MAX WYSE’S MEXICO TERRARIUM! IN TIME FOR THE HEAT!

I first saw Max Wyse’s work a bunch of years ago at Centre Clark. He was in a show with another fellow whose name slips my mind at the moment. But Max’s name and images never did. I’ve carried my intensely visceral connection to his work around for years, in a back pocket or perhaps as a stain on a favourite shirt. And recently, I’ve had the pleasure of re-visiting his magnificent lint pile and spaghetti drop in a much more direct way.

I think it started when, after leafing through old invites to shows and seeing his name, I contacted him out of the blue to do an interview about his work. Or maybe it started when I was enthusiastically and warm-heartedly invited into his studio/home for a visit that involved talk of world-class lesbians, trips taken and porcelain cows.

However it started, and however it will end, (hopefully in one big blow-up brawl a la Steven Segall in his heyday) I am most delighted to present here some questions and answers about his practice for y’all.

And the interview couldn’t be more timely - tomorrow night at 6pm sharp, come one and all to Galerie Mclure (map embedded in link) for the vernissage of Max’s new solo show, Mexico Terrarium. Not only is it going to be one heck of an awesome exhibition, but seriously folks, you know and I know and everyone knows that you need an excuse to go to Westmount, right? Think of all those hot Westmount…ah….dogs?

But don’t let ME convince you of how awesome he is - he can do that himself. Without further ado, Max in Max’s own words:

TFM: if you could give me an idea about this exhibition that would be great - where, when, etc.

MW: My upcoming exhibition, Mexico Terrarium, at the McClure Gallery is a collection of recent works which are the ripest fruits of an obsession that I’ve been harbouring for four years.

TFM: would you consider this work to be a major departure from your past work? a continuation? do you see shows as an opportunity to showcase “series” or is it a more fluid process for you?

MW: The creation of series of works is in fact a very fluid process for me. Although I proceed from one work to the next, after making large numbers of notational drawings, I do see them as part of a coherent whole.  For the past four years, I have been involved in an obsessive quest to capture and portray an eccentric, magical essence that I encountered during an important sojourn in Mexico, often embodied by a recurring comical peasant figure in the act of metamorphosing into a king of the plant world.

TFM: could you talk a little bit about the materials and the process you use to create your pieces/how and when you started working in this way?

MW: My primary practice consists of creating works on plexiglas which are equal parts drawing and painting.  I begin by sanding one side of the plexiglas, which gives me “tooth,” thus enabling me to draw directly on the surface.  The drawing, which forms the bones of the work, is followed by a process of a layering of pigments dusted into a dirty, liquefied acrylic base followed by further layers of acrylic paint.  The work is done in reverse, foreground to background.

TFM: Who do you consider as inspirations/what are your inspirations for your process? Are you influenced by other artists? By cacti? By world class lesbians? (I feel there’s an affinity between your work and art-of-the-grotesque (Goya, Ensor, etc)…

MW: My influences are varied - some come and go, some are consistent.  I draw continuously upon the richness of plant and animal life and faded but shimmering memories of psychedelic experiences.  I have an ever growing archive of photographic sources and tend to re-employ images of spiders, scorpions, mushrooms, cats, flowers, dogs, rats, cacti, snails, vegetables and meats, etc…..

Artistic influences are similar in that some will fluctuate and go, some remain hovering. From time to time, I will refresh my regard upon certain figures, for example James Ensor, Enzo Cucci, Francisco Toledo, Goya, the Bruegels, the unnamed creators of mesoamerican art.  Without looking too hard, I’ll happen upon an artist whose work really nails me, such as the contemporary Austrian sculptor Elmar Trenkwalder, who I saw in a brilliant pairing with the 20th century French painter Augustin Lesage (associated with art brut) at la Maison Rouge in Paris, in 2008.

TFM: Does text/verbal considerations play a role in your process at all? to me there’s a certain subconscious element (stream-of-consciousness) to your work. true? untrue? do phrases words text play into the shaping of your work?

MW: Flashes of text may play a role but I usually reserve for them the duty of Title. Infrequently, a title will arise which will actually direct the conception of the image.

TFM: could you discuss how you engage with and choose the symbols and motifs you engage with?

MW: So far, I feel that I approach the collection of imagery as would an archaeologist hopped up on psylocibin.  The images, whether of plants, animals or Aztec divinities are classified and grafted upon the human figure, which remains a central element and ground for transformation.

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