Climate change has an immediate impact upon Inuits in Greenland, who see ice levels receding on a daily basis. Without pointing fingers or placing blame, Ap Verheggen initiated cool(E)motion builds and installs beautiful sculptures shaped like dog sleds that draw attention to the Inuit's plight. The pieces are made from Steel37 and biodegradable materials, and two of them were recently placed on a giant iceberg in Greenland with a helicopter. The haunting mementos are already drifting freely - a dynamic representation of how the effects of climate change are now almost beyond our control.
The Inuit have been running dog sleds across the vast white north to hunt and travel for hundreds of years, but climate change and shrinking ice puts that practice into serious jeopardy. The same man who is working on developing a solar-powered leaf that can create ice in water scarce deserts, Ap Verheggen wants to illicit an emotional response in the people who see images and videos of these evocative arctic sculptures – but not in a negative way.
Cool(E)motion sculptures are made from steel, cloth, driftwood, natural rocks, and other biodegradable materials. What can’t be salvaged when they drop into the ocean will become a new habitat or nourishment for coral, fish and phytoplankton. Ap and his team had great difficulty installing the sculptures because of harsh weather conditions, so they eventually resorted to using a helicopter. This is a beautiful project that is bound to tug at the heartstrings of even the biggest climate change skeptic.