As an exhibition of William Heth Robinson's work comes to Newcastle, Viv Hardwick talks to his nephew, Peter Higginson.

THE expression "Heath Robinson", describing an absurdly complicated machine carrying out quite a simple function, is never going to go out of fashion, according to the great man's nephew Peter Higginson.

William Heath Robinson may have died in 1944 but the humorous illustrator, dubbed The Gadget King, is about to fire imaginations once more with a free exhibition at Newcastle's Laing Art Gallery from today.

A total of 130 paintings, illustrations, pieces of inventive crockery and photographs involving Peter's "Uncle Will", from a large collection which, sadly, is still in need of a permanent home, are going on show until January.

Peter is now the chairman of the Heath Robinson Trust, which is using every device in the book, harebrained or otherwise, to raise £1.5m to £2m to turn The West House, Pinner, north London, into a contraption inventor's paradise.

In the meantime, he rates the North-East as an ideal location for a Heath Robinson airing because the artist's grandfather trained as a bookbinder in Newcastle, working for the famous engraver Thomas Bewick. There are also family connections with The Laing.

Peter says: "My stepfather was Trevor Stevenson, who was linked to the family who helped to establish The Laing and my mother always felt that this would be an ideal place for a Heath Robinson exhibition. So it's a perfect venue because of the Geordie connections and Heath Robinson would see the appropriateness of that very strongly."

Born back in 1896, William Heath Robinson went on to claim a place of central importance in the history of 20th century graphic art both in terms of ingenuity and pleasure, with book illustration a fundamental part of his career - the best-known books include Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies and Edgar Allen Poe poetry.

Is there room for Heath Robinson today outside the exhibition areas which place him on a par with Rackham and Dulac?

Peter replies: "Although I teach art history, I find that some of the younger generation do know about Heath Robinson. I think the relevance today is that apart from him being a consummate draftsman and artist, both his serious and humorous work are very appropriate to technology today. We're living in a period where the current wisdom is that it's completely taking us over and contributing to a dehumanised society, which is what his work is about.

"I think his incredible technological contraptions, attended by down-to-earth, humane people, is part of the humour of these pieces. I think his work is about the absurdity of human relationships with machines which highlight, rather than damn technical advance.

"A nephew of mine does do computer graphics and we've talked about whether Heath Robinson would have been a nethead. I think he would have been, he'd have embraced the computer age with open arms. He would not be a technophobe. I think he's interested in the humour of our interaction with new technology."

Peter also thinks that Heath Robinson would have encouraged Third World alternative technology, which tries to develop affordable "tin can" machines to assist poorer nations. "He'd have found that ecology was right up his street. It would be very intriguing to know where he'd be at the moment."

Asked for stories about his great-uncle, who spent most of his life in north London, he says: "My mother and aunts used to laugh about when they stayed with him. He would come down to breakfast with a lampshade on his head, very serious, as if nothing was happening and finding it strange that people were laughing and smiling at this slightly odd sight. He'd sit at the table placid-faced throughout breakfast, so he was a bit of a comedian."

Even when he was very famous and living at Cranleigh in Surrey, modest Heath Robinson played along with a well-dressed art critic who mistook him for the gardener. The dishevelled artist offered to go and find himself and ran through the house to emerge around the side, still dressed in the same clothes, announcing "Hello, I'm Heath Robinson," to completely floor his caller.

* The Heath Robinson Exhibition runs from today until January 2 at The Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, which is open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm and Sunday 2-5pm.

Published: 18/09/2004