A compassionate voice. Artworks of breathtaking intensity. Passions for cooking, dancing, and fashion. No, Max Anish Gowriah is not like other artists.
He speaks candidly about his childhood imbued with discipline and silence, and a solitude that he has come to appreciate with age. About his transformation from Anish to Max at the age of 16. About that creative hand that never (or hardly ever) stopped drawing, doodling, illustrating, photographing, sketching faces, fashion outfits, bodies. About his relationship with himself, his relationship with the Other.
When he was younger, Anish was afraid.
"When I created Max, I detached myself from Anish. Max allowed me to assert my will. It gave me the courage to authentically express myself. It liberated me.[...] Today, I treat my body like a child," he says. But he, who feels like a child, thinks like an old soul, with the depth of vision and sensitivity that animates the wise.
As a teenager, Max distances himself from drawing, too closely associated with his past, and starts photographing. As the winner of a fashion photography competition, he discovers this inspiring world and sets off to Florence, Italy, where he stays for 7 years to attend a fashion school. When he speaks of Florence, he exults. "I devoured those moments with love." Armed with his diploma, he interned at Agnès B. in Paris, producing over 3,000 drawings in 6 months. It is a fiery return to his original passions.
When he returns to Mauritius after a second internship, he cannot leave again due to Covid. "I had family problems and felt a bestial anger. I created paintings with darker themes - I pulled everything out." This cathartic outpouring yields results as he soon lands his first solo exhibition at the Imaaya gallery, followed by a second one in 2022. Since 2016, he has also been using social media to sell his artworks. He asserts without hesitation: Instagram saved him. The photos are expressive, meticulous, irresistible. The artwork is within the photo, but the photo itself is an artwork where Max stages himself with panache.
Max currently practices his art, dances, and takes care of his cats in the studio where he lives in Quatre-Bornes. "When I was young, I felt a lot of shame. But shame stifles creativity. Now I dance like a child, I engage all my senses while cooking, I let my body listen to my voice. I am so satisfied!" Sometimes, when he lacks inspiration, he starts with himself - literally. "I draw my eye. Then the eye becomes an animal, or a plant, or a body. My hand does the work, and my eyes observe," he says. But his photos also reveal a genuine desire to showcase the Other, and a generous love for his friends, whom he loves capturing on film.
A serene yet passionate artist, he now integrates his plural identities into oneself that he listens to and values. "Every morning, I say hello to a new Max. And every evening, I bid him farewell. I always do the dishes before going to sleep, out of respect for tomorrow's Max." When talking to him, one can feel a genuine sense of release, a curiosity for the world, a desire to love. "What stimulates me the most," he says, "is surrendering to life."
