In 1976, Nancy Holt completed "Sun Tunnels," a years-long project in which she consulted both astronomers and engineers in an effort to make four concrete tunnels that exist in congruence with the path of the sun. “Sun Tunnels” can still be visited in the Great Basin Desert, Utah, and the sun is still in perfect congruence with them at the solstice. Participants in “Use This as a Sun Tunnel,” three women artists working in clay and three astronomers from across the United States, were mailed a package in early August of 2017. Enclosed was a cylinder made of clay, with no top and no bottom. The cylinder was shipped to each participant from Oakland, CA, where only a partial solar eclipse was visible on August 21, 2017. Giles Novak viewed the total solar eclipse in Clay, Kentucky. Rosa Novak was in Oakland, CA and unable to reach the line of totality. Giles’ and Rosa’s intention in this project is to use the structure of the sun tunnel to facilitate correspondence between the field of land art and the astronomy community, just as Nancy Holt did forty years prior. Each sun tunnel was transported via air travel from Portland, ME to Charlotte, NC and from Charlotte, NC to Oakland, CA on August 4th, 2017. Rosa dug the clay the tunnels are made of from the clay hill on the land of the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, formerly the Watershed Brick and Clay Products Company, in Newcastle, ME, in July of 2017. The clay was transported to this piece of land in 1974, from a Maine clay deposit of Presumpscot clay. This deposit was formed due to glacial melt creating large clay and sand rich formations along the midcoast of Maine. The clay most likely originated in the Longfellow range of the Appalachian Mountains 485,000,000 years ago. Each sun tunnel traveled somewhere between 4,042 and 6,760 miles to arrive in each participant’s hands. We were all approximately 94,040,000 miles from the sun on August 21, 2017. On that day, in exchange for their ceramic cylinder, Rosa and Giles Novak asked that each participant use the tunnel in order to view the eclipse. Participants were mailed a sun tunnel, eclipse glasses, an instruction card, and a questionnaire. Viewing through the handheld sun tunnel occurred either during the period of total eclipse, or at any time when viewing the partial eclipse. Participants put on their eclipse glasses, directed the sun tunnel to the sky and looked through the tunnel at the sun. Participants in “Use this as a Sun Tunnel” are encouraged to continue using their sun tunnel to view the sun. The facilitators only ask they wear proper eye protection, and think of Nancy Holt every so often when looking at the sun.
