PAN-AFRICAN - My body, my canvas

MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST TAMMI MBAMBO USES MAKEUP TO ASK: WHAT WOULD I LOOK LIKE IF I COULD PAINT THE WORLD (AND MYSELF) DIFFERENTLY?

- JASON ALEXANDER BASSON

WHY IS MAKEUP SIGNIFICANT?

Well, the face is the window to the soul. Whether you choose to wear makeup or not, and, by association, how or to what extent you embellish yourself, says a lot about who you are as a person and how you identify with the world. Do you wear it to conceal or enhance the so-called ugly truth? Is makeup purely functional? Or do you view it as an imposition, an archaic tool of the patriarchy that (still) reinforces the (very) problematic idea that women need to be beautified or altered in some way to make them more acceptable in a male-dominated world? What if you could use makeup to challenge those notions and empower individuals to change the belief structures and social programming they’ve inherited? That’s where KwaZulu-Natal-born fine art graduate Tammi Mbambo’s work comes to life.