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Max Colson - The Green and Pleasant Land

This film was part of Max Colson’s solo show at arebyte Gallery in 2017 titled The Green and Pleasant Land.

This film was made one year after the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. It is being made public on the eve of the second deadline (now postponed to October 2019) for the UK to leave the EU.

 

Taking as its subject different perceptions of the British landscape, this short animated film is a roaming exploration of national identity and collective history set in a post-Brexit environment. Using a 3D model of the United Kingdom, a variety of visual scenarios – poignant, nostalgic and absurd – are enacted using a ‘live’ animation technique. These scenes draw directly on user comments found below the line of videos and online newspaper articles concerning the English and British countryside.

What emerges is a meditation on the British landscape – both as an imaginary vision and as a new world digitally constructed. The Green and Pleasant Land is a site where opinion, memory, history and highly charged emotion are given form, and are opened up for discussion and critique.

This film was commissioned by arebyte gallery and developed through a residency with support from Arts Council England. It was exhibited as part of arebyte’s 2017 programme.

Screenings:
2018, New UK Shorts, Sheffield Doc Fest, UK (World Premiere)
2018, International Programme, DOK Leipzig: 61st International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, DE
2018, Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, NL
2018, Artist Film Programme, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, UK
2018, Bolton International Film Festival, UK

Reviews:
2018, ‘DOK Leipzig: When Animation Meets Nature’, Berliner Film Festivals, translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fberliner-filmfestivals.de%2F2018%2F11%2Fbff-on-the-road-festivalbericht-von-der-61-dok-leipzig%2F2&sandbox=1

2017, ‘Crude Golden Age: A Comment on The Green and Pleasant Land by Max Colson’, Digicult (written by Filippo Lorenzin), digicult.it/news/crude-golden-age-comment-green-pleasant-land-max-colson/

See The Green and Pleasant Land exhibition at arebyte.com

Max Colson’s artistic practice explores the intersection between architecture, landscape and their interpretation through the lenses of laser scanning and 3D architectural animation.

Max’s award-winning films have been selected to screen at international film festivals including Sheffield Doc Fest (2018), DOK Leipzig (2018), Hamburg International Short Film Festival (2018), and the Aesthetica Short Film Festival (2017+2018). In addition to group shows in Europe he has had solo exhibitions at the Royal Institute of British Architects (2015) and Arebyte (2017). His films have been the recipient of the Tenderflix/Tenderpixel Artist Video Award (2017) and are archived by the BFI (2019). He teaches at Central Saint Martins on the MA Graphic Communication Design.

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