Nancy Holt, Sole Source (1983)
Marley Park, Dublin, Ireland
2 in. (5 cm) diameter galvanized steel pipe, valve, water
10 x 16 x 16 ft. (3 x 4.9 x 4.9 m)
Rotation of valve wheel turns the flow of water on and off. When activated, the water flows into a historic eighteenth-century ha-ha ditch.

galvanzied pipes organized into rectilinear structures in a field outside a large home in Ireland

figure walking amongst galvanzied pipes organized into rectilinear structures in a field outside a large home in Ireland

Nancy Holt, Sole Source (detail) (1983)
Marley Park, Dublin, Ireland
2 in. (5 cm) diameter galvanized steel pipe, valve, water
10 x 16 x 16 ft. (3 x 4.9 x 4.9 m)
Rotation of valve wheel turns the flow of water on and off. When activated, the water flows into a historic eighteenth-century ha-ha ditch.

Water flowing from two galvanized pipes and dropping down into a muddy ditch

galvanized steel pipes flowing downhill and tying into larger pipes in a muddy ditch

a valve that can be turned by hand to turn water on and off through galvanized steel pipes

looking down on a galvanized steel valve with a persons shoes visible beneath it

A model of Sole Source installed at the John Weber Gallery in New York

a small model of made of metal pipes to depict a square strucuture

A model of Sole Source installed at the John Weber Gallery in New York

a gallery with drawings and photographs on the wall and two small metal pipe models on pedestals

A model of Sole Source installed at the John Weber Gallery in New York

1981—1983

Sole Source

Nancy Holt

1983

Marley Park, Dublin, Ireland

Galvanized steel pipe, valve, water

10 x 16 x 16 ft. (3 x 4.9 x 4.9 m); pipe diameter 2 in. (5 cm)

Collection Holt/Smithson Foundation

Nancy Holt's Sole Source was first presented on the occasion of the Independent Artists' Seminar in Dublin, during September 1983, and to date it has not been posthumously presented.

In this System Work, gravity is the power source, with water from an elevated reservoir flowing down through the structure of pipes into a pre-existing ditch. Dating back to the 18th century, Holt described that this ditch is dubbed a “ha-ha” by Irish hunters because of the surprise they experienced when encountering it. While the galvanized steel stands out as a contemporary presence in an otherwise historic landscape, the technology used in this structure has existed in human culture for centuries. In Sole Source, Holt subtly integrates history and modernity, nature and industry, utility and art.

Writing

Scholarly Text

a structure built of galvanized steel pipes built in a grassy field

Nancy Holt, "Sole Source," 1983

Grace Storey

Nancy Holt’s Sole Source was commissioned by the Independent Artists Group of Dublin as part of the twenty third Independent Artists Exhibition in 1983. While a number of Holt’s System Works explore heating, ventilation, and electricity, Sole Source is part of a series considering water, drainage, and irrigation. Holt first explored this in her photographic series Miami Puddles (1969), in which she captured with her camera pools of water gathered as a result of heavy rainfall in the dips of roads, sidewalks, street corners, and parking lots across the city.

Writing by the Artist

Notes on Heating System Works

Nancy Holt

Both Hot Water Heat (1984) and Flow Ace Heating (1985) are room-size networks of pipes, gauges, and radiators, which function as the only hot-water heating systems for their spaces. As soon as people enter the gallery, they become enveloped in the structure of the work, the channeled water flowing all around them.

Yes, you can say I went from channeling sunlight and sight to channeling other natural elements like air, water, and electricity (fire) in some of my works beginning in 1981. I used the standard materials of each system—plumbing pipe, electrical conduit, terra-cotta drainage channels, heating pipes, and ventilation duct. The works exposed fragments of vast, hidden, interconnecting networks.

Nancy Holt

Meyer, James. "Interview with Nancy Holt." In Sightlines, edited by Alena J. Williams, 229. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.

Sole Source

Writing

Nancy Holt, "Sole Source," 1983

Notes on Heating System Works

Related Info

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