Mary Sibande (photo credit: Jodie Bieber)
Die internasionaal-gerekende Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar Mary Sibande is die ontvanger van die Helgaard Steyn-prys, vanjaar toegeken vir beeldhoukuns. Haar beeldhou-installasie In the midst of chaos, there is opportunity is volgens die beoordelaars die uitmuntendste werk wat die afgelope vier jaar in Suid-Afrika uitgestal is.
Die kunswerk is ’n asembenemende beeldhou-installasie met uitsonderlike visuele trefkrag. Dit is herkenbaar as Sibande, maar is ook aanduidend van nuwe ontwikkelings in haar kunsskepping.
Sibande het oor die loop van haar loopbaan ’n oorspronklike en persoonlike visuele taal en ikonografie ontwikkel met betrekking tot konseptualisering, materiale en aanbieding.
In the midst of chaos, there is opportunity, wat in 2017 voltooi is, is ’n voortsetting van die bekende Sophie-narratief wat herhaaldelik in Sibande se oeuvre voorkom. Sophie is haar alter ego en ʼn verwysing na drie generasies van die kunstenaar se familie wat as huiswerkers gewerk het.
Sibande gebruik ’n afgietsel van haar eie lyf om Sophie uit te beeld as ’n ruiter aangetrek in bloedrooi gevegsdrag. Sy word omring deur aggressiewe mitiese diere en vroulike figure op speelperdjies wat herinner aan lewensgroot speelgoedsoldaatjies. Hierdie elemente eggo werke soos The Reign (2010) en Right Now (2015).
Sibande se Sophie-werke suggereer teenvertellings wat onder meer die swart vroueliggaam en vroulike huishoudelike werk ondersoek. Dit is interessant dat Sophie haar met verloop van tyd al meer bevry het van die allegoriese beeld van ʼn huiswerker wat sy aanvanklik versinnebeeld het.
Dit verteenwoordig ook huidige verkennings van die kunstenaar se toenemend persoonlike narratief wat in haar kuns manifesteer. Hier word die droomwêreld van Sophie die huiswerker in verskillende kontekste getransformeer tot ’n nuwe droomwêreld: Dit is ’n allegorie van persoonlike bevryding, identiteitsvorming en moontlikheid. Sy herverbeel die geskiedenis terwyl sy die huidige transendeer en flankeer met wat dalk gaan volg.
Sibande is in 1982 in Barberton, Suid-Afrika, gebore. Sy woon en werk tans in Johannesburg. Nadat sy in 2004 ʼn diploma in Beeldende Kunste verwerf aan die Witwatersrand Tegniese Kollege, behaal sy ook ʼn honneursgraad aan die Universiteit van Johannesburg in 2007.
Mary Sibande awarded the 2021 Helgaard Steyn Prize for Sculpture
Internationally-acclaimed South African artist Mary Sibande has been awarded this year’s Helgaard Steyn Prize. Her sculpture In the Midst of Chaos, There Is Opportunity was judged to be the most outstanding to have been exhibited in South Africa in the past four years. The prize money amounts to R650 000.
The adjudicators noted: “The awarded artwork is an outstanding sculptural installation with immense visual impact. It is recognisable as Sibande while also hinting at new avenues in her artmaking. Sibande has, over the course of her career, developed an original and personal visual language and iconography in conceptualisation, process, use of material and presentation.”
“I have formed a symbiotic relationship with my work throughout my career,” says Sibande. “I work in telling stories that feed me emotionally, and the people who share their stories. I am today honoured and privileged to have been awarded this prestigious prize for my work. My gratitude goes to the Helgaard Steyn Trust for their contribution to the work of repairing historical narratives.”
In the Midst of Chaos, There is Opportunity, completed in 2017, is a continuation of the well-known Sophie narrative represented repeatedly in her oeuvre. Sophie is her alter ego and a reference to the three generations of the artist’s family who worked as domestic workers. In their commendation, the adjudicators noted: “The work is indeed a testimony to the power of the imagination. While the developing status of women in South Africa has always been riddled by violence, oppression and hardship, it is through the resilient qualities of hard work, strength, love, hope and imagination that women find the opportunity to ‘write’ their own narratives despite the odds or fate.”
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