“I think my actions may be a bit extreme, but all the same, the gestures are necessary. I do believe for a woman who uses her body to express and all the while lost the body of her father. You return to your motherland (or fatherland) as a gesture and action in and of itself. This brave journey alone is, at moments, cathartic as I can imagine. Please do this for me as I do this for you, as I too, never recovered my father’s body. And I continually try to reclaim some physical void within my very core that lost the sensation of his hand on my back or the safety of his arms in moments of sorrow and strife.
Act one Find a place to reside and dig a hole the height of your father horizontally. Wet the soil with water. Document this.
Act two Once the hole is complete, take off your clothes and lay in the earth, feeling the soil in cracks and crevices. Cover yourself in this wet earth. Fall asleep there. Document this.
Act three When you awake, write down the first thoughts in your mind. And then scream as loud as you can until your voice cracks. Document this”. —Rori Knudtson