WE ARE DELIGHTED TO PRESENT A DISCUSSION BETWEEN SCULPTOR SIMON HITCHENS AND CURATOR BEN TUFNELL TO COINCIDE WITH HITCHENS’ MAJOR EXHIBITION, PARALLELS, ON DISPLAY AT SOMERSET RURAL LIFE MUSEUM (16 SEPTEMBER TO 2 DECEMBER), CURATED BY FREENY YIANNI AND CLOSE LTD.
This wide-ranging conversation (recorded on 29 Sept 2023) explored Hitchens’ practice as a sculptor, his exploration of the interconnectedness of the geological and human worlds, and his relationship to Land Art.
ABOUT SIMON HITCHENS
Simon Hitchens is a Somerset-based sculptor, Academician of the Royal West of England Academy Royal and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors. His work has been exhibited around the world and he has worked on numerous large-scale public commissions, most recently Ascendant: The Elizabeth Landmark, which will stand 55 metres above Cold Law Hill in Northumberland. Hitchens uses rock in its raw and natural state as the material backbone and conceptual focus of his work, exploring themes of time and transience. Simon is represented by CLOSE Ltd.
ABOUT BEN TUFNELL
Ben Tufnell is a curator, writer and editor, and the Director of Parafin, an independent gallery in London. He has a particular interest in forms of art dealing with ideas and experiences around land, landscape and place, as well as the intersection between art and mountaineering. He has written extensively around Land Art; is the author of the monograph Land Art, released by Tate Publishing in 2006 and In Land, published 2019. Ben has an ongoing fascination for the ‘slow time’ of painting and its seemingly anachronistic yet weirdly vital position in the twenty-first century.
