Simon spent his formative years in Zimbabwe, the country of his birth, before studying fine art in Cape Town, returning to Zimbabwe to teach and paint, and finally moving to Mauritius in 1996. He grew up in a segregated society at a time of civil war, and witnesses those of a different race being dehumanised. As a result, he frequently references these themes in his work. Simon has taken part in numerous exhibitions, including group shows at the Gallery Delta in Harare, Zimbabwe; several editions of the Porlwi festival, Mauritius; the first edition of Borderline Exhibition and Metaform Sculpture Exhibition with the Third Dot in Port Louis, Mauritius; the ‘10 Ans’ Exhibition at Imaaya Gallery in Mauritius; and ‘Vision D’Artistes – Port Louis 2017’ with Gallery Ilha Do Cirne in Pointe aux Canonniers, Mauritius. He has exhibited solo at the A3 Gallery, AfrAsia Gallery and Imaaya Gallery in Mauritius; at the Matter Gallery in Toronto, Canada; and at the Showcase Gallery in Dubai, the U.A.E.

Through his pieces, Simon suggests that this process of dehumanisation is still very much at work in our society today, though in a different guise. He argues that humanism – a philosophy that posits that humans are essentially good and will ultimately find solutions to their problems, creating a utopian environment in which mankind will flourish – is responsible for some of history’s greatest crimes. Simon’s perspective is that humanism is now engrained in the fabric of societies worldwide, imposing a particular new form of servitude that is no longer linked to issues of race or nationality. His work suggests that as the humanist system progressively engulfs our digital world of diminished human contact, the divide separating those who hold different views becomes a chasm. It asks: what, then, is our future in a dehumanised society?