O Moon

Nancy Holt
1990
Lithograph on paper
38 x 23 1/4 (76.2 x 59 cm)

O Moon (1990) is a lithograph on black paper by Nancy Holt, produced in an edition of 16. It is one of only two lithographs she created. While the moon is a recurring point of reference in Holt’s interest in light, celestial phenomena, and visual perception, O Moon is a rare work in which she represents the moon directly as an image. In 1972, Holt created Moon Book, a collaged fourteen-page book that brings together disparate relationships and perceptions of the moon across a wide span of time. One page includes an image sourced from an advertisement for the Questar telescope in the July 1967 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine; Holt returns to this image in O Moon.

Writing

When you see the moon, millions of people on the globe are seeing it too, but the relationship is between you and the moon, the moon exists in you. We've all had moments like this. You are so absorbed in whatever it is you are looking at that you cease to exist, and the thing is present totally. Then you are the thing.

Nancy Holt, 2007

Nancy Holt interviewed by James Meyer

in Williams, Alena J., ed. Nancy Holt: Sightlines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.p233

Related Info

See Also

Sky Mound
Nancy Holt
1984—
I-A Landfill, Hackensack Meadowlands, New Jersey, USA