Mike Marsh is ever-present in the Whanganui art scene. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui artist Mike Marsh talks to Emma Bernard about stand-up comedy, music made from toilet noises and the usefulness of the mundane.
Mike Marsh is an ever-present force in Whanganui's art scene. You'll see his work on city walls, in galleries, people's skin and now on the stage.
But one thing underpins it all - comedy.
"I like things that are stupid and idiotic and goofy and I think that's pretty much my art practice. It's just goofy, silly, cartoony stuff," Marsh says.
"I think I'm a good boy who's a bit quirky. That would sum me up."
Marsh took painting as his chosen subject at high school but this was amongst an academic flurry of calculus, statistics, physics and chemistry.
"When I was in my final year of high school, I used to be in my room and at my little desk studying for maths or science or whatever and it started off just drawing, but it got quite elaborate," he says.
"It got to the point where I was just like painting at my little desk with vials of paint and water. I'd have my door closed then when Mum would come into the room I'd have to quickly hide away all my paints and pretend I was studying. I should've known I was an artist.
"I don't have a choice about it. It's who I am, it's what I do."
Since then Marsh has been making a steady flow of art.
"My biggest thing that I said to myself was that when I finish art school, I'm not going to stop making art."
Marsh moved to Whanganui in 2005 and has had at least one show nearly every year.
He and his wife Sarah came for jobs and stayed for the community.
"Because of the size of the town, if you haven't met someone yet, you'll meet them tomorrow," Marsh says.
"It's always been about community. There's always been a really strong artist community here.
"There's good networking, good skill sharing. People are always really keen to help out, like if you want to do something that you've never done before."
And Marsh is always trying new things. But there's one thing that has been central to his art all along - his comedic-cartoon art style.
"My art style has come full circle in a way. It's funny that I've settled back into what I was always doing."
This style is heavily influenced by street art and graffiti scenes, and it's that illustrative, cartoony-style that he's always coming back to.
"I want my art to be immediately digestible. It's not so disposable that you look at it and then you're over it, I think the more you look at it the more you can get out of it.
"But I do always want to have an immediate response from people. I think that's where the graphic design influences come in as well. It has to work fast on people."
Marsh says historically there has been a narrow view of what is accepted as good art but that is changing.
"There's lots of art that was considered low brow or whatever. I like low brow art.
"Things like comic books and some styles of art and illustration. Somewhere between the street and untrained artists and punk rock and folk art."
Primarily Marsh uses paints, but he has explored a seemingly endless list of other art practices including printmaking, ceramics, stick and poke tattoos and even creating fictional bands that he uses throughout his various practices.
"The first fictional band was A Forest Fires The Bamboo Shoots.
"It's a nonsensical play on words. It almost makes sense but then it doesn't. The more you think about it the more it doesn't make sense," he says.
"I sort of did a Gorillaz thing where I created the band members and made portraits of what the band members look like, which is just me dressed up in four different outfits."
Marsh creates art from the perspectives of the fictional band members. One of the band members does stencils, one does ceramics, one does portrait painting, one does screen printing.
There is even a member of The Nervous Bowels who takes photos of toilets for his art practice.
"I did a show a few years later called Solo Group Show which was just me but used some of my extended fictional band characters' universe to create even more styles of work. It looked like it could've been a group show but it was all made by me," Marsh says.
"I feel like people can't deal with it perhaps.
"I do all these different styles, and for it to make sense to other people I just say it's me working from a different angle, and from a different character's perspective.
"But really it's all Mike Marsh. It's just me being me. I don't like to just make one thing all the time."
The idea for using fictional bands came from a desire to create band posters but no one was approaching Marsh with this sort of work, so he just did it himself to the point where he was writing music for his various bands.
"I have an idea of an album I want to make which I would describe as Toilet Opera, for one of my bands The Nervous Bowels."
He wants this album to heavily sample toilet noises. This would somehow include the sounds of flushing, peeing, pooing, farting, door knocking, and maybe even an "Oop! Sorry", the familiar sound of opening a toilet door with someone already in there.
In addition to making comedic art, he has begun the journey into stand-up comedy, where he has performed in Palmerston North and has two upcoming gigs in Whanganui.
"It was a stand-up set, six minutes, original material. I thought I'd never do it, but then I did.
"I couldn't really remember what was happening in the room, I was just holding onto the microphone for dear life and trying to remember my material."
In Marsh's visual art practice, he says he needs parameters around what he's doing to be creative, which is a reason why he doesn't want to be a full-time artist.
"When I'm doing something dull is when I think most creatively."
And when he has time to be creative, he says he can't seem to think creatively.
"It's almost like I need that reaction, and I need an opposite to work against.
"When I have a job that is menial to some degree I have a lot of creative thoughts while I'm doing that.
"The whole idea of my art practice being a reaction to some sort of mundane drudgery is almost like my version of being political. I'm not political, I'd say I'm A-political.
"It's always a reaction to whatever else I'm doing in my life. And I think that's why I struggle with the idea of doing it full-time."
The idea of full-time has weird connotations, Marsh says.
"It sounds like 40 hours a week and X amount of income. I think it's why it's a struggle to be a full-time creative because it's not a clear distinct image of what you're doing.
"It's fuzzy and weird. What is it? Are you a full-time struggling artist? Are you a full-time successful artist? Are you full-time not-paying-the-bills?
"Sometimes it's a luxury to be a full-time creative, which is kind of weird.
"You can't be creative if you're thinking about how you're going to keep a roof over your head.
"That's the closest you'll get me to making a social or political commentary."
• Marsh's next show opens on March 16 at Space Gallery with works related to his wall murals and tattooing practices, including bright colours on plywood.
