Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

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

Nancy Holt, Catch Basin (1982)

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

Commissioned by Visual Arts Ontario, Toronto

Steel, terra-cotta, concrete

15 x 90 x 80 ft. (4.5 x 27.4 x 24.4)

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

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

St. James Park, Toronto, Canada

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

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

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

Paige Hirschey

Research Fellowships

a city park with green grass and red tile channels cut into the lawn with a large metal structure over a large drain

Project Description

Paige Hirschey's Research Fellowship focuses on Nancy Holt’s 1982 work Catch Basin and related System Works.

Biography

Paige is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto specializing in artists' engagements with science and technology from the Cold War to the present. She received her B.A. from the University of Colorado in 2014 and her M.Sc. in Art History, Curating and Criticism from the University of Edinburgh in 2015. She is currently at work on her doctoral dissertation, which offers a reexamination of the aesthetic theories of György Kepes and the enduring legacy of his Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT.

Related Content

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

Catch Basin

Nancy Holt
1982

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.