Filming by Drew Pearson

Animation by Jeiel Villarivera

Character design by Dillon Smith

Rock Rings Animation

Nancy Holt (1938-2014) was an American artist who specialized in public land art. Her landscape sculptures were made for a specific time, place, and setting. Her art is meant to be experienced and interacted with by the viewer. She started as a photographer and video artist. Looking through the camera lens influenced her earthworks. Each piece offers a different viewpoint. Her work can be viewed all over the United States in places such as Utah, Virginia, and New York. She’s received five National Endowments for the Arts, New York Creative Art Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowship.

Holt’s original intent with the creation of Rock Rings was to merge the natural environment, the viewer and the sculpture. The structure is aligned to the North star Polaris. The windows that surround the structure are aligned with the Northeastern, Southeastern, Southwest, and Northwest coordinates of a compass. The entire structure has a well thought out geometric illusion. Holt designed the artwork to disorient the viewer as they walk through it. As the viewer moves through the rings they are not able to discern if the height of the walls are the same because of the curvature in perspective.

Her artistic talent was greatly received at Western Washington University as she designed the Stone Enclosure in 1977 and 1978. At the time the art piece was built the nearest building was hundreds of feet away. Since then a new building crowds only a few feet away. Yet the piece has been unaltered. Holt believed that land based art could not be bought, sold, relocated or altered, because the piece was made for the natural environment at the time of its creation. The Rock Rings offer a powerful geometric impact focusing the viewer to contemplate the space, volume and perception.

Works Cited

Colker, David. “Nancy Holt Dies at 75; Her Art Interacts with the Land and Sky.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 15 Feb. 2014. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

“Nancy Holt Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-holt-nancy.htm. Accessed 25 Apr. 2017.

Van Wagner, Judy Collischan. Long Island Estate Gardens (Greenvale New York: Hillwood Art Gallery, May 22-June 21, 1985), 42.