About Rob

 

Rob Luxton was born in Devon, England, living there for 19 years before going off to study product design at Bournemounth University. After four years of higher education and with an insatiable urge to travel he decided to flee England, vowing never to do product design again, instead heading to Hong Kong to see what was happening in the East.

Arriving in Hong Kong 1997 with only 20 quid in his pocket and a head full of ideas he got sucked into the city, working his way through various survival jobs, until he and his mate from england quit their jobs and lived in a run down flat / squat in Central Hong Kong, squeezed hard and gave birth to ROBOT, a collective of creative people, Dj’s, and other random people.

In 2001 Rob started his own company called Aeroporto, specialising in event production / decoration, mechanical sculpture, prop making and anything else of a random creative nature.

Fabric installation, Shanghai.

 

Interactive Mechanical Sculpture, Hong Kong.

 

 

Caught between concrete blocks and mountains, Hong Kong still let him out occasionally to explore Asia, creating a great spring board for travel.


With mainland China just across the water, the red giant soon became a continual place of fascination and exploration.

 

 

In 2002 he moved to Beijing for 5 months to study Mandarin at the Beijing and Cultural University. After traveling and then returning to Hong Kong he bought a wooden Junk Boat and spent most of his time fixing it up and worrying about it sinking.

 

 

In 2003 he traveled through siberia with his good friend Alex Hofford on a video and photographic mission to a small autonomous region called Tuva. Exploring the culture, interviewing shamans, The old believers, listening to Khoomie and documenting the annual celebrations called Nadym.

 

 

The need to travel was ever present and after numerous ideas life in Hong Kong was put on hold and China Wheelie was born.

 

 

The rest will be on the road.