Jansen calls the beach walkers Strandbeests, Dutch for “Beach Beast”.  The creatures have evolved since 1990, with some of his later models able to store air to use in the absence of wind.  They are able to survive the elements and effectively wander the beaches in most weather conditions.  Jansen’s goal is to be able to put herds of the moving sculptures on the beaches to “live their own lives”, and to create models that will throw sand onto sand dunes to help preserve them.


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. 


I put forward the idea that there may be skeletons on the beach, which were driven by the wind, and they gathered sand to create the dunes, said Jansen, which will protect coastal towns from flooding from the North Sea.