Nancy Holt. Sun Tunnels 1973-1976.
Sun Tunnels are four huge concrete pipes, 9 feet high and 18 feet long sited on land owned by the artist in Utah. They face each other in pairs , set at a distance around a concrete circle. The pairs of tunnels are aligned to the summer and winter solstice respectively. At these times the sun can be seen right through the relevant pair of tunnels. Holes are cut in the tunnels in the form of constellations, so the sun and also the moon, produce moving images of the constellations on the inside of the tunnels.
Nancy Holt says ‘ Day is transformed into night and an inversion of the sky takes place: stars are cast down to earth, spots of warmth in cool tunnels’. On a simple level she is mapping the stars in an unusual way, but the piece also frames the landscape and emphasises the scale of the earth and the cosmos, something other artists working at this time( James Turrell, Roden Crater, Charles Ross, Star Axis) also tried to do.
John Beardsley 1998(3rd ed) Earthworks and beyond Abbeville Press
Gilles A Tiberghien 1995 Land Art Art Data
Page 200 Land Art Gilles A Tibergien Page 35. Fig 27 Earthworks and Beyond John Beardsley
John Beardsley 1998(3rd ed) Earthworks and beyond Abbeville Press
Gilles A Tiberghien 1995 Land Art Art Data
No comments:
Post a Comment