Anton Parsons

Past Exhibition
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Aphasia, 2010
Anodised Aluminium, 2600mm x 2400mm x 2400mm

Language is reordered to make for new possibilities. 'Aphasia' offers information in an abstract manner, embellished and elaborated upon by whoever is looking at it. There is no right or wrong meaning.

Parsons employs a range of media in his practice - industrial materials, ready made objects and photography. Scale is exaggerated, surfaces are highly polished sometimes to the point of distraction, and the way an object occupies a space is carefully considered. The emptiness or unoccupied space around his work of art is just as important as the work itself, for viewers to become participants, interacting with the installation, navigating and negotiating their way around.

All of these techniques result in an open experience, questions rise and answers fall. Likened to the silence between musical tracks on an album, Parsons' creates a 'visual pause for thought' in his work.

Aphasia
Aphasia
Aphasia
Aphasia
Aphasia

More from this artist

Artist Bio

Considered one of New Zealand's leading sculptors, Anton was born in 1968 in Palmerston North and currently lives in Auckland. In 1990 he completed a BFA in Sculpture at Canterbury School of Fine Art, Christchurch, New Zealand winning the Rosemary Muller sculpture award. During this decade he received creative grants from QE2 Arts Council (1991 & 1993) and Creative New Zealand.(1996)

Anton uses a range of media including industrial materials, readymade objects and photography. He often creates large-scale, site-specific work such as the braille ‘curtain wall’ of Gone Fishing in PWC Tower.

He has exhibited in many group and solo shows and appears in many private collections, while his public commissions include:

Passing Time, 2011, Wilson Reserve, Christchurch

Numbers, 2007, Coleman Mall, Palmerston North

The Longest Day, 2004, Q&V Building, 203 Queen Street

Analogue, 2004, KPMG Building, Tauranga

Invisible City, 2003, Lambton Quay, Wellington

Polyglot, 2003, North Shore District Court, Albany

Gone Fishing 2002 PWC Tower, Auckland

Alphabeti, 1992, High Court, Wellington

Anton says that he doesn’t believe that the artist necessarily needs to impose his views or beliefs on the people who view the art. “In that sense, I am a little unusual I suppose. I do like a message to be buried in the work, but it is hidden and isn’t necessarily meant to be found. It means as much to me that the viewer might impose their own interpretation on the work. It’s like when someone has a favourite song, but doesn’t know the words or mishears them and gets them wrong. Does it take anything away from the song that the listener has a different idea of what it’s about, or gets pleasure from it thinking the words are nonsensical? I don’t think so.”