Artist : Simon Hitchens (b. 1967)
Title : More Than Human 2
Medium : rock, wax, resin
Dimensions : 25 x 34 x 38 cm

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Simon Hitchens’ work explores the interconnectedness between the human and the non-human, as a means to learning about Mankind’s relationship with impermanence. The material backbone of his work is rock in its raw and natural state. This is not carved and polished but plucked from the rock face or quarry floor. He remains acutely aware of the historical significance that stone has as the prime material to make sculpture, and as a sculptor is challenged to make art that contributes to this debate. As a climber he maintains an intimate relationship with rock, and is acutely aware that geologically it is the very material that supports us upon the planet. In the age of the Anthropogenic it seems pertinent to question how we comprehend the geological and human worlds as united, interconnected even. Hitchens believes there is increasingly a disconnect between these two worlds. which is harmful not only to the planet but also our psyche. Consequently, rock is the conceptual focus of his work and typically the material backbone within it. His work questions differences between animate and inanimate, more specifically rock and flesh, mountain and body; exploring themes of transience and transcendence. He makes post-human hybrid forms that negotiate a numinous space somewhere between rock and flesh: a line of inquiry into the nature of being.

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 largescale public commissions. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 1998, is an RWA Academician and is the fourth generation of artists in his family.