Unnatural Selection

Simon is South African, but now based in Wanaka, New Zealand

Simon’s sculpture pieces are speared by the ecological crisis. With a knowing that species and habitats are threatened by man’s insatiable fire, it is mostly in his work process where the poetry reveals itself. From splinters of invasive timber, he constructs animals, nests and wings. These wooden creations become the kindling for a unique lost cast technique, where the incineration of shape becomes the mould for the final sculpture. These negative spaces are cast with bronze, thereby immortalising the species that have become so significant to him. They are naturalistic yet lean toward abstraction as the figures hover between dissolution and form, ash and bronze. An advocate for the preservation of wild spaces, he is a proud ambassador artist for the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation.