Holt's "Sky Mound" drawings in "Waste" at Museum Ostwall
In summer 2026, Museum Ostwall at the Dortmunder U presented the exhibition Waste. An exhibition about the global routes of rubbish, which featured works by Nancy Holt relating to her unfinished project Sky Mound (1984-).
The worldwide circulation of waste and its consequences for people and the environment were the focus of the exhibition, which presented over 50 works of art by international artists. Since the 1960s, artists have increasingly engaged in a critical exploration of what society considers to be waste. Sky Mound was developed for a landfill in New Jersey. Waste presented five of Holt’s drawings for this ambitious project, alongside documentation of the early stages of its construction.
In 1993, Holt described landfills as “shunned earthen forms – forgotten trash heaps relegated to the realms of the unconscious. By the end of the century, with more reliance on improved methods of recycling and incinerating our refuse, laws will go into effect which will prohibit the use of landfills for garbage disposal. These heaps of garbage will be seen as the artifacts of our generation, our legacy to the future.”
Nancy Holt's Sky Mound under construction in 1991
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
