Swide Magazine by Dolce&Gabbana

Newly graduated and already showing signs of a promising future, Max Parsons talks to Swide about his art beginnings and aspirations. We also get a chance to talk to Max about his most prominent work, 'Spoken Image'.

 

Monster Avalanche-Album work

Has art always been your passion? What did you want to be as a child?

I don’t know, I don’t remember really. I didn’t ever want to be a postman, fireman or a bus driver, I know that much. I think I wanted to be and do many things. Not that I’ve really ever been aware of it, but I came from an almost purely creative background. I have parents who are both artists, uncles and aunties as filmmakers and art directors, writers and so on...so activities such a painting, drawing, carving, acting etc were integral to my upbringing. Those kind of activities are all so immersive, it’s the ‘flow’ or immersion within art that ties me to art. I would say that art has always been part of my passion.

What kind of art do you create and do you have trademark aesthetics? Follow a specific creative pattern?

 I developed a way of thinking when at college. I studied ‘Design and Communication’ at Chelsea in London; the emphasis was on answering a brief and then beautifully realising it, that seemed logical... but it became a bit too methodical. First and foremost, I’m a graphic designer but now I’m working on producing meaningless shapes and images using digital software, photography and drawing. I find the act of simply making interesting marks and images without a primary meaning very uplifting. In this sense, conceptually, abstract expressionism interests me a great deal. Graphic design has indefinitely influenced my eye for beauty, the images I make tend to be related to or of a minimalist digital aesthetic, experimenting with big blocks of colour and digital distortion. I am currently filming simple coloured-pattern animations that I have made off of tv screens, so that the original animation is distorted by the led’s within the screen and again by the camera which is re-sampling the animation…

Monster Avalanche

Who are some of the artists you look up to?

 I’ve spent a lot of time starring with admiration at the work of Karl Gerstner, Joseph Albers, United Visual Artists, Troika, Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, and funnily often my mother Patrica Parsons, who’s personal practice involves encaptivating layers of abstract shapes and colour.

Faber Films-Book design by Max Parsons

How has living in London inspired you?

London is an integral ingredient to my grown up self, the vast amount of visual communication, the art collages, the fashion talent that pours out of St. Martins each year, the british architecture, the epic galleries such as the Tate, the Gagosian right around the corner from my house - recently showing the brilliantly bold works of Richard Serra, the design museum, the serpentine – Anthony McCall recently exhibited a stunning light and smoke sculpture, Ed Ruscha at the Hayward, this city it packed full of stunning contemporary work from the big galleries through to the smaller student orientated shows in areas such as Peckham, Dalston and Hackney. Bosses and friends I’ve worked with have also had a big influence on my work, such as Dylan Kendle and Simon Taylor at Tomato design agency; I worked there with those guys for a bit after meeting Dylan when he visited my college as a guest tutor. The experience was so important to me, I learnt so much everyday just listening to them converse.

‘London’ - a short experimental project about londons’ youth by Max Parsons & James Waite

Where do you usually create your work?

I’ve recently come out of an internship at Why Not Associates, so I’m working from a studio at home freelancing as a graphic designer and specifically in typography.

Spoken Image

On the topic of concepts, how did the idea behind Spoken Image originate?

Spoken Image was a self-initiated project that inevitably grew from my current interests of sound, vj’ing (live dj inspired visuals), colour and interactivity. It was a research based project that started with looking at how colour and sound actually scientifically relate, or could be related, it seemed important at the time to try and carry through the ideas of colour and sound correlation to an artistic level, as a fully working light installation. I found the viewers reactions the most exciting part. It was experience of the immersive-ness of making coloured patterns with your voice that was the interesting part: the linking of the senses, a fabricated synesthetic experience.  

 Do you consider yourself a scientist?

No.

You also published a book on “Spoken Image”, what can we expect from it?

Spoken Image, the book, was quite a difficult concept to understand on paper, so the book was really just a way of documenting the processes involved and explaining the patterns that might occur and why. Also the project was visually very washed in colour, it was dying to be put into print.

After reviewing your body of work, we're compelled to ask… Were you one of those kids growing up obsessed with optical illusion-type games?

Yes, Magic Eye and Escha are my favs.

The Ministry of Sound-3D animation

Since you view the world through somewhat 3-D frames in comparison to the rest of us, what did you think of Avatar?

I am ashamed to say that I haven’t seen it yet, a friend of the family worked on it too! This week hopefully!

 
A little bird told us that you used to DJ…if it came down to losing your sight or hearing, which would you choose?

That question started deceivingly light and playful. The stuff I used to play was just for fun. Apart from funny, loud and grotesque music, I also love classical and jazz music. I also developed a growing interest in techno. It's the intricate change ups and soundscapes that attract me, not too dissimilar to the aspects that attract me to visual art. I would chose to lose my hearing though, a world with out light seems dark.

 Ok, enough of the silly questions. What future projects can we expect from Max Parsons?

 I’m working on a strange but elegant typeface with my friend Jack, who I am also making a light installation with - where light meets canvas, which unlike a lot of my stuff will be uploaded on to my site soon.

 

 With special thanks to Max Parsons - to see more of his work visit:
www.maxedmundparsons.co.uk

 

Timaj Alwan

 

Source & Photo credit:  With kind permission from Max Parsons

TAGS: max parsons spoken image graphic design