Shifting Landscapes

Through Jan 25

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Earth art and ecofeminism—artistic and philosophical movements of the 1960s and 1970s—proposed new frameworks for how we view and experience our shared planet. While Earth art marked a conceptual turn toward engaging directly with the forms of nature and the land, ecofeminism put forward ideas about appreciating and protecting the environment within anticolonial and feminist perspectives. The works in this gallery represent the roots and legacies of these movements, exploring the interconnectivity of the natural world and humanity’s place within it.

Here artists celebrate nature’s vastness and ephemerality in works that stand as artistic counterpoints to human-centered thinking. Some, including Carlos Villa, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Michelle Stuart, deal directly with natural forms and use organic materials or else the landscape itself in diverse ways. Others, such as Nancy Holt, offer more embodied ways of experiencing the world, while still others, including Carolina Caycedo and Maya Lin, draw attention to regionally specific environmental concerns.

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A tall, black metal pole with a T-shaped top stands upright on a gray floor against a light gray background.

This work is one of Nancy Holt’s earliest Locators, a series of works that she described as “seeing devices” which aimed to redefine the viewer’s relationship with their surroundings through subtle interventions in spatial context. Here, an industrial metal pipe affixed to the ground directs the viewer’s attention to a specific point (or “locus”) in the corner of the wall. When viewed through the pipe, the painted black shape transforms into a perfect circle surrounded by a halo of light, resembling a total eclipse. Holt’s Locators transform ordinary views into perceptual experiences that encourage a heightened awareness of light, shadow, and perspective. These early sculptures laid the groundwork for Holt’s later monumental earthworks, part of a lifelong exploration into the nature of vision and site-specificity.

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Shifting Landscapes

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Nancy Holt
Locator (Studio Corner), 1971

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Shifting Landscapes

Earthworks

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Nancy HoltLocator (Studio Corner), 1971

Artists

Explore works from this exhibition in the Whitney's collection

Nancy Holt
Locator (Studio Corner), 1971

Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection