Call of the Void (documentation)

The idea for this installation came to me while looking into information about caves. I listened to a story about a caver, and went down a rabbit hole of caving culture and stories from people who explore caves. Caves are so mysterious, so dark and pure, and dangerous. Some caves are the last places on earth that no human has ever stepped foot into. But there’s nothing inside of them. There is no real end, there’s no treasure inside, and each section is just a rocky, wet tunnel. But cavers talk about caves so romantically, and have such an obsession for them. Logically, they know there’s nothing inside, and it’s extremely dangerous to explore, but there’s this irresistible quality about it all. The caves feel alive, speaking to the explorers without words, and they call this urge to go just one step further “the call of the void.” This was a feeling I could relate to once I heard about it. This same feeling, of knowing that there is nothing left to find, but convincing yourself that if you just go one step more, just one more turn, just one more day, that maybe then you’ll finally find something, but not even knowing what that something is. 

I see that a lot in life--when it’s time to let go of something, whether it’s a career, relationship, or any other goal, it’s hard to admit it’s time to move on. Gut feelings conflict, and it seems like your heart is saying to both keep going and go back. It’s a very gray area, and the only person who knows when to turn around is you. I personally connected this installation to being in an abusive relationship; desperately telling myself that tomorrow will be the day things change, that I’m actually being noble for holding on for so long, when in reality it was the fear of admitting that it is a lost cause was what propelled me forward. 

The installation is in an old house my dad was in the middle of renovating. I used nine foot long two by fours and industrial sized plastic sheeting to create walls inside to simulate the twisting turns of a cave. I also used blankets to black out the windows and create a lower ceiling in some areas. I used the sound of whale song to represent what the “call of the void” is. I imagined it as a melancholic but romantic sound that rang in your head, that allure was just great enough to overpower the feeling of danger. When people came out and said they were too scared to go deeper, and then went back in, and said they went deeper the second time, and talked to each other about different sections inside, that was more than I could hope for in this installation. My goal was to simply create an experience and atmosphere that made the viewer feel that curiosity and sinking feeling once the end was reached they had to turn around. I hoped that this cave room would be a place of self reflection, and that the ‘end’ could be a moment of thought before making the journey back.