MUTONIA SCULPTURE PARK - PART ONE

Every year in the winter the co-found of Mutoid Waste Company (MWC), Robin 'Mutoid' Cooke, returns to his Mutonia Sculpture Park to build a new sculpture providing a rich visual backdrop to his ideas and work. It is located in the outback of South Australia at Alberrie Creek somewhere near the historical Oodnadatta Track near the Old Ghan Railway. I tried locating it on Google Maps, but even with instructions from Robin Mutoid I was unable to locate the exact location, so I went for the area where it should be. If you are interested you can also find a review on a trip trough the Oodnadatta Track on Travelingoz.com.au, which is also the source of most pictures below. This is one of those places I am dying to visit, really looks awesome.

"People's reaction when they come past here is a mixture of amazement and amusement, fascination, as there are plenty of questions floating around in their heads, I think, as to why and what all this is about. But, basically, it's all positive, they love it, they jump out of their cars and run around, and they bang on the xylophone and have a look at various pieces from various different angles, and it's very, very popular. It's a positive reaction, yes, it's great." - Quote by Robin Mutoid in an interview on ABC News featuring his Mutonia.

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If you do find the exact location, feel free to let me know (bluzark[at]gmail[dot]com). You can find the instructions here, the rest is up to you. Explore!
Edit: So I did find the exact location after all, -29.623129,137.542775, confirmed with a geotagged picture. So I could have been smarter and searched Panoramio and save me some time, but of course I chose the hard way and tracked it down myself not knowing there was an easy way. I should have known..

Marking the entrance of Mutonia Sculpture Park is the Kombi-Gate. The Kombi is a classic VW van that became a symbol of outback travel over the years. It was mutated many times in sculptures by MWC all over the world. Such as in this famous car-henge setup below. The first car-henge was built by Robin Mutoid when travellers were told they could not visit stone henge, so built a version of it using scrap cars.

"KOMBI-HENGE"

You should recognize this picture since it was taken from FreeNRG: Notes From the Edge of the Dance Floor edited by Graham St John. If you haven't read it yet, you might want to give it a peak, it won't hurt you. Not all books are boring.

 "KOMBI-GATE"

Directly behind Kombi-Gate you will find one of the first sculptures by Robin Mutoid at Alberrie Creek. Using a couple of Beechcraft Baron light aircraft, American-made light aircraft from Moorabbin Airport, he created Plane-Henge. The aircrafts were lifted by hand by a group of about 50 people. Must have been one hell of a lift but a great achievement to treasure.

 

 "PLANE-HENGE"

Behind Plane-Henge you will find his next work which was named the Dream Catcher. Utilizing waste materials or recycling rubbish, the Mutant way.

 "DREAM CATCHER"

Some pieces of railway elements were used with their characteristic whimsical touches mutated in figures which were spread over the park. Such as these below.

To be continued..