Seeking the Sublime with Mark Bo Chu


This month, we partnered with our friends and founders of Cameron Studio Glenn and Bec Cameron to curate our monthly newsletter series Something Else. We asked Bec and G to interview someone they admired. Enter Melbourne-based artist Mark Bo Chu, known for depicting iconic Melbourne streetscapes and everyday scenes. Photographed by G in Mark’s studio, the interview is a chat between creative friends. 


Mark Bo Chu is a supremely talented and fascinating individual. Artist, writer, scientist
and musician, Mark has studied and exhibited locally and overseas, receiving wide
recognition. We first met a few years ago, and he immediately came to mind when Incu
presented us this opportunity.


YOU'RE INCREDIBLY ACCOMPLISHED ACROSS THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. TELL US ABOUT
YOUR EARLY LIFE, AND HOW THIS HAS CULTIVATED YOUR POSITION TODAY.

I was trained as a concert pianist which left me with an intense desire for sensory pleasure. That can be lonely and
fraught. I know more than one pianist who died in grizzly circumstances… Luckily, I had good friends who didn’t play
music.


YOU HAVE TWO GRAND PIANOS IN YOUR WORKSPACE, WHICH LOOK LIKE THEY'RE BEING
SWALLOWED UP BY ARTWORK AND SUPPLIES. IS MUSIC STILL A FOCUS FOR YOU?

I’ve actually been in the studio lately, making club music!


YOUR VISUAL ART REFLECTS YOUR FASCINATION WITH THE MUNDANE. CAN YOU TALK MORE ABOUT THIS?

For me, freedom is paying attention to what you want. I try to be unbiased toward scenes and objects. Some
of what I paint is typically banal, say, garbage bins, but I’m often presenting these subjects as sublime.


WE'RE LUCKY TO HAVE YOUR FIGURATIVE PORSCHE 911 PAINTING HANG IN OUR STUDIO. PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ABSTRACT VERSUS REALISM IN YOUR WORK.

I’ve become more realist, but I always want to go abstract. I should say, when I paint something like a Porsche,
it’s no endorsement. I paint what I see as an index. Every year, there’s a club car meetup down the road from
my place. It’s a curious vibe. 

YOUR MELBOURNE STREETSCAPES FEATURE MANY RECOGNISABLE NORTHSIDE SPOTS, AN AREA
THAT CS STILL CONSIDERS HOME. FROM YOUR STUDIO SOUTH OF THE RIVER, WHAT ARE YOUR
OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMMONALITIES OR DIFFERENCES IN OUR CITY? DO YOU HAVE A
FAVOURITE PLACE?

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IS CONTRIBUTION TO COMMUNITY IMPORTANT TO YOU?

Melbourne’s creative community seems to share values that evolved from the Australiana of yesteryear. Grungier,
younger, more mature, more compassionate. I contribute how I can. Some people protest. I write papers. But I wish I
had more courage.


DO YOU CONSIDER ANY PAST EXPERIENCES/WORKS A FAILURE? WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH
TO HANDLING NEGATIVE OR 'UNSUCCESSFUL' EXPERIENCES?

For a while I had “no more shit work” painted on my studio wall. Now it’s on the wall in my head. But I still make
laughably shit stuff all the time. It comes naturally. It’s not a failure though. I don’t believe in failure, just tasks and
outcomes. Making bad work is part of developing, because you could be trying to make your best work, and one
misstep ruins it. Part of it is the physical reality of paint—you can’t easily unpaint something. I use the word shit
because I never want to kid myself. Positive vibes only is my idea of a nightmare. But you have to get it right. You have
to appraise really accurately, with complex metrics that evolve but observe consistency. One simple thing I do is think
about the top, middle and bottom of my body of work, and try to improve it all, show by show.

At the level of shows, to avoid disappointment, I do many of the ancillary jobs myself, unglamourous tasks like mailing
print postcards or laying out catalogues on InDesign. It’s not that hard to learn these skills but these jobs
aren’t artistic, so I remind myself not to do them with an artist’s mindset. Sometimes I make mistakes and it kills me. Like
typos on a flyer type thing. But when I’ve left it solely to others, the opening night ends up empty. I want my art to
sing which primarily means being seen. I should say, I prefer to have my work seen by people who don’t identify as
part of the art world. If there is such a thing as the art world, I want to expand it.

To avoid disappointment with collaborators, I try to always be candid, but some people don’t like that, especially
about money, which can cause conflict. I don’t like being cutthroat, but it’s vital in adversarial situations. If you’re in
one, the situation is already negative, but you want to avoid losses and even make compensatory gains. This can
require a different sort of creativity that’s much more strategic. A lot of artists are financially exploited and the person
doing the exploiting won’t even know. Letting exploitation slide would be an intolerable failure to me, but rocking the
boat is quite scary, especially with friends.

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YOU APPEAR GENUINELY, CASUALLY SELF-ASSURED. DO YOU VALUE OTHERS' OPINIONS
ABOUT YOURSELF AND WORK?

I love the public. I love talking to strangers, morning, noon and night. I don’t really care what people in art think,
except that I want them to love me.


AS A VISUAL ARTIST, AS WELL AS A SCIENTIST WHO STUDIES COLOUR, DOES FASHION
INTEREST YOU?

A lot.

Interview GLENN AND BEC CAMERON
| INSTAGRAM
Photographer GLENN CAMERON | INSTAGRAM

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