2 posts tagged “tracey emin”
Maple has been described by at least one critic as an heir to Emin. I don't buy that personally, as Maple's work seems more playful and humorous, lacking the darker, gut-wrenching sadness that Emin's work often has... but sometimes we all need to shorthand things to aid communication, and make Google searches more rewarding! I can't pretend to know much about Maple, beyond what I've picked up from a few brief blog interviews, but any woman who counts Emin and Stephen Fry as influences is good people in my book. Some of her most interesting work deals with the conflict and confusion she feels as a young British Muslim, expressed in various striking, and often very amusing photographic images. She quotes one anonymous critic who suggests that she's only attracting attention because she's so cute... thankfully I can claim that I discovered her work via the Emin connection, but in the immortal words of Spinal Tap, what's wrong with being sexy? Maple clearly has enough ideas, talent and personality to keep people interested in her body of work, rather than just her body. Either way, I dig her and look forward to nervously asking for her autograph someday...
The day I went to see Emin speak about her work at Oxford University was about as close to a perfect day as I've ever had. I know she's a fairly easy target for tabloid snark, and general anti-Art antagonising, but I feel a genuine emotional connection with her work, and can attest that she is a very entertaining, smart and funny public speaker... and very graceful in the face of obnoxious heckling. She was also kind enough to hang around and sign autographs for everyone, even though she had a fancy dinner at the gallery to hurry off to afterwards. Away from the Art, I appreciated her "memoir" Strangelands, but I think perhaps she could have done with a co-writer on her film project Top Spot... it's often the case that films "based on a true story" can lack the narrative hooks (and humour) that make fictional stories so compelling. There are some very interesting ideas and scenes dotted throughout the film, but overall it's more arty curio than audience-friendly box-office fodder. The controversy over its content once again raised the fascinating Art/Life paradox... i.e., a film which accurately and unflinchingly portrays the lives of a group of teenagers, can't actually be shown to other teenagers, because the film classification board is much stricter about what young people are exposed to than the real world is.
