Background bizzle

 

My name is Mark Wallace, I am an artist/ DJ /producer living in Dundee. I was born in Dundee and raised on the 'Pletties of Skarne Blocks’, on the infamous Whitfield Housing Estate during the 70s/80s.

I learned to use ‘Skuffcoat’ before I was 8 but not on shoes. I was always fascinated by the graffiti on the walls at a really young age growing up, it was mostly musical, political, territorial graffiti but it made lasting impact.

MW in home made dungarees, Whitfield mid 70s

I 'm happy enough to be raised in Dundee, Im quite proud to be Dundonian, I had some great times and some not so good, growing up in Whitfield or 'H Block' as it was fondly compared with.
Growing up in Dundee for me was all about, being a mod, discovering Northern Soul at 13, going to all-nighters with my girlfriend, getting tailormade gear, discovering House music in 87, putting on club nights, watching my beloved United with my son, going to art college, a great place!

Whitfield fae above 1970?, what the....Enter Snake Plisken

Dundee and in particular the Whitfield landscape have inspired a lot of my early work, everything from screen printed books,collage and music, films and clothing. Even the colours on my early record sleeves relate to the gang Jerseys worn by the youths from Whitfield, I got one of these Jerseys custom made for an exhibition at the VRC in 2004. Theres a 3D version of the housing estate in parts of the Film ‘Outer City Blues’ .
I couldn’t help being motivated by the landscape and the futuristic experimental architecture prison style look of Whitfield, it really was some place.

 

'Shams Land' Screen Print 2000

I currently work as a lecturer in the Fine Art Department at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Dundee. My speciality is in all digital aspects of art particularly Film and sound design but I'm very passionate about drawing and printmaking,typography.
It really is a dream job being able to share my knowledge and learn with new artists from all over the world right here in my home town.

When I get a spare moment I write 'Artvibes' for UKVIbe where I interview new artists whose work Im feeling .I actualy contributed a comic strip called Vinyl Junkie for UK Vibe in the mid naughties when it was a traditional published Magazine. UK Vibe is a a pure labour of love thing, pop it in yir bookmarks.

The his-story of the future

More recently, work that I created merely for amusement is becoming my main focus.
I’ve never really considered my work as satire but I suppose its true, a lot of my work represents life truths from an off register perspective (a bit like Robert Crumb ), I love to poke fun at things I observe or that annoy me; whether its local media, corruption in society, real life, politicians or the art world, there is an infinite wealth of material out there.

This is a natural route because I have always created mad comics and remixed advertisements, merely to entertain myself and get a lot of frustration and anger out of my system (it works!!). I used to do these mad re-dubbed video’s sometimes in broad Dundonian dialect of adverts and TV programs such as Rainbow and Button Moon with my mate Kiddy, but I have never really connected it with my art before until now.
I never thought I would use lard or haggis in my work but I had to for the purpose of creating a family pack of ‘Scotch Lard bites’ and ‘Pope Scotch Haggis’ for the last Generator Members show. Work like ‘Smak Foil’ is a fictional product based on my local corner shop’s best selling item, and I don’t live in a street full of budding Jamie Oliver’s.

Smak Foil Advert 2011

I enjoy creating characters like ‘Oor Bubbles’ a typical Dundonian drug addict Inspired by the many I see on the streets on a daily basis. these are published along with other work in the excellent Yuck N Yum Art Zine.

 

Oor Bubbles 2010 © Mark Wallace

This year I want to continue to release music on vinyl, in particular a couple of seven inch singles in the style of classic soul 45s as a box set,Vinyl records have become like Joseph Beuy's beloved felt. I am still continuing to develop my digital work and drawings for print, I am improving at using Illustrator and Flash so that’s featuring heavily.
I am also creating ficticious soul 45 designs and making up my own labels a bit like the artist Mingering Mike or Swifty, my motivation is a sheer love of the diverse range of 45 label art coupled with the fact that they slightly satisfy my hunger for not having all the original records for a moment.

I will consider any kind of location for exhibiting my work, I have still not had a solo show yet I think its about time this stuff went public. I will swap art/prints and take on commissions for rare soul records.

Roots n Culture

Being slightly obsessed with collecting vinyl and Soul Culture, working as a DJ has allowed me to work alongside all of my musical heroes over the years, it’s also been invaluable experience developing a distinct musical ear.

Vinyl Records, sound and the design unashamedly continue to feature in my practice as a slightly more serious side to my work. I believe there’s nothing finer than records and their packaging. I find it appealing that my work can be distributed, collected and owned at an affordable price, that is important to me.

Northern Soul in the mid late 80s was a pretty hardcore underground movement in Scotland, gone were daft tunes that plagued certain venues in the 70s, it was a very specialist affair a lot of new blood younger cats discovering the scene, new tunes were being unearthed and played via passionate soul devotees. it was a good time to be into Northern and certainly made yir palette that bit more discerning for the years to come.

Unfortunately I cant just focus on one era of soul music (bit like my art) I cant get enough of the current filthy Detroit sound of Marcellus Pitman, Theo Parrish or the bang on soulful joys of Kerri Chandler, Kenny Dixon Jnr or Ron Trent, don’t get me started on the mouth watering soulful perfection of the Mizell Brothers or master producer Norman Whitfield or Charles Stepney, David Axelrod, Johnny Pate ………

I love making music, I spend any spare time laying down beats n rhythms tracking down good samples turning them inside in, I am feeling more confident with the music I am creating at the moment. I realize that its all about getting inside the music, just like what Dilla done.

Music of Black origin has always touched me and played a role in my life I am proud to be part of that ‘Soul Boy’ tradition like a lot of other like minded working class Brits.

KTF