THE ALLURE OF THE VENEER213surface of the cowhide by an irreducible carnal quality that places these
objects in an uncomfortable representational dimension, suspended by
allure in a precarious balancing of metaphorical poetics and undeniably
carnal suffering.
The animalization of women that Mirror Image gestures toward is fur-
ther underlined by the notion of domestication—a domestication that
simultaneously references the sexualization and feminization of certain
animals, the metaphorical fluidity that ensues, and the cultural con-
structs that emerges from it. Could this be the “mirror image” that Mnt-
ambo alludes to in her title? How much of Carol J. Adams’ “sexual politics
of meat” reverberates through these hollow skins? It is hard not to de-
tect the intricate representational modalities constructed by patriarchal
values and meat eating—a naturalized system of oppression that has
substantially shaped much of the world we still live in today. Both skins
in Mirror Image (fig. 6.5) propose a fragmentation and dismemberment,
FIGURE 6.5 Nandipha Mntambo, Umfanekiso wesibuko (Mirror Image), 2013. Cow
hide, resin. Left: 25 63/63 × 66 59/64 × 63 25/32 in. (66 × 170 × 162 cm). Right: 23 15/64
× 70 55/64 × 61 1/32 in. (59 × 180 × 155 cm). Installation view, Andréhn-Schiptjenko,
Stockholm, 2013. Photo by Jean-Baptiste Beranger. Collection 21c Museum, Louis-
ville, Kentucky. Courtesy Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm.