Mark Prier

Artwork

The Troop, 2014

For The Troop, I looked to Nick Cutter’s novel of the same name to suggest sculptural materials. The book’s many references to rope and ropiness, and the central role played by a cooler, led me to use nearly two thousand feet of rope and seven coolers. The novel’s body horror offered up how to sculpt—boring, puncturing, and perforating—and I followed suit by drilling holes and threading the rope through the coolers.

The Troop was commissioned as a part of Sculpting New Reads, a visual arts program curated by Labspace Studio that brought together Canadian artists and authors to explore how books can inspire new ways of thinking, creating, and innovating.

Materials: assorted coolers, poly rope.

Photos: Scott Lee

A jumble of red and orange coolers with white lids sit on a wooden gallery floor. The coolers have been threaded through hundreds of times with white rope. The rope drapes across most of the coolers, falling in knotted piles. A jumble of red and orange coolers with white lids sit on a wooden gallery floor. The coolers have been threaded through hundreds of times with white rope. The rope drapes across most of the coolers, falling in knotted piles. A jumble of red and orange coolers with white lids sit on a wooden gallery floor. The coolers have been threaded through hundreds of times with white rope. The rope drapes across most of the coolers, falling in knotted piles..
A jumble of red and orange coolers with white lids sit on a wooden gallery floor. The coolers have been threaded through hundreds of times with white rope. The rope drapes across most of the coolers, falling in knotted piles. A close-up of a jumble of red and orange coolers with white lids that have been threaded through hundreds of times with white rope. The rope drapes across most of the coolers.