AN EXHIBITION on Portland will explore ideas of what it means to be human.

The work by artist Simon Hitchens kicks off a new season at b-side’s new project space, a former shop unit, on Portland.

The exhibition, Touchstones, will be at outpost, Fortuneswell, and runs from March 16 to April 8.

This March sees the start of programme of activities that will experiment with and investigate how b-side and others can make use of their project space in Fortuneswell.

A creatively diverse programme is already shaping up, beginning with work by Somerset sculptor Simon Hitchens.

Simon is showing a group of work entitled Touch Stones which centres on his film Genesis, which explores ideas of what it is to be human and our relationship to the impermanence of life.

There is an uncanny simplicity to the film like the meditative calm found in a Zen garden, where displaced rocks become almost body-like.

What at first appears to be a benign boulder sat in an arcane landscape slowly begins to take on human qualities: is this a genesis, or the genesis?

Simon said: “The film can be viewed as a landscape painting, a still life or even a self-portrait. I chose to use film because I wished to explore my ideas through a new medium, one that challenged how I went about making my art.

"The process of making it was slow, and involved working with a technical editor which in turn allowed me a greater degree of objectivity that I found rewarding.”

Join Simon at outpost on Thursday March 16 from 7pm to hear more about his work. Please see the website b-side.org.uk for all information and booking details.

*Touchstones will be exhibited at Outpost, Fortuneswell, Portland, from Tuesday to Saturday between 12pm and 5pm, March 16 to April 8.

Admission is free. See b-side.org.uk for more information.

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