chose to study video art for our second year and were the only South Africans in our group."
Because of the assignments they had to do, they started working closely with each other . "I saw her handle a sculpture once and it was the most amazing calmness and nervousness at the same time, it was just sublime to watch her work and that's what really attracted me to her," he says.
They say being in the same field has brought them closer as a couple and as artists.
Sibande, who will be travelling overseas next month, says that apart from Lemaoana, her drive is doing what she loves and continuing to inspire people through her work.
"I have something to share in my work. I want to make art that is accessible, art that my grandmother can understand."
The two, who seem like they could go on for an entire day about their work, need to leave. More work beckons.