Jim Denevan: Lake Baikal

In March of 2010, land artist Jim Denevan (born 1961) and his crew journeyed to the world’s largest lake--Lake Baikal in southwestern Siberia--where they created the world’s largest artwork on the frozen surface of the water. Enduring sub-zero temperatures and blistering winds, the seven participants used chain fencing to inscribe the ice with a series of circles based on the Fibonacci sequence (where each number is the sum of the previous two), which varied in diameter from an origin point of only 18 inches to nine square miles. The project broke the record for the largest artwork in existence, which was previously held by Denevan’s 2009 work in the Nevada desert. This volume records the highs and lows, the comedy and the drama, of this extraordinary venture, as well as the final ephemeral work itself.