Julie Madsen has introduced me to the work of Theo Jansen.
Since about ten years Theo Jansen is occupied with the making of a new nature. Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic material of this new nature. He makes skeletons which are able to walk on the wind. Eventually he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives.
Jansen makes kinetic sculptures, I guess you would call them. From "Good Experience" blog:
Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist and creator of "beach creatures" - huge wind-powered walking machines made of little more than plastic tubing and glue.
Theo's site - strandbeest.com - contains movies of the creatures in action. Click on "film" (small link in the center column), then on any of the links on the next page.
It's hard to picture without seeing the movies, but there's a strange, miraculous beauty to the "strandbeests." Note the richness Theo is able to elicit from from such simple materials.
I recently interviewed Theo in preparation for his appearance at my upcoming Gel 2005 conference in New York.
Read the interview.
Background.
Official website.
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