In Context: Hikmet Sidney Loe on Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt

Spiral Jetty (1970) and Sun Tunnels (1973-76)—each situated in Box Elder County, UT—are site-specific in ways unique to their form and material makeup. While Robert Smithson invoked the phrase “mud, salt crystals, rocks, water” to inform visitors and others what they could find at Spiral Jetty (formerly) in the waters of Great Salt Lake, Nancy Holt invited the entirety of landscape, sky, and celestial bodies to reference Sun Tunnels. A brief history of each work will include the unique materials that are integral to our knowledge of Utah’s two earthworks.

Hikmet Sidney Loe (she/her) is part-time instructor in art history at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her first book, The Spiral Jetty Encyclo: Exploring Robert Smithson’s Earthwork through Time and Place (2017) won the 15 Bytes annual Art Book Award (2018), and became the template for future books on singular works from the Land art movement. She is currently writing The Sun Tunnels Encyclo: Exploring Nancy Holt’s Earthrough through Perception and Site (2026). Loe’s curatorial projects focus on ideas of place, most recently in the exhibitions The Center Can Not Hold (Granary Arts, 2022-23) and Modern Desert Markings: An Homage to Las Vegas Land Art (Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, UNLV, 2023).

https://www.hikmetsidneyloe.com/