Anton Parsons
Some Other Place, 2019
Cast iron and corten steel
2440 x 1050 x 1050mm
Anton Parsons was born and raised in Palmerston North and currently lives in Auckland. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in sculpture, from Canterbury University School of Fine Arts, Christchurch in 1990.
“Some Other Place is an invitation. There is a need to get inside it, to move from the exterior to the interior where the internal dot sequence challenges the viewpoint. These seemingly innocuous rounds make up a braille text about the eye, concentrating on not seeing in the way that is expected, it’s a translation of the physical into an idea. Getting into the middle of Some Other Place skews perception, offering an alternative way of looking at the world, both physically and metaphorically.”
Parsons employs a range of media in his oeuvre, industrial materials, readymades objects and photographs.
Parsons is well known and respected for his large scale public and corporate installations. One of his most famous is titled Gone Fishing, 2002. Located on the first floor concourse of the Price Waterhouse Coopers tower. It is on a monumental scale which creates an entire 'curtain wall sculpture' that spans over forty metres in length, engulfing the viewers peripheral vision.
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.”
