In her work for both exhibitions, and in projects with the public, Sarah Sabin has become known for her playful gathering and reassembling of histories.
Using a wide range of media she has made work ranging from small, delicate highly crafted objects to large site specific installations.
Her previous commissions include:- Essex County council, Colchester borough council, Firstsite, and Commissions East.
She is currently working on two permanently sited artworks for The new H.Q of Greenfields community housing.
She has exhibitied in venues including:- Gainsborough’s house , Firstsite, and UCL institute of Archaeology (all solo) and the Foundling museum, London (group).
Quotes and texts about Sarah Sabin
"Archives, collections, found/discarded objects, hidden histories are pieces of puzzles that artist Sarah Sabin enjoys discovering, dissecting and putting back together again…Her playfulness and understanding of subject matter and facts allows Sabin to reinterpret and suggest other narratives through archaeological methods of discovery and representation which for me contains a sense of theatre, in particular her 'Wall Excavations'.
These excavations into what lies behind seemingly ordinary walls are enchanting; they appear utterly fictitious and something of a day dream, they echo fairytales and mythology, Narnia and the Secret Garden. ..
Sabin's ability to engage with a variety of 'crafts' means that traditional museum approaches of object displays and their preconceived boundaries are broken wide open. Her work is filled to the brim with memories; not just our own but those belonging to the objects and the stories that accompany them."
Excerpt of review of Sarah Sabin's work - Charlie Levine June 2008. for Axis 'Artist of the month'
www.axisweb.org/artistofthemonth (see archive june 08)
"A new taxonomy subverts the usual one in the museum. Sarah Sabin has created elements which, through the force of their attention to detail and compelling near-credibility, allows us to infer a story. She has given us the props and invites us to create the script and outcome."
Excerpt from Essay by Gill Hedley in ‘RSVP’ - Contemporary artists at the foundling Museum’ catalogue, London 2007, for Commissions East.
"Sarah Sabin's work is borne out of a playful dialogue between art and archaeology, involving fake relics, false digs and fictitious places. At once warmly intriguing yet uncannily alien and stubbornly impenetrable, her hand-made pseudo artefacts, fashioned to appear as though recently unearthed, toy with sober notions of truth and authenticity."
Excerpt from "Preconceiving histories, the work of Sarah Sabin" Matthew Poole for Firstsite, 2002.
Also see this on www.axisweb.org/artist/sarahsabin (and click on blue 'Open Frequency' button to see my work nominated by Freddie Robins and reviewed By Liz Aston in 2006)
"I really enjoy her interests and references, and the very 'human' approach that she takes in her practice."
Freddie Robins 2006 for ‘Axis’
