Nancy Holt- Sun tunnels.

I was watching " The Sculpture diaries" on channel 4 last night and although never being hugely in ore of sculptures, found  American artist, Nancy Holt's sun tunnels mesmerizing. 

Nancy’s work, partially the sun tunnels are associated with land art. It emerged in the 1960’s and has a hidden agenda of making people more aware of the negative impact people have on the environment. It is often in remote, uninhabited regions; the sun tunnels being in the Great Basin Desert in Utah.

Nancy is also interested in how people perceive time and space, and issue that she incorporated into this piece, as well as her interest in the variation of intensity of the sun in the desert compared to in the city.

The work consists of four concrete tunnels that are arranged in an x configuration; on the latitudes of the summer and winter solstices and well as the sunrise and sunset. They therefore react differently to the sun, producing beautiful orange and red colours inside their sphere; a huge contrast to the grey landscape they sit in. However bizarre they seem placed in the desert, they do not look alien, but have become harmonious with the land. The tunnels also have small holes in each which are the exact constellations of Draco, Perseus, Columba and Capricorn. These holes cast spots of light on the dark interiors.  Holt says; “"It’s an inversion of the sky/ground relationship-bringing the sky down to the earth."