Nostoc II is nestled in the woods at the northeast edge of Storm King’s grounds, along a narrow hiking path off the Moodna Creek Trail. Set on a downward slope, it does not immediately distinguish itself from its surroundings. Rather, Nostoc II reveals its form gradually as the viewer follows roughly circular paths, demarcated by about 150 boulders and large rocks, across a 350-square-foot area punctuated by trees. Crafting much more than a singular sculptural object, Patricia Johanson created a space to be walked through and discovered; its overall scheme emerges only through physical interaction with the sculpture. 

Johanson was a leader in the Land art movement, creating numerous large-scale projects that balanced art, nature, and people, and she frequently integrated living ecosystems into her public artworks. Nostoc II, completed in 1975, was the first commissioned work to be created entirely on-site using materials exclusively from Storm King’s property. Its overall form is based on the molecular structure of nostoc, a cyanobacteria that appears as a chain of irregular circular elements. The environmentally sensitive arrangement in Nostoc II reflects Johanson’s exploration of the relationship between plant forms and buildable structures and marks the first instance in which she transposed botanical imagery into a full-scale sculpture.