Maxim the prodigy
We’ve got NHS Charities Together on board, and we donated a sculpture to them. And so, once we launched it, we realized that it was more important to get charities on board, so we could donate sculptures to these charities. It was a multi-level project that touched on so many different areas in our lives and everybody’s lives, which we didn’t realize. So once we saw the film, it was like, ‘This touches on so many different subjects and so many different levels, so it’s not just a sculpture.’ Nobody was talking about that, or homelessness. Obviously, they talk about hospitalization, people going through certain things and certain treatments, and so on, but young kids and their mental health is an issue that was overlooked.
![maxim the prodigy maxim the prodigy](http://www.decibeleventi.com/1/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/maxim.jpg)
Because these two areas seem to be forgotten during the pandemic. But we were touching on children’s mental health and also homelessness. We were just thinking about making a sculpture, making a film for the sculpture, and that was it. It was the only day it was snowing.Īnd as we were filming it, it felt like we were touching on so many different subjects we never even thought about. And then once we started to film, and we were actually in the second lockdown here, and it was snowing, it just happened to be snowing that day. We kind of built the whole idea around the end concept of the boy, getting the box and then sitting down and then opening it. We made a few adjustments to the film, but it’s more of the director’s idea. The film kind of came after that, because Dan had a client he sold a painting to who was actually a filmmaker, and he said, ‘Oh, you know if you’ve got any projects you’re working on, I’ll make a short film for you.’ And Dan said, ‘Oh, I’m actually working on a project with Maxim at the moment,’ so he told him the idea of the concept of the sculpture, and he made the film idea around that. It’s about the grenade and about the heart inside of it. He was just kneeling over it with his hands over like that. So we worked out that if you put it down and he was kneeling over it, it didn’t matter what size it was. It looked like this big bomb in his hands it didn’t work. It didn’t work with him holding it because the sculpture is 40 centimeters tall, and a grenade is about 12 centimeters. It would be good if the boy actually held the grenade in his hand, the sculpture,’ and then we played around with that. So I said, ‘You know what? I’ve got a sculpture of a grenade. And I thought, how about putting a heart inside it, and when you throw it, it spreads love? So that’s the foundation of the whole of the film. So obviously, the thing behind a grenade is that it brings destruction you throw it in the direction of something you want to kill, something you want to maim, or so on. I was just in the process of getting it made as an actual sculpture, like a clear grenade with a heart inside it. I had an idea of the grenade probably about a year before that. Let’s collaborate.’ But what’s at the basis of the project is a grenade. How did the Hope project come together?ĭan Pearce came up to me and said, ‘Oh, it’d be good to do a collaboration.’ I’ve known Dan for quite a few years, so I said, ‘Yeah, cool.
![maxim the prodigy maxim the prodigy](https://live.staticflickr.com/8518/8401019894_4f00fe9761_b.jpg)
In the following interview, Maxim discusses the motivations and process behind the project.
![maxim the prodigy maxim the prodigy](https://m.psecn.photoshelter.com/img-get2/I00009hZqk77n_Bc/fit=1000x750/Maxim-Reality-prodigy-3.jpg)
Several of the sculptures were donated to raise money for charities. Hope was born out of the pandemic and based on the image of Pearce’s son wearing a gas mask and preparing to pull the pin of a clear grenade that contains a heart. There is also an NFT component and exhibit in London’s 99 Projects gallery.
#MAXIM THE PRODIGY SERIES#
It’s a series of sculptures, a film, and a music EP (initially only available with the sculptures). He’s recently launched Hope, a collaboration with Dan Pearce that has allowed him to combine his creative skills. Outside of his work as MC/vocalist in The Prodigy, Maxim is an acclaimed mixed-media artist.