Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow Photo-Drawings (1978)
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, 2022
Twenty-two inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35mm transparencies
19½ × 30 in.(50 × 76 cm) each
Edition of 3 + 1AP
Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer
Courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation and Sprüth Magers
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow Photo-Drawings (1978)
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, 2022
Twenty-two inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35mm transparencies
19½ × 30 in.(50 × 76 cm) each
Edition of 3 + 1AP
Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer
Courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation and Sprüth Magers
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow Photo-Drawings [detail] (1978)
Twenty-two inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35mm transparencies
19½ × 30 in. (50 × 76 cm) each
Edition of 3 + 1AP
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow Photo-Drawings [detail] (1978)
Twenty-two inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35mm transparencies
19½ × 30 in. (50 × 76 cm) each
Edition of 3 + 1AP
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow Photo-Drawings [detail] (1978)
Twenty-two inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35mm transparencies
19½ × 30 in. (50 × 76 cm) each
Edition of 3 + 1AP
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow Photo-Drawings [detail] (1978)
Twenty-two inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35mm transparencies
19½ × 30 in. (50 × 76 cm) each
Edition of 3 + 1AP
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow Photo-Drawings [detail] (1978)
Twenty-two inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35mm transparencies
19½ × 30 in. (50 × 76 cm) each
Edition of 3 + 1AP
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow Photo-Drawings [detail] (1978)
Twenty-two inkjet prints on archival rag paper from original 35mm transparencies
19½ × 30 in. (50 × 76 cm) each
Edition of 3 + 1AP
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
In this series, Holt shines a light through various curved cutouts and photographs the resulting shapes as they are projected on an opposing wall. In one of many investigations of light, Holt distills the photographic medium to its essence; by referring to the images as “drawings,” she examines the common principles of visual art as a whole. With no recognizable object of reference, the images invite the viewer to observe the interplay of light and shadow and grapple with the process of their own perception.
1. Concrete vs. Ephemeral
Light, like sight, can be channeled, controlled so that shapes of light can materialize. In Holes of Light these shapes of contained light were outlined on the wall in pencil giving them even more of a physical presence, so that even when the light or sight is absent, a trace remains.
2. Light as the Concretization of Sight
