The Ribs Begin to Rise is the first institutional solo show by contemporary artist Ro Robertson presenting a newly commissioned series of sculptural works alongside large-scale drawings and a video installation.

Staged on the banks of the River Wear in Robertson’s hometown of Sunderland, The Ribs Begin to Rise takes inspiration from its location. It draws on the mouth of the River Wear, Sunderland Docks, Hendon Paper Works, the ropeworks and the 700 female shipbuilders who lived and worked in Sunderland. The exhibition reflects on Robertson’s family working-class history and the materials key to the industries which came to define Robertson’s upbringing and the region.

The exhibition’s title The Ribs Begin to Rise is taken from a small magazine titled Build the Ships written in 1946 telling the story of the life of a ship. Unusually, this magazine includes a photograph of women working in the shipyards during World War 2. Unlike most photography which positioned women in poses directed by the male gaze, this image shows the women unaware of the camera and working harmoniously in relation to the monumental structure they were working on. Robertson will explore gendered and bodily connections to materials, industry, and the natural landscape, touching upon queer ecologies and understandings of strength, hardness, softness and scale – combining masculinities and femininities in flux rather than being in opposition.

The Ribs Begin to Rise aims to revise how Robertson’s working-class experience has influenced their sculptural understanding and how a queer feminist lens can reframe the rigid gender associations of sculpture and industry.

About Ro Robertson

Ro Robertson (they/them), (b. 1984, Sunderland, UK) is a contemporary artist based in West Cornwall. Robertson’s practice spans sculpture, drawing, painting and video, mediums through which they explore the boundaries between the human body and its environment.

Recent solo presentations include Modern Thresholds, Tate St Ives, UK (2023); Torsos, Maximillian William, London, UK (2022); Stone (Butch), The Hepworth Wakefield, UK (2019). Recent group exhibitions include Forbidden Territories: 100 Years of Surreal Landscapes, The Hepworth Wakefield, UK (2024) ; An Axis of Abstraction: Art in Cornwall and Yorkshire – Then and Now, Leeds Art Gallery, UK (2024); Dreaming of Home, The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, US (2023); TRICKSTER FIGURES: sculpture and the body, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK (2023); We Are Floating in Space, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Penzance, UK (2023). Robertson’s work is included in Arts Council Collection, London, UK; York Art Gallery, UK; The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, US; British Museum, London, UK; Leeds Art Gallery, UK; The Hepworth Wakefield, UK; Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK.

The Ribs Begin To Rise is generously supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.