Artist Ap Verheggen's Brilliant Art Of Climate Change Solutions

Verheggen’s SunGlacier 1Dutch filmmaker, designerr and sculptor Ap Verheggen has always run with the fashionable set, writes the New York Times. His 20 year career is global and commercial, too.  The lobby of Royal Dutch Shell’s headquarters near The Hague plays host the giant bronze ‘Terra Incognita’.

A decade ago, the artist developed a keen passion for the problems of climate change. “People can’t understand nature anymore,” Verheggen said.  “I see it as my mission as an artist to tell people what is happening.”

Verheggen’s Iceberg RidersIceberg Riders, the big melt

In 2009, the artist installed two giant sculptures called Iceberg Riders. Equipped with a GPS satellite tracking tag and installed on an iceberg in Uummannaq, Greenland, the plan was that the arty iceberg would float for years in the northern seas. The result would be a digital map for the artist and those studying climate change. Failure came quickly when the iceberg disintegrated after only four months, confirming in Verheggen’s mind the dire nature of climate change.

SunGlacier Makes Water In The Desert

Now the ever innovative Verheggen as turned his attention to the desert, creating the SunGlacier project. Working with a team of engineers, the challenge is to make a self-contained artificial “glacier.” With its leaf-shaped structure that envelopes a built-in solar-powered refrigeration system, SunGlacier “is designed to freeze moisture from hot desert air and produce water from the resulting runoff.”

In this case art could have practical uses beyond highlighting a problem or global issue. “There used to be a perfect balance between climate and culture,” Mr. Verheggen said. “People are always talking about the problems of climate change; I want to make solutions. I really want to show people, I want people to say ‘wow!”’

Verheggen’s chief collaborator is Frank van der Heijden, the local manager of a large industrial refrigeration company.

The company, Cofely Refrigeration, usually makes huge coolers for food, transportation or energy firms. Building an open-air system to freeze moisture from desert air was an unusual challenge, Mr. van der Heijden said.

“It was different — but when we innovate, we always learn,” he said.

“The company set up a test chamber to simulate the heat and humidity of various desert climates around the world,” writes the Times.

Under these conditions various cooling elements were tested, with an eye to making the right kind of ice, and ice formations, for the visual specifications of the sculpture. It took weeks of building and testing various cooling bodies to create the right kind of icicle in heat of 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit.

Besides being a visionary artist impassioned about the environment, Verheggen possesses a good head for business. Required to finance and publicize his iceberg sculptures, the artist created white arctic sunglasses sold to boutiques and online.

Verheggen’s SunGlacier

Mr. Verheggen isn’t sure where he will build his SunGlacier sculpture. Interest is high now that potential users can see the project at work in the refrigeration lab.

Andras Szollosi-Nagy, the rector of Unesco-IHE, the United Nations’ water education institute in Delft, the Netherlands — for which Mr. Verheggen is a “cultural ambassador” — has given the project his support. “This is a historical moment, and of great importance for the future of our planet,” Mr. Szollosi-Nagy said after visiting the lab.

Verheggen’s DesertCascadesDesertCascades Makes Running Water

Mr. Verheggen is working on a second sculpture using the technology, which he calls DesertCascades, with an eye on installing it in Peru. “Shaped as a large black box with water running from one end, it should be able to produce about one and a half quarts of drinking water per square yard of solar panel a day, the design team says.”

Mr. van der Heijden said the total production cost of the water could be less than the price of bottled water at a Dutch supermarket. This is a critical issue in Peru where about 2 million people in the Lima area have no access to clean running water, with the number increasing to 8 million in the country.

“We can find solutions,” Mr. Verheggen said. “We always have.”