Sun Tunnels (1973–76) is a land art work by Nancy Holt, installed in the Utah desert. It consists of four massive concrete cylinders arranged in a cross formation, aligned with the rising and setting sun at the summer and winter solstices. Each tunnel has holes cut into its sides that trace constellations, casting shifting patterns of starlight and shadow within the concrete forms.
The work is at once monumental and minimal. The tunnels frame the horizon, turning vast desert space into a precise astronomical instrument. Visitors are invited to walk inside, to look through, to feel time marked by both celestial cycles and passing light. Holt’s design does not dominate the landscape but tunes attention to its rhythms, offering a way to inhabit cosmic time through embodied presence.
See also: Spiral Jetty and Star Axis
Images from Holt/Smithson Foundation.
