HOW I TRAVEL

The Adelaide designer and artist on street food, street art and the importance of sabbaticals.

Designer and artist James Brown on street food, street art and sabbaticals.

Just back from… speaking at a conference in Mexico City. The mariachi band in residence wore white suits and, serendipitously, so did I (mine was printed with an image of my own face – people were tripping out on the narcissism). Next up… We’re hoping to sail in our pal’s phinisi from Halmahera, the largest of Indonesia’s Maluku islands, to Raja Ampat in West Papua.

I’m from the dry north-eastern ’burbs of Adelaide, where every kid had crazy freedom and was moderately naughty. At 11 I would take the bus to the city to skateboard and graffiti the back of the bus. At 13 I would catch the train to Melbourne with my pals. Skateboarding and graffiti take you to weird and wonderful places; they gave me a sense of architecture, shape, texture and art, all integrated. It makes you appreciate very weird things, like the detail in concrete and stairs.

The place I travel to most is Indonesia, where I work on lots of art and architecture projects – most recently Tropicola Beach Club in Seminyak. I love Bali and its lack of rules, the trials and tribulations, and the possibilities of creating work there. The people and culture are filled with magical qualities and crafts. Mexico, however, is my spiritual creative home. Mexico City is analogue Tokyo! And the rest is a vortex of colour and the best seafood in the world. Where else can you pull up on the street and eat six types of fresh clams on crackers for less than $2?

My ideal trip is a sabbatical. A year out: no phone, no work, no jocks, no socks, no bookings, no lavish budget, just email and lo-fi on the fly. The best one was spent travelling with a band, Dr Piffle & the Burlap Band, playing what I like to call “low-priority percussion”. I spent some time helping to save Goolarabooloo country at James Price Point in the Kimberley from becoming the world’s largest gas plant. I learnt how to make spears and boomerangs and ate oysters off the rocks. Then I met the band in East Timor and we did a tour playing all the snowfields in Australia. We frolicked at Burning Man in Nevada, then drove down to Mexico, through 26 states. Taking peyote with the Huichol Indians and donating our van to the Zapatistas are two things that changed my marrows forever.

I had my DNA tested and it says that I’m 76 per cent Irish, which suggests I’m like a leprechaun – there does always seem to be a pot of gold at the end of these rainbows. I flip from luxury to scumbag pretty quickly. I love getting fed by a local in the backwaters and learning local swear words.

I combine work with travel by writing the script and making the bucket list happen. My favourite tie-pin says YCDBSOYA! (You Can’t Do Business Sitting On Your Ass). I once convinced a client that rather than employing us to build 10 sets for their new campaign shoot, they should send us to work on sites across the US where the sets had already been built by outsider artists: hand-painted houses, tiled temples, themed hotels, eccentric encrusted creations. We had a ball and met so many amazing lunatics.

I’m wishing on a star for the DeLorean to time-travel me back to 1969, when a teenaged Anthony Bourdain and I could smoke opium together and dance a thousand jigs over fire-cooked snacks. But I’d also be happy to travel with the love child of anthropologist-explorer Wade Davis, champion eater Bourdain and the visionary Marrakech designer Bill Willis. We could speak all the ancient languages and eat all the snacks, but always remain trim, taught and terrific.