Following on from Tea with Moxie, our herald, she has become interested in the many different kinds of members in The Stove Network. She’s been catching up with and speaking to various members, and we’ll be introducing one every Friday over the next wee while.
First up this week is Mark Lyken!
Mark Lyken (b. 1973) is an audio and visual artist. He creates music and sound pieces, films, paintings, and installations. His recent residency work has explored relationships to place and the complex interactions between nature, industry, and culture. He is particularly interested in revealing the musicality of the environment and regularly collaborates with other artists and specialists from different research fields. In 2014, Lyken and Emma Dove established the Glasgow-based art label ‘Soft Error’. Mark is also a Cryptic Associate Artist.
Tell us about your creative process? It’s a process of gathering, layering, refining, and removing. I think that holds true whether I’m painting, making music, or working in film. Our work over the last three years has had high levels of public engagement, which is a new development—particularly for me, as my default mode is hermit!
Working collaboratively with Emma over the last few years has been a real eye-opener. We make work together that neither of us would create alone. It’s quite an odd thing, and one that we are wary of questioning too much in case it stops working! Each of you has a voice, but combined it’s something greater than the sum of its parts.
What drew you to The Stove? I genuinely believe they are making a real difference, and I think the way they present themselves is pitch-perfect. The residency seemed like an excellent way to continue a line of work we are interested in, i.e., relationships to place, but in a completely new location that was culturally and geographically unfamiliar to us. We knew that we would have to move down to D&G, lock, stock, and barrel, as we would have struggled to get under the skin of the place if we hadn’t been living here. Six months is a very short time to be in a place, and any work created in that time can only ever be a snapshot, but I imagine this work will be part of a larger whole. We’re not in any hurry to rush away.
What time of the day do you like most? Between 7 and 9 am. I find that a super productive time. If we are filming, that “Golden Hour” before sunset can be very magical.
Which films changed your life? Tarkovsky’s Solaris, Blade Runner, and Clerks.
What keeps you in and around Dumfries? At the moment, Emma and I are completing a six-month residency with The Stove. We had assumed we would head back to Glasgow afterwards, but we’re gradually being seduced by the region.
What songs do you carry closest to your heart? It’s an album called Raining by Rolf Julius. Rolf was a sound and visual artist from Berlin, who sadly passed away in 2011.
It’s a very simple record—I think it may have originally been part of an installation. It’s nothing more than field recordings of rain with some very subtle electronics. His concept of “Small Music” and the overall aesthetic really speak to me.
Another piece is The Disintegration Loops by William Basinski. It’s one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard. The story is that Basinski set out to digitise old magnetic tape loops he had. He loaded up the loops, set them playing, and hit record. Gradually, over the course of 40 or 50 minutes, the tape literally disintegrated as it repeatedly passed the play head. The sound becomes progressively more distorted, with bigger and bigger gaps, until there’s nothing left to play at all. It’s hypnotic.
Who, from throughout history, would you like to sit and have a good chat with? Andrei Tarkovsky—although I’d need a translator, as my Russian is pretty bad.
What do you consider your greatest achievement? I came runner-up in a Star Wars short story writing competition in 1982 and received a letter of congratulations from C-3PO and a Chief Chirpa figure.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? Show, don’t tell.
What’s your role within The Stove organisation? At the moment, I’m an artist in residence along with Emma Dove. Beyond that, I hope to rent a studio space within the new Stove building and use it as a base for upcoming projects. I find The Stove a really exciting organisation and imagine the relationship will continue.
Tell us your passion? Modular synthesizers.
Read more about Mark and Emma Dove’s collaborative residency project, HAME, which is part of The Stove’s Open House, [here].
