Menstruate with Pride

source: sarahmaple

Sarah Maple was born in 1985. She completed a BA in Fine Art from Kingston University in 2007, and now lives in her native Sussex. In the same year she also won the ‘4 New Sensations’ competition for emerging artists, run by Charles Saatchi. Since then Sarah’s artwork, films and performances have been exhibited in New York, Canada, Israel and throughout Europe.

‘Not for the coy or faint of heart, these unflinching, occasionally even controversial, investigations into what it is to be a woman and a Muslim in 21st century Britain are made joyful by her own very personal brand of boisterous, tongue-in-cheek humour. This is not sensationalism for sensationalism’s sake, but rather a heart felt urge by a twenty-seven-year old artist of great sincerity and talent, for the viewer to look again, and this time with a more questioning eye, at traditionally accepted notions of identity, gender, culture and religion.’ – Beverley Knowles 2011
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source: sarahmaple

Sarah Maple, It’s A Girl! – 2012
Seeing Sarah Maple’s work got me raving again like we did in the 70’s when we naively thought we could change the world.

Maple has been named ‘the heir to Tracy Emin’s throne’ by the Independent on Sunday. I have to confess I found that a sobering thought because as far as I know Tracey rejected Feminism while being happy to benefit from those who took risks and did the hard pioneering work, artists such as, Kate Walker, who sewed her life in to her work in pieces such as The Other Side of the Blanket. Tracey went for the money without reference to those who paved the way for her success.

So it’s a pleasure to see Sarah’s work, closer to artists like Valie Export, Lynda Benglis, Loraine O’Grady, Suzy Lake, Kirsten Justensen, Alexis Hunter, Monica Ross, Loraine Leeson and later Sonia Boyce and Sutapa Biswas, to name a few, mostly from my generation when feminism was hot, in a recession, incidentally, as now.

These women’s work has come back into view in recent years, in part on the back of various feminist art shows, notably WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution that featured the work of 119 women artists and toured MoCA Los Angeles, MoMA PS1 New York, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington and Vancouver Art Gallery, throughout 2007-09; Gender Battle at Santiago de Compostella in 2007; and perhaps most interestingly of all because of it’s cross-generational theme Rebelle: Art and Feminism, 1969 to 2009, that took place at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, Holland in 2009. Like the 2009 Istanbul Biennial these shows included artists unafraid to take risks, some of whom are now coming from places beyond the usual New York / London / Paris / Frankfurt axis.

So, young artists like Shadi Ghadirian (an Iranian artist) whose images of burka clad figures with kitchen utensils over the facial area and Zanelle Muholi’s (a South African artist) with images of transgender, gay and lesbian individuals, present alternatives beyond the official mode and in so doing begin a new phase in the breaking down of gender and racial stereotypes.

Similarly, Maple who was born and lives in Sussex but uses images from her own ethnic Muslim background, uses those same images of the burka clothed figure (see Blue, Badges, Burka) but also transgresses that image by using body images (see Passport) and in one of her new paintings menstruation (see Menstruate with Pride).

Maple uses a variety of media from Performance to Posters to Painting, embracing, I think, the notion of finding the right media for the right context, the right subject, at the right time; in itself a brave move – its easier to market an artist using a recognisable single media.

* Andy Warhol showed us how to shop
* Feminism showed how to take collective action
* Steve jobs showed us how to use technology
* David Cameron shows us the 50’s again
* Sarah Maple shows us what British women look like now.
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source: democraticunderground

In an unfailingly mischievous manner, Sarah Maple uses narrative artwork to challenge traditional notions of religion, identity and the societal role of women. Her artwork never fails to shock; her latest piece Menstruate With Pride (right) is no exception. Surrounded by a horrified and disgusted crowd, Maple stands centre stage, a proud woman menstruating in public. It’s an interesting and bold statement; clearly Maple is an incendiary feminist. But the painting also airs a deep societal secret that menstruation is – and must remain – taboo.

What better way to understand the meaning behind Maple’s artwork than to ask the artist herself? “Initially I didn’t want to make work about menstruation because I thought it was a bit of a cliché. But as I was looking more into the idea of women and shame, I felt like I couldn’t avoid it!” Maple laughs. “I think there’s a phenomenal burden of shame on women from word go. When I started my period I was absolutely horrified, I felt it was humiliating. I didn’t tell my mother for 3 years, I felt I was letting her down. I think this may have been a cultural thing,” she says.

Interestingly, Maple considers her culture to be partly responsible for her shameful feelings — she’s the daughter of an Iranian mother and a Kentish father. Some cultures and religions, including Orthodox Judaism, Christianity and Islam, isolate menstruating women by excluding them from prayer, physical intimacy and even household chores. Maple’s artwork transgresses these taboos by exposing and mocking them, almost satirically. “I like laughing at things for being taboo; this is what I wanted to do in the painting. I wanted to create a drama about it, like in the classic religious paintings, hence the triptych format of a religious altar. Everyone is looking so outraged and shocked and you end up laughing at them, laughing at their outrage,” says Maple.

Rules are attached to menstruating women according to Simone de Beauvoir, feminist and author of The Second Sex, because they are viewed as impure, repulsive and dangerous, particularly to men. She explains that men repress women’s sexuality because they fear and are in awe of women’s monthly bleeding, a biological power gifted only to women to enable them to produce the next generation.
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source: ekspressdelfiee

“Menstrueeri uhkusega”

Maple on Lõuna-Inglismaal elav noor feministlik kunstnik, kes kujutab muuseas ennast valges kleidis, vereplekk kubemepiirkonnas (“Menstruate with Pride” – “Menstrueeri uhkusega”), ja al-amira hijab’i riietatuna provokatiivselt banaani söömas (“Bananarama”) ning fotodega, kus poseerib poolalasti, šampusepudel või vihmavari erekteerunud peenist simuleerimas.