Colony was a new body of work resulting from two summers, 2004 and 2005, in residence as a funded artist fellow at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA. Continuing her ongoing inquiry into transient or complex personal spaces, Sarah Jones researched and made works that took their cues from the interiors of the Yaddo individual studio spaces as an interpretation of the artist-resident's place of relaxation and contemplation, and presented a series of large-scale colour prints (48" x 48" and 48" x 60"), offering a multiplicity of readings, as well as making apparent her strong concern with light, colour, composition and a peculiarly 'photographic space'. Colony furthered Jones' interest in how the viewer might engage with the photograph and further developed her interest in formal structures within her practice. By exploring the subject of the artist's bed she also examined the relationship and potential dialogue such images may have with an ongoing body of visual inquiry into 'the psychoanalyst's couch' (commenced in 1997).

Working alongside authors and poets at the artists' colony enhanced Jones' research. One work she produced at Yaddo was on the relationship the photograph might have to the short story, and to the construction of narrative. She researched the archive of writers who had written in these spaces (such as Raymond Carver, Sylvia Plath and Rick Moody) and used discussions with writers such as AM Homes, David Means and Cathy Bowman around writing and the photograph as a basis to evolve her ideas.

Colony was first exhibited in Implosion at Anton Kern Gallery, New York, a group exhibition with George Baselitz, Jim Lambie, Lothar Hempel, David Shrigley and Matthew Monahan. Four of the works were later exhibited at the National Media Museum, UK.