Artists: Adrienne Adar, Dorit Cypis, Faye Driscoll, Ekaette Ekong, Sonia Guiñansaca, Asher Hartman, Michele Jaquis, Cara Levine, Hannah Rubin
Images by Nir Yaniv
DIG: A Hole to Put Your Grief In, a project by Cara Levine, invites the audience to experience a container for their grief and mourning following a year of collective loss. The initiative was created as a collaborative project supported by AJU's Institute for Jewish Creativity (IJC), following the online Reciprocity Retreat, held digitally in June 2020 in partnership with Asylum Arts. I provided curatorial consultancy and mentoring for the project.
PRESS: MATT STROMBERG, HYPERALLERGIC
During a week of activities at the Shalom Institute, nestled in the breathtaking Malibu mountains, Levine dug a large-scale hole in the ground, inviting various communities and audience members to join her. Artists and community leaders offered a schedule of activities in and around the site, ranging from collective drawings to live performances, audio recordings and community rituals.
The weeklong duration reflects the symbolic period of shiva, or seven days of mourning in the Jewish tradition. Culminating on the second Saturday, participants will fill the hole with water and perform a ritual cleansing, or mikveh, before refilling the hole with its original dirt, and planting native seeds to complete the cycle for renewal.
This will be a collective space to hold and process some of the grief of the year, with rituals and performances inspired by different faiths, histories, and viewpoints. As the pandemic era transforms and yet holds great uncertainties, it is important to mark this moment. While Levine continuously digs on a daily basis and invites the public to deepen the hole, she has invited artists Adrienne Adar, Dorit Cypis, Faye Driscoll, Ekaette Ekong, Sonia Guiñansca, Asher Hartman, Michele Jaquis, and Hannah Rubin to make or lead new work on site.
Alan Salazar, a local Chumash tribal leader and storyteller launched the project with a blessing on August 14. Cantor Chayim Frenkel from Kehilat Israel Temple performed a Havdalah service on Tuesday, August 17. The closing Day on August 21, will be marked by a group celebration and live performances.
The Shalom Institute campus was devastated by the Woolsey Fire of 2018. The leaders and community from SI welcome DIG as part of their grief process over the loss and sacred transition taking place on their land.