Zeroing In

Perceptual concerns predominate in my videoworks. In Locating #2, Zeroing In, and Points of View, large outdoor spaces — as much as five miles in depth and one mile in width from fifteen floors up — are spanned on the video screen. Space is flattened and contracted. By placing a prop (a movable tube or a piece of cardboard with holes that open and close) in front of the camera, I block off most of the static camera view, leaving one or more circular images to come and go. Background and foreground merge in the circular segments; ordinary objects become difficult to discern as they come into view. What is seen is immediately put into words in the audio system by two persons, chosen initially because of their interpretations of what is seen.

— Nancy Holt

Copyright Holt/Smithson Foundation.