In a valley in Utah’s Great Basin Desert, Holt constructed four large-scale concrete tubes to line up perfectly with the rising and setting sun during the solstices. These sculptures double as viewing devices, harnessing light and time to frame human perception. Holt’s film Sun Tunnels chronicles the making of the earthwork and is especially attentive to the labor of her many collaborators, from engineers, to pipe technicians, to an astronomer. The artist later reflected: “On the level of coordinating things, and maintaining the pace and making sure everything goes O.K. and interrelating with the people involved, all that becomes part of the work for me.”
411: Holt and Smithson on Film, 2026
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Holt and Smithson on Film
Gallery 411Smithson and Nancy Holt, partners in life and art, were among a generation of American artists whose earthworks, made by intervening into the landscape, expanded art’s place beyond the gallery.
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