Simon’s wood and steel sculptures are very much influenced by the rich and varied layers of his life and his surroundings – his childhood, time spent working as a shipwrights assistant, the sea, engineering, history and mythology – drawings and thoughts collected over many years in the piles of black and grey sketchbooks that fill his home and studio in Wales.
In Trigger's Broom, Simon explores The Ship of Theseus paradox - a classic philosophical thought experiment about the nature of identity. Is an object simply the sum of the specific parts that compose it? And if those parts are gradually replaced, is it still the same object? Being created from abandoned agricultural machinery and natural objects found near the artist's home in Wales, the link to this paradox and to Simon's multi-layered experience is evident. From Greek mythology to an episode from the BBC TV series Only Fools and Horses from which the sculpture takes its title*, this piece is a fine example of the what makes Simon's sculptures have such lasting resonance.

*In one episode the character Trigger boasts how the broom that he uses at work has lasted him 20 years.
Trigger: This ol' broom... has had 17 heads and 14 new handles in its time. Sid: How the 'ell can it be the same bloody broom, then?
Trigger: Well, 'ere's a picture of it; what more proof do you need?