Artist’s ‘Motor Home’ sounds the alarm on rising sea levels

Artist Willem de Haan has arrived in the Dutch city of Alkmaar with Motor Home — a floating sculpture that looks like a half-sunken house with an outboard motor attached.

It’s one of the standout works in this year’s Triënnale Alkmaar, and will be on display in the city’s central canal all summer.

At first glance, Motor Home is playful and surreal — a house-boat hybrid slowly cruising through the water.

But there’s a deeper message beneath the humour. De Haan’s work draws attention to the very real threat of rising water levels in the Netherlands, a country where much of the land sits below sea level.

As extreme weather, floods and droughts become more common due to climate change, Motor Home becomes a timely reflection on how the country lives with and fights against rising water water.

In Alkmaar, a city shaped by canals, the work invites viewers to think about how fragile that balance really is.

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