ABSTRACT
What would the ultimate consumerist fashion fantasy entail? Possession of a garment that could transform the wearer’s identity would certainly be a fundamental aspect. ,I VR 6RSKLH WKH TXDVL¿FWLRQDO FKDUDFWHU FUHDWHG E\ 6RXWK$IULFDQ DUWLVW0DU\ Sibande, embodies this dream. Her eyes are always shut, setting her imagination
free to dream up ensembles that could liberate her from domestic toil. Without the FRQVWUDLQWVRIUHDOLW\VKHVHWWOHVRQWKHDQWLWKHVLVRIZKRVKHLVDUR\DO¿JXUHIURP the colonial era who embodies the power and opulence absent from her everyday existence. Her garments become the site upon which she reinvents herself and maps out her evolution from domestic worker to mistress, from oppressed to oppressor. 7KLV LPDJLQHG WUDQVIRUPDWLRQ SOD\V RXW RQ WKH ¿JXUH RI D PDQQHTXLQ DQ LQHUW supplicant associated with shop-window displays designed to seduce observers with the different identities that appear to be within reach if they possessed the garments adorning their bodies. Due to this, mannequins are associated with the subconscious, becoming the conduits for the yearnings that plague the psyche. This may be why mannequins were a popular prop for the surrealists,1 though for them they served as a vehicle to communicate erotic desire (Kachur 2001: 41). For Sibande, the hybrid GRPHVWLFZRUNHUFXPUHJDO9LFWRULDQRXW¿WVWKDW6RSKLHZHDUVDUHDQH[SUHVVLRQRI her inner desires, as well as those of the artist. Named after Sibande’s grandmother, 6RSKLHLVERWKUHDODQG¿FWLRQDORQDQXPEHURIOHYHOV7KHVHULHVLQFOXGHVPDQQHTXLQV of Sophie that have been modelled on Sibande and photographs where she poses as this inert human replica. In this way the act of making her dreams a reality not RQO\SOD\VRXWLQKHUDWWLUHZKLFKGLVSOD\VFKDUDFWHULVWLFVHYRNLQJDVHUYDQW¶VRXW¿W and regal coronation garments, but is echoed in Sibande’s effort to appear like the mannequin that embodies this dream state. For Sibande makes her dreams come true through her expression.
