A freshwater swamp in Florida

Belarus

A swamp is a wetland that is forested^[1]. Many swamps occur along large rivers, where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations^[2]. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes^[3]. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation.^[4] The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the worlds largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo^[5].

Geology[link]

Swamps are characterized by very slow-moving waters. They are usually associated with adjacent rivers or lakes. In some cases, rivers become swamps for a distance. Swamps are features of areas with very low topographic relief.

Draining[link]

Swamps were historically drained to provide additional land for agriculture, and to reduce the threat of diseases born by swamp insects and similar animals.^[6] Many swamps were also heavily logged, which also required construction of drainage ditches and canals. These contributed as well to drainage, and, along the coast, allowed salt water intrusion that converted swamps to marsh or open water.^[7] Large areas of swamp were therefore lost, or degraded. Louisiana provides a classic example of wetland loss from these combined factors.^[8] Europe has probably lost nearly half its wetlands.^[9] As another example, New Zealand has lost 90 percent of its wetlands over the past 150 years.^[10] It is now appreciated that swamps provide valuable ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, and wildlife habitat.^[11] In many parts of the world swamps are protected. In parts of Europe and North America, swamp restoration is becoming widespread^[12][13]. Often the simplest steps to restoring swamps are to plug drainage ditches and remove levees.^[14]

Famous examples[link]

The largest swamp in the world is the Amazon River floodplain, which is particularly significant for its large number of fish and tree species^[15][16][17].

Africa[link]

The Sudd and the Okavango Delta are Africa's best known marshland areas.

Asia[link]

The Vasyugan Swamp is a large swamp in the western Siberia area of the Russian Federation. This is one of the largest swamps in the world, covering an area larger than Switzerland. The Tigris-Euphrates river system is a large swamp and river system in southern Iraq, traditionally inhabited in part by the Marsh Arabs.

North America[link]

Swamp in southern Louisiana

Atchafalaya Swamp at the lower end of the Mississippi River is the largest swamp in the United States. It is an important example of southern cypress swamp^[18] but it has been greatly altered by logging, drainage and levee construction^[19]. Other famous swamps in the United States are the Everglades, Okefenokee Swamp, Barley Barber Swamp and the Great Dismal Swamp. The Okefenokee is located in extreme southeastern Georgia and extends slightly into northeastern Florida. The Great Dismal Swamp lies in extreme southeastern Virginia and extreme northeastern North Carolina. Both are National Wildlife Refuges. Another swamp area, Reelfoot Lake of extreme western Tennessee and Kentucky, was created by the New Madrid earthquake of 1812. Caddo Lake, the Great Dismal and Reelfoot are swamps that are centered at large lakes. Swamps are often called bayous in the southeastern United States, especially in the Gulf Coast region.

Land value and productivity[link]

Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held a very low property value compared to fields, prairies, or woodlands. They have a reputation as being unproductive land that can't be easily utilized for human activities, other than perhaps hunting and trapping. Farmers for example typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to gain more land usable for planting crops.

Societies now generally understand that swamps are critically important in the processes of providing fresh water and oxygen to all life, and are often breeding grounds for a wide isolated variety of life. Indeed, floodplain swamps are extremely important in fish production^[20]. Government environmental agencies (such as the Department of Natural Resources in the United States) are taking steps to protect and preserve swamps and other wetlands. In Europe, major effort is being invested in the restoration of swamp forests along rivers^[21]

List of major swamps[link]

This article may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2010)

A small swamp in the Padstow, New South Wales.

Inside the Mangrove canopy, Salt Pan Creek, New South Wales

The worlds largest wetlands include significant areas of swamp, such as in the Amazon and Congo River basins^[22]. Further north, however, the largest wetlands are bogs.

Africa[link]

• Bangweulu Swamps, Zambia
• Okavango Swamp, Botswana
• Sudd, Sudan
• Niger Delta, Nigeria

Asia[link]

• Asmat Swamp, Indonesia
• Vasyugan Swamp, Russia
• Candaba Swamp in Apalit, Batangas, Candaba in Pampanga and Pulilan, Bulacan, Philippines
• Mangrove Swamp in Karachi, Pakistan

North America[link]

• Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana, United States
• Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, United States
• Barley Barber Swamp, Florida, United States
• Everglades, Florida, United States
• Great Black Swamp, Indiana/Ohio, United States
• Great Cypress Swamp, Maryland, United States, also known as Great Pocomoke Swamp
• Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina/Virginia, United States
• Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey, United States
• Green Swamp, Florida, United States
• Green Swamp, North Carolina, United States
• Honey Island Swamp, Louisiana, United States
• Hudson Bay Lowlands, Ontario, Canada
• Limberlost, Indiana, United States
• Louisiana swamplands, Louisiana, United States
• Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, Puxico, Missouri, United States
• Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia/Florida, United States
• Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee/Kentucky, United States
• Shu Swamp, New York, United States
• Congaree Swamp, South Carolina, United States

South America[link]

• Lahuen Ñadi, Chile
• Pantanal, Brazil
• Paraná Delta, Argentina

See also[link]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Swamps

For other uses of the title The Grid, see Grid (disambiguation).

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)

The Grid are an English electronic dance group, consisting of Richard Norris and David Ball (formerly of Soft Cell),^[1] with guest contributions from other musicians. They are best known for the hits "Swamp Thing", "Crystal Clear", "Rollercoaster", "Floatation", and "Cybernetic" (with Robert Fripp and Phil Manzanera).

Band members[link]

• Richard Norris (born 23 June 1965, London) - keyboards
• David Ball (born 3 May 1959, Blackpool, Lancashire) - keyboards
• Sacha Rebecca Souter (musician) (born 26 November 1963, Cockerton, County Durham) - Vocals

Biography[link]

The Grid formed in 1988 and had their first success with debut single, "Floatation", released on East West Records in 1990. They went on to release a string of ten UK hit singles and four albums,^[1] and toured the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. The group's 1994 album Evolver reached #14 in the UK Albums Chart.^[1] The lead single from this album, "Swamp Thing", featuring elaborate banjo lines played by Roger Dinsdale. "Swamp Thing" proved to be a commercial success in the UK, Europe and Australia, reaching #3 in the UK^[1] and Australia and selling a total of one million copies.^{[citation needed]}

In 1996, Norris and Ball agreed to a hiatus period in order pursue individual music interests. Norris formed the Droyds, which went on to remix tracks by musicians including Armand Van Helden and Siobhan Fahey, and wrote the official biography of Paul Oakenfold (published in 2007): Ball reformed Soft Cell with Marc Almond, and also wrote music scores for films.^{[citation needed]} Norris has since formed the psychedelic duo, Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve, with DJ Erol Alkan, and has released a number of solo records and remixes under the name The Time and Space Machine.

The duo reunited in 2005, initially playing two gigs under the name GDM with female singer Misty Woods, before writing and recording new material as the Grid. A single, "Put Your Hands Together", was released in 2007 and an album, Doppelgänger, followed in 2008. Both were released on the Some Bizzare label. The album featured vocals by the British musician, Chris Braide.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Grid Central - An Unofficial Page for The Grid
• Death of Roger Dinsdale.
• The Grid on allmusic.com
• The Grid MySpace page

Robert Smithson
Spiral Jetty from atop Rozel Point, in mid-April 2005. It was created in 1970 and still exists although it has often been submerged by the fluctuating lake level. It consists of some 6500 tons of basalt, earth and salt.
Born	(1938-01-02)January 2, 1938 Passaic, New Jersey
Died	July 20, 1973(1973-07-20) (aged 35) Texas
Nationality	American
Training	Art Students League of New York
Movement	Land art
Works	Spiral Jetty, 1970
Patrons	Virginia Dwan
Influenced by	Frederick Law Olmstead

Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938–July 20, 1973) was an American artist famous for his land art.

Background and education[link]

This section requires expansion.

Smithson was born in Passaic, New Jersey and studied painting and drawing in New York City at the Art Students League of New York.

Career[link]

Early work[link]

His early exhibited artworks were collage works influenced by "homoerotic drawings and clippings from beefcake magazines",^[1] science fiction, and early Pop Art. He primarily identified himself as a painter during this time, but after a three year rest from the art world, Smithson emerged in 1964 as a proponent of the emerging minimalist movement. His new work abandoned the preoccupation with the body that had been common in his earlier work. Instead he began to use glass sheet and neon lighting tubes to explore visual refraction and mirroring, in particular the sculpture Enantiomorphic Chambers. Crystalline structures and the concept of entropy became of particular interest to him, and informed a number of sculptures completed during this period, including Alogon 2. Smithson became affiliated with artists who were identified with the minimalist or Primary Structures movement, such as Nancy Holt (whom he married), Robert Morris and Sol LeWitt. As a writer, Smithson was interested in applying mathematical impersonality to art that he outlined in essays and reviews for Arts Magazine and Artforum and for a period was better known as a critic than as an artist. Some of Smithson's later writings recovered 18th- and 19th-century conceptions of landscape architecture which influenced the pivotal earthwork explorations which characterized his later work. He eventually joined the Dwan Gallery, whose owner Virginia Dwan was an enthusiastic supporter of his work.

Mature work[link]

In 1967 Smithson began exploring industrial areas around New Jersey and was fascinated by the sight of dump trucks excavating tons of earth and rock that he described in an essay as the equivalents of the monuments of antiquity. This resulted in the series of 'non-sites' in which earth and rocks collected from a specific area are installed in the gallery as sculptures, often combined with mirrors or glass. In September 1968, Smithson published the essay "A Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects" in Artforum that promoted the work of the first wave of land art artists, and in 1969 he began producing land art pieces to further explore concepts gained from his readings of William S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, and George Kubler.

As well as works of art, Smithson produced a good deal of theoretical and critical writing, including the 2D paper work A Heap of Language, which sought to show how writing might become an artwork. In his essay "Incidents of Mirror-Travel in the Yucatan" ^[2] Smithson documents a series of temporary sculptures made with mirrors at particular locations around the Yucatan peninsula. Part travelogue, part critical rumination, the article highlights Smithson's concern with the temporal as a cornerstone of his work.

Smithson's interest in the temporal is explored in his writings in part through the recovery of the ideas of the picturesque. His essay "Frederick Law Olmsted and the Dialectical Landscape" was written in 1973 after Smithson had seen an exhibition curated by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers at the Whitney Museum entitled “Frederick Law Olmsted’s New York” as the cultural and temporal context for the creation of his late-19th-century design for Central Park. In examining the photographs of the land set aside to become Central Park, Smithson saw the barren landscape that had been degraded by humans before Olmsted constructed the complex ‘naturalistic’ landscape that was viscerally apparent to New Yorkers in the 1970s. Smithson was interested in challenging the prevalent conception of Central Park as an outdated 19th-century Picturesque aesthetic in landscape architecture that had a static relationship within the continuously evolving urban fabric of New York City. In studying the writings of 18th- and 19th-century Picturesque treatise writers Gilpin, Price, Knight and Whately, Smithson recovers issues of site specificity and human intervention as dialectic landscape layers, experiential multiplicity, and the value of deformations manifest in the Picturesque landscape.

Smithson further implies in this essay that what distinguishes the Picturesque is that it is based on real land ^[3] For Smithson, a park exists as “a process of ongoing relationships existing in a physical region” ^[4] Smithson was interested in Central Park as a landscape which by the 1970s had weathered and grown as Olmsted’s creation, but was layered with new evidence of human intervention.

Now the Ramble has grown up into an urban jungle, and lurking in its thickets are “hoods, hobos, hustlers, and homosexuals,” and other estranged creatures of the city…. Walking east, I passed graffiti on boulders… On the base of the Obelisk along with the hieroglyphs there are also graffiti. …In the spillway that pours out of the Wollman Memorial Ice Rink, I noticed a metal grocery cart and a trash basket half-submerged in the water. Further down, the spillway becomes a brook choked with mud and tin cans. The mud then spews under the Gapstow Bridge to become a muddy slough that inundates a good part of The Pond, leaving the rest of The Pond aswirl with oil slicks, sludge, and Dixie cups”^[5]

While Smithson did not find “beauty” in the evidence of abuse and neglect, he did see the state of things as demonstrative of the continually transforming relationships between man and landscape. In his proposal to make process art out of the dredging of The Pond, Smithson sought to insert himself into the dynamic evolution of the park ^[6]

Smithson became particularly interested in the notion of deformities within the spectrum of anti-aesthetic dynamic relationships which he saw present in the Picturesque landscape. He claimed, “the best sites for ‘earth art’ are sites that have been disrupted by industry, reckless urbanization, or nature’s own devastation.” ^[7] While in earlier 18th-century formal characterizations of the pastoral and the sublime, something like a “gash in the ground” if encountered by a “leveling improver”, as described by Price, would have been smoothed over and the whole composition returned to a more aesthetically pleasing contour ^[8] For Smithson, however, it was not necessary that the deformation become a visual aspect of a landscape; by his anti-formalist logic, more important was the temporal scar worked over by natural or human intervention. He saw parallels to Olmsted's Central Park as a “sylvan” green overlay on the depleted landscape that preceded his Central Park ^[9] Defending himself against allegations that he and other earth artists “cut and gouge the land like Army engineers”, Smithson, in his own essay, charges that one of such opinions “failed to recognize the possibility of a direct organic manipulation of the land..” and would “turn his back on the contradictions that inhabit our landscapes” ^[10]

In revisiting the 18th- and early 19th-century treatises of the Picturesque, which Olmsted interpreted in his practice, Smithson exposes threads of an anti-aesthetic anti-formalist logic and a theoretical framework of the Picturesque that addressed the dialectic between the physical landscape and its temporal context. By re-interpreting and re-valuing these treatises, Smithson was able to broaden the temporal and intellectual context for his own work, and to offer renewed meaning for Central Park as an important work of modern art and landscape architecture.

Other theoretical writings explore the relationship of a piece of art to its environment, from which he developed his concept of sites and non-sites. A site was a work located in a specific outdoor location, while a non-site was a work which could be displayed in any suitable space, such as an art gallery. Spiral Jetty is an example of a sited work, while Smithson's non-site pieces frequently consist of photographs of a particular location, often exhibited alongside some material (such as stones or soil) removed from that location.

The journeys he undertook were central to his practice as an artist, and his non-site sculptures often included maps and aerial photos of a particular location, as well as the geological artifacts displaced from those sites. In 1970 at Kent State University, Smithson created Partially Buried Woodshed (1970) ^[11] to illustrate geological time consuming human history. His most famous work is Spiral Jetty (1970), a 1,500-foot (460 m) long spiral-shaped jetty extending into the Great Salt Lake in Utah constructed from rocks, earth, and salt. It was entirely submerged by rising lake waters for several years, but has since re-emerged. The lake waters may be pinkish due to high concentrations of β-carotene in the halophyte green alga Dunaliella salina.

In 1971 he created Broken circle/Spiral Hill for the exhibition for the Sonsbeek'71 art festival at Emmen, the Netherlands. The subject of the 1971 Sonsbeek exhibition was Beyond Lawn and Order (Dutch: Buiten de perken).

On July 20, 1973, Smithson died in a plane crash, while surveying sites for his work Amarillo Ramp in Texas.^[12] Despite his early death, and relatively few surviving major works, Smithson has a following amongst many contemporary artists. In recent years, Tacita Dean, Sam Durant, Lee Ranaldo, Vik Muniz, Mike Nelson, and the Bruce High Quality Foundation have all made homages to Smithson's works.

The Estate of Robert Smithson is managed by James Cohan Gallery.

• 

  Broken Circle, Emmen, The Netherlands

• 

  Broken Circle detail of materials, Emmen, The Netherlands

• 

  Spiral Hill, Emmen, The Netherlands

• 

  Spiral Jetty, Utah, USA

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Busch, Julia M. (1974), A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s, Philadelphia: The Art Alliance Press, ISBN 0-87982-007-1, OCLC 804815, OCLC 804815 .
• Kimmelman, Michael (2005-06-24), "Sculpture From the Earth, But Never Limited by It", The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/arts/design/24kimm.html?ex=1180929600&en=97cea2a283bb6762&ei=5070 . Retrieved 2 June 2007.
• Smithson, Robert (1969), "Incidents of mirror-travel in the Yucatan", Artforum VIII (1), ISSN 0004-3532, OCLC 1514329, ISSN 0004-3532 OCLC 1514329 .
• Smithson, Robert (1996), Flam, Jack D., ed., Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, Berkeley: University of California Press, OCLC 32853450, OCLC 32853450 .
• Roberts, Jennifer L. (Sept. 2000), "Landscapes of Indifference: Robert Smithson and John Lloyd Stephens in Yucatan", The Art Bulletin .

External links[link]

• www.robertsmithson.com
• Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971-2011) an historic Dutch program (video, exhibition and publication).
• Plans to Mix Oil Drilling and Art Clash in Utah, article by Kirk Johnson in the New York Times, 27 March 2008.
• 'An interminable avalanche of categories': conceptual issues in the work of Robert Smithson (or, once more, against 'sculpture') Lecture by Peter Osborne given at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, in 2008, which is available to download in audio form [2]
• Smithson Sightings Short essay on Smithson by Timothy Don of 3 Quarks Daily.
• Pictures of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty.
• 'Extra Terrestrial' - a 1993 monograph from frieze
• Robert Smithson exhibition at The Renaissance Society, 1976.
• Robert Smithson and Floating Island, by John Haber
• Nonsite from Smithson to New Media, by John Haber

Nancy Holt (born April 1938) is an American artist famous for her public sculpture, installation art and land art. Throughout her career, Holt has also produced works in other mediums, including film, photography, and writing artist’s books.

Biography[link]

Nancy Holt was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. She spent a great deal of her childhood in New Jersey.^[1] She was educated at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.^[1] Three years after graduating, she married fellow environmental artist Robert Smithson in 1963. Holt began her artistic career as a photographer and as a video artist. This involvement with photography and camera optics are thought to have influenced her later earthworks, which are “literally seeing devices, fixed points for tracking the positions of the sun, earth and stars.”^[2] Today Holt is most widely known for her large-scale environmental works, Sun Tunnels and Dark Star Park. However, she has created site-specific environmental works in public places all over the world. Holt has contributed to various publications, which have featured both her written articles and photographs. She has also authored several books. Holt has received five National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, New York Creative Artist Fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.^[1] She currently works and resides in Galisteo, New Mexico.^[3]

Artistic Style[link]

The Land Art Tradition[link]

Holt is associated with earthworks or land art. Land art emerged in the 1960s, coinciding with a growing ecology movement in the United States, which asked people to become more aware of the negative impact they can have on the natural environment. Land art changed the way people thought of art; it took art out of the gallery or museum and into the natural landscape, the product of which were huge works engaging elements of the environment. Unlike much of the commercialized art during this time period, land art could not be bought or sold on the art market. Thus, it shifted the perspective of how people all over the world viewed art.

Land art was typically created in remote, uninhabited regions of the country, particularly the Southwest. Some attribute this popular location for land art to artists’ need to escape the turmoil in the United States during the 1960s and 70s by turning to the open, uncorrupted land of the West.^[2] Holt believes this artistic movement came about in the United States due to the vastness of the American landscape.^[4] As a result of earthworks not being easily accessible to the public, documentation in photographs, videos, drawings became imperative to their being seen. The first exhibit of contemporary land art was at the Virginia Dwan Gallery in New York in 1968.^[5] Other earth artists who emerged during this time include Robert Smithson, James Turrell, Walter De Maria, Michael Heizer, and Dennis Oppenheim.

Perception of Time and Space[link]

Holt’s works of art often deal with issues of how people perceive time and space. The various monumental works she has created blend with and complement their environment. Works such as Hydra’s Head do not merely sit in their environments, but are made of the land, stand on it and are created to be harmonious with the land. The pools in this work are at the top of concrete tubes imbedded in the ground. The land already at the site surrounds these pools. They reflect the natural landscape, while not disturbing it. Holt thinks about human scale in relation to the work she creates.^[6] People can interact with the works and become more aware of space, of their own visual perception, and of the order of the universe.^[6] Holt’s works incorporate the passage of time and also function to keep time. For example, Annual Ring functions so that when sunlight falls through the hole in the dome and fits perfectly into a ring on the ground, it is solar noon on the summer solstice.^[6] At different times, the sun falls differently on the work and other holes in the dome align with celestial occurrences. Holt has said that she is concerned with making art that not only makes an impact visually, but is also functional and necessary in society,^[7] as seen in works like Sky Mound, which serves a dual function as a sculpture and park and it also generates alternative energy.

In her works, Holt creates an intimate connection to nature and the stars, saying, "I feel that the need to look at the sky-at the moon and the stars-is very basic, and it is inside all of us. So when I say my work is an exteriorization of my own inner reality, I mean I am giving back to people through art what they already have in them."^[6] In other words, Holt is saying that people have within them a basic need to observe the sky and through her works she wants to highlight and make people aware of that need.

Collaboration[link]

Collaboration with architects, engineers, construction crews, and the like is an essential part of creating land art. Solar Rotary is a work located on the campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. The work, consists of 20 ft (6.1 m). aluminum poles topped with a swirl of metal called a shadow caster, which casts a circle of light on a central seat when it is solar noon on the day of the summer solstice. On five days a year at different times, the shadow caster is designed to create a circle of light around plaques placed in the ground that mark important events in Florida’s history.^[8] Thus, for Solar Rotary, Holt employed Dr. Jack Robinson, an archaeo-astronomer and professor to help her, among other things, to plot the sun’s coordinates for the work.^[8] For almost all of Holt’s works, she has had some collaboration. For Dark Star Park, Holt coordinated with developer J.W. Kaempfer, Jr., of the Kaempfer Company, in integrating the design of his adjacent building, Park Place Office Building into her design for the park. She also worked in collaboration with an architect, landscape architect, engineers, and real estate developers on the work.^[9] For Rock Rings, Holt searched far and wide to find the right masons to work on the piece and also had local stone called schist, which was 250-million-years old, quarried by hand for the work.^[6] Despite all of the collaboration, Holt notes that she is always present for the construction of her artworks.^[6]

Analysis of Major Works[link]

Sun Tunnels in Lucin, Utah.

Sun Tunnels[link]

Sun Tunnels is located in the Great Basin Desert outside of the ghost town of Lucin, Utah. The work is a product of Holt’s interest in the great variation of intensity of the sun in the desert compared to the sun in the city.^[6] Holt searched for and found a site which was remote and empty.

"It is a very desolate area, but it is totally accessible, and it can be easily visited, making Sun Tunnels more accessible really than art in museums . . . A work like Sun Tunnels is always accessible . . . Eventually, as many people will see Sun Tunnels as would see many works in a city-in a museum anyway."^[6]

The work consists of four massive concrete tunnels (18 feet long and nine feet in diameter), which are arranged in an “X” configuration to total a length of 86 feet (26 m). Each tunnel reacts differently to the sun, aligned with the sunrise, sunset, of the summer or winter solstice. Someone visiting the site would see the tunnels immediately with their contrast to the fairly undifferentiated desert landscape. Approaching the work, which can be seen one to one-and-a-half miles away, the viewer’s perception of space is questioned as the tunnels change views as a product of their landscape.^[10]

The tunnels not only provide a much-needed shelter from the sweltering desert sun, but once inside the dazzling effect of the play of light within the tunnels can be seen. The top of each tunnel has small holes, forming on each, the constellations of Draco, Perseus, Columba, and Capricorn, respectively.^[6] The diameters of the holes differ in relation to the magnitude of the stars represented.^[6] These holes cast spots of daylight in the dark interiors of the tunnels, which appear almost like stars. Holt has said of the tunnels, "It’s an inversion of the sky/ground relationship-bringing the sky down to the earth."^[6] This is a common theme in Holt’s work. She sometimes creates this relationship with reflecting pools and shadow patterns marked on the ground, like in her work Star Crossed.^[6]

Dark Star Park in Arlington, Virginia.

Dark Star Park[link]

Dark Star Park was commissioned by Arlington County, Virginia in 1979, in conjunction with an urban-renewal project.^[7] Construction of the work began in 1984. Holt worked with an architect, landscape architect, engineers, and real estate developers on the project.^[7] The artwork is at once a park and a sculpture. Built on two-thirds of an acre of land where a run-down, old gas station and warehouse once stood, Holt transformed the space.^[7] The park consists of five spheres, two pools, four steel poles, a stairway, a large tunnel for passage, a smaller tunnel for viewing only and plantings of crown vetch, winter creeper, willow oak, and earth and grass.^[11]

The forms stand in stark contrast to the busy and highly developed commercial area that surrounds the space. There are places to walk and sit within the park, giving a passersby a chance to escape from the urban environment. Dark Star Park is more socially interactive than Holt’s other works. Holt paid attention to how people both inside and outside the park would see the spheres. The work alters the viewer’s perception by using curvilinear forms, such as the walkways that mimic the curving roads surrounding the site. Walking in the park or driving by it, viewers may mistake spheres of different sizes to actually be the same size or one sphere may eclipse another. The tunneled passages into the park frame certain sculptural elements, as do the reflections in the pools. However, Holt has made sure not to alienate the park entirely from its surroundings. The spheres are made of gunite (a sprayable mixture of cement and sand), asphalt, precast concrete tunnels, steel poles and stone masonry.^[7] These materials relate the park to the buildings located near the artwork.

The work explores the concept of time and our relationship to the universe. When approaching one of the spheres, a visitor to the park might be reminded of the lunar surface^[11] or when glancing at the quiet pools of water around the spheres, may relate them to craters.^[7] This is no coincidence. Holt has a fascination with solar eclipses, as well as in the shadows cast by the sun on the surface of the earth^[11] and the name of the park is a reference to the astronomical appearance of the large spheres that are its most distinct features. In speaking about the name Holt has said, "It’s called Dark Star Park because in my imagination these spheres are like stars that have fallen to the ground-they no longer shine-so I think of the park/artwork in a somewhat celestial way."^[6] By engaging the viewer with these spheres and the other elements surrounding them in the park, Holt brings the vast scale of nature and the cosmos back to human scale. Time is also a major part of this work. Once a year on August 1 at 9:32 am, the shadows cast by two of the spheres and their four adjacent poles align with permanent asphalt shadow patterns outlined on the ground.^[7] This date was selected by the artist to commemorate the day in 1860 when William Ross bought the land that today is Rosslyn, Virginia, where the park is situated.^[7]

Holt took on the challenging task of playing many roles in the park’s creation, becoming at once an artist, landscape designer, and committee member for approving plans for a nearby building. To take on all three roles possibly had never been done before by an artist, thus the park and its designer remain important to the history of art.

"I was the landscape designer as well as the sculptor, so the whole park became a work of art. And I was on the committee to approve the architectural design of the building adjacent to the park. I don’t think either of these situations ever happened before for an artist, so that was unusual, and it broke new ground for public art."^[6]

The work was surveyed in June 1995. At that time “treatment was needed.”.^[9] Thus, seven years later, when the park was finally restored in 2002 it was long overdue.

Sky Mound[link]

Located in Northern New Jersey, Sky Mound sits where a 57-acre (230,000 m²), 100-foot (30 m)-high landfill once stood.^[12] The state’s Hackensack Meadowland Development Commission (HMDC) asked Holt to reclaim the site in an effort to provide an environmentally safe spot for plant and animal life to reside and for humans to enjoy.^[13]

Still unfinished in April 2008, the landfill is to be turned into an earth sculpture and public park. The landfill has been covered with grass. Ten mounds stand upon the site, as well as steel poles, plants, and a pond, designed for the approximately 250 species of migratory birds that visit the area seasonally.^[13] There will eventually be wind indicators and gravel paths. On several astronomically significant dates each year, the work will provide its viewer with unique views of the sun, moon, and several stars.

In addition, a series of arcing pipes will go down into the landfill, recovering methane from the 10 million tons of garbage below.^[12] This will provide an alternative source of energy for those in the community.

Sky Mound’s location makes it visible and accessible to many people. Holt believes the work will increase awareness of the complex problem of how we dispose of our waste and trash.^[12] It also raises questions about the sun, as every ecosystem depends on the sun and its energy for survival.^[14] In 1991, funding on Sky Mound was stopped to perform a technological study at the site; currently construction remains postponed.^[15]

Films[link]

Holt has also made a number of films and videos since the late 1960s, including Mono Lake, (1968) (also with artist Michael Heizer), East Coast, West Coast (1969), and Swamp (1971) in collaboration with her late husband Robert Smithson.^[16] Points of View: Clocktower (1974) features conversations between Lucy Lippard and Richard Serra, Liza Bear and Klaus Kertess, Carl Andre and Ruth Kligman and Bruce Brice and Tina Girouard.^[17] In 1978, she produced a 16mm color film documenting the seminal work Sun Tunnels.

Selected Artworks[link]

• Missoula Ranch Locators (1972, dismantled), Montana
• Sun Tunnels (1973–76), Great Basin Desert, Utah
• Hydra’s Head (1974), Artpark, Lewiston, New York
• Rock Rings (1977–78), Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington
  

  

  Rock Rings in Bellingham, Washington.
• 30 Below (1979), Lake Placid, New York
• Wild Spot (1979–1980), Wellesley, Massachusetts
• Star-Crossed (1979–81), Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
• Dark Star Park (1979–1984), Rosslyn, Virginia
• Annual Ring (1980–81), Federal Building, Saginaw, Michigan
• Time Span (1981), Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas
• Catch Basin (1982), St. James Park Toronto, Canada
• Electrical System II (1982), Bellman Circuit, Toronto, Canada
• Sole Source (1983), Dublin, Ireland
• End of the Line/West Rock (1985), Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Connecticut
• Astral Grating (1987), Fulton Street/Broadway-Nassau Subway Station, New York. Commissioned by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts for Transit
• Skymound (1988–Present), Hackensack, New Jersey
• Ventilation IV: Hampton Air (1992), Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York
• Solar Rotary (1995), University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
• Up and Under (1998), Hämeenkyrö, Finland
• Avignon Locators (for 2012), Sainte-Marthe Campus, Avignon, France

Selected Solo Exhibitions[link]

• 1972 Art Gallery, University of Montana, Missoula Missouri
• 1972 Art Center, University of Rhode Island, Kingston
• 1977 "Young American Filmmakers’ Series," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
• 1985 Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, California
• 1989 Montpellier Cultural Arts Center, Laurel, Maryland
• 1993 John Weber Gallery, New York, New York
• 2010 "Sightlines" Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Gallery, New York, New York
• 2012 "Sightlines" Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts (e-press release)

Selected Group Exhibitions[link]

• 1969 “Language III,” Dwan Gallery, New York, New York
• 1972 “International Art Exhibition,” Pamplona, Spain
• 1974 “Intervention in the Landscape,” Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
• 1977 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
• 1981 “Summer Light,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
• 1983 “Monuments and Landscapes: The New Public Art,” McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 1985 “Artist as Social Designer,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
• 1989 “Making Their Mark,” Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; Denver Art Museum, Denver Colorado; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 1998 Wiener Kunstverein, Vienna, Austria
• 1999 “After Image: Drawing Through Process,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
• 2007 "Cosmologies" James Cohan Gallery, New York City, New York

References[link]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Van Wagner, Judy Collischan. Long Island Estate Gardens (Greenvale New York: Hillwood Art Gallery, May 22-June 21, 1985), 42.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Arnason, H.H. History of Modern Art. 5th ed. (Upper Sadlle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 2004).
3. ↑ Grosenick, Uta, ed. Women Artists in the 20th and 21st Century, (London: Taschen, 2005).
4. ↑ Brown, Jeffrey. “Online NewsHour: Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Jetty' Celebrates its 30th Anniversary.” PBS Online, May 6, 2005.
5. ↑ Doss, Erika. "Twentieth-Century American Art." (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
6. ↑ ^{6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13} Saad-Cook, Janet, Charles Ross, Nancy Holt, James Turrell. "Touching the Sky: Artworks Using Natural Phenomena, Earth, Sky and Connections to Astronomy" Leonardo 21, no. 2 (1988): 123.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7} Arlington County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community.Nancy Holt: Dark Star Park," http://www.arlingtonarts.org/cultural_affairs/public%20art%20images/dark%20star%20brochure.pdf.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Bennett, Lennie. “Nancy Holt, Solar Rotary," St. Petersburg Times, August 6, 2006. http://www.sptimes.com/2006/08/06/Floridian/Nancy_Holt__Solar_Rot.shtml.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS), http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1209Y08P255N5.856&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!203174~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&term=Holt%2C+Nancy%2C+1938-+%2C+sculptor.&index=AUTHOR.
10. ↑ Beebe, Mary Livingston. “Tell Me, Is It Flat or Is It Round?” Art Journal 41, no. 2 (1981): 169.
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1 11.2} Marter, Joan. “Collaborations: Artists and Architects on Public Sites.” Art Journal 48, no. 4 Critical Issues in Public Art (1989): 316.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2} McGill, Douglas C. “Jersey Landfill to Become an Artwork.” New York Times, September 3, 1986.
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1} Baskin, Anita. “Stonehenge in New Jersey,” Omni, August 1992, 63.
14. ↑ Matlisky, Barbara C. Fragile Ecologies: Contemporary Artists’ Interpretations and Solutions. New York: Rizzoli International, 1992.
15. ↑ Skymound. 2006. http://greenmuseum.org/c/aen/Images/Ecology/sky.php.
16. ↑ "Nancy Holt". Electronic Arts Intermix. http://www.eai.org/artistBio.htm?id=10960. Retrieved 11 April 2012. 
17. ↑ Video Data Bank: Points of View: Clocktower

Sources[link]

• Arlington County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community. Nancy Holt: Dark Star Park. http://www.arlingtonarts.org/cultural_affairs/public%20art%20images/dark%20star%20brochure.pdf.
• Arnason, H.H. History of Modern Art. 5th ed. Upper Sadlle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 2004.
• Baskin, Anita. "Stonehenge in New Jersey." Omni, August 1992, 63.
• Beebe, Mary Livingston. "Tell Me, Is It Flat or Is It Round?" Art Journal 41, no. 2 (1981): 169-170.
• Beardsley, John. "Traditional Aspects of New Land Art." Art Journal 42, no. 3 Earthworks: Past and Present (1982): 226-332.
• Bennett, Lennie. "Nancy Holt, Solar Rotary." "St. Petersburg Times, August 6, 2006. http://www.sptimes.com/2006/08/06/Floridian/Nancy_Holt__Solar_Rot.shtml.
• Brown, Jeffrey. “Online NewsHour: Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Jetty' Celebrates its 30th Anniversary.” PBS Online, May 6, 2005.
• Doss, Erika. "Twentieth-Century American Art." Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Grosenick, Uta, ed. Women Artists in the 20th and 21st Century. London: Taschen, 2005.
• Marter, Joan. "Collaborations: Artists and Architects on Public Sites." Art Journal 48, no. 4 Critical Issues in Public Art (1989): 315-320.
• Matlisky, Barbara C. Fragile Ecologies: Contemporary Artists’ Interpretations and Solutions. New York: Rizzoli International, 1992.
• McGill, Douglas C. "Jersey Landfill to Become an Artwork." New York Times, September 3, 1986.
• Saad-Cook, Janet, Charles Ross, Nancy Holt, and James Turrell. "Touching the Sky: Artworks Using Natural Phenomena, Earth, Sky and Connections to Astronomy." Leonardo 21, no. 2 (1988): 123-134.
• Sky Mound. 2006. http://greenmuseum.org/c/aen/Images/Ecology/sky.php.
• Smithsonian American Art Museum. Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS). http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1209Y08P255N5.856&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!203174~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&term=Holt%2C+Nancy%2C+1938-+%2C+sculptor.&index=AUTHOR.
• Van Wagner, Judy Collischan. Long Island Estate Gardens. Greenvale New York: Hillwood Art Gallery, May 22-June 21, 1985.
• Withers, Josephine. "In the World: An Art Essay." Feminist Studies 9, no. 2 (1983): 325-334.

External links[link]

• Nancy Holt on artcyclopedia.com
• Nancy Holt in the Video Data Bank
• Nancy Holt's films and videos at Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
• Sky Mound (1984-) at greenmuseum.org
• Solar Rotary (1995) at University of Southern Florida
• Solar Rotary in St. Petersburg Times
• Sun Tunnels (1973-76) at clui.org
• Sun Tunnels on NPR
• Astral Grating (1987) at Fulton Street/Broadway-Nassau subway station in NYC
• Up and Under by Nancy Holt
• Avignon Locators (2012) at University of Avignon
• Nancy Holt at Tufts University, Jan.19 - Apr.1 2012