ART – Mary Sibande at Sometset House – ‘I Come Apart at the Seams’

Last weekend, I went down to London, in part to visit the 24/7 exhibition at Somerset House. It was really enjoyable (and will likely be blogged about later this week :D).

After we had worked our way through 24/7, I spotted the poster to the left – Mary Sibande – a South African sculpture, artist, photographer and author was showing ‘I Come Apart at the Seams’.

And even though we were STARVING, we just couldn’t miss the opportunity to take a peek.

Take a peek… I was entranced by every single piece and could happily have spent hours taking it all in from every possible angle!

I certainly took photos of EVERY SINGLE PIECE from MULTIPLE VIEWS…but will try to restrain myself so that you will all head down and take a peek yourselves!

I wasn’t hugely informed about Mary Sibande, so was delighted to read this interview in the FT to learn a bit more – “If South Africans didn’t get angry nothing would get done.” – which really emphasized how deeply political her work is (as well as providing really useful break downs as to why she uses the colour palates that she does and what those colours signify. Really great read.)

The staff in the exhibition rooms were clearly as excited about the works as I was; they kept encouraging people to take photos and – in one case – even pointed out the best spot in the room to capture a particularly evocative and huge piece.

From the FT

“They Don’t Make Them Like They Used To” (2008) is a photograph of the artist as her grandmother making a Superman jersey. “I regard these women as superheroes,” she explains. Their eyes are closed to shut out the viewer, “denying reality and coyly turning inwards”.

It’s difficult to put into words the impact that this work in particular had on the audience. There were audible gasps as people walked around the corner and took it in.

not my photos – taken from the Somerset House website because mine just didn’t do it justice!

I overheard one of the staff chatting with a visitor about the sci-fi and historical implications of the pieces and how this was going to inspire them to look up SF fiction from that neck of the world (I would have totally horned in on that conversation if I hadn’t had company of my own).