“Maple is known for work that takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to issues such as feminism, racism, the nature of art and identity politics.
'Labour of Love' is one of her most brilliant projects to date.”
- Kate Bryan, Global Curator for Soho House and The Ned
The exhibition will open on Saturday 24 June. After a successful debut at Art Rotterdam 2022, we are now showing the installation in our gallery Koch x Bos.
The collaboration between Maple and the gallery dates back to 2011 and this is one of her most impressive works to date.
In 'Labour of Love' Maple recorded the number of times her newborn baby was fed over three months - this totaled 650 times. She then screen printed 650 pictures of herself and her baby and hand finished each one to represent a feed. In each image the baby remains intact but Maple is obscured in a number of ways; from collage to paint to discarded breast pads.
Each image moves between gentle, funny, angry and frustrated. In a performance during Art Rotterdam, Maple wrote the feed number on each card. The final installation consists of 650 unique hand finished works and a large carpet.
Koch x Bos Gallery previously presented the installation at Art Rotterdam 2022 and received a lot of positive responses. Some viewers - from their thirties to seventies - were moved to tears. With 'Labour of Love', Sarah Maple makes an urgent statement about motherhood, unpaid work and the work feminism still has to do.
Sarah Maple receives a positive reception in our community and has achieved several awards. Her work is included in various collections such as Birmingham Museum, Soho House, York College Gallery, Fralin Museum of Art, Queen's University at Belfast and The Hyman Collection. Maple has recently received a new commission from the 'Decolonising Institute', where new work will be acquired by 20 museum collections in the UK in 2024.
Now is a good time to (again) get acquainted with her work.
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Opening Saturday 24 June from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm at Koch x Bos Gallery - Sarah Maple will be present
Around 18:00 Nienke van der Wal - cultural entrepreneur and founder of Young Collectors Circle, will interview Sarah Maple and receive the first copy of her new book 'Labour of Love'. The book is designed and published by Koch x Bos Publishers.