‘Strandbeesten’ – The Beach Creatures of Holland
Somewhere in Holland stands a brand new residential area, where bright red bricks tower above stick-like trees shivering in the cold December wind. Next to it is an elongated hill – called a dike –, and beyond that a teeming 6-lane highway. Up on the dike, in the rushing wind and all by itself, is a little makeshift housey, flanked by some brave trees. In and around the house are lots of yellow plastic tubes in varying combinations, connected by yellow plastic hinges, also made out of plastic yellow tubes. It is a unique place with all this tubing going on, and stands fairly unnoticed up there on the barren dike in the wind like that. This is the workshop of an artist whose medium is – you’ve guessed it – yellow pvc tubing.
This artist, Theo Jansen by name, – and his crew Loek van der Klis -, makes ‘Strandbeesten’ – “Beach Creatures”. His creatures are awesome in appearance. They shuffle in energetic steps up and down the beach, propelled by the wind. Theo has been devoted to the creation and development of these mechanical mobile sculptures for the past thirty-odd years. Loek is a photographer by trade and construction scientist and handy-man to the tubes-outfit. Sitting in their workshop on the hill, Loek has the enthusiasm for the trade gently bubbling on his pot of life, and it is a joy to stand in his ‘kitchen.’ (Photo below by Loek).
Large and intricate they are, something like gargantuan scurrying yellow beetles, on board of which there is much busy-ness and whistling wind indeed, while down below its numerous rounded feet plod along energetically and rhythmically in turns.
I met such a creature, and its entourage of people with tools, on the beach one day last summer. The sky was blue and the wind just right. The kindly crew was in the belly of the beast (with tools), and the artist – Mr Jansen – stood by, viewing the proceedings carefully. There was a certain air of calm and industry at the place. The legs, assembled with hinges and rounded feet all made out of pvc, are designed to have long moments of contact with the ground and short moments of transition in the air, for maximum propulsion per step with the least possible energy spent. They move up and down the beach ‘by themselves’, propelled by wind that is pumped into bottles on board and is then released into its ‘wings’, which stand like fins tall on its shoulders, and rustle like space blankets.
Apparently half of south-east Asia has been seized by utter fascination of Theo’s beach creatures, and are currently keeping him busy proving evidence of higher inspiration, which translates into their culture in ways that I never will understand. On that day, some American and Japanese photographers were waiting patiently nearby, smoothing down their hair and hoping they wouldn’t lose the light. And they didn’t. A glorious day it was, and like many journalists that had gone before, these too would be taking home photos of this bizarre phenomenon to share with their local readers, so they may all be in awe of what is being made here, in the land below sea level, by level-headed free-thinkers on the beach.
But up here on the dike, 20 kilometres from the sea, on this cold day in December, a creative man is heating, cutting and rounding body-parts for future beasts. The construction, assembly and maintenance of the beach creatures is done with loving care and ever greater precision. Zen and the art of Beach-Creature Construction. It is a peaceful place, up on the dike in the wind. We pull a small beast – as big as a car – up and down the yard. It’s a bizarre thing to do, and tweaks the brain. On a wooden partition outside is a display of pictures of other elephant-like sculptures on other beaches. Some of these were even made out of heavy wooden fork-lift pallets. Amazingly, they too enjoyed self-propulsion once, in earlier experimental phases. They look like they come from the set of some weird futuristic desert film.
It seems that Theo Jansen has the vision of putting a completely other type of mobile, semi-independent being into circulation amongst humans. The pvc species may walk freely on the beaches. The pallet version, with an on-board shower cubicle and windows, may possibly be designed to serve as a desert ship to those who are tired of permanent residency on an over-filled continent. I think it is a really great idea, one of the best yet, and if he needs anybody to test this stuff out, like in the steppes of Mongolia, then I am his girl.
Photo: Loek van der Klis www.loekvanderklis.nl
Thank you, Loek, for a fabulous afternoon on the dike, by the teeming highway.
And a Happy New Year to All.
