Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

simple landscape with small pines, snow covered ground, and an overcast sky

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

simple landscape with small pines, snow covered ground, and an overcast sky

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

simple landscape with small pines, snow covered ground, and a blue sky

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

simple landscape with small pines, snow covered ground, and an overcast sky

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

simple landscape with small pines, snow covered ground, and an overcast sky

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

simple landscape with small pines, snow covered ground, and an overcast sky

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

simple landscape with small pines, snow covered ground, and an overcast sky

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

simple landscape with small pines, snow covered ground, and an overcast sky

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

simple landscape with small pines, snow covered ground, and an overcast sky

Nancy Holt, Alaskan Pines (1986)
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

1984—2014

Alaskan Pines

Nancy Holt
1986
Southcentral Alaska
Nine inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35 mm color transparencies
Framed size: 15¼ × 22¼ in. (39 × 57 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Holt created the photo-series Alaskan Pines while traveling through Southcentral Alaska upon invitation from the Visual Arts Center of Alaska in Anchorage. In March of 1986 Holt visited the towns of Eklutna and Chitina, Alaska, where she created two photographic series: Alaskan Pines and Athabascan/Russian Orthodox Graveyards.  As in the earlier photographic works Trail Markers (1969) and California Sun Signs (1972), in Alaskan Pines we see Holt communicate movement through space by focusing her lens on one repeating element of the landscape. The focus on small pines in these images also calls to mind Holt's 1975 film Pine Barrens and the resulting photo-composite Pine Barrens: Trees, made from film stills of isolated pines.⁠⁠ Returning to Alaska in July after traveling and observing the landscape, Holt chose to create the System Work Pipeline in response to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. 

Related Info

1984—2014
steel duct zig zags through the air and along walls in a white gallery space
Pipeline
Nancy Holt
1986
1984—2014

Holt visited Alaska in March of 1986 upon invitation from the Visual Arts Center of Alaska in Anchorage, who hoped she might create a work of art in celebration of the region’s beauty. Holt was instead struck by the infiltration of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline through pristine wilderness. In July of 1986 Holt returned to Alaska to create the System Work Pipeline for a two-person exhibition with Michelle Stuart titled Alaskan Impressions at the Visual Art Center of Alaska in Anchorage.

1984—2014
drawing on paper depicting the layout of an oil pipeline in Alaska with handwritten words along the path
10 Billion Barrels of Crude Oil
Nancy Holt
1986
1984—2014

Nancy Holt created this concrete poem along with two System Works in response to the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline in 1986. The facts and figures of the pipeline’s operation snake along the oil’s route; to read them one must shift positions, a physical disturbance that accentuates the discomfort of the information itself.

See Also