Nancy Holt, Astral Grating (1983-87)
Steel, incandescent light bulbs
Overall surface area: 86 × 27 ft (26.2 × 8.2 m)
Collection Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
Installation view: passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Astral Grating (1983-87)
Steel, incandescent light bulbs
Overall surface area: 86 × 27 ft (26.2 × 8.2 m)
Collection Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
Installation view: passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Astral Grating (1983-87)
Steel, incandescent light bulbs
Overall surface area: 86 × 27 ft (26.2 × 8.2 m)
Collection Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
Installation view: passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Astral Grating (1983-87)
Steel, incandescent light bulbs
Overall surface area: 86 × 27 ft (26.2 × 8.2 m)
Collection Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
Installation view: passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Astral Grating (1983-87)
Steel, incandescent light bulbs
Overall surface area: 86 × 27 ft (26.2 × 8.2 m)
Collection Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
Installation view: passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Astral Grating (1983-87)
Steel, incandescent light bulbs
Overall surface area: 86 × 27 ft (26.2 × 8.2 m)
Collection Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
Installation view: passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Astral Grating (1983-87)
Steel, incandescent light bulbs
Overall surface area: 86 × 27 ft (26.2 × 8.2 m)
Collection Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
Installation view: passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Astral Grating (1983-87)
Steel, incandescent light bulbs
Overall surface area: 86 × 27 ft (26.2 × 8.2 m)
Collection Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
Installation view: passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Astral Grating (1983-87)
Steel, incandescent light bulbs
Overall surface area: 86 × 27 ft (26.2 × 8.2 m)
Collection Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
Installation view: passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Astral Grating (1983-87)
Steel, incandescent light bulbs
Overall surface area: 86 × 27 ft (26.2 × 8.2 m)
Collection Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York
Installation view: passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt made Astral Grating for New York City’s Art in Transit program of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York. The steel ceiling-light sculpture maps the configuration of stars in five constellations: Aries, Auriga, Canis Major, Cygnus, and Piscis Austrinus. The selected constellations span different regions of the night sky, bringing together stars that would not ordinarily be seen in relation to one another.The number of bulbs and rings, and their diameters, vary in proportion to the brightness of the stars they represent.
Working closely with the station architect, Holt sited the sculpture in a passageway between the former Broadway–Nassau Street and Fulton Street subway stations, a transfer point connecting three different lines.In 2009, Astral Grating was deinstalled during the remodeling of the station and will be reinstalled within the transit system once an appropriate site becomes available.
Electrical System exposes a resource so common to modern life that its visual, tangible existence often goes forgotten. The work consists of numerous lightbulbs connected by metal conduit that curves and winds around the gallery, allowing viewers to meander amongst the arches of light.
In developing her sculpture Astral Grating for New York City’s Art in Transit program of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Nancy Holt produced numerous drawings to map out the sculpture, working closely with LHP Architects. These three drawings show her careful planning of scale and site. Drawing was fundamental to Holt’s practice, helping her work through questions of scale, site, and perception before they took material form.
