This page is work in progress.
COAT SHOW ©
Begun in 1978 with “Poo Boys”, an installation at Bath Festival. Consisted of the “Coat Ride”, a cable furicular system transporting dress-suits around a grave yard, with other suits violently yanked into the trees by “suit-winches”. Accompanied by “idiosyncratic” music from “Moon Nail” a band formed together with Angus Hutcheson. The appeal of a”helpless” coat violently shaken by machinery, was discovered by the artist inadvertently hanging his jacket on one of his winches made whilst working as workshop technician at the AA architecture school.
The “Coat Show” is continuously developing, and at one point, at the “Centre Parting” show in Vienna, incorporated 250 overcoats and a 10 meter high “Yuppei-Buddah” coat fitted with an elevator for the orator, Andrew Bailey. The show now contains over 30 compressed air powered robot coats, motivated by means of an “air muscle” invented by the Artist during the building of “Heavenly Bodies” on the National theatre roof in 1981.
Click Poo Boys tag for other references to this work on this site.
PURGATORY ©
First installed at the AA carnival, London. Consisted of several electric motor powered shop dummies which had functions such as walking, flying, clouting one another, shouting by means of artificial voice and lungs and other more provocative pieces such as the “wanking man” in a bed with only his head visible. Later this collection together with the “Pervy Men” trouser robots, was used to make Herbie Hancocks “Rockit” Video.
A photograph of the Purgatory Installation is included in the Hayward Annual 1979 (see here). A short clip of the Purgatory is included in the South of Watford Documentary (see here) from Sam Scoggin’s film of the Heavenly Bodies (see here). Click Purgatory, Pervy Men and Rockit tags for other references to those works on this site.
BUSINESS MACHINE ©
Made for exhibiton at the Hayward Open 1979. consisted of a group of motorised buisness men mounted on the “commercial carrousel”, a fairground-like rotating structure, on which the men flew about with air jets from their trousers, kicked eachother dropped their papers, and flapped like wings to spin the carrousel. Other pieces included suit winches, coat furnicular, and “suicide man.”
A short clip of the Business Machine is included in the South of Watford Documentary (see here) from Sam Scoggin’s film of the Heavenly Bodies (see here). Click Business Machine tag for other references to this work on this site.
HEVENLY BODIES ©
Installed on the National theatre roof, London 1981. The life size group of figures was arranged to resemble Botticellis “Primavera”. A roof party only appearing only at night, which one could not join. each night at 20.00 hrs the figures were animated, during which sequence one figure would lose its chest down the front of the turret of the building. The figures were life cast in plaster from participants coerced to stand in “The Sarcophagus”, a ribbed GRP moulding machine resembling the Tutankamun coffin. This was then injected with foam in a factory. The figures were made to stand up at night only, through the use of a compressed air “muscle invented by the artist and developed for use in later work.
The Heavenly Bodies are featured in a short film by Sam Scoggins (see here) , which includes footage of the live casting using the “The Sarcophagus” moulding machine from Sam’s film and Thames TV in included in the South of Watford Documentary (see here). Click Heavenly Bodies tag for other references to this work on this site.
AVENUE OF ASPIRATION ©
First exhibited at the Laing Gallery, Newcastle. Four robot men carrying another on a chair are programmed by a processor built into a robot woman, mounted on a tower at one end of the gallery. The group of men walk towards her along an avenue of animated trees, accompanied by sounds of wind. When they reach their destination, two other robot men on tower structures at the opposite end break up into pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. The whole figurative group and the trees were painted a grey/blue colour.
The making of the Avenue of Aspiration is featured in the South of Watford Documentary (see here) and Douglas Cape has taken photographs of some of the key figures from the installation (see here). Click Avenue of Aspiration tag for other references to this work on this site.
UNNATURAL BODIES ©
The Unnatural Bodies show was built in 1988 for exhibition in Galerie Littmann, Basel. After this it toured extensively. It is comprised of compressed air powered computer controlled robots, some able to crawl or perform other interactive functions, in four groups:
Bodies
A collection of whole and part figures which interact with one another providing what seems like robotic “social” interaction, two “men” after the same “woman” and various periferal interfering activities from the “crawling man” ,”climbing men” and the “wheel men” and others. Also the “Shirt Tower”: ten men and a boy which are able to hoist themselves up to 12m and then collapse dramatically
Tubs
Large pieces made of washtubs and buckets resembling insect abdomens and snails, built as animated vertebreal structures.
Worms
Long flexible snake and wormlike vertebreal pieces some with jaws, with fast powerful movements, up to 28 “muscles ” apiece.
The Zoo
Insect like, crawling, biting, grabbing “creatures” fenced in enclosure.
MACHINENTHEATER
Made for Luna Luna, Hamburg 1987 in its own 8m high tent structure. An “allegorical” show depicting a business with a godlike boss figure at the top and many other aspiring struggling robot figures like the secretary approaching the boss up two flights of stairs, mother and little boy climbing up a mesh wall with own power. Others include “Lager-louts” crashing about in a car, crawling men, couple making love in bed, a wild bar scene. The audience are able to circulate within an enclosed two level mesh walk. All figures are life size and have caricatured rubber heads, are compressed air powered and processor controlled. The show was later sold and moved to America by the organisers.
André Heller who curated the original Luna Luna, commissioned a new version of Jim’s Mechanical Theatre in 2007 for the Swarovski Crystal Worlds amusement park in Austria (shown above).
You can see a collection of video clips of Jim’s Mechanical Theatre at the Swarovski Crystal Worlds here.
KUNSTZUG
A show built inside a railway goods waggon, organised by Gallery Littmann, Basel. Audiences knock on the loading-door, wherupon it slides open. “Yapping Handbags” begin with air powered voices and “jaws”, then larger suitcases, also with voices (occasionally accidentally chewing up the handbags), more handbags and cases until a large animated tentacled tree-like structure of cases, picnic baskets, violin case and trunks suddenly emerge from the door and flail about up to 5m away from the waggon. Audiences were often so surprised that they collapsed on the platform. The sequence comes to an end with another set of handbags “suspiciosly” oberving the audience from a window, which finally bangs shut with such a force that it can be heard a mile away. Other contributors, each installing their own waggons included Jean Tingueli, Berni Lughinbuhl, Daniel Spöerri, Eva Appeli and Ben Vautier. The train was shown at railway stations around Europe.
BIMBOTOWN
Summary to follow. Click Bimbotown tag for other references to the various venues on this site.
The orginal text for shows on this page was found on Archive.org from a listing on https://www.leipzig-online.de for Jim, his Bimbotown venue, Curriculum Vitae and Other Shows included below. See updated Biography and Exhibition List on the Biog & Show History page.
Jim Whiting Show 