Final lunchtime talk in association with Kate Newby's solo exhibition YES TOMORROW, devised to elaborate on the histories and uses of the materials and practices Newby draws upon in her work. On Wednesday 26 May at 12pm, Su Ballard, Associate Professor in the School of English, Film, Theatre, Media Studies and Art History discusses, Is Land Art Environmental?

Framed by a question that may not have an answer, this talk considers Nancy Holt's work Sun Tunnels (1973–76) in the context of human engagements with the earth, the planet, and the cosmos. How do artists engage with the environment and under what conditions? Before the talk, we will present a special screening of Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson's Swamp (1971), in which Holt pushes through a New Jersey marsh with her Bolex 16mm camera, her sight confined to the viewfinder, her navigation dependent on Smithson's verbal instructions as he follows behind her.

Su Ballard is an art writer and Associate Professor of Art History Tāhuhu Kōrero Toi at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Her research spans the fields of art history, creative nonfiction, and the environmental humanities, and examines the histories of nature in contemporary art with a particular focus on artists from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. She often works in collaboration with others. Her latest book Art and Nature in the Anthropocene: Planetary Aesthetics was published by Routledge in March 2021.