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Washington University in St. Louis
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

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Nancy Holt

Robert Smithson

Swamp

1971

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Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson collaborated on a series of groundbreaking film and video works in the 1970s. To make this one, Holt walked through the tall grasses of a muddy New Jersey swamp guided only by what she could see through the lens of her 16 mm camera and by Smithson’s verbal directions. The film consists entirely of what the camera recorded passing through the nearly impenetrable grasses—in effect putting the camera in the viewer’s hands. The soundtrack, which records just the artists’ voices and the sound of them stumbling along, similarly places the viewer directly on the scene. The visual distortions and fraught navigations, along with the immediacy of the filmic approach, produce a disorienting effect. Holt has stated that this video “deals with limitations of perception through the camera eye. . . . As the reeds crash against the camera lens blocking vision and forming continuously shifting patterns, confusion ensues.” [Permanent Collection Label, 2023]

  • Artist Nancy Holt (American, 1938–2014)
    Robert Smithson (American, 1938–1973)
  • Title Swamp
  • Date 1971
  • Medium 16mm color film with sound, transferred to video
  • Dimensions duration | 6:0min.
  • Credit line University purchase, Bixby Fund, 2013
  • Copyright © Estate of Robert Smithson / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of James Cohen Gallery, New York / Shanghai and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
  • Object number WU 2013.0003.0003

4/8/2013 (date received)
Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) (New York, NY)

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