Precious Ghosts

Comprising a new series of drawings spun from recorded conversations, the exhibiton explores the sentimental value attached to garments and objects that occupy the peripheries of our lives. Like forgotten apparitions, no longer worn, unused items linger in the depths of wardrobes, holding on to old stories. For the exhibition Simon has invited people to share the personal histories of their own precious ghosts, exploring what is at stake in what we are unable to get rid of, rehabilitating and re-enchanting what is accumulated and still.

In collaboration with Julia Lok, Simon developed frames for the drawings that refer to the shape of clothing hangers, staging the drawings in the exhibition space as they accumulate. The hangers reference the provenance of the drawing’s subject, hanging in the back of the wardrobe, where amongst other garments they become homogenised and depersonalised. Simon’s anthropomoric, pareidolic renderings rehang the garments to life and embodiment, allowing them to release their meaning.

Elsewhere in the exhibition Simon has traced scaled up versions of his formal points of departure directly onto the wall of the space in pencil. These tracings make visable his reference ans self-positioning as a zoologist, transforming object into creature, capturing the excess and beyond human longevity of the precious ghosts by means of their likeness. The exhibition was generously supported by Amsteram Fonds Voor Kunst and Mertens Frames