First the traditional introduction – can you tell us who are you, where are you coming from, what are you doing?
I’m Maximillian, a freelance creative who splits time between the UK and Australia …
Why collages? How did you started to do them? What was the first thing that caught your attention?
As a kid, it sounds cliche, but it helped me to form my identity; to compile photographs, memorabilia, gig tickets and so on. By combining my music tastes with other interests like skateboarding culture. I surrounded myself visually with these ‘mood boards’ I made in order to be of a world I loved and wished to be a part of.
Today my practise starts with the hunt, the gathering of elements from the widest variety of printed media available, the more diversity and strangeness, the better. After this the cutting and blending begins, but rarely with a concept of the final result.
What inspires you or your work?
The Instagram community has been huge, I follow hundreds of like-minded creatives doing amazing things.
Otherwise using my body, skateboarding, kicking a football around, doing physical activities breaths new life into what I do when I sit down.
Music, at the moment its Andrew Jervis on his weekly Bandcamp Radio program.
When do you start to work a new piece, how do you approach your subject?
In the day I tend to bookmark pages, do the majority of the cutting and amass a decent pile of imagery, it’s then in the night that ideas and arrangements begin to form.
You have earlier mentioned to us that you’re less interested in gluing and prefer to compose and photograph instead and then revisit the cut outs – can you tell about your creative process?
I find it hard to part with a cutting, sticking it down is just so permanent! Once it’s fixed that’s it. Certain images feel too precious and hard fought to have found and then carefully cut out just to be included in one art work when potentially they can be thrown into other concepts, ideas and projects later on. All that being said, sometimes a traditional cut and paste works for me too, but mostly as I have always got such large and ambitious ideas I want to make, it just makes sense to use photography as the final medium.
Your collages are so wild, they burst of colors and there are layers after layers of hidden details to be discovered. How you quickly you found your ”style”?
It’s something that I can’t explain, it just happens but maybe it’s just a phase, perhaps in a few years I’ll be down to a minimalist approach, for now though everything has to be filled to the max 🙂
What are the best and worst things in collaging?
Best? Its my passion, I’m always excited about all the possibilities and future ideas.
Worst? It can affect my ability to see a book or magazine for what its intended for! Instead of having a curiosity to read its content, I just want to rip it apart.
What connection do you have to your work? Do you want your viewers to understand or know why you made them?
I make because I love to do it, whether people understand it or not doesn’t seem important. That being said, I do love to share and show, and when somebody finds something I’ve made captivating, then that gives me a huge buzz.
What keeps you collaging? What excites you about it?
The large scale possibilities of combining years and years worth of cuttings…
Do you observe your development as an artist? And then, do you have a clear vision what you’re going to do or try next?
I hope that I’m improving, that I’m beginning to find my own ’corner’ which distinguishes my work, within a creative world, filled with so much talent. Next, to keep looking for new exciting commission opportunities and working collaboratively.
If you should describe your art with one word, what would it be?
Maximum-power.
Maximillian Malone around the internet:
Homepage: maxmalone.tumblr.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/maximillian.malone
Etsy: www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MaximillianMalone
