HOLÉ, is the collaboration between Amanda Wachob and Mary Ellen Carroll that participated in the program for NASTY WOMEN, the group exhibition started by Jessamyn Fiore and Roxanne Jackson that served to demonstrate solidarity among artists who identify with being a Nasty Woman in the face of threats to roll back women’s rights, individual rights, and abortion rights. It also served as a fundraiser to support organizations defending these rights and to be a platform for organizing before the Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2017.
In 2016, Wachob wrote an email to Carroll and asked, would you be up for doing some sort of weird-y tattoo, concept/design collaboration? Carroll sent this response. It is an instruction she wrote over 20 year ago following a conversation with her friend/fellow artist, Robert Blanchon on the way back from the Meat Rack to their house, Debris, Jr. in Cherry Grove on Fire Island:
TAKE ANYTHING WITH A HOLE IN IT AND FILL IT PERMANENTLY. THE ABSENCE BECOMES PERMANENT AND THE PERMANENT CANNOT BECOME ABSENT.
Do you love someone or something with a hole in it? Is the hole in something you wear, like your white t-shirt Bruce Nauman? Or, is it the worn elbow of your girlfriend’s wool sweater that your father’s mother knitted for him that has a spider on it, the heel of your white tube sock, the tear in your Agent Provocateur knickers, the ripped knee of your 501 Levis, the bald spot on your head?
Does that hole represent something to you? Do you think about what you should do to fill that hole? Are you the last person in the world that would ever get a tattoo? Have you always wanted to have a tattoo, or give someone a tattoo, but were too afraid to commit to an image, fearing that you, or the world would grow tired of that picture? Has your candidate lost and you need to fill that hole? Did you commit to something, or someone that you now abhor and you want a permanent reminder to not repeat yourself to end up in that hole?
No hole is too small.
That moth hole can be fixed permanently and could be mistaken as a mole and not a hole. Is there a hole of glory that you want to commemorate permanently? This can be your own little secret hole. Hole is the hope for the hopeless. You can acknowledge that loved one, or the lost one in a permanent manner. Imagine wearing sandals in the summer, or in winter and your black sock has a • in it. That problem is no longer a problem. When the weather turns warm and you can wear sandals sans socks, that • becomes a permanent conversation, and not just a starter.
All holes can be fixed permanently. (Even this hole we are presently in with the election.)
HOLÉ is an ongoing collaboration between Amanda Wachob and Mary Ellen Carroll
1995—Cherry Grove, Fire Island 2016—Doyers, New York City
Edition size: unlimited, dimensions are variable, medium: permanent tattoo
Kindly wear or bring the item with the hole in it. This will be photographed before and after the hole is filled with the permanent tattoo.
You will receive a certificate of authenticity.
40% of the proceeds will be donated to Planned Parenthood.
If you have questions, please email us at permanenthole@gmail.com