We speak to Mark Morgan Dunstan, who is currently taking part in the artist residency at DegreeArt with three other artists; James Mansfield, Estella Castle and Martha Beaumont, who have collectively constructed a log cabin in the gallery space as part of a project entitled Lake Island. An ambitious feat to say the least. As an artist, Mark has previously been awarded the Art Quest Workweek Prize, GAM Ma Fine Art Prize, and the Harriet Anstruther MA Prize for Artistic Excellence. Working in a number of mediums, including egg termpura and oil paint, Mark explains the practice behind his work, and comments on the challenges of the Lake Island project.
You’re currently taking part in a residency at DegreeArt.com, how has this been for you yourself to develop your work?
It’s been a great opportunity to realise a vision and respond to it. Working with ideas, drawings and images only gets me so far down the road, and I usually feel the need to make the things I imagine rather simply producing illusions of them.
You’re collaborating with three other artists, have you learned anything more from each other that hadn’t previously arisen on other projects together?
This is our first project together, but having gone to school together, we had a lot of conversations and I see this residency partly as an opportunity to explore the cross-pollination that happened.
When you were all planning the residency what did you personally want to get out of the Lake Island project?
I really just wanted the opportunity work in a space for a while, to manifest an idea and deal with the material and conceptual problems that naturally arise.
You use a medley of mediums when creating your pieces, including egg tempera, what lead you to utilise such mediums?
I started using egg tempera while working on a series of paintings that imitated Byzantine icon paintings. Since then, it has been another part of my toolkit, and I use it when I want a water based medium that is more meaty and fresh than acrylic. I use whatever medium seems appropriate for a specific task, it’s as simple as that.
The contrasts you gain in your works are stunning, and there seems to be an element of rural survival in your works, where has this come from?
I grew up in the mountains, and perhaps being in London has allowed me the distance to be able to approach the world I know best as a subject. It always felt a bit obvious or boring when I was living there.
Fire seems to be a recurring theme in your works, what is the meaning of this?
I’m more interested in smoke really, fog, clouds, smoke and mirrors, the whole Tiepolo vibe. Smoke is ominous and vague, it obscures the eye, but it can be a signal.
How has it been for you as an artist working with drawing and painting mixed media pieces to work on an installation?
I think about all of the artwork I make with the same general principles, installation just provides the opportunity to make spaces rather than produce images of them.
Are there any artists old or new that influence your work?
Loads of artists, I’d say it’s more pillaging their work for anything I find useful than ‘being influenced by’. The Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery is my favourite hunting ground, Carlo Crivelli at the moment.
What has driven you to include the element of collage in your work, and how did this first come about?
I started using collage because I was bored of painting, but I found that I was more bored of how painting was the ‘important’ way of making images. Collage offers a more democratic way of processing the images I see into artwork. Bits of wood I find are the equivalent, but different from paintings of bits of wood or photos of bits of wood, etc… Art is a lot more exciting to make if I’m not limited to making fine oil paintings.
Lake Island will run until 8th November 2014 at DegreeArt, 12A Vyner Street, London, E2 9DG.
Visit www.degreeart.com for more information and opening times.
