Faena is the title of an exhibition featuring the work of Nandipha Mntambo, the 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner. Working with cowhide, Mntambo is passionate about exploring and investigating the social and cultural status quo.
The exhibition is on show at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Port Elizabeth until 4 September 2011.
Mntambo’s creative process involves a process of cleaning and stretching the cowhide before manipulating it into human-like figures, as such asking questions about social norms associated with animal skins. Faena features figures floating delicately from the ceiling in fragmented animal hides, occupying the space between male and female, animal and human, and alive and dead.
