In a remote valley of Utah’s Great Basin Desert, Holt’s massive ​Sun Tunnels ​looms along the horizon, visible from over a mile away. The four concrete structures are arranged in a cross formation, positioned precisely to frame the sun as it rises and sets during the summer and winter solstices. Small holes are configured in the concrete to cast projections of constellations along the tunnels’ interior; Draco, Perseus, Columba, and Capricorn materialize out of sunlight, their patterns illuminated upon the viewer inside.

A streamlined record of the construction of Holt’s iconic earthwork, ​Sun Tunnels, ​ Holt’s accompanying film is both documentation and an independent moving image work. The mammoth undertaking unfolds as a series of moments, from the mundanity of shoveling dirt by hand, to the tense magnitude of a concrete tunnel suspended mid-air. The film reaches a beautiful conclusion in a display of the dance between the sunlight, the tunnels, and the desert surrounds at various times of day.

Twelve photographs of the horizon line correspond to twelve separate angles of sight, a foreshadowing of what will be the views from Holt’s majestic earthwork, ​Sun Tunnels. The photographs are mounted on paper and demarcated with cardinal direction, as well as the geographical landmarks featured within them. The drawing is both a preparatory tool and an allusion to Holt’s conceptual meditations; the lines radiating from the center suggest an infinite path of sight, while the photographs fragment the view, limiting us to a constructed experience of the landscape.