Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16mm film
Color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 56 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York.
Distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16mm film
Color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 56 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York.
Distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Still from Nancy Holt, Garden of Nets (1971)
16 mm film; color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York; distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
In 1971, Nancy Holt traveled to Summerland Key in Florida, where she made three silent 16 mm films: Garden of Nets, Mangrove Ring, and Road to Nowhere. All three Florida films are 2 minutes and 57 seconds in duration. This isequivalent to a 100-foot daylight spool, a standard length for portable cameras such as the Bolex that Holt used, and this she used to establish a fixed temporal framework for each work. Garden of Nets reflects Holt’s interest in perception within natural environments. The camera traces a canopy of netting placed over a garden, forming a barrier between the vegetation and the sun above. As light passes through the mesh, it produces shifting patterns across the plants. Sunspots register in the lens, emphasizing how the image changes over time and with movement. Robert Smithson made a parallel photographic series of these nets, Overgrown Structure.
In 1971, Nancy Holt made Mangrove Ring in Florida as part of a group of films produced during travels to Summerland Key with Robert Smithson.
In April 1971, Nancy Holt made Road to Nowhere with her Bolex camera while traveling to the Florida Keys. Like the other Florida films, it runs for 2 minutes and 57 seconds, corresponding to a 100-foot daylight spool and establishing a fixed duration. Shot in real time, the film records a solitary walk along a sandy path that leads toward an expanse of blue sky. It shows the journey from Holt’s point of view, a key characteristic of the moving image work she made in the early 1970s.
