Simon Linington
Souvenir (2020)
Simon Linington is an artist living and working in England, Spain and Mexico City. He has a BA(Hons) in Sculpture from Chelsea University of the Arts, London. In 2010 he was awarded the Emerging Artists Bursary Award by the Royal Society of Sculptors.
“Every child on the Isle of Wight has filled a glass tube or bottle with coloured sands from the cliff at Alum Bay. It is one of the first school trips I can remember, and an early memory we all share.
These souvenirs were introduced at about the same time people began making postcards illustrating places on the Island, using the same coloured sands. The Victorians weren’t the first to make images with sand, the Tibetans had been doing it for thousands of years, but no one had kept and sold them before. My early encounters with these objects made a lasting impression, and ever since, material and place have been inseparable.
The fact my grandfather was a photographer whose images were printed on the many postcards sold in local gift shops, had very little to do with this idea at the time, but as the years have passed, I think it is inevitable I should have an instinct to express and document my relationship with my environment."
Selected Solo Exhibitions
LA LA LAND, William Benington Gallery, London, UK (2019)
In From The Light, Castor, London, UK (2018)
Everything is medicine, Lily Brooke, London (2017)
Everything can be Broken, Division of labour,London (2017)
Now Showing . . . , Manchester Contemporary (2015)
Dirty Matters, Galleria Emma Thomas, Sao Paulo(2015)
Selected Group Exhibitions
On the Other Hand, Canary Wharf Estate, London, UK (2021)
From Cellar to Garret, South Parade, London (2021)
Salon Acme 8, Mexico City (2020)
Under the Volcano, Brooke Benington Residencies, Mexico City (2020)
Habitual, Castor, London, UK (2020)
Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, William Bennington Projects (2017)
Art Rotterdam with Division of Labour (2017)
Bajo La Sierra Larga (2020)
Time At Hogchester Arts
When I arrived at Hogchester Arts in November, England was the fifth country I’d traveled to in 2022 for various work projects.
Most of these projects are focused on making a site-specific sculpture from an ongoing series I’ve been working on for a couple of years now - A few were large-scale, a couple involved working with large groups of people, and all were similar enough that I had been thinking about trying something new.
I wanted to work on my own again, and I wanted to make smaller-scale pieces, and at the studio barn at Hogchester Farm, I found a place I could do this.
I woke up early every morning and worked until I couldn’t concentrate any longer, only occasionally taking a break to smoke a cigarette and watch the autumn leaves fall from blackened branches.
In the evenings, Gabriel, a fellow resident artist and I drank far too much or not enough, I could never decide. We talked about our projects, the difference in the weather in England and Malta, our experiences growing up on a small island, and many other things I can’t remember or know better than to share.
Chantal is a great host, and with her and ‘Scruffles’ the dog, I found six other feet that like to walk along the beach in the late afternoon and listen to the sea.
