Millie Dunstall, Radish so Red

Millie gathers inspiration from pop culture, cartoons, graphic design, and the urban environment, with a particular interest in graffiti and the aesthetics of early 90’s and 2000’s cartoons. Many of the characters in her works are nostalgic and often anthropomorphised — the Reluctant Dragon, the Green M&M, the Kewpie Mayo baby, and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.

As her interest in graffiti has grown it has changed the way she views public space — considering it with the intention of engaging, as opposed to passing through. Tagging and branding merge together to saturate the urban environment — forcing pedestrians to (involuntarily) consume or block out an overwhelming excess of information. The process she uses imagines the pasts of discarded objects, to stir feelings of nostalgia, and encourage the projection of personal narratives.

Her works are at times grimy and ugly, at times candy coated or shined up in chrome. Millie enjoys working with spray paint, because of its reference to graffiti as well as its relationship to creating at speed, producing energy in the work.

Millie is a recent fine arts graduate from Toi Rauwhārangi, Massey University College of Creative Arts, and lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington.