Jim Whiting

Jim Whiting was born in Paris in 1951 and spent his early childhood in Salisbury (now Harare), Zimbabwe, before his family returned to the UK in 1959. He studied Electronic Engineering & Systems Control at Queen Mary College, then sculpture at Saint Martins School of Art after a foundation at High Wycombe Art College. Whiting is best known as an artist and inventor of kinetic, robot-like sculptures and mechanical theatres, which blend engineering with whimsical, figurative animation. His first major installation appeared at London’s Hayward Gallery in 1979, selected by artist Helen Chadwick. International recognition came in 1984 when his dancing robot sculptures featured in Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” music video, directed by Godley & Creme, winning the first MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction. Whiting’s Mechanical Theatre was commissioned in 1987 for André Heller’s Luna Luna art park in Hamburg. He toured his Unnatural Bodies show across Europe from 1988 to 1992, exhibiting in cities including Cologne, Zürich, and at Ars Electronica in Linz. In 1994 he created a waggon installation for Klaus Littmann’s KunstZug. Whiting founded Bimbotown, a variété venue, in Basel in 1993, moving it to Leipzig in 1996, where it operated until 2016. In 2007, a new version of his Mechanical Theatre was commissioned for Swarovski Kristallwelten in Austria. His comics credits span 13 issues from 1957 to 2020, including work on *Scab*, *Shriek Special*, and *Night of the Living Dead: London*. He continues to exhibit installations across Europe.