The piece consists of ten circular mirrors, each 24 cm in diameter, mounted in a diagonal line on the wall. A spotlight installed on an adjacent wall points directly at them, causing the refracted light to appear as an inverted diagonal of fragmented ellipses in the gallery space. The result is an experience of doubling, as some of the projected light circles appear again as a re-reflection in the mirrors—as does one’s own reflected image.

While Mirrors of Light I plays with the proliferation of light reflected in circular mirrors, Holes of Light (1973) explores the materiality of shadow using light projected through circular-shaped holes in a central partition wall.

The participatory aspect is key, as the artist emphasized in a 1980 interview published in Artforum magazine: “A perceptual structure is built into the sculpture. The work can be seen only in durational time—the time it takes to see it from many points of view.”

Participation is crucial to Holt’s practice indoors and outdoors alike. In 1971, Holt first began engaging visual perception through her telescope-like Locator sculptures. One of her first was Locator (Cracked Window) (1971), positioned by a window in her New York Studio. Soon she placed them outdoors, realizing Missoula Ranch: Vision Encompassed in 1972. Holt creates an inquisitive experience of the outside world, simply by framing and focusing on what is already there and manipulating perception through the simple yet powerful act of framing vision.

Nancy Holt (1938–2014) is among the most important figures of the earth, land, and conceptual art movements. A pioneer of site-specific installation and the moving image, Holt redefined the limits of art. She expanded the places where art could be found and embraced the new media of her time. Over five decades, she questioned how we might understand our place in the world, examining sites, systems, and perception. Holt’s rich artistic output includes concrete poetry, audio works, film and video, photography, slides, ephemeral gestures, drawings, room-sized installations, artist books, and public sculptures. 

The exhibition Nancy Holt: Inside/Outside opens June 2022 at Bildmuseet in Umeå, Sweden, followed by Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, a solo presentation at Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles in September 2022. Other solo exhibitions in 2021/22 include those at the campus galleries of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Western Washington University, both sites of her public sculptures.