I told him about the prices I’d found online, feeling like a cartoon character standing meekly with his pockets pulled inside out. He suggested that I could hire someone to do the digging and then take on the rest myself. He told me that many of the companies I’d Googled likely do the same, contracting out the labour for cheap and then infating the cost of the weeping tile installation. Cheap labour, he told me, was easy enough to come by. The creeping subtraction was pawing at the door again.
Image description: A colour photograph of a muddy foot stepping on a wet shoe on wooden stairs. The other shoe sits to the left, its toe worn from wear.
Above: Zachary Ayotte, untitled from “Notes on Digging a Hole,” 2021. Image courtesy of the artist.
Image description: A colour photograph of a hand with fingers curled as if inspecting fingernails. Dirt is trapped under the nails and lines the cuticles. A bandaid is wrapped around the ring finger.
Image description: A colour photograph of a hand posed with the thumb pressing into the index finger. Dirt has dried on the surface of the thumb’s nail.
Image description: A colour photograph of scraped skin. Mud and dirt are pressed into the skin which is red from irritation.
Image description: A colour photograph of skin with long hairs. Clumps of dirt are suspended in the hairs, casting shadows onto the textured skin.
Zachary Ayotte Works with images and text. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
This article is published in issue 39.2 of BlackFlash magazine. Get this issue
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