Nancy Holt: Locating Perception (Capsule Review)

[Original publication: No Proscenium, 12/13/22]

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An expansive multimedia artist, the late Nancy Holt has a collection of works on view at Sprüth Magers. Locating Perception consists of photography series and small and large-scale sculptures. Identifying herself as a “perceptionist,” Holt leveraged mediums to challenge ideas of the visible and invisible, and to explore tensions between the two. She described photography as a way for “vision to be fixed” and her photographic pieces contrast with her playful Locator sculptures.

The upstairs gallery houses Electrical System, a site-specific installation of a single, interconnected lighting fixture that looks like a chandelier merged with a jungle gym. In her work, Holt sought to create an “extension of looking.” Light and electricity are common utilities often taken for granted, but the sculpture fosters that extension of looking through the details: The gallery’s architecture is incorporated in subtle, odd, and humorous ways.

Across the street from Sprüth Magers is Urban Light, Chris Burden’s configuration of 202 antique street lamps. The outdoor, public work is a constant draw at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Long after the museum has closed, people gather and walk through the installation. Amidst the festive lighting of the holiday season, Urban Light and Electrical System remind us of the simple, incandescent joy of light.