Most of Simon Brewster’s works were made outside on a west London allotment site, from late summer 2010 to the present.
They seek to explore the boundaries and crossovers between contrasting states such as:
urban squalor and poetic dilapidation
beauty and ugliness
accident and contrivance
Many of the marks and materials on these papers signify accident, neglect or decay. Others demonstrate intention and control. They often strive to be records of processes, actions and events rather than pictorial illusions.
A meandering purple line may have been made by following a crawling insect with an oil pastel.
A grey band may be the tracing of a shadow, from a nearby cane or tree.
Rust patches have formed under pieces of steel, placed on the paper and left for a week.
A dead insect washed out of a tree above the drawing, has been sealed on the paper surface with glue.
Snails have chewed some surfaces, and left curls of papery excrement.
Blackberries and mildewed tomatoes have been hammered onto some surfaces.
A line of small holes across a drawing may be drainage points for rainwater.
Straight pencil lines may have been drawn between
tomato pips, like a join-the-dots puzzle.
For more information, please go to Simon’s website at http://www.simonbrewsterart.com/