Long live the dead Queen

Here the artist’s statement about the 'fantasies' of the women becomes clearer. Their elaborate outfits allow them to usurp the role of their 'madams'. Again I’m a Lady is a good example. This subversion of the social order of the 'madam' dominating the 'maid' does not however address the general social power of the colonial – and contemporary - patriarchy. Ironically the very costume of the fantasy is the same costume that maintained the restriction, and its attendant loss of power, of the Victorian body of the women of this class.

One might debate the desirability of the position of middle class Victorian colonial women: an apparent freedom is in fact not so free. Must one make the assumption that it is better to be middle class? Perhaps Sibande is not making this assumption as her concerns are rather with the point of intersection of class and race, but one senses that the crucial relationship between class and gender remains somewhat underexplored.

There are witty antidotes to the seriousness of postcolonial discourse in the form of the superman logo stitched onto the front skirt of one of the outfits, They don’t make them like they used to (2008) as well as the placement of the sign for a bus stop next to another figure The wait seems to go on forever (2009). These allusions to popular culture remind the viewer of the contemporaniety of the work, locating it in the current discourse of postmodernity.

The costumed figures have a powerful presence, especially because the space of the gallery has allowed for most of the figures to have their own room for display, which Sibande utilises very successfully. I saw the exhibition at night, and was moved by a figure/mannequin displayed in the windowfront of the gallery with strong lighting. This curatorial decision cleverly alluded to the fashion boutique window display, reinforcing the element of the works fantasy.     

Accompanying the life size figures are colour photographs of the 3-dimensional works. These images provide a very different reading of the figures. Obviously one aspect of this is the very different impact they make to that of the much larger figures. The sense of opulence and restriction is lessened by the comparative size and 2-dimensionality of the photographs.
 
The exhibition as postcolonial 'text' references the colonial, anthropological museum display conventions. These often functioned to provide 'evidence' of the way of life of both the colonised and the coloniser. Life-size costumed figures displayed the mode of dress of the various actors in the colonial drama, the 'civilised' clothing of the Victorian coloniser contrasting with the 'uncivilised' apparel of the colonised, with the index of civilisation being the extent to which the body was covered. Sibande’s work inverts these signs through the excess of the material of the coloniser’s dress, turning reality into fantasy. This aspect of the fantasy of the maid is important in terms of contemporary South African postcolonial representation because it gives a voice to the inner life of the figure of the maid whose uniform previously rendered her invisible.

Mary Sibande’s exhibition is an interesting investigation of the possibilities of clothing as a marker of postcolonial identity that many South African artists are currently exploring.                 

Lisa Allan is a part-time lecturer at the University of Johannesburg and an artist.