Artist Insa is always a busy man whether he’s painting walls or designing shoes. We caught up with him to chat about his latest project Girls on Bikes.
Artist Insa is always a busy man whether he’s painting walls or designing shoes we caught up with him to chat about his latest project Girls on Bikes.
So there was a pretty specific brief with this one, how did the idea come about?
Well it kind of started with the fact that i paint a lot of walls! And have to photograph these walls; we often wait for a long time to shoot an interesting passer-by with in the picture to show scale and location of the artwork. Then i wanted to force the situation, create a scene that you could probably see in real life, but unlikely so you’re unsure if its reality, so got a friend to cycle past not wearing much.
How did this change things?
When showing people the picture of course all they noticed was the semi naked woman and not my painting- well you would get bike geeks noticing the bike first and trainer geeks would notice the kicks first. For some reason i really liked the fact there was this huge wall i had risked my freedom to get up but people didn't notice that first- like it was the perfect distraction to the crime- or that our minds are so conditioned to notice products that we "need" or the sexuality that is used to sell us stuff that that is what stands out first. So I wanted to play with this more and thought it would be a great challenge to paint 12 big walls where ever i went on my travels in a coordinated colour scheme and then totally belittle this achievement by sticking a hot girl on a bike in front of it!
Do you have a favourite picture and if so why?
I think the last image is my favourite! Partly because it was the final image and I knew I had managed to complete the set but also because it was in Hong Kong- I had only been in the city for 24 hours and managed to find a good spot to paint right in the centre of town and had been introduced to this cool girl, Naomi, who was traveling through HK from Montreal and she liked the work and wanted to get involved in the project- and so it happened I got the shot! The girl the bike the wall all sorted in 24 hours.
How did you find all your models, and did you do all the styling, choosing bikes clothes etc?
Some are girls I have worked with as models in the past, some are girls I meet along the way and others are from putting an open call out on twitter to followers of my work who wanted to get involved. It is always paramount to me to work with people that are genuinely into my work and get the ideas behind it, and feel very happy and confident in the project. Yes I did the styling- some of the clothing pieces were made specially to match the bikes- I also worked with the girl so she could pick what she wanted to wear and be represented in.
What was the best bit of the project for you?
Setting myself a goal and getting it done! Totally unfunded, unsupported- just because I wanted to.
You travelled a lot with this project, what were your favourite places on the way? Were there any which were more challenging /fun/ interesting?
It was actually a case of doing a photo in the places I happened to be in this year on my travels rather than traveling to locations to do the photos- which of course added to the challenge and the honesty of the evolving piece. Of course I would have loved to have every image in a different city but I live in London so a lot of walls happened in London. As most of the walls were painted illegally every location had its different challenges! In fact I documented some of the painting of the spots live on my twitter to show the challenges of getting a spot painted. It would be very hard to choice a favourite location- it would be a toss-up between LA and SF though. The one in Ghent was pretty cool- because I had a few hours before my train out of there and was like I can get a wall done here- I had some paint, I found a spot in the centre of town and set about painting early morning while everyone was going to work and this local girl Mary cycled past who I’d met a couple days earlier. After a quick outfit change round the corner she jumped on her bike and I got the shot and then jumped on the train out of there!
What's up for next year any more projects?
I always have a several projects on the go- and next year I'm very much looking forward to a solo show I have planned out in Hawaii :)
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