Drawing Down the Sun
In the mid-1970s, artist Nancy Holt gave us a set of ‘Sun Tunnels’ to help find and navigate humanity’s place in the universe…
In the remote Utah desert lie four huge concrete tubes, large enough to walk through. They are arranged in a cross and each is 18-feet long, 9-feet in cross-section and weigh 22 tons, yet they are dwarfed by the expanse that surrounds them.
If you enter these, you are offered protection from the baking sun and can enjoy vistas of distant mountain ranges which seek to centre you at a human scale within the landscape. Holes bored into the roof of each tunnel shine bright discs of light on their curved interiors, offering stark contrasts. At night, the meaning of these seemingly random holes alters — they allow moonlight to enter, and frame the clear and endless night sky. The movement of light and shadow through the sun holes thus tracks the earth’s rotation, while the tunnels themselves align with sunrise and sunset at the Summer and Winter solstices.
Nancy Holt began working on her Sun Tunnels installation in 1973 and it was completed in 1976. It reflects her love of the great Western landscape that provided so much space. Her unique approach to framing its timeless, mythical qualities on a human scale resonates with ancient Neolithic monuments…
