Mary Sibande, A Reversed Retrogress: Scene 1 (The Purple Shall Govern)

Mary Sibande is a Johannesburg-based artist. The work shows Sophie, a domestic worker (and Sibande's alter-ego), meeting her twin who wears a regal cloud of purple fabric. Domestic workers are amongst the most vulnerable people in South Africa. Sophie's twin's purple costume and the title "The Purple Shall Govern" are a reference to the phrase "the people shall govern", part of South Africa's 1955 Freedom Charter (which forms part of the legal framework of the Apartheid regime), and to the Purple Rain Protests of 1989, when police sprayed purple dye on protesters against Apartheid.