The Strandbeests are alive…

Since 1990, Dutch artist Theo Jansen has been creating “Strandbeests” or “beach creatures” that can walk on the sand, powered by wind, and which he describes as “new forms of life”.

The Strandbeests are made from plastic tubes and are powered by the wind or stored pressurised air.

Jansen claims that over the years the beasts have become better and better at surviving the elements and that eventually he says: “I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives.”

Strandbeest

Photographer Lena Herzog has, for the past seven years, been following the development of the Strandbeests and her images are showcased in a new Taschen book.

Strandbeest

The book documents the Strandbeests as, in the words of Taschen, they “pick up the wind in their gossamer wings and spring, as if by metamorphosis, into action. As if it were blood, not the breeze, running through their delicate forms, they quiver, cavort, and trot against the sun and sea, pausing to change direction if they sense loose sand or water that might destabilise their movement.”

Strandbeest

Strandbeest, the Dream Machines of Theo Jansen, is published by Taschen priced at £34.99. 

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