In the Hole
Linda Duvall May 5 – June 17, 2017
Featuring a durational residency program in a deep hole.
Opening Reception May 5 at 8pm
In the Hole is a short-term residency project, developed by artist Linda Duvall, located in an earthen hole on Treaty 6 territory in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. Residents can come for one day up to a maximum of 3 consecutive days. Participants were selected by a peer jury and subsequently scheduled to conduct their respective projects with Linda Duvall. The residencies coincide with an exhibition in the PAVED Arts Main gallery space. Live video and audio streaming from the hole will be presented in the gallery 60 kilometers away from the site, for the duration of each residency day. Each participant in this residency will spend at minimum 6 hours of each day in the hole with the artist/organizer Linda Duvall and a video camera.
Information about the Site of the Residency
This 6 foot-deep hole was dug in 2012, with a 5-foot walkway circling a central mound of earth. The hole has been hollowed out of thick prairie grassland with roots dangling overhead. Since then this space has been subject to ongoing weather events like rain, snow, hail and wind. Various transformations have occurred due to gopher and swallow incursions, and larger animals like deer, foxes, skunks and coyotes that discovered this sheltered space. A space such as this hole can be approached from the perspective of the Anthropocene and ecology, spirituality and burials, secrecy or revelations, history and agriculture, and metaphor and symbol. This land is especially significant in terms of the history of Saskatchewan since there is no evidence that it has ever been tilled.The premise of this residency is that new knowledge comes from the concentrated interaction of people with varying knowledge bases and perspectives. This hole in the ground is a possible site for conversation, contemplation, making sounds, reading out loud, or being silent. This is also about duration, about spending extended blocks of time surrounded by earth and sky, alongside of one other person. This immersive experience provides an alternative model for participating in a residency. In the Hole provides a context for looking directly at collaboration with an experiential perspective.