Simon Withers

Artist statement

Simon Withers is a visual artist, performer and writer; he lives and works in Nottingham. His artistic practice includes exhibition and event curation. Over the past five years Simon co-foundered mere jelly, an artist run agency, through which mere jelly promoted the work of nine East midland based artists work at a London art fair. In 2004 he became a member of Nottingham Studios, established to undertake research into developing a purpose built artists studios for Nottingham NS is funded by Arts Council England. In 2004/05 Simon was involved in the setting up of the Steering Group for the 'Sideshow' initiative, selecting work for commission. This event in Nottingham produced a programme of context specific activities and events in the spring of 2006 to coincide with The British Art Show 6 when it visited Nottingham. For over thirteen years Simon ran Oldknows Studio group and coordinated over 18 studio events including five live art events and several studio fund raising events. Simon has supported the organisation of and the running of many Nottingham Open Studios since 1998.

I completed my Fine Arts degree from Sheffield City Polytechnic in 1988. My arts practice is constantly diverse, I produce paintings, sculpture, Films, installation and write short stories.

In 2000 he successfully received a Year of the Artist award and took up residency in a beach hut on the Lincolnshire East Coast. A short DV project ensued with Filmmaker Steve Friendship and 'A postcard From Sutton on Sea' was the outcome. In 2003/04 Threshold Studios commissioned the Friendship/Withers partnership to produce 'Equilibrium' a short 3-minute experimental film. Drawing a violin bow across an array of percussive cymbals created the accompanying soundtrack by artist and filmmaker. 'Equilibrium' received its first screening at the Arizona Film Festival in 2004.

In 2006 Simon's proposal 'The March of Silence' was shortlisted for the Jerwood/Artangel commissions. The strong personal traits of the Multi-Fold are diverse. The judicious combination of searching and unearthing produces a series of works that run parallel to the internal theory and practice of the process. All the Multi-Fold works take elements of the process that are then re-interpreted to form additional working methods. These procedures subsequently expand the Multi-Fold vocabulary. The linear Multi-Fold paintings, usually small triptych works, operate on a definite plain; they seek reason in formal tensions. The Ontological works as illustrated in the paintings, 'The Velvet Cushion', No's 25 and 36, adhere to the same reasoning, but the guidelines of expression flow more freely. This is not to say that these works are, 'First impulse reactions'. They are attained through a perception of a certain automatism of a created form that has a parallel bond with reason. The gestures flow with enhanced magnanimity prior to the artist imposing himself upon the work. 'I hold transient moments in webs of ambiguity', so utters the Great Deceiver The seven races, developing consciousness, the infernos, the nine circles of Dante, folk traditions, the new scenery, imperfect symmetry, the human condition, catharsis, profound knowledge, projective testing, abstraction, forensic investigation, the seductiveness of violence, the perishable body, anxiety, paper folding kits, Simon Pure, the phantom of the brain, the self legislating I.