Sarah Maple - The Opposite to a Feminist, Giant Art Gallery, Bournemouth.
What a lovely day out in Bournemouth. Giant Art Gallery is at the top of Bobby's Bournemouth - a new department store in the Square which looks like its gonna be real fancy when it's finished.
The Giant Gallery was, well yeah, fairly Giant. As an appetiser before the Sarah Maple show we entered into Its a Rave Dave. Pieces showing ephemera and art referencing illegal raves of the 80s and 90s. It was brilliant because headphones were provided playing ravin tunes. Turns out John Major wrote a new law banning the raves, the old git. If anyone knows of any illegal raves in warehouses etc, hmu.
Anyway, time for the juicy main course, Sarah Maple - The Opposite to a Feminist. I'd struck fucking lucky when I discovered Sarah Maple's work - must have been through some magic hashtag. And then! By a huge stroke of luck, she's doing a show in Bournemouth, till the end of this week. (I realise it's a bit stupid posting this so late, but I've been busy seeking new employment, as I need cash before I become a famous artist hahaha. Sorry.)
The artist uses herself in a lot of her works - self portraits, both photographs and paintings and a short film. I loved it, I really really loved it. Everything she put in the show really spoke to me, not only as a female, but a Female Artist. Which is bad baby, don't be calling us that. Not Actress, just Actor. Not Manageress, just Manager. Not Girlboss, just Boss. Not Female Artist, just Artist. Cheers. Straightaway on the first wall Sarah looked at me, appearing pregnant, from Self Portrait with a Pocket Square, but she's in a suit, looking a bit lary, which is yeah, unusual for pregnancy portraits. She turned that wholesome, glowy thing upside down.
I had a good nose at the big paintings. Obviously the content of each was brilliant, as you can tell from the titles Menstruate with Pride and Plug it in Baby, & the paintings were just good, you know? Distracted though by her video Freedom of Speech playing behind me, I really wanted to hear what she was saying, so I watched, and listened, as she said all this prominent stuff about the themes in her work but keeps getting slapped by a mystery hand. After each slap she holds it together, until she succumbs to tears. The mystery hand is you.
The Disney Princess Series is absolute genius. Maple is saying that Princesses, as female icons, are fine, but not the only option. Instead, Maple's Disney Princesses are in male dominated jobs. Belle The Football Manager, Ariel Conducts a Business Meeting, Snow White the Scientist, Sleeping Beauty Performs an Operation and Judge Jasmine.
Everything was funny but not bloody funny. The Anti-Rape Cloak needs a mention but hopefully not an explanation. Portraits with Fans, where Maple has photoshopped herself in with Seminal White Male Artists, just looking bloody pissed off and bored - making their fandom ridiculous.
Just before we ended our visit to drool over the sexy gallery shop, we sat down to watch The Sarah Maple Show - I'm going to be honest, I don't normally connect with video art, as it's often either monotonous/nonsensical/difficult to watch or lengthy, and I'm terribly impatient and scatterbrained. But this mockumentary style sixty min show just made me love Maple even more. She's invented the "art-com", a video art sitcom, which you can watch free from Sky Arts - Freeview channel 11 - on your own damn telly.
Semi-autobiographical, the art-com includes meetings with a mentor, an art historian and presenter, critics, her mother and David Tennant, playing himself as egotistical collector (he plays being an utter prick so so well). Kate Bryan cameos as a bad feminist "I am a Feminist, I mean it says that in my Insta bio "Feminist", but i really think you should make yourself more presentable as no one wants to associate with a cow [...] go blonde." The scenes with her mother were great, featuring the bumper sticker "Don't panic my other daughter is a surgeon" and her desperately asking Maple "Can't you make more art that looks nice?" (Pretty sure this is what my mum thinks when I make a collage that has bondage in it).
There is so much epic content in The Nazi Sexy Shark Show, Maple's true life but not true life film shows her experience of the art world. I now want to work in a sex shop where my co-worker berates me for not dressing up for sex history day in a Richard I costume.
The show runs till Feb 13th, but you can watch her art coms on Sky Arts, youtube and her website https://www.sarahmaple.com/
Stay fresh
Cat
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