In Torremolinos-Tableaux-Tongue-Twister (After Sun), the surface of the popular tourist destination Torremolinos has been transformed into a fleshy, flashing place of red limbs in lycra suits, slipping and sliding out of swimming pools and dripping down rendered walls. Provenance of place is not hidden, but also not overtly explained as at the work goes way beyond representation. (After Sun) is the second stanza from Torremolinos. First exhibited in 2016 as part of the BAS8 Associates programme at HaHa Gallery, Southampton, the same work has been re-cast for Block 336 in a blood-shot, late-night form in this first solo presentation of work.

On entering the gallery, the viewer is invited to investigate an environment of red excess. Two tons of ruddy gravel spilled like a flailing fat tongue stretches out through the space. Hand-cast plaster pieces, found objects, glass, rubber and glitter are nonsensical material utterances, and large-format images of everyday surfaces have been smoothed over the existing gallery walls and floors. In creating these landscapes, vistas or reflexive objects, Roberts wants us to consider the reality of our constructed surfaces and how they inform the narratives we create. She terms this approach, ‘a casual politic’ that instead of ‘shouting the odds’ – creates a vantage point from which to gaze out onto the terror and appetite of our newly made realities.