Glastonbury artist to hold exhibition in year off

An artist who has been taking giant sculptures to Glastonbury Festival for decades is using the fallow year to hold an exhibition of his work.

Joe Rush from London first went to Worthy Farm in 1985 with a truck he had converted to look like a giant skull.

Since then, he has created installations at the festival using reclaimed materials, including Carhenge - a replica of Stonehenge built from vintage vehicles – and Glastonbury-on-Sea, a 60ft pier. The festival is not going ahead this year so the farmland can be rested.

Dozens of pieces of Rush's new work are being exhibited this month in Marylebone telling the story of "extinction and of the loss of biodiversity".

Emily Eavis, organiser of the festival, paid tribute to Rush's sculptures which she said have "inspired generations of festival-goers", ahead of the show's opening at the Bomb Factory Art Foundation gallery on Friday.

Among the works is a giant dinosaur fossil made from hammers, knives and spanners, a snake made from an old bicycle chain and a bull's nostrils formed from a vintage gas mask.

There are also birds, bees, butterflies, horses and dogs as well as a boy in a garden of flowers made of metal, inspired by his son.

"I started working on the bigger pieces after I built Carhenge at Glastonbury, as there was a pile of classic car pieces and engines leftover," Mr Rush said.

"These things that I have built are totemic creatures but also prayer for the existence and continuation of the existence of creatures and insects."

The main piece is a giant bee made using three engines and is called "Insecticide is Suicide".

"It is an unnatural history museum," he said.

Pallas Citroen, managing direction of The Bomb Factory, said Rush's exhibition, which will run from March 13-29, is part of the charity's programme focusing on collective production and material reuse this year.