Sarah Roberts: SICK at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery

Leeds-based artist Sarah Roberts presents a new body of work in her first institutional solo exhibition at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery. Fascinatingly, the exhibition allows us a peek into the artist’s process too – it’s split across two galleries, with one displaying the main installation and the other (SICK TOO) uncovering the creative process behind it.

Roberts’ practice evades simple descriptions but her vividly coloured installations are usually made up from large collections of seemingly unrelated objects. They are brought together by ideas of collecting and musings on artificial spaces that serve specific purposes like hospitals, schools, homes and even casinos. There’s a concern with sustainability too and while Roberts collects the detritus of our everyday lives and elevates it to key components in art installations, the rooms full of stuff have an overwhelming quality that reveals just how many things we own, discard and leave behind.

For SICK – the full title is SICK (a note from 40 Sandilands Road and other stories) – the artist leans into her personal experiences of growing up as a young carer with a focus on home and hospital environments, and the blending of the two as illness commands the routines of daily life for the sick person and their family. Roberts is interested in caring practices and imagery related to healing, from cooking recipes for recovering patients to folk remedies, hygiene and anatomy.

In the installation itself, you’ll find ceramics, medical paraphernalia, textiles, blown glass and collage, creating rich environments that invite slow and close examination of each element. It’s a multilayered space that engages the senses and although it’s dealing with challenging issues, it is designed to be bright and joyful.

Roberts took part in a six-month residency at the University of Leeds where she studied a range of materials from the University’s Cultural Collections, Museum of the History of Science and The Thackray Museum of Medicine. Some of these objects are displayed in the second part of the show at Treasures of the Brotherton gallery: SICK TOO allows viewers to see the creative process behind the exhibition in the artist’s own words alongside a selection of objects from the University of Leeds’ Cultural Collections.