“You only live once” is a rallying cry for living life to the fullest, emboldening us to chase our dreams and dive into what adventures await us.
This spring, Artnet is channeling this spirit in a thrilling project with Lexus, aptly titled “You Only Live Once,” that showcases the all-new 2024 Lexus GX in the arena of land art. Renowned for its colossal installations in remote locations, the art movement captures a sense of creative freedom and exploration.
For our project, American land art comes to life in an exhilarating video featuring the Lexus GX and renowned artist Jim Denevan as he carves an original artwork into the arid landscape of California’s Mojave Desert. Strap in for the video below:
Denevan’s work takes the form of a massive number “1” (in Helvetica, for those eagle-eyed observers), stretching 1,500 feet across Harper Lake, a dry basin located just over 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles. He created the piece by driving the Lexus GX up to 70 miles per hour to sketch the “1,” then followed these marks with deeper, more precise grooves.
The piece came together as a meditation on the profound view of the world that can be found in even the most quotidian of elements. “Numbers, symbols, and letters are ubiquitous. We see them all the time and respond to the directions they give,” Denevan said on the cool, bright morning the day of the shoot. Expressed at this scale, the number “1” stands as a dramatic testament to the one life we all get to shape however we wish.
Strapped in to the Lexus GX (prototype shown) for a lap along the 1,500-foot artwork in the Mojave Desert. Photo: Matt Seger & Dexter Brierley.
Another defining aspect of the work drives this point home and is key to Denevan’s practice: “Every track you see here is one hundred percent disappearing,” he says. Since the mid-1990s, the artist has created artworks with the planet’s various terrains, each of which lasts only as long as nature permits. Often using little more than a rake, stick, or even his footsteps, the artist has drawn symmetrical spirals on the San Francisco shoreline that wash away when the tide rolls in; etched 18 square miles of circles along a Fibonacci curve into the snow covering Siberia’s frozen Lake Baikal, to drift into oblivion with the next blizzard; sculpted concentric rings of sand mounds, slowly eroding over time, in a Saudi Arabian desert valley; and created his largest artwork by volume, one windstorm from disappearing, on an island in Abu Dhabi.
“It’s another form of the ephemeral arts, like dance or music,” Denevan says. “The work is pretty big, but in the physical reality, it’s here today, gone tomorrow. Just like civilizations and cities come and go.” At the mercy of the elements, his ephemeral work in Harper Lake reminds us that the only constant in this world is change, the only guarantee is that it will all be over someday, so command the course of your own life.
Taking off-roading to a whole new dimension with the all-new 2024 Lexus GX (prototype shown). Photo: Matt Seger & Dexter Brierley.
The cyclic quality of life has fixated Denevan ever since he was a child growing up along the California beaches of San Jose and Santa Cruz. “I became obsessed with the processes of the ocean, the beach, waves, and animals, and how things changed from year to year,” he says. His fascination with the environment further developed as he became an accomplished surfer. Biking along the ocean led to detours to draw in the sand. “I was immediately thinking that this is a really rich environment to explore,” he says. “The first day I actually drew with just my finger, this sort of caveman quality where it’s like you come with nothing, leave with nothing.”
When he finished, he climbed up to where he could see his work from a higher vantage point. “With the sun in the right direction, what you think of as being somewhat invisible is extremely present. So when I went to the top of the cliff, I knew I’d be devoting myself to this art form.”
Land artist Jim Denevan with the all-new 2024 Lexus GX (prototype shown). Photo: Matt Seger & Dexter Brierley.
At first, Denevan wanted to keep his work truly temporary, a creative outlet solely for him to commune with nature. “I thought, if this medium is going to go somewhere interesting, wouldn’t it be cool to not document anything and let it all disappear for the first six months, or a year,” he says. “That I would make the marks and walk away without taking a picture.”
Soon, his compositions grew more elaborate and caught the attention of passersby. “I used disposable cameras for maybe three or four years. I’d go down to the beach thinking I’m just gonna walk away, but then a work would look great and I’d go to the drugstore. Then I had the problem: the tide might come in before I got back,” he says with a laugh.
As Denevan’s practice evolved, so too did his tools and techniques. He went from using his finger to a short stick and then a double rake, custom-welded to allow for making wider lines while walking. He also made a set of rules for himself. “There would be no measuring, so any circle was a freehand circle,” he says.
For his monumental number “1,” Denevan used a hoe to etch the artwork’s deeper grooves. Photo: Matt Seger & Dexter Brierley.
Today, his focus on geometric forms, such as spirals, circles, and pyramids, comes in part from the influence of his late mother, a mathematician who graduated early from Stanford University. That appreciation for the mesmerizing influence of symbols on a page also translates into the feeling of creating these forms in the Earth. “I like the endurance quality of making the art,” Denevan says. “The physical exhaustion mixed with the meditation of it being correct. It makes me feel really healthy.”
The experience also pulls together philosophies from across his life. “Patience with the process comes to mind. Whether reaching some expertise in riding waves or making art, it’s going to take a while, so you might as well enjoy the time and not get worked up about the day-to-day. The path to making really good circles in the sand is not an overnight thing. What’s most meaningful to me as an artist is the act of composing, being at one with the composition emerging in the right place, and the wabi-sabi of perfect imperfection.”
Expressed at this scale, the number “1” stands as a dramatic testament to the one life we all get to shape however we wish. Photo: Matt Seger & Dexter Brierley.
Interacting with the Earth for creative compositions underscores Denevan’s passions for art and life. “I love that I dance within the phenomena of things expiring or coming back to life,” he says. Soaking in this idea when a work is complete is a transcendent experience. “My last burst of physical activity will be sprinting to the top of a cliff. I’ll see the wave coming, take a picture, and the thing’s whole for a minute. It’s a wonderfully meditative moment and I’m exhausted. Then the tide comes and the space is refreshed,” he says. “I can use and explore the exact same space the next day.”
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Video Directors: Meetra Javed & Giles Pates
DP’s: Dexter Brierley & Matt Seeger
Exec Producers: Alex Max & Meetra Javed
Production Company: Underhill Film