{"id":289190,"date":"2025-11-13T13:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/289190\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T13:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:40:09","slug":"the-british-artist-david-shrigley-wants-1m-for-piles-of-old-rope-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/289190\/","title":{"rendered":"The British artist David Shrigley wants \u00a31m for piles of old rope – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Money\u2014\u00a31m plus VAT, to be precise\u2014for old rope is the premise for David Shrigley\u2019s latest exhibition, which opens at Stephen Friedman gallery in London tomorrow (14 November). Over the past eight months, the Turner Prize-nominated artist has collected around ten tonnes, or 20 miles-worth, of rope from major seaports, climbing schools, tree surgeons, offshore wind farms, scaffolders, window-cleaning firms and ports. He has also combed smaller lengths himself from shorelines across the UK.<\/p>\n

The rope, which has been intensively cleaned by Shrigley\u2019s studio, has been installed in four enormous piles\u2014one in each of the Cork Street gallery\u2019s rooms. A neon sign in the window reads \u201cexhibition of old rope\u201d. <\/p>\n

Shrigley says he conceived of the idea specifically for the commercial gallery context. Describing his price tag as more of a \u201cprovocation\u201d, the artist says he thinks \u00a31m for \u201ca giant artwork, pound for pound or kilo for kilo, represents excellent value\u201d. But, as he points out, \u201cfor the person who isn\u2019t an art insider, it probably seems like a ridiculous price\u201d. <\/p>\n

In a depressed market<\/a>, ten tonnes of old rope is a hard sell for any dealer, however Shrigley is confident his gallery will make a real attempt to find a home for his installation. \u201cIt would surprise me if somebody bought it, but you never know,\u201d he says. \u201cEither way, it\u2019s important to have a price; there\u2019s a price to every artwork.\u201d <\/p>\n

The gallery\u2019s owner Stephen Friedman told the BBC that the work could go to a private collection, an institution or a foundation. \u201cWe will find a good home for it,\u201d he adds. While Shrigley\u2019s work is in part a tongue-in-cheek poke at the market\u2014in this instance, he thinks the main thing he is subverting is his own commercial interest. \u201cI\u2019d probably be a lot better off just doing some paintings but making this kind of work and having these kinds of conversations are part of the joy of it,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rope being collected in Dartford, UK<\/p>\n

Courtesy of David Shrigley<\/p>\n

For Shrigley, joy and humour underpin much, if not all, of his creative output. \u201cIt\u2019s the same thing motivating me to make this curious project where I get to fill a gallery with rope as it was when I was a child in school making a painting,\u201d he says. \u201cMy attitude is, \u2018What happens if I do this? What will it be like?\u2019 And that\u2019s the same attitude children have when making a painting of a dinosaur. For me, there\u2019s something really joyful about making an artwork, whatever that is.\u201d <\/p>\n

Shrigley\u2019s latest work is also highly conceptual. He describes the piles of rope as \u201clike Tony Cragg sculptures\u2014except they very much aren\u2019t\u201d. Installing the work, he adds, was an interesting process; the rope was more or less piled where it was pulled from giant sacks. \u201cIt\u2019s a real non-aesthetic installation, but at the same time you can\u2019t really escape from the aesthetics of it, the rope becomes an intriguing object in itself,” Shrigley says.<\/p>\n

Among the lengths of rope are 20cm-thick cables made from Kevlar that are used to drag cruise ships, as well as slim cords used for marker buoys, longlines and crab and lobster pots. The rope itself, apart from a few pieces fabricated from jute, is mostly made from synthetic polyester and nylon lines\u2014making it very hard to recycle. <\/p>\n

Globally, an estimated 640,000 tonnes of discarded marine rope and fishing nets enter the ocean every year, creating a major environmental issue. In some instances, nets and ropes are shredded and turned into threads to make clothes and other new products\u2014but not typically in the art world. But then again, Shrigley is not a typical artist. As he puts it: \u201cWhat do you do with stuff that you can\u2019t get rid of? You make it into art.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Money\u2014\u00a31m plus VAT, to be precise\u2014for old rope is the premise for David Shrigley\u2019s latest exhibition, which opens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[6185,228,226,227,151991,229,88,9543],"class_list":{"0":"post-289190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art-market","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-david-shrigley","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-exhibitions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}