Mutate and Survive- a tale from the wastelands

Fire spits ferociously from the noses of erect standing planes. It roars from the mouths of cyclopean dragons. It spins and twirls from the hands of ironclad bodies. A giant windmill stands tall, its' elegant metallic leaves protruding from a corroded stem. Beneath it, an oversized dog, its tongue sticking out, he wants to play. Welcome to the world of Mutoid Waste.

Rewind back to the draconian Thatcher days just before unlicensed parties became illegal. Together a mechanically-minded artist and an artistically-minded mechanic (Robin and Joe aka Mutoid Waste Co.) were reminding those deemed 'helpless' and 'hopeless' that having fun was not yet illegal.

With recycled waste material they created oversized, foreboding sculptures. Burning cars hung from rooves, floors were flooded with a mix of water and U.V. paint and giant robots smacked themselves in the head as music pounded from 5 or 6 massive sound systems.

In 1986 the police put a violent stop to a free festival at Stonehenge. Stonehenge became heritage listed and was fenced off as we know it today. Mutoid Waste Co. responded accordingly.

"If you want the Stones, you can keep them... We'll build our own!" and in 1987 at Glastonbury Festival a set of three 'Carhenges' were built, the ethos 'Mutate and Survive' was born.

"The 'Henge' theme has run through our work ever since that day in 1986. We built three 'Carhenges' at Glastonbury, Truckhenge in Italy, Tankhenge in Berlin and one of my favourites Planehenge in SA."

'Carhenge' caught the attention of many and as invitations from Jean-Michele Jarre and Eric Clapton ensued, Mutoid Waste made a rapid departure from the UK. As they worked their way across Europe thousands of people encountered the characters of Mutoid Waste's world.

"My all time favourite has to be 'Volkswagen-Man', his chest made from a Volkswagen Beetle. We left it looking over the Berlin Wall; six weeks later the wall came crashing down. The sculpture was undoubtedly good but I shall never forget the hysterical fun we had doing it. East German soldiers were running around interrogating us, they were totally freaked out by what we might do. The Droid was offering a Silver Bird of Peace to the East (a VW bonnet cut in half for the wings) and they honestly believed we were going to fire it over the wall with a secret rocket."

After a brief visit in 1990 Robin returned permanently to Australian shores in 1995. He has since recycled our forsaken waste at Global Village, Roxstop, Technofest, Earthcore, Trancelements, Every Picture, Hardware, Two Tribes, Big Day Out and now Rainbow Serpent Festival.


As Robin explains, as much devious planning goes into the positioning of his installations as it does the creating.

"I like to twist people's brains just a little. Scale and positioning have a lot to do with perception. When you place two airplanes on their tails on flat land they are immediately visible from at least 8 Kilometres away, but at the same time you have no idea what size those airplanes actually are."

With Planehenge, Combi-Gate, the Giant Dog, the Windmill Flower and the Great Tripod all taking a place next to the 'Interceptor' in the archives, Robin sees Mutoid Waste's future as a technologically resourceful and boundless one.

"Technology has advanced so fast in the last 20 years that stuff we could only dream of then is now within 'easy' reach. Technology is like money, there's nothing wrong with it, it's how you use it that matters.

In the future I reckon we'll be having Mutated Robot Car Races in the desert with no drivers in the cars so no one can get hurt. Just think of the shit you could do with onboard cameras and giant takeoff ramps."

Inspired from within...

"or does inspiration come from without-"

Robin points out that he doesn't care for the pretentious art of analysing.

"I don't have any particular wants as to how people react to my work. I suppose it is human nature to hope that p Tags