The Sled

Apr. 8

1995
mixed media installation
Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery Acquisition Fund

The Sled was constructed during a residency at the Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta and is derived from the image on the face of a small survival Storm Kit which features a figure crouched beside a fire and inside a makeshift shelter. In relation to survival, The Sled offers relative luxury. The fire depicted on the Storm Kit is replaced here by a Coleman lantern, Coleman heater, Whisperlite stove and an Outback Oven, all carefully stowed in The Sled’s framework. The Sled’s cave-like interior was designed and built around these items.

The Sled expands on ideas Lawrence explored in his earlier body of work Romantic Commodities (1993). Storm Kits were commonly found in outdoor supply stores in the 1990s and contained careful packaging of items including teabags, matches and bouillon cubes, printed with poetic slogans about survival. Lawrence’s work examines the ways in which these survival kits are indicative of our detached relationship with the natural environment through its commodification. The figure on the front of the kit is protected from the environment by the contents of the survival kit. Lawrence inserts himself into this narrative by inhabiting the persona of the outdoorsman in a silent black and white film and accompanying photographs in which he wears a hand-made costume, also exhibited here. The work includes a journal detailing the outdoorsman’s experience and sketches of each component of The Sled. Lawrence draws on his real-life experience camping in remote locations, while at the same time he offers a critique of the romantic, independent pioneer and ideologies that catalyzed colonial settlement and human domination over nature.

The Sled is constructed around a complex, skeletal framework made of numerous shaped and fitted wooden components. As shown in the model Lawrence created, three parts of this frame are hinged to allow access to the sled’s interior compartments, each of which is lined with copper and shaped to house a particular camping appliance — the construction is mounted on top of two shortened skis. A poplar pulling pole swings up to form one of three shelter supports while two others are in sections and are strapped alongside the sled. Numerous other fittings allow items including the shelter cover, tools and a sleeping bag to be tied to the outside of the sled. The Sled’s various hatches are fastened shut in a clam-like manner to complete the contours of the rock and sleeping bags are strapped on. Fully packed, the rock, mounted on skis, becomes a personal vehicle and the items inside are carefully protected and stowed in a manner somewhere between a 16th Century caravel and a 1990s era recreational vehicle. As with much of his work, Lawrence’s modern day adaptations recall historical inventions and how our relationship to nature and technology has shifted over time – in this case from survival that is “the challenge to stay alive” to the idea of survival.

Donald Lawrence

The Sled

Romantic Commodities

Drumheller Albertosaurus