Sampling and Copying
Q&A with Matthew Wilson
Over the past few weeks we've welcomed artist and educator Matthew Wilson into our Print Studio, where he's been creating new work as part of the Royal Scottish Academy's RSA Residencies for Scotland.
As an experienced artist and printmaker specialising in lithography, Matthew has been exploring visual outcomes using our CNC equipment and the GoccoPro digital screen maker. His current work is based on his research on the archive of works at RSA’s Collection Department. We caught up with him to find out more about what he's been creating and which processes, techniques and equipment he's been exploring.
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Hi Matthew, it's great to have you in DCA Print Studio. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your practice?
Hi! I'm an Edinburgh-based artist and educator with a background in fine art and printmaking. I work with a range of media including print media, sculpture, text, audio, and performance, but the process-heavy techniques of printmaking always seem to be at the foundation of everything I do.
I'm interested in ideas around sampling and copying, and what an element of something can do within an artwork once it’s been replicated and overworked to its fullest extent. Printmaking is great for this because of its roots in mass production and how it allows creators to repetitively create imagery. Some people see it as a means to an end just for creating copies of art or product, but I see a variable nature in its repetitiveness; if you can produce an image one hundred times, then what’s stopping you from doing one hundred different things with that image?
I'm interested in ideas around sampling and copying, and what an element of something can do within an artwork once it’s been replicated and overworked to its fullest extent.
Your residency is being funded by the Royal Scottish Academy and started with a research trip to their Collections Department. What did you find there and how has it inspired you?
I went there wanting to look at all of their copies of old masters’ paintings. They had these scaled-down versions of very recognisable masterpieces made for educational purposes and seemed like the perfect source material for me… but then when I got there they showed me these boxes of prints that were full-colour lithograph copies of Italian frescoes and I became obsessed with them! They were made in the mid-19th Century for the Arundel Society, which was basically a fancy subscription service for people wanting to collect prints of famous artworks.
I was really into the idea that I could experience these versions of the images in a way that wouldn’t be possible with the original paintings. I didn’t feel too precious about them so I could pick them up, rest them on the floor, and record and scan them in loads of different ways. I love the irony of the fact that my connection to these copies and what I could do to them felt so unique compared to what would happen if I was faced with the heavily coveted originals, and I like to think that that let me look at the smaller details of them, with a potential to give them a narrative of my own as opposed to the weighty themes conveyed in religious art.
I love the irony of the fact that my connection to these copies and what I could do to them felt so unique compared to what would happen if I was faced with the heavily coveted originals...
What have you been working on since arriving at DCA Print Studio?
I came here nine months after working at the archive with a lot of small ideas about what the work might look like or be about, but even after all that time to consider it, I didn’t want to come in with a clear idea of what was going to come out the other side. This obsession I have with the idea of “process” means that I usually want to let that process dictate what the work becomes. So I’ve been treating this whole period as my playtime. This has allowed me to take an approach that, to me, feels like pushing the fundamentals of printmaking that I've spent so long considering in my practice. All of the technicians here really understand that and I feel like I’m being guided through the whole thing, which is a huge benefit.
I’m over the halfway point now though, and I feel like I have two or three different bodies of work that all loosely tie together what I’ve been researching. I doubt I’ll have anything finished by the end of August, but I’ll be back!
...I’ve been treating this whole period as my playtime.
Have there been any particular processes or pieces of kit that you've enjoyed working with?
Part of the reason I wanted to come to DCA was because of the unusual kit they have compared to other print studios. I've been using the 3D printer which is new territory for me. I always knew I wanted to have a go on one but I wanted to think beyond the simple idea of “here’s a small 3D model of something”. So I started using it to create printing plates from a lot of my sketch materials. The next new thing will be the 3-axis router which I’m hoping to use to create some kind of frame or vitrine to present some of the work.
However, the experimental approach the studio takes to printmaking means that even the equipment I’m familiar with feels like new territory. One of my favourite things I’ve done is with the laser cutter. I’ve been etching separate layers of images into coloured carbon paper and then creating transfers with them. I think they’ve gone over pretty well in the studio, and I’m inclined to agree!
...the experimental approach the studio takes to printmaking means that even the equipment I’m familiar with feels like new territory.
You studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design - what's it been like being back in Dundee?
I love being back here! I always associate my time at DJCAD as a time when I could create work without any hurdles or distractions, and even though it’s been ten years since I left, it’s felt really easy for me to slip back into that. Also, I wish I had stayed more connected to the city than I did when I left here, so I feel like it’s the perfect time to rebuild that connection.
About Matthew Wilson
Matthew Wilson (b. 1991) is an Edinburgh based artist and educator, who graduated with a BA(Hons) in Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2013, and later from the Royal College of Art in 2018 with an MA in Print. Working predominantly in printmaking, sculpture, mixed media, and sound, he uses process-heavy techniques of print media to explore themes of repetition, sampling and copying, and the nature of imagery. He was selected for the 2014 RSA New Contemporaries exhibition, where he was awarded the Walter Scott Global Investment Award and The Art in Healthcare Purchase Prize. Matthew is also a recipient of the Dewar Award (2016, 2017), and recently won the Benno Schotz Prize at the RSA Annual Exhibition (2024) for work created during his time at DCA Print Studio.
About RSA Residencies for Scotland
RSA Residencies for Scotland is an artist-led scheme which provides valuable research and residency opportunities for artists. It forges important networks with centres of artistic excellence across Scotland, ranging from traditional residency venues to specialised production facilities.
Open to visual artists at all stages of their careers, the emphasis is on enabling a period of research, development and production, as well as on the acquisition and exchange of new skills and experiences.
The Residencies for Scotland programme is administered and funded by the Royal Scottish Academy, with kind support from the The Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and the W Gordon Smith & Jay Gordonsmith Trust.