Arcade Cardiff has been transformed into a pink utopia exploring femininity and consumerism by local artist Sarah Roberts
Sarah Roberts creates politically charged art in London and Wales
An art installation by Welsh artist Sarah Roberts has opened in a creative gallery space in Queens arcade this month.
Sarah’s installation, ‘CLOD DI’, is located in Arcade Cardiff, a not-for-profit gallery space based in Queens Arcade shopping centre.
CLOD DI, meaning ‘oily’ in Welsh, explores themes like consumerism and feminism.
The exhibition includes objects such as tweezers and breast milk bags painted pink to examine issues like extravagant spending on household items.
The one-room exhibition features a selection of various domestic objects painted pink, which Sarah says are meant to convey a feminist statement.
The installation took 14 hours to paint, according to Teddy Hunter, a volunteer at Arcade Cardiff.
The local artist says the colour and contents of the installation are designed to be immersive and should be impossible to ignore.
“It should be something that’s a bit unsettling,” she said.
Sarah views herself as a feminist artist with a political angle that informs all of her work.
The installation takes inspiration from Sarah’s fascination with feminine 1990s interiors and the dangers of excessive consumerism.
Consumers may be taking notice of artistic warnings such as Sarah’s. Spending during this year’s Black Friday was down by 12%, reported the BBC last week.
The artist’s past exhibitions have covered politically charged themes like censoring of bodies on social media.
Sarah said: “How did we get to a point where a nipple cover was less offensive than seeing a nipple on Instagram?”
The installation was designed by Roberts to be all consuming
The installation also explores how Sarah feels she is losing touch with the Welsh language.
Only 19% of Wales’s population speak Welsh, according to the most recent census.
Before naming the installation ‘Clod Di’, Sarah was planning on calling the installation ‘claddu’, meaning ‘burial’ in Welsh, to represent how she has “buried” her roots.
A beginner’s Welsh record bought by a friend of Sarah’s in Amsterdam provides the soundtrack to the installation.
“There’s a degree of shame around this notion of losing your Welsh,” said Sarah, “I feel like I’m only half translating the exhibition as I go along.”
Sarah’s exhibition will run from now until 22 December 2018.