The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2019 - Issue 26

bite art exhibition ture was dressed in elaborate handmade couture designs. It was through the artist using vivid textiles that the phases of Sophie’s transformative journey were so distinctive and fascinating. Using three colour stages of blue, purple, and green, each room demonstrated the three defining periods of South African history in which she seeks to redress: the rise and rule of the Apartheid system, its subsequent rally, and the legacy of apartheid. When you enter the exhibition, the first sculpture you will come across is Sophie dressed in a blue maid’s uniform with a white apron and bonnet. Taken from Long Live the Dead Queen , these clothing represented what Sibande’s mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother had to wear in their roles as domestic workers. With her eyes shut, Sophie’s imagination allows her to break free of the constraints of her domestic uniform and take the lead role in narratives that would have been denied to Sibande’s ancestors. The Purple Shall Govern draws inspiration from Cape Town’s 1989 Pur- ple Rain Protest which saw thousands of anti-apartheid protestors arrest- ed after they were marked by police with purple dye. The second centre- piece sculpture entitled ‘A Reversed Retrogress, Scene 1’ (2013) shows the old Sophie placed in front of her future self. With both of their arms raised in a charged dance, Sibande explores the relationship between confrontation and liberation when faced with change. The third and main series, I Came Apart at the Seams , consists of sculp- tural and photographic works following Sophie’s third stage of transfor- mation. Through this latest body of work, Sibande explores the collective feeling of anger felt towards ongoing inequality in South Af- rica today. Featuring the artist’s latest recurring motive of the red dog, it refers to a common Zulu expression: “ukwatile up- henduke inja ebomvu” meaning “he is angry; he turned into a red dog.” Several other works caught my eye such as Anton Kannemey- er’s On the Nelson Mandela Bridge (Black Scream) which reminded me of The Scream composition by German ex- pressionist artist Edvard Munch. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Anton is the founding editor of Bitterkomix, a so- cio-political and satirical comic magazine. His gallery works, showing at Huberty Breyne Gallery in Brussels, are often brightly coloured large-scale paintings or drawings which in- cludes King Klepto and R is for Respect. The artist obtained an MA in Fine Arts at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa in 1997 and lectured at three dif- ferent universities until he resigned as a senior lecturer in 2006 from the university he studied at. Anton’s work has been exhibited extensively in South Africa, Europe, and the USA, as well as featured in numerous publications and catalogues around the world. It has also been held in many permanent art collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Artist: Mary Sibande Artist: Mary Sibande