History in the Making: Reflections on 2019

This work is part of a curated section of 10 artworks that look back on significant events in 2019. You can see more details here. 

Sarah Maple, the award-winning visual artist who gained international recognition in 2007 after winning the Chanel 4 New Sensations award for emerging artists with the Saatchi Gallery, is normally extremely vocal in her views.

However, her controversial and often mischievous artwork (see hijab self-portrait series that includes smoking and cuddling a pig), has been put to the side in this silent protest as the artist expresses her frustration at the current political climate.

"My work is largely motivated by my upbringing, activism and gender politics. I look at current affairs and create work that provokes the viewer through satirical and tongue in cheek commentary. My practice crosses a wide variety of media such as performance, painting, photography, sculpture and installation. The medium I choose is determined by the strongest way to get my message across, hence is constantly evolving."

Sarah Maple is an award winning visual artist known for her bold, brave, mischievous and occasionally controversial artworks that challenges notions of identity, religion and the status quo. Much of Maple's inspiration originates from being brought up as a Muslim, with parents of mixed religious and cultural backgrounds.

Accolades
Fine Art (BA Hons) Kingston University, 2007. 

Awards: Winner of The Saatchi Gallery's New Sensation Award for Emerging Artists. Winner of the Sky Academy Arts Scholarship from Sky Arts. 

Selected Group Exhibitions: Tate Britain, The Baltic, and New Art Exchange. 

Sarah's work has been the subject of documentaries including for ARTE and VPRO. In 2015 she released her first book You Could Have Done This, a hardback art book of selected works. In 2017 she was invited to Tedx in Birmingham and gave a talk on the importance of free speech in The Freedom To Be Challenged.

In 2018 she was invited to make a limited edition cover for Harper’s Bazaar art issue alongside Yayoi Kusama, Barbara Kruger and Linder Sterling. Her work is in collections such as Soho House, The Hyman Collection and the Ned. Sarah lives and works in Sussex.