DIG: A HOLE TO PUT YOUR GRIEF IN
8 day durational performance with accompanying in situ artworks and event series
First iteration: August 14 -21, 2021, Shalom Institute, Malibu CA
DIG, A Hole To Put Your Grief In
Documentation credits: Direction by Cara Levine, Videography + Editing by Nir Yaniv, Sound Design by Olivia Bradley-Skill, Additional Still Footage by Shay Myerson and Leda Maliga
DIG: A Hole To Put Your Grief In, a project by Cara Levine and supported by the AJU’s Institute for Jewish Creativity, is a week-long performance of digging a large-scale hole in the ground, around which other artists utilized the site as a container for new works relating to grief and mourning, after a year of great collective loss. The weeklong duration contains this symbolic period of mourning or ‘shiva’, at the end of which, on the second Saturday, we filled the hole with water and perform a ritual cleansing or ‘mikveh’, then refilled it with its original dirt, and planted native seeds to complete the cycle for renewal.
The opening day was marked with a ceremony from Alan Salazar, a local Chumash tribal leader, and storyteller, mid-week, a havdalah service was led by Cantor Chayim Frenkel from Kehilat Israel Temple, and the final Saturday closed with celebrating closing ceremony and refilling of the hole.
DIG created a collective space to hold and process some of the grief from the past year marked by COVID19. As the covid landscape begins to change again, it felt critical to mark this moment. While Levine dug everyday, the public was also invited to participate in the digging. Artists Adrienne Adar, Dorit Cypis, Faye Driscoll, Sonia Guiñansca, Asher Hartman, Michele Jaquis, and, hannah rubin each presented new work on site throughout the week.
The Shalom Institute campus was devastated by the Woolsey Fire of 2018. The leaders and community from SI welcomed DIG as part of their grief process over the loss and sacred transition taking place on their land. This project is made with additional support from AJU, Cantor Chayim Frenkel, and the Shalom Institute.
*text adapted from project website, digahole.live
*images by Nir Yaniv and Shay Myerson
CONTRIBUTING ARTIST VIDEOS *click images for videos
