Jim Denevan’s Land Art Installation Invites Visitors to Explore Their Relationship with the World.

‘Self Similar’ Land Art Installation by Jim Denevan at Manar Abu Dhabi. Photo: Lance Gerber.

World-renowned American artist Jim Denevan interacts with the earth’s topography to create site-specific works in sand, earth, and ice that can span kilometres. Unexpectedly confronted with the works in a natural setting, viewers are invited to interact with art beyond institutional walls.

Denevan’s most ambitious project to date was “Self Similar”, unveiled on Fahid Island, Abu Dhabi last November as part of the inaugural edition of Manar Abu Dhabi, curated by Reem Fadda and Alia Zaal Lootah.

Sprawling across nearly a square kilometre and reaching a height of 27 meters, this extraordinary land art piece began as a simple circle drawn in the sand, evolving into a complex mandala pattern consisting of 19 concentric rings formed by 448 pyramids and mounds. The grand yet delicate installation invited visitors to explore and interact with it, offering multiple vantage points from two observation mounds that provided panoramic views of the composition and its surrounding landscape.

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‘Self Similar’ Land Art Installation by Jim Denevan at Manar Abu Dhabi. Photo: Lance Gerber.

The installation’s design was deeply intertwined with its environment. Positioned at the confluence of city, desert, and sea, it created a dynamic interplay of natural elements and human creativity. “As I draw and shape these forms, an invitation is made, it emerges. An ‘entering into’ takes place. A cantering. Scale, presence, human, and otherwise. External is internal and internal is external. That which expires and that which is eternal, a simultaneity, within and without,” Denevan reflects, capturing the essence of his Sisyphean practice that embraces the transitory nature of his work.

This ephemeral quality of “Self Similar” was heightened by the daily illumination of over a thousand solar lanterns at dusk, casting transformative shadows and a warm, unifying glow across the installation. The project also highlighted community engagement, with local volunteers initially sculpting the innermost pyramids, continuing Denevan’s tradition of involving local communities in his large-scale installations. This collaborative effort not only grounded the work within its locale but also fostered a deeper connection between the art and its audience.

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Concentrics in California by Jim Denevan. Photo: Peter Hinson, courtesy of the artist.

Ocean Beach, 2013 by Jim Denevan. Photo: Peter Hinson, courtesy of the artist.

Jim Denevan. Photo: Peter Hinson, courtesy of the artist.

Big Sur. Photo: Patrick Trefz, courtesy of the artist.

Two Triangles in California, 2007. Photo: Patrick Trefz, courtesy of the artist.

San Gregorio State Beach. Photo: Peter Hinson, courtesy of the artist.

Angle of Repose, Desert X Alula, 2022. Photo: Lance Gerber, courtesy of the artist.

Ephemeral in nature, the near meditative practice is the purpose for Jim Denevan, who relies on intuition and parallax over measurement aids to create mathematically and geometrically complex compositions and leaves them prone to the tides, winds and seasonal progressions.

Denevan has been commissioned to create temporary land drawings and sculptures around the world, including for Desert X AlUla in 2022, and documentation of his work has been featured in the Vancouver Biennale, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Peabody Essex Museum, Christie’s and MoMA/PS1. In 1999, he founded Outstanding in the Field, a radical reconceptualization of the dining experience at the forefront of the sustainability movement that has gained global cult status. He was the subject of the recent documentary, Man in the Field: The Life and Art of Jim Denevan.

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[Images courtesy of the artist. Photography by Lance Gerber, Peter Hinson and Patrick Trefz.]