In the Hole
‘The Hole Project began as a durational investigation of a 6-foot-deep hole dug on Linda Duvall’s property on Treaty 6 Indigenous land in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. The hole is open to the sky, with a square tower of ground in the middle where a wild rose bush once stood. A neighbour with a backhoe dug a wide deep trench around the rosebush and then added a ramp into the hole. Various layers of history are embedded in that land. The most recent historical event was the first settlers arriving on this specific plot of land in 1903. Just before this was the signing of Treaty 6 with the Indigenous population in the late 1800’s altering the access to this land by the Indigenous peoples. The earliest information that Duvall found about this land was the fact that a glacier passed across this specific area millennia ago.
Duvall spent 5 years exploring the hole and over time decided that the presence of other people in the hole would further enrich the experience. In collaboration with Paved Gallery, Duvall sent out an Open Call. In total 45 different people from coast to coast in Canada, and from England, Ireland, Israel, the Philippines, New York and the Netherlands attended the Hole Residency.’ Linda Duvall
In June 2017 I was on my way to an artist residency at Medalta Museum, Medicine Hat, Alberta. I had heard about Linda Duvall’s durational project and thought it would be an interesting experience to coincide with my Medalta residency. I responded to the call for proposals and added the ‘In the hole’ to my itinerary.
I was intrigued by the notion of sitting still in a space, observing life, flora, fauna and human. I had been thinking for a while about materials, as living substances, rendering the objects mutable and having a life force. It seemed appropriate in this instance to create from unfired clay and beeswax, small containers, bowls, small pitchers, and vases, objects that could hold water and to bury these vessels ‘in the hole’, returning the material to the earth.
I spent 1 day in the hole with Linda Duvall. Sometimes we talked sometimes we sat silently observing the layers of the earth, the open sky, the way the roots dangled and intertwined and the movement of barn swallows going in and out of their nests dug deep into the walls of the hole. I eventually created my strange reverse of an archeological dig burying my collection to be found at some future time or not.
