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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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)

In 1974, Nancy Holt was commissioned to create a temporary site-responsive work for Artpark, an experimental public art program in Lewiston, New York, as part of its seasonal artist residency program. She selected an overgrown and overlooked site along the Niagara River and arranged six pools of water in the pattern of the stars that form Hydra’s head. This small and distinct grouping of stars within the larger Hydra constellation symbolizes the head of the mythical Lernaean Hydra, a multi-headed water serpent from Greek mythology. Holt was interested in the mythological associations of constellation naming in Western astronomy; in Greek mythology, the Hydra is associated with persistent or unseen threat.

The pools are formed from concrete culverts and vary in size in relation to the brightness of the stars that make up Hydra’s head. The water sits level with the surrounding ground, and the culverts appear to extend to considerable depth. In her writing on this work, Holt recalls a proverb she attributed to the Seneca Nation: “Pools of water are the eyes of the earth.” The surface water reflects its surroundings across micro and macro scales—from the stars in the night sky to the ripple of a water beetle. At the end of the 1974 residency season, the six pools were filled with gravel. Holt indicated that she would consider the reactivation of the earthwork, and in May 2026, the first posthumous presentation will be realized at Goodwood Art Foundation.

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

Related Info

See Also