Insight Garage Art Tour

Head to the source this weekend for an exhibition dedicated to the slightly surreal world of Australian artist Steve Garrow. Creative Art Director for surf- and skate-wear brand Insight, Garrow has spearheaded the cult label’s campaigns for years, each time with a freshness of approach which is, frankly, mind boggling. From strange underwater worlds of French fries, dinner parties and monkeys, to eerily dismembered legs cluttering an otherwise idyllic beach, Garrow’s art has undeniably helped push Insight to cult status.

A surfer himself, Garrow divides his time between Insight HQ in Sydney, Australia, and Bali where he’s been putting the finishing touches to the label’s Fall/ Winter campaign (that’s Australian Fall/ Winter – think S/S 2011), as well as producing a short film for the brand called Repeat After Me; I am Free: all shaky camera shenanigans with a stellar soundtrack. As if he weren’t busy enough, he’s also leading Insight’s very first Garage Artists Tour, which has seen the artist and his entourage visit Hong Kong and Beijing, before heading to Taipei, Tokyo, Bangkok and Bali, showcasing just some of the art that makes the brand’s campaigns so recognizable.

When Creative Hunt stopped by source to catch up with Garrow, exhibition organizers were trying to coerce the artist into painting a skateboard ramp. Happily, he surprised everyone and obliged. See the results in the video below and visit the exhibition at the source opening next week for much more of the same.

How has the tour gone so far?
It’s been good – we’ve been to Hong Kong, Beijing and now here. But unfortunately I’m leaving tomorrow – I’ve just got too much work on. Actually, I kind of wish I could have stayed here longer instead of Beijing, Shanghai looks amazing!

It is. You’ll just have to come back. Are you heading back to Bali or Australia?
Bali. I’ve got to finish the campaign and I’m starting another exhibition with a photographer so there’s lots still left to organize for that – probably another month or so in Bali, then Australia.





Sounds like you’re busy. Tell me about the Repeat After Me video – it looks like it was an awful lot of fun to make.
Yeah, it was crazy. We have a good bunch of very talented friend who we draw upon for things like this. And working with them is just great – they’re not only talented but also mates, so it’s a lot of fun… all the rules go out of the window! I’d hate to work the other way now – I think working with talented mates is as good as it gets.

I'd like to talk a bit about your work. Dopamine and Good Morning Pluto seem quite surreal what with underwater worlds and so forth – where do you get your inspiration from?
I don't know, just fun stuff in my head – daydreams, that kind of thing. I get influenced by everything, from movies to music. That idea for the underwater world came from The Beatles’ The Yellow Submarine. I was watching it a lot and then the idea that I was trying to do fell through and I had to come up with something new. I guess The Beatles must have affected me more than I realized because the next thing I knew I was doing this underwater stuff. For Insight I do installation art, but that’s what I do outside of work too. I’ve always done slightly weird stuff… I’ll paint a car, or a rock, or a tree. Recently I’ve been getting into film too.

Tell me about the Insight Garage Artists Tour
Actually it was my boss, Drew Down’s idea. I'm doing a campaign now [Fall/ Winter 2011] with about seven or eight international artists, so I just said OK, why don’t we tour all this stuff around, but in the end it ended happening so quickly that we just had to go with my stuff. It’s great and it’s really a pleasure, but I’d love to have done it with everyone else. It will come though [on future tours to Europe and the States]. The new campaign is lots of installation art by all sorts of artists, so think of it like I’m just the start of something…here to get the formula going, iron out any bugs in the system!

Who are the other artists you’re working with on the new campaign?
Simone Decker, Knitting Girl, a Japanese artist called Mad Saki, my brother George Garrow, Fraser Anderson, Rad Dan ... a whole bunch. We did nothing but installation art… [and] bought in a lot of really good artists that we love and gave them all time and money to build whatever they wanted really. They just had to make sure it fit into the containers we were using and then we photographed it in weird environments. Instead of morphing it back into skate and surf, we just have skate, surf and art. It’s worked out really well, a lot of fun [and in keeping with Insight as a lifestyle brand]. It'll be released in December this year.



Is this a change in creative direction for Insight?
Yes, we're focusing on the art, instead of mixing the art with the action. We're letting our surfers be surfers and artists be artists. It’s great: normally it’s me and my brother pushing everything forward, so it’s nice to work with other people for a change. It’s worked out really well, a lot of fun [and in keeping with Insight as a lifestyle brand]. It’ll be released in December this year.

Finally, what plans do you have for this skateboard ramp?
I don’t know. My style of art doesn’t really happen that quickly – art takes time, it’s a process. I guess I’ll look at the size of it, try to come up with an idea, perhaps an image to start me off and then I’ll sketch it up and get painting. It would take me 6 – 8 hours, though. You know, they tried to do the same thing to me in Beijing - come on, Steve, paint something! I mean come on though, look at these brushes [admittedly the brushes are on the small side, definitely not what CH would choose were they asked to paint a skateboard ramp]

That’s going to take you a long time. Why don’t you send someone out to get you a roller?
Yeah, it’s not really my style. If it were, then I’d do it but it’s not. I’m just looking at it now and trying to think of something…

You can’t force creativity
You can after a while I guess, give it a few hours and I’ll have to do something!


… and indeed he did. To see what exactly, check out the video and pictures, or, head to the source to see the Shanghai leg of the Insight Garage Artists Tour between 20th and 30th November.