A Shock to the System.

So I was going back home from university one evening, and luckily on the way to the tube station I got hold of a copy of the London Paper. For those of you who may not be familiar with it, it’s a free evening newspaper distributed all over London. And yes, it’s another own owned by the one and only Mr Murdoch.

Well anyway, I got onto a pack out carriage but still managed to squeeze myself past the crazy sweaty people and found myself a seat. Rush hour madness is something I absolutely HATE {and for those of you who have seen my massive suitcase bag, it’s a NIGHTMARE}. I finally got comfortable in my seat and open up the paper. I start flicking through the day’s main stories, when I come across the arts interview article.

I’m not usually the type of person who always reads the reviews of arts and books, but this time the article really caught my eye. With a massive image of a girl wearing a t-shirt saying ‘I love jihad’ on it, it made me wonder what exactly the article was about. I started reading the Intro and it was something like this..

“Religion, masturbation, Kate Moss’s breast – a young Muslim woman’s art is causing quite a stir..”

At this point I see that the train has reached Bank Station and a lot of people are getting off. Many seats around me get empty and through the crowd I see my friend standing in the corner. I called out her name and made her sit next to me. She is also a Journalism student but in her third year. I pointed the article out to her and with curiosity we started reading in silence. After a few moments we both were in shock looking at each other thinking ‘WHAT THE HELL?!’.

The article was a general overview of Sarah Maple’s art work. One piece of her work was a woman in Hijaab covering her whole head, but exposing one breast to the front. A picture of that painting was included in the article at the bottom. Another painting was of her masturbating a paint brush but with a Dolce and Gabbana dress on, which she actually made a 3min film on as part of her work. The article continues..

It all makes her sound like a button-pushing big-mouth who would sell her mother for a show at White Cube. But in person, the 23 year-old from Sussex is friendly, earnest and a practising Muslim. Until she starts talking about Kate Moss’s boobs and why art is like sex, I feel I’ve got the wrong person.

“I’ve been brought up with two different cultures”, she explains after a three min video piece Who Would Wood Wank, in which she masturbates a paint brush and bizarrely was too embarrassed to sit with us while it’s screened.

She says “My dad was born in Britain and my mum’s Muslim. A lot of my work is about growing up wanting to be a good Muslim, but struggling to embrace my Western side as well.”

The video, collaboration with Dazed and Confused co-founder Jefferson Hack, is one of Maple’s art works that plays with sex and religion. This is why the British Muslim Association spoke out against her and why the cops showed up to check out her exhibition before it opened.

'Haram', the portrait with the pig, is another controversial one. Named after the Arabic word for ‘unclean’, she made it whilst studying art at Kingston University.

In another portrait, Maple wears a headscarf, but has one breast exposed – which she’s keen to point out isn’t her own. “It’s Kate Moss’s boob. I was too scared to paint mine. I didn’t want to upset my mum.”

ARE YOU BEING SERIOUS?! DIDN'T WANT TO UPSET MY MUM?! Ohmylife. After everything she has painted, she thinks about her mum. Nice one.

Sarah herself says, "People often think I am trying to be offensive with my Islamic based art. This is a huge misconception as I am Muslim myself and would not want to offend my own faith. The work is about the distorted view many Muslims have of their faith and culture and what makes a 'good' Muslim - especially in a western society."

So after all her artwork is displayed at her exhibition, it is clear that she is obviously going to get mixed feedback and maybe even some abuse. What she is painting is something she feels very strongly about but may not send out the right message to people trying to understand her work. She has caused a mega-bigtime stir with her work and is already being touted as the new Tracey Emin. She is a bold and charismatic woman who is straight forward about sex, but how many people has her work affected or even offended..?