Mark Prier

Artwork

Analogue Loop (brook/birch/brook), 2007

Tapping a birch tree to allow the sap to run into the brook.

Performance on April 16, 2007.

Materials: 3' Birch branch, 6' copper pipe, piled stone.

A man in winter clothes and rubber boots stands in a stream; the hilly banks are tree-lined and snow-covered. The man uses a carpenter's brace to drill into the trunk of a yellow birch tree growing streamside. The bit of a carpenter's brace bites into the trunk of a yellow birch, drawing forth wood shavings amidst the shaggy strips of bark hanging from the tree trunk. A man in winter clothes and rubber boots stands in a snow-lined stream using a carpenter's brace to drill into the trunk of a yellow birch tree growing streamside.
A copper spile protrudes from a hole in the trunk of a yellow birch. A close-up of the end of the copper spile, propped up by the crook of a birch branch; the end of the spile drips birch sap. A copper spile protrudes from a hole in the trunk of a yellow birch growing streamside; the hilly banks are tree-lined and snow-covered. The spile is propped up by the crook of a birch branch held upright by a pile of rocks in the stream. The birch sap runs from the tree trunk, through the spile, and into the stream.
supported by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council