Artist of the day: Artist of the day, May 6, 2020: Nandipha Mntambo, a South African sculptor, multi media, and photographer

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Artist of the day, May 6, 2020: Nandipha Mntambo, a South African sculptor, multi media, and photographer

Nandipha Mntambo (1982) is a South African artist who has become famous for her sculptures, videos, and photographs that focus on the human female body and identity by using natural, organic materials. She was born in Swaziland, Southern Africa. She graduated with a master's degree in Fine Art (with distinction) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town

In her work, Mntambo focuses on the human body and the organic nature of identity, using mainly natural materials and experimenting with sculptures, videos, and photography. One of her favorite materials to use in her pieces is the skin of the cow, often also used as a covering for human bodies – boneless sculptures – and thus oscillating between evoking the garments that can be shod at will and the bodies that once contained living, breathing, masticating beings with four stomachs. Mntambo embraces this ambiguity and likes to play with the tension between the sightly and the unsightly by manipulating how her viewers negotiate the two aspects of the hide. She uses her own body as the mold for these sculptures and does not intend to make an explicit statement regarding femininity. Rather, Mntambo uses these hides to explore the division between animals and humans, as well as the divide between attraction and repulsion.

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