Nancy Holt, Locator (PS1) (1980)
Steel pipe, black paint
Overall dimensions variable. Locator Height: 60 in. (152 cm); Width: 12 in. (31 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Locator (PS1) (1980)
Steel pipe, black paint
Overall dimensions variable. Locator Height: 60 in. (152 cm); Width: 12 in. (31 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Detail of Nancy Holt, Locator (PS1) (1980)
Steel pipe, black paint
Overall dimensions variable. Locator Height: 60 in. (152 cm); Width: 12 in. (31 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Detail of Nancy Holt, Locator (PS1) (1980)
Steel pipe, black paint
Overall dimensions variable. Locator Height: 60 in. (152 cm); Width: 12 in. (31 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Detail of Nancy Holt, Locator (PS1) (1980)
Steel pipe, black paint
Overall dimensions variable. Locator Height: 60 in. (152 cm); Width: 12 in. (31 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Detail of Nancy Holt, Locator (PS1) (1980)
Steel pipe, black paint
Overall dimensions variable. Locator Height: 60 in. (152 cm); Width: 12 in. (31 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Locator (P.S.1) (1971)
Steel pipe, black paint
Overall dimensions variable. Locator Height: 60 in. (152 cm); Width: 12 in. (31 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Locator (P.S.1) (1971)
Steel pipe, black paint
Overall dimensions variable. Locator Height: 60 in. (152 cm); Width: 12 in. (31 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Locator (PS1), 1980
Steel pipe, black paint
Height: 60 in. (152 cm) Width: 12 in. (31 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Locator (PS1), 1980
Steel pipe, black paint
Height: 60 in. (152 cm) Width: 12 in. (31 cm)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Locator PS1 (1980)
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, 2022
Steel and paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive)
Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer
Courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation and Sprüth Magers
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Locator PS1 (1980)
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, 2022
Steel and paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive)
Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer
Courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation and Sprüth Magers
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, 2022
Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer
Courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation and Sprüth Magers
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, 2022
Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer
Courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation and Sprüth Magers
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Locator PS1 (1980)
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, 2022
Steel and paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive)
Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer
Courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation and Sprüth Magers
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Locator PS1 (1980)
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, 2022
Steel and paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive)
Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer
Courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation and Sprüth Magers
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Holt’s Locators articulate several of her key concepts. Composed of a horizontal steel pipe mounted at eye level, the Locators function as lensless telescopes, directing and concentrating vision rather than magnifying it. Locator (PS1) was first shown at PS1 (now known as MoMA PS1), a former school building in Long Island City, New York. Looking upward through the Locator, the viewer sees a filled-in “locus” positioned in the corner of the exhibition space; looking downward, one sees a second locus, only this time it is an outline. When viewed through the apparatus, these forms register as perfect circles, but when seen outside the Locator they appear distorted. Holt’s instructions specified the outline locus should frame “interesting” architectural details; at PS1, she selected a corner containing shelves and a radiator.
Locator with Spotlight and Sunlight was first exhibited at John Weber Gallery in New York City in 1972, not long after Holt created her first Locators looking out the windows of her studio in the West Village onto details of the built environment, such as a cracked window or an exhua
In 1972 Nancy Holt also expanded her visual language in her Locators through the use of mirrors and what she called “Loci”—painted ellipses that resolve into perfect black circles edged with a ring of light when looking through the Locators.
