Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Circles of Light, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany, 2024
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Luca Girardini

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

two people looking through two of four steel pipes attached to the floor with viewing pipes attached to the top, each looking at a painted black circle on a wall

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Circles of Light, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany, 2024
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Luca Girardini

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Peter Moore

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

four steel pipes attached to the floor with viewing pipes attached to the top, each looking at a painted black circle on a wall

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Peter Moore

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci [detail view through Locator] (1972)
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Peter Moore

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

a black circle with a small halo of white light surrounding it

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci [detail view through Locator] (1972)
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Peter Moore

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Nancy Holt / Inside Outside, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, 2022
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Mikael Lundgren

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

four steel pipes attached to the floor with viewing pipes attached to the top, each looking at a painted black circle on a wall

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Nancy Holt / Inside Outside, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, 2022
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Mikael Lundgren

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Nancy Holt / Inside Outside, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, 2022
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Mikael Lundgren

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

four steel pipes attached to the floor with viewing pipes attached to the top, each looking at a painted black circle on a wall

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Nancy Holt / Inside Outside, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, 2022
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Mikael Lundgren

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Installation view: Nancy Holt / Inside Outside

MACBA—Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2023
 

Photograph: Miquel Coll Molas

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

view of a Locator work

Installation view: Nancy Holt / Inside Outside

MACBA—Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2023
 

Photograph: Miquel Coll Molas

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Installation view: Nancy Holt / Inside Outside

MACBA—Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2023
 

Photograph: Miquel Coll Molas

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

a person viewing Locators with Loci

Installation view: Nancy Holt / Inside Outside

MACBA—Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2023
 

Photograph: Miquel Coll Molas

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Installation view: Nancy Holt / Inside Outside

MACBA—Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2023

Photograph: Miquel Coll Molas

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

a person viewing Locators with Loci

Installation view: Nancy Holt / Inside Outside

MACBA—Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2023

Photograph: Miquel Coll Molas

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Circles of Light, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany, 2024
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Luca Girardini

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

a person looking through one of four steel pipes attached to the floor with viewing pipes attached to the top, each looking at a painted black circle on a wall

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Circles of Light, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany, 2024
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Luca Girardini

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Minimal, Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection, Paris, France, 2025
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Nicolas Brasseur/Pinault Collection

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

four steel pipes extend up from the floor with viewing pipes pointed at four black circles on the wall

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Minimal, Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection, Paris, France, 2025
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Nicolas Brasseur/Pinault Collection

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Minimal, Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection, Paris, France, 2025
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Nicolas Brasseur/Pinault Collection

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

four steel pipes extend up from the floor with viewing pipes pointed at four black circles on the wall

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Minimal, Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection, Paris, France, 2025
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Nicolas Brasseur/Pinault Collection

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Minimal, Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection, Paris, France, 2025
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Nicolas Brasseur/Pinault Collection

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

four steel pipes extend up from the floor with viewing pipes pointed at four black circles on the wall

Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci (1972)
Installation view: Minimal, Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection, Paris, France, 2025
Four steel pipes, black paint
Overall dimensions variable; Locators 60 x 12 x 2 in. (152 x 31 x 5 cm) each
Photograph: Nicolas Brasseur/Pinault Collection

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

1970—1972

Locators with Loci

Nancy Holt
1972
Four steel pipes, black paint
Each Locator: height 60 in. (152 cm); length 12 in. (31 cm); diameter 2 in. (5 cm); Loci: dimensions variable
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

In 1972 Nancy Holt 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. She first experimented with Loci in Locator (Studio Corner) in her New York City studio in 1971. In Locators with Loci, four Locators are directed toward painted black Loci whose shapes range from a perfect circle to an elongated ellipse. The viewpoint in each Locator shifts in angle and distance from the wall. When viewed through a Locator, each Locus resolves into a perfect black circle edged by a ring of light, an experience similar to seeing an eclipse.

Related Info

1970—1972
a vertical steel pole with a horizontal viewing pipe directed at a black circle painted in the corner of a room
Locator (Studio Corner)
Nancy Holt
1971
1970—1972

Installed in the shared studio space of Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson's New York City loft, Locator (Studio Corner) is one of the earliest Locator works that Holt created, is one of the earliest Locator works Holt created, and the first to engage solely with interior space. In contrast to other early Locator works that Holt created in her studio—which concentrated vision on preexisting details in the built environment outside her studio window—Locator (Studio Corner) focuses vision on a black Locus Holt painted in the corner of the room.

1977—1980
A view through Holt's P.S.1 LOcator
Locator (PS1)
Nancy Holt
1980
1977—1980

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 in 1980.

See Also