Installed in deserts and along riverbanks, the late artist’s grand constructions underscored a fascination in the systems underpinning the Earth and the cosmos. Now she is receiving a first UK retrospective
T
he two most prominent features of the 1960s and 70s art movement that became known as land art are the use of dramatic locations in the natural environment and monumental scale. Nancy Holt (1938-2014), one of the few women associated with the medium, and the subject of a new exhibition at the Goodwood Art Foundation in Sussex, is probably best known for Sun Tunnels, her 1976 work installed in the Utah desert in which four concrete cylinders are aligned with the movements of the cosmos.
But perhaps the key piece in the Goodwood exhibition is not outside in the 70-acre site, but instead a small sheet of paper, only 30cm x 45cm, on the wall of the gallery. In the centre sits a circle which is surrounded by the collaged words of a concrete poem “MOONSUNSTAR EARTHSKYWATER”.
“It was made before she had done any grand works in the landscape,” says curator Ann Gallagher, “but it points towards concerns that stayed with her across every medium she used for over 40 years. Circles appear frequently throughout her work. They are framing devices that give you a way of looking at the world, but they also link to her interest in systems – in the skies, on the Earth and in life – and the often circular nature of those systems, just like the poem which we have used as the title for the whole show.”
