Mary Sibande’s ‘Let Me Tell You about Red‘ is a must see at the Durban Art Gallery
The Johannesburg artist’s memorable large-scale installations reference gender and race, through the use of a life-sized avatar. Made in the artist’s likeness, Sophie is flamboyant, resolute and unforgettable.
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LET Me Tell You about Red is Johannesburg artist, Mary Sibande’s first solo exhibition at The Durban Art Gallery.
The exhibition takes place across three gallery spaces. Each gallery represents a different phase in Sophie’s existence. Sophie is Sibande’s life-size avatar, made in her likeness from fibreglass.
Sophie is dressed in generously proportioned clothing with elements of Victorian dress and the South African domestic workers’ uniform.
Sibande’s Sophie was first introduced to the world in 2009 at the ‘Long Live the Dead Queen’ exhibition at Gallery MOMA in Johannesburg.
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Sophie, originally wearing blue, is dressed in different colours across the three gallery spaces. The varying colours keep pace with her evolution. In the second purple phase, she is regal and powerful and in the red phase, Sophie evolves into a warrior.
Sibande is a South African sculptor, painter and installation artist whose work speaks to gender, labour and race. Her work explores identity in post-colonial South Africa. The artist’s mother was a domestic worker, and she pays homage to her through her work.
Curator: Gcotyelwa Mashiqa
Dates: Opened on June 3
Location: The Durban Art Gallery, second floor, City Hall, Anton Lembede Street
Times:
09:00 to 15:30 weekdays
09:00 to 12:00 Saturdays
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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.
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