By Women, For Women - Solo Exhibition, GFI Art Gallery, Gqeberha

"Show a people as one thing over and over again, and that is what they become"
-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
Sarah Walmsley's work offers a revised approach to the sculptural female nude. Her emotive sculptures gracefully bear the weight of their experience as they communicate with each other and their viewers. Through these sculptures she aims to represent women, by women, in the way they have elected to be represented. The series includes portraits of various female figures whom Walmsley knows personally and is inspired by. The work addresses the ways in which the female body has been voyeuristically represented in art and aims to reclaim the female nude, through authentic portraits of women by a female artist. These portraits aim to honour and celebrate the power, strength and beauty of women and represent their intersectional identities. 
In line with Chimamanda Adichie's "Never a Single Story", we cannot allow the identities of women to be relegated to these singular perspectives, which are usually, if not mostly borne from the male perspective or gaze. As a female-identifying artist and sculptor, it is my responsibility to address this misrepresentation with a re-representation of women, for women - women of the present and future. This is the first installment of the travelling exhibition which will grow along its journey, with more work being added to each showing. 

Photography by Fanjan Combrink, Basil Brady, Jonathan van der Walt and Sarah Walmsley