This work is the by-product of a 6-part performance piece.

The first part, titled hole, comprised of an 8 hour durational piece. Between 9 am – 5 pm, 7.05.2017, I dug myself into a hole. I used an object I called the digging stick. It resembles a common spade, yet instead of a standard shovel at the end, I welded a bronze casting of my left hand to the end of the handle.

A microphone hung above the hole to amplify the sound of the digging stick impacting the earth. A sound piece accompanied the atmosphere. A high quality recording of a singing bowl filled with water looped in the background for the 8-hour duration.

LISTEN HERE FOR SOUND PIECE:

(W) 8.05.2017

I filled the hole with a body of water.

This symbolic cleansing ritual allowed the water to become the performer.

It took 48 hours for the water to seep back into the earth.

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(F) 19.05.2017

The hole was transformed into a fire pit. I dressed in white. This ritual performance became part of the groundwork to prepare the surface of the hollow to cast the hole in cement.

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(w)hole. 14.06.2017

We welded armature and placed in the center.

We mixed 8 wheelbarrows of cement and river sand and proceeded to fill the hole.

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A position of mechanical advantage. 3.09.2017

The final performance. In the morning I saturated the ground with water to soften the soil. With some helping hands, it took roughly 4 hours to remove enough earth around the sculpture to loosen it for demoulding. It took about 6 minutes to liberate the sculpture from the ground.

(Sever)ance, (Reve)ence. 4.11.2025

BIOGRAPHY OF A HOLE DIGGER

BY LUCY JANE TURPIN