Hiking Performance Art – Best Hike
by Allie Comeau on June 30, 2008
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Some of us like to hike with our dogs. Some like to hike with loved ones. Some like to stop and camp along the way.
Jim Denevan prefers to create art while hiking. He just created the world’s largest freehand drawing on a dry lake in Nevada. The drawing is three miles across and required him to hike 100 miles.
Denevan’s work has been featured in New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Elle, GQ, The Surfers Journal, and Outside. This is what his website says…
Jim Denevan makes freehand drawings in sand. At low tide on wide beaches Jim searches the shore for a wave tossed stick. After finding a good stick and composing himself in the near and far environment Jim draws– laboring up to 7 hours and walking as many as 30 miles. The resulting sand drawing is made entirely freehand w/ no measuring aids whatsoever. From the ground, these drawn environments are experienced as places. Places to explore and be, and to see relation and distance. For a time these tangible specific places exist in the indeterminate environment of ocean shore. From high above the marks are seen as isolated phenomena, much like clouds, rivers or buildings. Soon after Jim’s motions and marks are completed water moves over and through, leaving nothing.
Wow. That’s really impressive. It reminds me of the Nazca Lines in Peru. The Nazca Lines are ancient drawings in the sand not unlike Denevan’s. No one knows for sure who drew the Nazca Lines, or why, (many assume it was the Nazca culture between 200 BC and 700 Ad). I wonder if they used similar techniques.
Via Best Hike Blog
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