Simon Hall

Simon Hall is a UK based visual artist dual qualified as both a doctor and dentist. He utilises painting, sculpture, installation and BioArt to consider medical ethics, emerging technologies and the body in health and disease.

With multi-faceted experience particularly in facial injuries, disorders and diseases, Simon’s work often transects arts and medical spaces to explore issues of facial difference, identity and the portrait. His work draws together patients, clinicians, artists and researchers to collaborate within educational spaces, explore healthcare narratives, and deliver participatory arts experiences.

He is a GP Specialty Registrar and NIHR academic clinical fellow with the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Bristol. Academically he explores the integration of arts and humanities within medical education and within his role Simon lectures and leads workshops for university students and the general public.

Simon utilises medical resources such as the dissection room, operating theatre and wet lab laboratory in his artwork. From skin cells grown in the laboratory to dental materials science, Simon seeks to playfully and experimentally explore at the transection of disciplines, craft using materials developed within clinical environments and connect with healthcare narratives.

Simon has been artist in residence notably at the historical burns research institution, the Blond McIndoe Research Foundation, the South West Cleft Service and the Cleft Lip and Palate Association. He often collaborates under the umbrella of art/science organisations such as the Institute of Unnecessary Research, for whom he is a departmental head, and as an ongoing collaborator with the Health Humanities Centre at the University of Reading.