Artist Jim Denevan takes to Abu Dhabi, UAE to create his latest large-scale land art installation ‘Self Similar,’ which has been sculpted as a central part of a city-wide light art exhibition, Manar Abu Dhabi, curated by Reem Fadda and Alia Zaal Lootah. The vast, yet ephemeral, land art is made from 448 hand-formed pyramids and mounds laid out in 19 concentric circles. Together, they form a mesmerizing mandala pattern that invites the public inside to experience the design’s effects.
Self Similar is formed of 19 concentric rings of 448 hand-formed pyramids and mounds that expand outward and upward in a mandala pattern
Among the largest works of land art ever made, Self Similar, which began as a single circle drawn with a stick in the sand, is at once grand and delicate. The monumental yet temporary installation is formed of 19 concentric rings of 448 pyramids and mounds that expand outward and upward in a mandala pattern. Iron Bridge provides a serendipitous entry, attuned to the rising and setting sun and the city skyline in the distance — a powerful physical and metaphorical point of arrival. Visitors can interact with the work by situating themselves within it at any point and by scaling two observation mounds to enjoy 360-degree views of the entire composition and the surrounding natural landscape. Standing in the center enables visitors to realize the symmetry of the geometric composition and experience a moment of contemplation, transience, and connection to nature. The work exists in perpetual transformation, a vulnerability inherent to its material and form.
“As I draw and shape these forms, an invitation is made, it emerges. An ‘entering into’ takes place. A centering. 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,” said Denevan, who, as part of his Sisyphean practice, offers up his work to the vagaries of wind, weather, and the progression of time.
At dusk, the illumination of over a thousand solar lamps changes the look and feel of Self-Similar.
Image Credits: Lance Gerber
