Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

a land drainage sculpture made of terra cotta pipes and a concrete drain in Toronto

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

Nancy Holt during the construction of “Catch Basin” (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Nancy Holt walking through the site of her land drainage sculpture

Nancy Holt during the construction of “Catch Basin” (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

1981—1983

Catch Basin

Nancy Holt

1982

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

Overall: width 80 ft (24.4 m), length 90 ft (27.4 m), height 15 ft (4.6 m); central basin: diameter 10 ft (3 m)

In 1982, Nancy Holt created Catch Basin for St. James Park in Toronto as part of the Citysite Sculpture Project, a short-lived initiative by Visual Arts Ontario dedicated to introducing the city’s residents to new concepts in contemporary art. Developing from her System Works, Holt described the sculpture as “a land drainage system, evolved out of my recent concern with exposing and utilizing functional systems, which are usually hidden beneath the surfaces of our existence. These structural, functional networks—electricity, drainage, heating, plumbing—are basic technologies which support our everyday lives, but are usually only considered when breakdowns occur.”

The sculpture collects rainwater from the park’s slopes, channeling it into the central basin. Holt developed several realized and unrealized sculptures addressing water systems, including Hydra’s Head (1974) and Sole Source (1983). Catch Basin was dismantled in 2018, and the city plans to reinstall the work once an appropriate site is identified.

Writing

Writings by Nancy Holt

aerial view of a park with large sculpture made of clay pipes and a large central drain.

Catch Basin

Nancy Holt

Catch Basin, an artwork that is also a land drainage system in St. James Park, Toronto, Canada, evolved out of my recent concern with exposing and utilizing functional systems, which are usually hidden beneath the surfaces of our existence. These structural, functional networks—electricity, drainage, heating, plumbing—are basic technologies which support our everyday lives, but are usually only considered when breakdowns occur.

With Catch Basin a branching network of clay channels on the land surface directs rainwater draining off the park slopes to a circular concrete basin with a sunken radial grate, and beneath that, to a round black drain. Catch Basin thus catches, contains, and channels the rain.

Writings by Nancy Holt

Ecological Aspects of My Work

Nancy Holt

For the last twenty-four years I have made large-scale, outdoor, site-specific sculptures. Each work evolves out of its site, with consideration given to the topography, the built environment and to local materials, along with the psychology, sociology, and history of each place. Many of these works have astronomical aspects, being aligned with the sunrises and sunsets on the equinoxes and solstices, the North Star and/or the moon. Others of my works are System Sculptures 1 which variously channel water, air, electricity (a form of fire), and methane gas from decomposing organic matter.

In 1982 I visited St. James Park in Toronto, the future site of Catch Basin. Several buildings had been destroyed and the park had been extended into the demolition area. Someone, either the landscape architect or the landscaping contractor, had erred, leaving a low area in the land where water collected after each rain. The soil, being a dense fine clay, absorbed very little water. Consequently, a stagnant pool remained in the midst of the park most of the time, becoming polluted and killing the grass. Catch Basin is art that at the same time resolves this drainage problem by using modern technology with ancient origins (drainage systems having been in use since 5,000 B.C.E. in Crete, Egypt, and Babylon). The rainwater now flows down the park slopes into the clay channel pipes and eventually into a basin, where it is either absorbed into four feet of gravel or is channeled through an overflow pipe into the city’s underground stormwater drainage system.

Nancy Holt

Ecological Aspects of My Work

First published in 1993 in the exhibition brochure for Creative Solutions to Ecological Issues, edited by Gail Gelburd. The exhibition Creative Solutions to Ecological Issues was presented at Dallas Museum of Natural History, touring to Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, Missouri; Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Longwood Fine Art Center, Farmville, Virginia.

Catch Basin

Writing

Catch Basin

Ecological Aspects of My Work

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