Mutoid Mechanical Monsters In Action

Back to Mutate Britain show - again - one of those rare shows that sustains repeated visits. All the key sculptural elements familiar from earlier visits (and blog blurgghhhs!) remain in place. Jibbering Arts have an awesome selection of work by street artists from outside London and Auction Sabateur has curated a room, but the main point in writing is to share a couple of camera clips of Larry the mechanoid half Mad Max, half wallace and gommit beast in action, in close up.

This first clip is a slightly wider shot, excuse Lyle the driver while he gets off to lure the hapless camera holder in close then gives him the full fire breathing phenomenon! (turning the vol down for the first 5 seconds - highly recommended; and excuse the first few seconds of camera wobble, it kind of settles down. Kind of.)

Feb 2019: the 2010 html video insert appears to have stopped working, please click HERE to obtain this clip as hosted on flick (forgive the size of this clip, it was on a 2004 camera!)

This second clip shows Lyle rocking those knobs and levers whilst LRRY-1, to give the beast its proper name, seems to decide to do its own thing:

Feb 2019: the 2010 html video insert appears to have stopped working, please click HERE to obtain this clip as hosted on flick (forgive the size of this clip, it was on a 2004 camera!)



Sadly a bunch of pics from two visits seem to have gone missing in the big C drive jpg munching folder, so it seems like another trip back there will be required, happy days!

In case you have missed it, there was an earlier blurggh here from a week or so back looking at sculptural Joe Rush stuff (is my memory correct, was he wearing a pink teddyboy suit last Thursday?).

There are also some photos here.

Mutate Britain

Every Fri, Sat, Sun from 21 Nov 08

Behind The Shutters Gallery
Cordy House
Curtain Road, London

Photos NoLionsInEngland except Wallkandy where noted


Mutate Britain is a mechanised art fuck up bursting the seams of the Behind The Shutters Gallery at Cordy House in Shoreditch, London for (we think) 5 weekends, starting about 2 weekends ago. There are scrap metal sculptural beasties, graffiti art on walls, music, a print house, an interactive graffiti wall, painted MIG jet fighter panels, art on canvasses, droid pole dancers, al in all just about the most stimulating experience of the year.

Inside the very dark and sinister first room, the End Of The Line crew and their mates have gone wild on the walls and as I don’t have the real deal camera gear, I have nicked a few pics of their impressive mural. The room also holds – though caged might be the better word - many big sculptural things but we’ll return to those later.


Photo: Wallkandy

Photo: Wallkandy


The undoubted heart and highlight of the event is provided by Mutoid Waste Company, the punk anarchic sculptural tribe that achieved notoriety in the 80s for its non conformist ethos, squat parties and rather loud music return to the country after decamping ages ago. Now they return, creating absolute mayhem in Shoreditch with mechanised Armageddon crawlers something like a cross between Mad Max, Wallace and Grommit and The Lone Ranger. An awesome collection of sculptures made from collected and welded engine parts, cutlery and anything else that would go dong if you hit it hard enough.

Joe Rush (Miss Bugs behind - ooooeerrrrr)

Joe Rush (Brett Ewins, Mode2 behind - cough)


Cordy House provides a rabbit’s warren of floors, stairs, corridors and installations to be navigated, the stairwells have been graffed up to assist the dis-oriented remain that way.

Milo Tchais

Remi Rough


Mutoid Waste were famous for, among other things, their set of pet MIG jet fighter. Days prior to this show they gave various MIG body panels out to some of the country’s finest street artists and comic illustrators and just to be perverse and because there’s enough street art in this blog already, here are a couple of the comic bloke panels.

Rufus Dayglo – Tank-Girl

Brett Ewins


Plenty of canvases and printy type art in the house, as well as more Mutoid Waste assemblages, this one being a fully decked out tacky porn club with pole dancers and DJ. Robotic of course.

Giles Walker – Pole Dancers

A couple of favourites among the superb arty stuff were:

InkFetish – It’s Weird Out There

Billy Childish


Mutoid Waste has been mentioned a few times already but here’s the real reason to try to put into a blog something that really has to be experienced to be believed. Larry the articulated nightmare on propane.


Larry by Mutoid Waste Company, Photo: Wallkandy



Larry's Head, Photo: Wallkandy

This whole post is just an excuse to show this video of Larry being taken for a fire-breathing lunchtime stroll through the streets of London.

More of NoLions entirely low level lighting photos are here; for a amazing set which captures the extravagant and at times savage beauty of this show, see Wallkandy’s pic

Mutate Britain is open for the next couple of Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. It’s well worth a spin even if just to watch the hypnotic bump and grind of the pole dancer’s pelvic thrusts.