The Auction House: Rudera - of the Rubble, Simon Lee Dicker

This exhibition finished on the 25th July 2026.

I almost didn't get to see this exhibition but luckily there was a short break in the back to back heatwaves we have been experiencing and I was able to visit on the last day.  It was lovely to meet Simon and Chantelle as they looked after the two venues, because this exhibition also utilised a space at Back Lane West.  It was the first time I had been to Back Lane West.

It was simple to navigate between the two sites, as long as you are able to feal with Redruth's infamous hill.  The quickest route takes you out of the Auction House on to Station Hill.  Going downhill, there is a car park on your right, just below the Buttermarket.  Going across the top of the car park, you will find a set of steps down on the far side, which lead to Back Lane West.  Following Back Lane West downhill, it is the last unit on the left.  You can also get here by road or to avoid steps, although there is no public parking.  You will need to follow Station Hill to the bottom and then turn right on to Penryn Street.  Then take the first right on to Cross Street and the next first right to Back Lane West.

This exhibition explores an ongoing fascination of Simon's through various media.  I think with explorations of this type, a single media would not give a well rounded exhibition.  It would not be possible to truly understand what the artist is sharing.

Simon has a fascination with man made hills of industrial waste.  These hills and piles have often been taken over by nature and are now part of it and yet they retain a difference.  Specifically, he is drawn to the Bings in Lothian, Scotland.  These are piles of spent shale that has had the oil extracted.  There is a distinctive shape in these hills.  A triangle with a scalloped shape along the long side.  

On showing this shape to Chantelle, she recognised it as half a toasted sandwich, made in a press which leaves a raised shape, crimping the edges.  So this is not just an exploration of a landscape but then a shape from that landscape.  Taking it a step further, Simon then explores materials from this landscape by using them as a component in the glazes added to the shapes.  This is such a rich vein or creativity however that he continued to explore this shape in this way with materials from other spoil heaps, such as Cornish granite, and waste materials like sauna ash.

I began at the Auction House where the toastie shape was very much the focus.  Examples were displayed on the first long wall, showing off different glazes.  They were also arranged on the floor.  Simon had been transporting them in plastic crates and when considering how to display them, he realised that the crates were a more appropriate way to display them than a plinth.  Rather than use plastic crates though, he created plaster of paris versions.  The toastie shapes are arranged on, next to and in different crates.  Sorted by glaze type and often sat in a powder of the material that colours the glaze.  My favourite were the sauna ash ones which were a lovely matte black that faded to a soft grey.

Another of the shapes sat with a bowl.  

The shapes had also been transformed in to two dimensional images.  Initially they looked like computer modelling wire net images but on closer examination, they were actually hand produced.  They are pencil drawn and are beautifully complex and simple at the same time.  Each one shows the shape from a different viewpoint, in the way a wire computer model allows you to turn a shape on a computer.  I loved this idea, taking computer art and making it hand made.

There was also a charcoal image of a whale.  It was a lovely picture but I am not quite sure how it related to the rest of the exhibition.  I am sure it did, in some way.

At Back Lane West, there was a lovely video which enabled me to experience the Bings through the eyes of the artist.  Hear the connections the Bings made to their life.  They are so far away, it is unlikely anyone visiting the exhibition would be familiar with them and yet, there is a connection to our Cornish spoil heaps.

Outside of the video, I loved that there were piles of shale to step on and crunch.  It is an unfamiliar material and it was really great to experience it beyond how it was presented in the video.

There was one other item noted on the exhibition information Banana (eaten).  I did not see the ceramic banana listed and it does not show on the diagram indicating a placement.  There is an facebook group called the Dull Men's Club (which is not limited to men, you just need to be dull).  This is a lovely group which explores the delightful of being dull and ordinary.  This is a group where the very boring is elevated in to the fascinatingly interesting.  Pictures of screws by size, people talking about dull things they have done (like sorting), or asking for information of the sort only someone very dull would know.  There is a special way in which very dull things become very interesting when you commit to them and work all the way through them.  An ongoing joke in the group is that any photograph should have a banana for scale.  I know, in my own dull way, that any joke becomes less funny but also that any joke repeated over and over again in many different ways, becomes something greater.  

I think this exhibition is perfectly dull in the best of ways.

Intense exploration of a place and a thorough examination of a shape and different processes.  It could be dull and maybe taken in small bite size chunks, it is, but taken together, en masse, it is fascinating.