The Dig Cunt, Coney Island, May 7-13, 2007

Me and Florian Reither, The Dig Cunt, 2007, Photo by Jason Covert

About two weeks ago I received an email blast from CreativeTime. I'm a fan of CreativeTime, sometimes I don't understand their choice of projects but I respect their mission (they just celebrated 33 years). This specific email got my attention unlike any other. "Gelitin in Coney Island, The Dig Cunt." The Dig Cunt? What!?!

"Called by the quest to hole, gelitin will set out to dig on coney island beach. mornings we will take the train to coney island equipped with hands, shovels and a mind settled like grains of sand. we will dig for seven hours and in the evening close the hole and return back to manhattan. the next day we will take the train again to coney island and dig a hole and then close it again. the next day we will take the train again to coney island and dig a hole and then close it again." and so on...

Wolfgang Gantner, The Dig Cunt, 2007

THIS IS WHAT GOT MY FULL ATTENTION:
"Repeated over seven days, Gelitin describe the proposed durational work as a celebration of the millennium of the female and the anti-phallus, in effect the artistic reversal of the erect public monument. Part Dada, part Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (1896), the absurdly poetic act of ritualized displacement, absence and renewal."

Photo by Jason Covert

For some reason I was deeply struck by this backwards feminism. Suddenly I found myself committed to going to Coney Island for all seven days, to photograph this absurd happening. I new if I just went once, I would convince myself that I had do go all seven days. It worked. I am not normally one for art-on-art, but I was sure I could create an amazing edition if I went. An edition of what? I did not know. More on that later, I pick up the film tomorrow.


Photo by Lucien Samaha

Gelitin is a group of four male artists from Austria. In 2000 they gained notoriety in New York when they secretly removed a window from the 91st floor of the World Trade Center and briefly installed an exterior balcony. The Dig Cunt began on Monday, May 7 (my birthday) and ended on Sunday, May 13, 2007 (Mothers Day).


Day 7

Boonville was also in full swing this week. Press releases went out all over the country, Support letters and packages went out, emails, phone calls, finalizing the equipment, blah, blah. Between draggin my 4x5 an hour each way to The Dig Cunt, dealing with Boonville, then having to go to my part-time job 4 out of the 7 days, I was exhausted. Wednesday was by far the craziest. I woke at 6:30, ran to the studio to deal with Boonville for a few hours, took the train home to grab my camera, took the train to Coney, shot for an hour, took the train home to drop off my camera, shoved a piece of cheese in my mouth, took a piss and then ran back to the "F" train to head into the city. I finished up my Boonville work by about 8pm and hit the train once again. I was fast asleep about 10 minutes after I walked through the door only to wake up at 5am on Thursday for my stupid part-time job. After I got out of work at 2pm I took the train home, grabbed my camera, took a piss, grabbed a piece of cheese, took the train to Coney, shot for 20 minutes, rushed home to drop off my camera, rushed to finalize Boonville stuff and then rushed to the opening of Laura's new play. This sort of thing went on for 5 of the 7 days, it actually went down exactly the same way on Friday, except it was a different play. Again, I was exhausted. I'm so glad I have you to talk to about this!