Rebecca Solnit at the New Mexico Museum of Art with an in-conversation with Lucy Lippard and a presentation by DesertArtLAB

The second in our ten-year series of Annual Lectures, an initiative that invites artists, writers, and thinkers to raise questions and present research extending the creative legacies of the artists Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson took place at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe on Saturday April 1, 2023. The keynote speaker was Rebecca Solnit, who presented a lecture titled “Everything Is Connected: Nancy Holt in the Landscape of Ideas.” Each lecture takes place in a location that resonates with Holt and/or Smithson’s art and ideas. In 1995 Nancy Holt moved to Galisteo, New Mexico and Santa Fe is the home base of Holt/Smithson Foundation.

Rebecca Solnit talked about Nancy Holt as an environmental artist who points the viewer toward perception of order and pattern already present in the landscape. She focused on Holt’s commitment to directing viewers toward a deep engagement with place, paying attention to her thinking in the larger contexts of her time and of ours. Solnit contemplated Holt as a student of Buddhism, whose teachings emphasize nonseparation and nonduality; as a New Mexican living in a landscape where Indigenous worldviews have a strong presence; and as a citizen of a time in which scientists increasingly show us a world of mutuality, collaboration, and interconnection. She will also think about the weather: the climate movement recognizes interconnectedness as the necessary basis for our political decisions about energy, land, nature, and values.

The 2023 event started with a presentation by artists DesertArtLAB, and closed with a discussion between Solnit, writer and activist Lucy Lippard, and Executive Director of Holt/Smithson Foundation, Lisa Le Feuvre.

About Rebecca Solnit

Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including Recollections of My Nonexistence, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, The Faraway Nearby, A Paradise Built in Hell, River of Shadows, and Wanderlust: a history of walking. She is also the author of Men Explain Things to Me, Orwell’s Roses, and many essays on feminism, activism and social change, hope, and the climate crisis.

About DesertArtLAB

DesertArtLAB is an interdisciplinary environmental art collaborative co-directed by April Bojorquez and Matt Garcia, who are based in Pueblo, Colorado. Their work promotes Indigenous/Chicanx perspectives on ecological practice, food sovereignty, self-determination, and climate change, and the day will start with their presentation “The Desertification Cookbook: Revitalizing Desert Wasteland through Land Art.” They will discuss how development in desert cities have created new homes and opportunities in the Southwest but has also stripped away parts of the natural environment and its rich history. They will ask how urban pockets of degraded land be revitalized, and if the history and the ecological value of these places can be reclaimed sustainably. Garcia and Bojorquez will discuss the development of their land art project, from its roots in Phoenix to its realization in Pueblo.

About Lucy R. Lippard

Lucy R. Lippard is a writer and activist, and is based in Galisteo, New Mexico. She writes prolifically for magazines and exhibition catalogues, is author of twenty-four books on contemporary art and cultural criticism, including one novel and an artist’s book, and many of her writings have been anthologized. Lippard has realized performances, comics, street theatre; curated some fifty exhibitions; and has been an active member of artists’ groups, including Artworkers’ Coalition, Ad Hoc Women Artists, Artists Meeting for Cultural Change, and Women’s Action Coalition. She has written extensively on the work of Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson.

About New Mexico Museum of Art

When the New Mexico Museum of Art opened in 1917 it was the first building in the state dedicated to art. Its galleries, reception areas and St. Francis auditorium were made by the people of New Mexico for the promotion of the state’s rich culture to visitors and locals alike. Throughout its century long history, the museum has grown and redefined itself to adapt to changes in art and museum practices. The New Mexico Museum of Art fosters a deeper understanding and enjoyment of art throughout the state and beyond and works with art and artists to explore the human experience, new ideas, and diverse cultures.