Artist : Simon Hitchens
Title : 05.57-18.40/28.03.19/ST252148
Medium : ink on 300gsm fabriano paper
Dimensions : 50 x 70 cm




Simon Hitchens drawn and sculptural work explores the interconnectedness between the human and the non-human, as a means to learning about Mankind’s relationship with impermanence. As a climber he maintains an intimate relationship with rock. In the age of the Anthropogenic it seems pertinent to question how we comprehend the geological and human worlds as united, interconnected even. The British Isles have a rich and varied geology, with rocks ageing from the present to some of the oldest on our planet. To be able to comprehend the deep-time of rocks is to ‘shine a light’ upon our own relatively short lifespan and to begin to understand the transient but interconnected nature of what we share with the planet. This work is one of a series of system-based drawings made in, of and about the landscape; the result of a particular set of conditions, in a particular place, over a particular span of time. By relentlessly tracing the moving shadows of a stone throughout an entire day, they record celestial time, geological time and human time as well as the weather patterns unique to that day. They are a meditation on time and space - even the solidity of mountains, given time, will eventually erode into nothing, echoing the broad, shared transience of existence. 

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 was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 1998, is an RWA Academician and is the fourth generation of artist in his family.