Notes

When Sibande created the ultimate domestic worker, she named her ‘Sophie’, an English/Spanish/French derivative of the Greek word for ‘wisdom’. Sibande, herself, found that stories that she unearthed from her mother and grandmother about the conditions of their lives, and how they had managed to succeed despite the limitations imposed on their lives (Sibande is the first person in her family to study beyond high school and to go to university). Sophie represents the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of Black women beyond their actual lives. Dressed in the colonial fetish of the clean white apron and African Zionist/Victorian inspired frock of royal blue, which grows ever larger and represents the layers of stories that she encompasses, but which also physically limits and weighs her down, Sophie dares to dream beyond the role she has been ordained by her skin colour, gender, class and by the Bantu Education Act.

– Sharline Kahn