Curiosities: Animating a New Species at the Peabody Essex Museum

Animaris Adulari (2012)

Photographs courtesy of Theo Jansen

Animaris Apodiacula (2013)

Photographs courtesy of Theo Jansen

Dutch artist Theo Jansen melds art and engineering in his intricate skeletal sculptures.

Photograph by Loek van der Klis

Peabody Essex Museum

Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen

September 19-January 3

www.pem.org/sites/strandbeest

PVC tubing and zip ties form the essential “bones” of Dutch artist Theo Jansen’s otherworldy yet mobile strandbeests (“beach animals”), eight of which are on display at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) starting September 19. Included is his latest and never-before-seen Animaris Umerus Segundus, along with sketches that offer insight into Jansen’s creative process during the last 25 years; “fossils” of creatures no longer “alive”; and video of some “beests” traveling in gangly equine elegance along a sandy seacoast in The Netherlands. Also on view are original photographs by Lena Herzog (published last year in Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen) who spent seven years documenting the origins and inner workings of this new kinetic species. This marks the first major American show of Jansen’s large-scale works; it moves on to the Chicago Cultural Center and San Francisco’s Exploratorium. Jansen himself will visit the Greater Boston area for a few events, such as a panel discussion (to be webcast) with Trevor Smith, PEM’s curator of the present tense, and MIT associate professor of media arts and sciences Neri Oxman, taking place on September 10 (3-5 p.m.) at the MIT Media Lab—followed by a live, outdoor demonstration of a walking strandbeest (5:30-7 p.m.).

Click here for the September-October 2015 issue table of contents

Read more articles by Nell Porter-Brown

You might also like

An Original Magna Carta, Hidden in Plain Sight

A rare original surfaces at Harvard at an “almost providential” moment. 

Doctors for Change

Countway Library exhibit explores historic anti-nuclear activism

Rendering Dreams in Art

South Korean artist’s socially themed photographs at the Peabody Essex Museum

Most popular

House Committee Subpoenas Harvard Over Tuition Costs

The University must turn over all requested materials related to tuition and financial aid by mid-July. 

Global Reach

A new center in Shanghai reflects Harvard’s growing engagement with the People’s Republic.

The New Gender Gaps

What to do as men and boys fall behind

Explore More From Current Issue

Filmmaker John Armstrong’s Adventure Documentaries

Filmmaker John Armstrong’s “outdoor adventures” find the human spirit.

David Leo Rice on 'The Berlin Wall'

David Leo Rice explores the strange, unseen forces shaping our world.

Harvard Commencement 2025

Harvard passes a test of its values, yet challenges loom.