Hitchens, Simon
Simon Hitchens graduated in Fine Art from the University of the West of England in 1990, and his work has been exhibited around the world since then. He frequently exhibits in solo and group exhibitions, undertaking private commissions and numerous large scale public commissions. He is the winner of the 2003 Millfield School Sculpture Competition and was short listed for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize in 2004. He is the fourth generation of artist in his family.
Stone is the material backbone to his creative explorations and the conceptual focus in his sculptures. Over the years his physical involvement with stone has decreased: “I aim to make work that operates on the edge of perception, somewhere between the physical and the metaphysical, a kind of exploration of the peripheral. Work that is both about presence and absence.”
Hitchens’ sculptures have a serenity and beauty about them not often seen in the contemporary art world. He makes minimal sculptures that belie the technical difficulty and drama of their making, typically exploring contrasts of all kinds with an economy of means that has become his trademark.
“My sculptures are a subtle investigation to try and understand the essence of things we perceive as real, and things which often remain unseen. I am focusing on how our imagination perceives the physical world, how the thought of an object, or place, is different from the sight of it, and how that sight of it creates the memory of the object afterwards? Typically, my sculptures exist in a balanced, or self contained, harmony and with a sense of a threshold having been reached. There is, I believe, in the sculptures, a potent sense of anticipation for what may happen next, as if time has briefly stopped giving the viewer the opportunity to gently ponder that which appears in front of them.
I aim to make work that operates on the edge of perception, somewhere between the physical and the metaphysical. A kind of exploration of the peripheral, like a memory or thought which the mind is searching to grasp. Work that is both about presence and absence. Work that is often made up of two parts, where each shapes the other and where both are locked into an energized state of symbiosis. Questions arise not only because of the contrasts and similarities of the forms and chosen materials themselves but also on account of the way they are positioned. The opposing parts frequently suggest unity, or the possibility of a relationship that is, or was, once intimate and that could, perhaps, be so again.
By isolating a section of the physical world and presenting that with it’s alter ego, the work presents us with a number of states, or possibilities for that which is, or could be. These sculptures reflect the world around us, acknowledging beauty, the natural world and our position within it. Creating a sense of mystery and wonder by the absence of marks made by the human hand, I aim to make objects that look effortless, perhaps even autonomous.
The sculptures operate in the tradition of minimalist sculpture, where a question has been asked, how much can be subtracted before meaning evaporates. The dictum ‘less is more’ clearly operates here. They are not about beginning or ending, irony or quotation, and they sit, I hope, in contemplative silence.”