Joe Rush
Joe Rush | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1960 |
| Nationality | British |
| Website | joerush |
Joe Rush (born 1960) is a British sculptor influenced by the film Mad Max and Judge Dredd comics. He is the founder of Mutoid Waste Company, a performance arts collective of artists.[1][2][3]
Career
In 1980, Rush exhibited at The Car Breaker Gallery in Frestonia, London.[4]
In 1984, he founded the Mutoid Waste Company, an underground travelling collective of artists. That same year, he launched the first "Installation Party" in the disused Kings Cross coach station. From then on, he produced installations of his pieces in environments he mutated, occupying derelict warehouses and factories.[5]
Throughout the eighties he built techno-industrial sculptures at parties and festivals, and then travelled across both Western and Eastern Europe to continue the work. From making a "car henge" at Glastonbury (stone circle made out of cars), he progressed to using armoured personnel carriers and fighter planes in Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
After leaving Britain for many years, Rush returned to the UK where he and his crew became involved with robotics and animation, as well as organising Mutoid Waste Company projects around the world.[6] He has had other art displayed around the country, like "X-Ray Ted Mosquito" as part of Liverpool Discovers 2011.[7]
In 2012, Kim Gavin entrusted to Joe Rush the art direction and creation of the vehicles, mobile stages and props of the London Paralympics Closing Ceremony. The press unanimously praised the subversive and original aesthetics of this show dedicated to the margins.[8]
References
- ^ Lewis, Paul (21 April 2008). "'I mutate waste, it's creative chaos'". The Guardian.
- ^ "Bringing the Streets to the Saleroom: Urban Art Back at Bonhams". Huffington Post. 21 September 2011.
- ^ "Glastonbury festival 2011 gets ready – in pictures". The Guardian. 20 June 2011.
- ^ Car Breaker Poster
- ^ Medici Gallery. Joe Rush
- ^ Barkham, Patrick (23 March 2006). "The fun, the filth and the fury". The Guardian.
- ^ Bernhardt, Colette (19 February 2011). "This week's new events". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
Joe Rush's X-Ray Ted mosquito honours the city as the first to use x-rays and understand malaria
- ^ Metro. Paralympics Games closing cermeony was as mad as it was marvellous. 9 September 2012