Art © Holt/Smithson Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
1975
Pine Barrens
Nancy Holt, American, 1938–2014
Nancy Holt, American, 1938–2014

Pine Barrens, 1975

16 mm film, color, sound
Duration: 30 minutes, 24 seconds
Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
An unconventional portrait of the people and landscape of New Jersey's Pinelands, Holt's Pine Barrens is framed through the window of her car: most of the footage was recorded while her assistant was driving. We see the Pine Barrens, therefore, as a driver would: with a blur of scenery rushing toward or past us. Even when Holt exits the car, she continues to move. As her body sways and bounces, so, too, does the camera, destabilizing the visual field and straining the viewer. Not even the film's soundtrack, with music by local songwriters and interviews with resident "Pineys," is enough to render the Pine Barrens fully intelligible. According to the artist, the structure of the film mirrors the locale she had been visiting since she was a child.

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