This piece documents the process behind the creation of Holt's major public art installation, Dark Star Park, in Arlington, Virginia. The park, which features giant concrete spheres and pipes, allows the visitor to reconsider the experience of space, earth and sky within an urban context. It also serves as a kind of contemporary Stonehenge: once a year, on August 1 at 9:30 am, the shadows of the objects exactly align with outlines on the ground. Interviews with the artist, the architects, engineers, contractors, and the public, among others, reveal Dark Star Park as both a public sculpture and a functioning park that reclaims a blighted urban environment.
Producer/Director: Nancy Holt. Editor: Julia Keydel. Camera: Peter M. Sears, Nancy Holt, James Dellon. Still Photography: Colleen Chartier. CMX Editor: Tom Crawford. Special Thanks: Thomas Parker, J.W. Kaempfer, Mark Wilkenson, Elmer Baker, David Pierce, John Beardsley, Gary Kirkbride, John Polk, Donald Thalacker, Chapel Hill Landscape Co., Geo-Hydro Inc., Paddock Pools, Inc., Urban Engineering & Associates, Inc., and the People in the Park...Steve Abeles, Heidi Boocock, Melissa Brinsfield, Fred Green, The Jaworski Children, Yvonne Sherron, Betty Stewart, Randy Swart, Jeff Thomas, Tracy Wilson, Arlington County Department of Community Affairs, Gallaudet College Audiovisual Department, New York University Tisch School of the Arts Film/Video Arts, Downtown Community TV [Electric Film], On-Line/Media Alliance, Standby at Matrix. -- EAI
This title is available for exhibitions, screenings, and institutional use through Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), NY. Please visit the EAI Online Catalogue for further information about this artist and work. The EAI site offers extensive resources for curators, students, artists and educators, including: an in-depth guide to exhibiting, collecting, and preserving media art; A Kinetic History: The EAI Archives Online, a collection of essays, primary documents, and media charting EAI's 40-year history and the early years of the emergent video art scene; and expanded contextual and educational materials.