Art is supposed to make you feel something, is a sentiment that most people agree with. I’m always happy to get an opportunity to walk around a gallery or museum marvelling at the creations of minds more artistically inclined than myself.
I was recently moved by an exhibition titled Dream Invisible Connections, showcasing the works of two women artists, Dorothy Kay and Mary Sibande at the Strauss & Co gallery in Houghton.
The exhibition is curated by Strauss & Co art specialists Arisha Maharaj and Wilhelm van Rensburg, and offers audiences a rare opportunity to view a large range of works by Kay and Sibande, many on loan from private and institutional collections. At first I wondered what common threads could possibly connect these artists, one a white woman and the other a young black woman.
The obvious first thread of commonality can be picked up from Kay’s painting titled Cookie, Annie Mavata (1956). Based on a photo taken by Kay in 1948, the painting depicts the artist’s Xhosa cook in blue uniform.
This image lends itself to the art of Sibande who is known for creating her alter ego Sophie, a domestic worker who represents her grandmother, mother and herself to a certain extent. Sophie is often depicted in artworks with her eyes closed, dressed in a domestic worker’s uniform that is modelled after Victorian clothing, with a large bell skirt and an apron with a fancy giant bow.
It was Sibande’s work that left me emotional. Like a large portion of young people in the country, my mother and grandmother were domestic workers. I saw the dreams they dreamt for their children in the various depictions of Sophie. I also fancied that I saw a reflection of them. There is a spiritual element to Sibande’s work.
The work that stuck with me is a sculpture of Sophie wearing a white doek, Victorian dress and fancy white apron with a giant bow, holding a long staff with her hand held out, eyes closed as usual. The sculpture is titled Casting a Spell.
The colour of Sophie’s dress and the staff she’s carrying reminds me of a certain religious group famed for having almost magic-like devotional powers from the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal. It also speaks to the magic that almost all children associate with their mothers. Mothers are spell-casting alchemists in most children’s minds, are they not?
Dream Invisible Connections will be presented in Strauss & Co’s dedicated gallery at its Houghton offices in Johannesburg (July 11-August 12). Dream Invisible Connections is the fourth in a series of legacy exhibitions pairing prominent South African artists. Walkabouts of the exhibition will happen on the next two Wednesdays at 10am.
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