#133 Simon Newby, Underworld

16 June - 9 July

Simon Newby lives and works in Norwich. He graduated from University of Brighton in 2002 and the Royal College of Art in 2009.

Recent solo exhibitions include Untitled Action, Thirteen a, Norwich; Factory Settings (Two person show with James Epps), Unthank Artspace, Norwich; Manifestations, Thirteen a, Norwich; Mr. Eighty, The Minories, Colchester; and Island Life, The Two Jonny’s, London. Recent group exhibitions include Alioli, Outpost, Norwich; and A Thing is a Thing is a Thing, The Minories, Colchester.

Newby manipulates modular objects and materials to create works that play with pattern and movement within two and three-dimensional spaces. Diverse materials are altered or concealed, triggering new ambiguous surfaces and forms.

Hanging on the gallery walls are three triangular shapes cut from clear Perspex, resembling set squares. The interior holes of these set squares have been displaced from their usual central location. In one case, the internal hole appears to have slipped so fully from its usual place that it no longer interrupts the Perspex at all, leading us to wonder where this void might now be located. A certain deadpan humour is at work here, one of negations and contradictions.

Arranged on the gallery floor are six wooden frames stretched with fabric, reminiscent of divan bed bases. The red and green versions, arranged horizontally and fitted with casters, perhaps recall the divan most fully, whilst also bringing to mind a certain classic design of pencil eraser.

Four white versions are positioned on their sides. An assortment of shapes can be seen in the front of the first pair, flattened in appearance through the translucent fabric. These reveal themselves as an array of familiar small objects affixed to the underside of the fabric with sellotape: a Lego brick, a tile spacer, a roll of green tape, a post-it note, a Pringles lid. Arranged in the second pair are small coloured plastic counters from a domino rally set. The seemingly random arrangement of these pieces is partially repeated from one fabric structure onto the next, suggesting a tessellating pattern.

Working with negative spaces, concealments and half-truths, these works perhaps provide more questions than they answer. Do these structures conceal hidden depths, or hidden lack of depth? How have these small objects accumulated? Where they are reduced to a single plane, do they constitute objects or images? In one set square, the internal void is only half present - is it possible to ‘dig half a hole’? And if a void is completely displaced, where does it end up?

A conversation between Mike Goddard and Simon Newby, OUTPOST Gallery, 14 June 2017

Mike Goddard: As well as referencing the divan bed base, the red and green structures also bear a strong resemblance to a certain classic design of two-colour pencil eraser, and once this similarity has been recognized it is almost impossible to erase the impression. Is a multiplicity of meanings and readings important to your work?

Simon Newby: It is, but creating a resemblance to a bed or eraser was less important to me than the multiple qualities of the materials and surfaces and the different ways that they could inhabit the space. The stretched cotton reminded me of the matt surface of an eraser, which is partly why I chose those colours, but it was only meant as a suggestion. With these works I’ve been trying to reveal more of the materials and process to the viewer, and this can be interpreted in different ways.  

MG: The flattening of objects into shapes in the white fabric structures recalls other recent works of yours, in which objects are reduced to flat shapes by embedding them in filler. Is it a relationship between object and image that interests you?

SN: Yes. Those polyfiller works played with the depth and colour of the plastic to see how it would look and feel to view objects on one plane.  The cotton has a different effect as it reveals not just the contact point of the object but much more. I like the depth this creates and how the changing light and environment affects the surface.

MG: I wanted to ask you about materials, and particularly your use of plastics - counters, stationery, Lego bricks. What do you look for in a potential art material?

SN: When I first started using plastic I was building very simple patterns to then fill and sand. Initially it was the colour and modular characteristics of the counters and things I collected. When I moved away from just creating patterns and started using objects to think more broadly about surface I started collecting a much wider range of things to work with. Things had to have form but not be too distinct. For instance a plastic comb would be too recognizable and would give the game away. 

MG: The show’s title, Underworld, suggests the unseen and the hidden, interior worlds, and also a nether region - the criminal realm or the mythical abode of the dead. And also a space below a bed where objects might accumulate. What drew you to this title?

SN: It is the hidden element of the title that interested me. The idea of things being unseen but operating in full view. 

MG: One of the principle functions of a set square is to provide fixed and assured spatial relations. Are you seeking to undo this certainty?

SN: I was drawn to the set square because of its material and simple shape. I liked playing with the visibility of this translucent object. The clear Perspex is almost not there and the purpose of the hole is ambiguous.