Magnificent Obsessions Are Not Dead…..

Strandbeest is simultaneously the strangest and most compelling thing I’ve seen in a while.

“Since 1990 I have been occupied creating new forms of life.

“Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic material of this new nature.  I make skeletons that are able to walk on the wind, so they don’t have to eat.

“Over time, these skeletons have become increasingly better at surviving the elements such as storm and water and eventually I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives.” (emphases in original)

You have to be at least half-mad to invest the kind of time, energy, and money that this sort of thing MUST take, and from his prose it seems likely that half may be a low estimate for this Dutch genius.  All the same, one can hardly drag one’s eyes away from the “creatures” that he has created.

The artist is Theo Jansen, and he’s quite an accomplished guy.  You’ll want to explore as much of his site as you have time for…difficult to pull yourself away.