Sarah Maple, 'Recovering Misogynist', 2010, digitial print
Sarah Maple
Feminist artist Sarah Maple is a force to be reckoned with in contemporary art. Her work deals with ethinicity, gender and self-image in a way that hits hard yet has space for humour. She has just returned from Amsterdam where she participated in the Womens Inc. conference, and her diary/diatribe blog is both challenging and inspiring. Described by the Independent on Sunday as “the heir to Tracey Emin’s throne”, artist Anthony Gormley also has high praise for her, noting “It’s very emotive stuff. She is using the female notion of appropriateness to explain political and personal realism.” I caught up with her to talk about overcoming misogyny and creative blocks, and her role in curating a fab feminist postcard exhibition.
I think I first found out about your work through your advice for artists in 2010. I was struck by your honesty in detailing humiliating and/or dodgy situations (I’ve been there), and glad that you kept on making art regardless. How important is it for artists to speak out against exploitative experiences? Do you feel that perhaps artist networks need to be stronger in this regard, to protect artist’s rights?
It’s so important. I suppose like with most things, you think it will never happen to you. It makes me so angry because I know how it feels to be so desperate to show your work that you will let things go, do things for free, allow people to take advantage. And these people do take advantage because they know how desperate you are. I decided to write the piece because I was so down about my experience. I saw the person who had done it in a newspaper, a big page spread all about this person with a picture of my work, saying how they help graduates to make it in the art world to make a living. I was so, so upset about it. I have learnt now, I’m much more clued up, but I hate the idea it’s happening to others right now. It’s not easy to speak out and name names because if you do you come across as catty and then it affects your career. Then people don’t hear about it. I don’t think people want to talk publicly about it, no one wants to admit it’s happened to them. But literally every artist friend I have, be that musician, actor, whatever, it’s happened to every single one of them.
Although saying this, I don’t want to put people off, there are some absolutely incredible people out there that really do care about art. I am working with some great galleries now and really feel positive for the future. In a way, it was good to have the bad experience.
You describe yourself as an “artist, feminist and activist.” That’s a pretty huge statement. What does feminism mean to you? Does it have to be tied to activism, or creative output, or can we approach feminism in everyday life?
Haha (blush!) When I say ‘activist’ I mean not only in my work or creatively but totally in everyday life. I think even if you pick someone up on something sexist they may have said, that is definitely activism. I think the knock on effects of small acts can be huge. Feminism means so much to me, it affects the everyday choices I make.
You curated a “feminist postcard” show featuring Jo Brand, Jessica Stevenson, Susie Orbach and Julian Opie. What was the process of organising that like?
So so hard! Feminism is a dirty word. As soon as I said the word ‘Feminism’ people weren’t interested. It was so hard getting the list of names together. I wanted to include all sorts of people to try and show that feminism isn’t this narrow demographic that the mass thinks it is. I thought getting a brand to sponsor an event which had these amazing names involved would be enough to persuade them but still I could not manage to get a single sponsor. One company actually said ‘This isn’t what our brand represents’. Your brand doesn’t want to be associated with equality? Maddness! I think people just don’t understand what feminism is. Most people still think it’s man hating, bra burning lesbians. And to be perfectly honest, I did too!
You also make the point that you’re “living in Sussex.” Are you deliberately distancing yourself from a London-centric scene?
It wasn’t conscious but I suppose I am! Everyone is always telling me to move to London but I’m happy where I am for now. Creatives always move away from Crawley and it’s such a shame.
Sarah Maple, 'Signs', 2007, digital print
In a recent blog post, you mentioned going through phases of being blocked by criticism, making art that you think you “should” make, and then learning not to care about all that. What happened to push you to make work that matters to you?
I think it was the last 2 semesters of art school. I’d made utter crap up until that point. I just wanted to make work that would impress my classmates, for some reason I always had felt that I had to prove that I was good, that I was an ‘intellectual’. Everyone was always really good at art speak and I was always shit. But I remember in the January, a tutor told me that she thought my work could benefit from experimenting with photography. I had never been interested in it, or I thought I hadn’t, so I begrudgingly agreed because I thought I may get some extra points for it. But after the first pic I took I realised what I could do, the possiblilites and how I could execute my ideas quickly and in a much more effective way. Whilst at the same time I felt utterly defeated by art school, like I wanted to give up. But then all of a sudden I didn’t care anymore. Something changed, I suppose, a rebellion. Then I just thought ‘fuck it’ and made the work I wanted and liked. I embraced my humorous side! I felt I had nothing to lose. I am going through that right now and it’s the most creative I’ve been in ages.
Do you have any role models or mentors that have helped you to have artistic integrity?
I think punk is one of my biggest influences. Bands like the Clash and the Sex Pistols. Because these were people who really did what they liked. They actually reflected on the world around them. I don’t think much art does that right now. If I need any inspiration I’ll just put some punk rock on.
The KochxBos Gallery, Amsterdam, is hosting your next exhibition. What can we expect from that show?
The exhibition is actually my ‘Cock’ series and a couple of other pieces. I’ve had them online for a while but never actually had them printed and exhibited. This weekend I just showed them at ‘Women Inc’ in Amsterdam, which is a massive feminist conference, where I did a talk about my work. Then the show moves to the gallery which opens 12th March. My next big solo show will all new work won’t be until January 2012, so I am just working towards that now.
As an artist who blogs regularly, what are the benefits of being online? Have you looked at an’s Artists Talking site?
No I haven’t seen that, that looks fantastic, I will definitely join up to that. It is absolutely great showing work online, it reaches the people who you really want to see it. It’s so important. I used to put every single thing online, now I am a bit more cautious, because once it’s out there you can never take it back! I do have a couple of regrets!
I really like your “recovering misogynist” image. What interests you about the play with language here?
I looove this piece too, I’ve played that image down a bit because I want it to be the title of the next show. I really feel like it’s where I am in my life right now! I think the wordplay really works with the imagery, I’m ‘recovering’, so I’m not quite there yet, hence the bunny ears. I’ve been through such a ‘journey’ with my feminism and my ideas are changing all the time. I think I just accepted things to be the case, the treatment of women….I didn’t realise it was misogyny. I want to explore these idea in my next show.
beckyhunter.co.uk archive 2009-11 
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