Passing Time, 2010/11
Parsons' sculpture Passing Time recently installed at Wilson Reserve (entrance to CPIT) just days before the 6th SCAPE was due to open. Although the city centre was shaken during the 22 Februray 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Passing Time continues to stand tall. The work features twisting boxes depicting each year between 1906 (founding of CPIT) and 2010 (the date of the sculpture’s production).
Based in Auckland, Anton Parsons is one of New Zealand's leading sculptors. He graduated from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 1990. His work is held in public and private collections throughout New Zealand.
Parsons’ practice has embraced a wide range of media and modes: industrial materials, readymade objects, photography and installation. His works engage physical space in profound, often unsettling ways through the apparently very simple means. Parsons makes his audience powerfully aware of the physical as much as conceptual demarcations imposed by architecture and the power that resides in social spaces. The audience is implicated in the works by virtue of having to negotiate a way around them.
Public works by the artist include Invisible City in Lambton Quay, Wellington (2003), The Longest Day, located in the Q&V Building, Queen St, Auckland (2004) and Numbers, a recent commission for the Palmerston North Public Sculpture Trust.
Passing Time is commissioned by the Christchurch City Council and CPIT with generous support from CPIT Foundation.
Image: Passing Time by Anton Parsons at the entrance to the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) photographed shortly after the 6.3 Christchurch earthquake. The poster next to the work marks what would have been the starting place for the SCAPE Parade. Anton Parsons, Passing Time, 2010/11, image courtesy of the Art & Industry Biennial Trust.