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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.