This weekend you should try and catch Sculptor Simon Shepherd new weekend pop up exhibition Unsubscribed in Soho.
Through two distinct bodies of work Simon’s work focuses the role of tradition, the mediums we associate with its familiarity and the shapes they assume. We contend daily with a memory machine that never forgets, vividly recounting your personal nightmares in high definition. Our societies are governed by political systems so plasticly synonymous with greed and power, you could buy it at the store and all the while, we carry mortal hearts and minds with no firewall to endure their affects.
Simon’s work has always favoured the familiar and the iconic, his signature approach infuses elements of the surreal to the seemly ordinary to create something new. We recognise the prominence of tradition in his Heart series through the presence of bricks and mortar, a nostalgic association with ‘home’ and adversely in more recent news ‘walls’. Fascias are fully exposed, weathered by time as we celebrate the fragile endurance their shape promotes. Not only do his hearts crack and break, they are further adorned with features which dare the viewer to engage; push the button, flip the switch or lift the veil.
Vulnerability and decay are explored more psychologically in his figurative works as Simon examines our fragile sense of self worth. Mass production of the perfect woman emerging from her mould, through to the darker risqué cyber imprisionment of your own integrity.
Simon Shepherd Unsubscribed Saturday/Sunday 15 Bateman Street
About The Artist
Simon Shepherd is a multi media artist specialising in wood, steel and ceramic; Simon explores the relationship between the familiar and unfamiliar, often using popular culture or objects of the ‘everyday’. Conceptually, themes range from satire to abstract explorations of space and form. Visually however, he attempts to deconstruct the recognisable exteriors and reimagine the rebuild with contrasting structural elements, relishing the the opportunity to offer something we feel a familiarity with, but which could not be exist in reality. He is also a registered member of the Royal Society of Sculptors
www.simonshepherd.co.uk
All images Tony Patterson
