Nandipha Mntambo

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 favourite 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 mould 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.

Nandipha Mntambo (born 1982) is a South African artist who has become famous for her sculptures, videos and photographs that focus on human female body and identity by using natural, organic materials.

Nandipha Mntambo was born in Swaziland, Southern Africa, in 1982. She graduated with a master's degree in Fine Art (with distinction) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in June 2007. She lives and works in South Africa.