#nancy holt
Art History #7 — Land Art // 23/11/20.
‘Sun Tunnels’ is a land artwork created by Nancy Holt. It is composed of four giant, cylindrical, concrete structures formatted in a cross shape on the desert’s floor. The structure allows enough space for a viewer to walk inside without ducking, intended to provide an interactive element to the land art. The work’s orientation and form are precisely aligned to enable the four tubes to frame the sun on the horizon during the summer and winter solstices, producing a lens that can engulf the body. The small holes in the tubes are modelled on the position of four constellations, and they throw scattered discs of light onto the viewer inside. After completion of the work, Holt did not want to linger on the sun tunnels alone when presenting it to the public, rather she had a motivation to guide the viewers through the land. She stated that “Choosing these sites as places for people to experience and see, that’s the work”. This extended engagement with the land led her to the conclusion that sculptural frameworks were unnecessary, and that the sites werethe piece. Holt’s meaning behind her land art was to therefore create something that complements and emphasises the natural beauty of the environment itself — building upon this is most effective.
[ Sourced references:
— https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-story-sun-tunnels-nancy-holts-land-art-masterpiece
— Art History lesson notes. ]
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