Nancy Holt, Hydra’s Head (1974)

Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York, USA

Concrete, earth, water

Overall dimensions: 28 x 62 ft. (8.5 x 18.9 m)

Pool Diameters: two 4 ft. (1.2 m), three 3 ft. (.9 m) , one 2 ft. (.6 m)

Pool Depth: 3 ft. (.9 m)

©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

A series of small circular pools in the position of the constellation Hydra along a river bank. River and woods beyond in the background.

Nancy Holt, Hydra’s Head (1974)

Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York, USA

Concrete, earth, water

Overall dimensions: 28 x 62 ft. (8.5 x 18.9 m)

Pool Diameters: two 4 ft. (1.2 m), three 3 ft. (.9 m) , one 2 ft. (.6 m)

Pool Depth: 3 ft. (.9 m)

©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

Nancy Holt, Hydra’s Head (1974)

Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York, USA

Concrete, earth, water

Overall dimensions: 28 x 62 ft. (8.5 x 18.9 m)

Pool Diameters: two 4 ft. (1.2 m), three 3 ft. (.9 m) , one 2 ft. (.6 m)

Pool Depth: 3 ft. (.9 m)

©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

A circular pool of water reflecting a blue sky.

Nancy Holt, Hydra’s Head (1974)

Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York, USA

Concrete, earth, water

Overall dimensions: 28 x 62 ft. (8.5 x 18.9 m)

Pool Diameters: two 4 ft. (1.2 m), three 3 ft. (.9 m) , one 2 ft. (.6 m)

Pool Depth: 3 ft. (.9 m)

©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

Nancy Holt, Hydra’s Head [construction image] (1974)

Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York, USA

Concrete, earth, water

Overall dimensions: 28 x 62 ft. (8.5 x 18.9 m)

Pool Diameters: two 4 ft. (1.2 m), three 3 ft. (.9 m) , one 2 ft. (.6 m)

Pool Depth: 3 ft. (.9 m)

©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

Two large concrete tubes in a field and a third on a front loader machine with three figures around it.

Nancy Holt, Hydra’s Head [construction image] (1974)

Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York, USA

Concrete, earth, water

Overall dimensions: 28 x 62 ft. (8.5 x 18.9 m)

Pool Diameters: two 4 ft. (1.2 m), three 3 ft. (.9 m) , one 2 ft. (.6 m)

Pool Depth: 3 ft. (.9 m)

©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

Nancy Holt, Hydra’s Head [construction image] (1974)

Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York, USA

Concrete, earth, water

Overall dimensions: 28 x 62 ft. (8.5 x 18.9 m)

Pool Diameters: two 4 ft. (1.2 m), three 3 ft. (.9 m) , one 2 ft. (.6 m)

Pool Depth: 3 ft. (.9 m)

©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

A construction site with a large yellow bulldozer next to a river.

Nancy Holt, Hydra’s Head [construction image] (1974)

Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York, USA

Concrete, earth, water

Overall dimensions: 28 x 62 ft. (8.5 x 18.9 m)

Pool Diameters: two 4 ft. (1.2 m), three 3 ft. (.9 m) , one 2 ft. (.6 m)

Pool Depth: 3 ft. (.9 m)

1973—1976

Hydra's Head

Nancy Holt

1974

Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York

Concrete, earth, water

Overall Dimensions: 28 x 62 ft. (8.5 x 18.9 m); Pool Diameters: two 4 ft. (1.2 m), three 3 ft. (.9 m) , one 2 ft. (.6 m); Pool Depth: 3 ft. (.9 m)

On a bank of the Niagara River, six pools of water, encircled by concrete, are arranged in the pattern of the constellation Hydra. Their mirror-like quality reflects the sky, the light, the colors of the world above while below, the river rages endlessly onwards. Hydra is the name of a mythical sea monster; the soul and substance of this work is water. Holt was entranced by the Seneca Nation proverb: “Pools of water are the eyes of the earth.” The pools of Hydra’s Head bear witness to the site’s magnificence—from the stars in the night sky to the ripple of a water beetle.

Nancy Holt was commissioned to create a temporary site-specific work as part of Artpark's seasonal artist residency program in 1974. She selected a site along the Niagara River where she realized Hydra’s Head and at the end of the 1974 residency season the six pools were filled with gravel. Holt was clear that she would consider a reactivation of the earthwork, and at the Foundation we are open to working to achieve her wish.

Writing

Writing by the Artist

six circular pools of water embedded along the shoreline of a river

Hydra's Head

Nancy Holt

The Seneca Indians of New York have a saying: “Pools of water are the eyes of the earth.” At night the pools of Hydra’s Head “see” the stars brought down into their circumferences, by day they catch in their “view” sky, clouds, sun, and a bird or two. The moon is seen moving from pool to pool as I walk—a continuous recurrence of light encircled. Eddies and whirlpools in the river below, fed by the mad waters of Niagara Falls seven miles upstream, keep up a loud rhythm— there’s always the sound of water. Hearing and seeing come together in a vaporous fusion. The sky has suddenly fallen and is circled at my feet. Clouds drift through the earth, the sun gleams off the windblown ripples. A bottomless hole is there to engulf me. A sinking feeling begins to pervade. Nature’s mirrors absorb. The color of the concrete pipe seen rimming the pools echoes in the color of the rocks nearby.

Falling water, rushing water, swirling water, still water, sound of water, color of water coalesce here in this place of water, not far from Niagara Falls—their proximity always felt, producing a continuous flow of liquid meditations.

—Nancy Holt

Holt, Nancy. “Hydra's Head.” In Nancy Holt: Sightlines, edited by Alena J. Williams, University of California Press, 2011, pg 74. Originally published in Arts Magazine 49, no.5, Special Issue: Sculpture (January 1975), 57-59.

Hydra's Head

Writing

Hydra's Head

See Also