Mark Prier

Artwork

Survival Walk, 2008

Performance description: Two people in lab coats solemnly carry an improvised survival stretcher along local paths and trails. The lab coats have the threaded outline of a red cross, as though a large badge has been removed.

This performance was presented in three locations: Corner Brook (July 11, 2008), Fogo (August 3, 2008), and St. John’s (August 8, 2008), Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada. It was part of Stockpile, a showcase of Atlantic Canadian art.

Materials: lab coats, litter stretcher (birch poles, muslin fabric).

Photos: Philip Norman Robbins

Two people in lab coats carry a litter stretcher made of birch branches and muslin up a gravel trail that winds up from the coast. The landscape around them is ocean in the distance and low-lying rocky bog on land.

Two people in lab coats carry a litter stretcher made of birch branches and muslin; they pause on a high sea cliff to look out across the water below toward a coastal village. The landscape around them is ocean and low-lying rocky bog.

Two people in lab coats carry a litter stretcher made of birch branches and muslin along a gravel travel around a pond; hikers and cyclists are also on the trail, while a swan can be seen on the pond. The landscape around them is a temperate forest.

Two people in lab coats pause on a boardwalk to look over a city stream, the limbs of a large willow tree reaching up all around them. A gravel trail passes behind them and the tree.

Two people in lab coats sit on a park bench facing away from the camera; they look over a pulp mill on the bay, forest and hills around them and in the distance. The back of their lab coats have loose, ripped threads that create the outline of the red cross.

Two people in lab coats sit on a park bench underneath a tree canopy facing the camera; on a city sidewalk to their left, two pedestrians approach the camera.

Two people in lab coats sit on a park bench in front of a grassy ditch facing the camera; a city trail runs horizontally before their feet, and a city bus makes a stop in the background near some land fenced in with chainlink and barbwire.

Two people in lab coats walk away from the camera, carrying a litter stretcher made of birch branches and muslin up a gravel trail. The landscape around them is ocean inlets and low-lying rocky bog.

Two people in lab coats carry a litter stretcher made of birch branches and muslin; they pause on a high sea cliff to look across a gorge. The landscape around them is ocean and low-lying rocky bog.