#BEYOUROWN MEETS SARAH MAPLE

Sarah Maple completed a BA in Fine Art from Kingston University in 2007 and in the same year won the ‘4 New Sensations’ award for emerging artists, run by The Saatchi Gallery. Sarah’s artwork, film and performances have been exhibited internationally at galleries and institutions including Tate Britain (London), A.I.R Gallery (NY), AGO (Canada), The New Art Exchange (Nottingham), Golden Thread Gallery (Belfast) and Kunisthoone (Estonia).

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 with contributions from Beverley Knowles (curator and writer), Margaret Harrison (artist), Oreet Ashery (artist) and Anne Swartz (professor Art History).

Later in 2015, Sarah was awarded a Sky Academy Arts scholarship from Sky Arts which included £30,000, mentoring and a Sky Arts documentary. With the scholarship she will be creating a new body of work about ‘Freedom of Speech’ for a solo exhibition in 2017. Maple lives and works in Sussex. This week #BEYOUROWN talk to the artist with a cat and a haircut!

In 2015 you released your first book ‘You Could Have Done This, was this sort of an accidental path or part of the original plan?

I never planned it but I always wanted to make one. I work with this amazing gallery in Amsterdam KochxBos who decided to create the book. They were thinking of more imaginative ways to tell the story of an artist other than a show or art fair. The  book is great because it gives a more in depth look at my work and how it has progressed and tells the story of me as an artist.

Congratulation on your 2015 achievement of being awarded a Sky Academy Arts scholarship from Sky Arts which included £30,000, mentoring and a Sky Arts documentary,  can you tell us what were the early days like and was it difficult to get of the ground?

I was fortunate as I won a prize for graduate artists from the Saatchi Gallery a few months after I left art school. This was great because it enabled me to get other opportunities. I also was very pro-active, I used to just call magazines up and tell them about my work! I was pretty fearless then. This actually led to some amazing opportunities.

You completed a BA in Fine Art from Kingston University in 2007 and in the same year won the ‘4 New Sensations’ award for emerging artists, run by The Saatchi Gallery, what are your 3 tips for an aspiring Visual Artist?

1.    Be patient

2.    Make good decisions

3.    Most importantly – don’t make the work  you think people want you to make