Mary Sibande re-imagines the story of South Africa’s domestic workers

Written by Ginanne Brownell Mitic, CNNSouth African artist Mary Sibande’s avatar Sophie — a human-scale sculpture modeled on herself — was born during her final year at the University of Johannesburg fine arts degree. Sibande, whose older female relatives had been domestic workers, was assigned by one of her professors to tell a story through her artwork. “I remember talking to my supervisor and saying, ‘I want to play detective and investigate why these women in my family were all domestic workers.’ I wanted to pay homage to them,” said Sibande.Since graduating — with honors — in 2007, the artist, who is now 37 years old, has developed many larger-than-life sculptural variations of Sophie, all based on Sibande’s body and cast in fiberglass and silicon. Growing up in a small rural town in eastern South Africa, Sibande, whose work has been collected by institutions including the Smithsonian in Washington, and Zeitz MOCAA, in Cape Town, initially wanted to become a fashion designer. This first aspiration is apparent in her work, which shows Sophie often draped in flowing fabrics. “I wanted to bring her to the foreground, hence these big dresses that fill the whole space,” she said.