Peculiar fusion of art, physics and motion
IT'S enough to make even the most stolid of Melburnians nervous: a 12m-long, 4m-high fossil-like behemoth wandering across Federation Square.
IT'S enough to make even the most stolid of Melburnians nervous: a 12m-long, 4m-high fossil-like behemoth wandering across Federation Square.
The Strandbeest, Animaris Umerus, Dutch artist and physicist Theo Jansen's kinetic sculpture modelled on the nervous system, is making itself at home in the city as part of the artwork's global wanderlust.
The winged, wind-powered sculpture, a peculiar fusion of mechanics, biology and art, will roam the cobbled expanse of Federation Square until February 26.
It is the first time, Strandbeest (Dutch for beach animal) has been on display in an urban space, having previously awed spectators on sandy locations in Europe, Asia and Britain.
Jansen says the work, made from recycled rigid plastic bottles, is based on the human nervous system.
"These evolving sculptures take on the survival skills of the last generation, using rudimentary intelligence to dig into the sand when a storm is sensed, or avoid obstacles like the ocean," he says.
The "creature" is not fenced in. Monitored by members of Jansen's team and volunteers, it is equipped with a motion sensor system to help it avoid crashing into things.
"No, no one will get run over," says Kate Brennan, chief executive of Federation Square.
"In fact, it's very light. People have been milling around all morning, showing a lot of interest. Lots of photographs have been taken."
The display, part of Federation Square's Creative Program, cost $100,000 to stage. It includes a smaller, remote-controlled creature (Animaris Ordis Mutantis) that audiences can use, and an exhibition in The Atrium of Jansen's eight "fossils", non-kinetic sculptures about renewable energy.
"The Strandbeest is only moving back and forth at the moment, but over the next three weeks we aim to get it moving around a little more," Brennan says. "Melburnians embrace this kind of contemporary, interactive (art)."
Once the sculpture leaves Melbourne later this month, Jansen has a plan for it.
"Eventually, I want to put all these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives," he says.
For now, set against the jagged edges of Federation Square, Jansen's shuffling, oddly shaped creation looks right at home.
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