British artist David Shrigley has unveiled his latest conceptual artwork at Stephen Friedman Gallery in London, transforming the idiom "old rope has no use" into a literal million-dollar installation. The exhibition, titled "Exhibition of Old Rope," fills the gallery at 56 Cork Street with 10 tons of reclaimed rope collected from across the United Kingdom, alongside a striking four-part neon sign displayed in the street-facing window.
The ambitious project represents months of careful scavenging by Shrigley himself, who gathered discarded rope from diverse sources including maritime scrapyards, climbing schools, offshore wind farms, cruise ships, and various industrial operations. The artist collected thick mooring lines from cruise ships, slim marker-buoy cords, longlines, crab and lobster pot ropes, plus lengths salvaged from tree surgeons, scaffolders, window cleaners, and offshore infrastructure along UK shorelines. Each section underwent thorough cleaning and treatment, a particularly crucial process for rope recovered from the sea, which typically arrives heavy with salt, algae, and embedded debris.
"This exhibition started with an idiom. Old rope has no use. It's also hard to recycle, so there's a lot of it lying around," Shrigley explained. "I thought: what if I turn that into a literal exhibition of old rope. And then say, yes, this is art, and yes, you can buy it for 1 million." The artist's signature wit emerges as he continues: "The work exists because I'm interested in the value people place on art, and the idiom gave me an excuse to explore that. I think 1 million is a fair price, partly because of the idea and partly because it is quite a lot of rope."
The installation draws upon the UK's centuries-old rope-making tradition, incorporating materials ranging from hemp and jute lines historically associated with the Royal Navy to the synthetic polyester and nylon ropes commonly used today. These modern synthetic materials present significant recycling challenges and contribute to mounting marine waste problems, a environmental context that quietly shadows the towering mounds of coiled fiber filling the gallery space. The vast coils are arranged in layered formations that reveal the rope's age, wear patterns, colors, and evidence of past labor, with almost-new synthetic lines positioned beside sun-faded fishermen's rope, frayed climbing loops, and weather-beaten lengths twisted by years of exposure.
The centerpiece neon installation, rendered in bright orange and displaying the exhibition's title in Shrigley's unmistakable handwriting style, serves as both artwork and commercial signage. Its bold, eye-catching aesthetic deliberately mimics advertising while undermining the traditional seriousness typically associated with gallery signage. The commercial sign-like appearance reinforces the artist's ongoing examination of value systems within the art world.
"Exhibition of Old Rope" continues themes that Shrigley has explored throughout his career across installations, sculptures, and public works. Previous projects include the playful economies of his "Tennis Ball Exchange" and the irreverent monumentality of "Really Good" for London's Fourth Plinth. Across these diverse projects, concepts of trade, value, and the circulation of objects frequently appear in unexpected, participatory, or absurd forms.
This latest exhibition marks Shrigley's ninth solo show with Stephen Friedman Gallery, representing almost three decades of collaboration between the artist and the gallery. The show demonstrates a tighter conceptual focus than some of his previous works, literally interpreting an idiom while simultaneously rerouting a waste stream and placing fundamental questions about artistic value at the center of the viewer's experience. The rope, once functional in its original maritime and industrial contexts, then discarded as waste, now transforms into a record of human labor, an environmental reminder, and what Shrigley describes as "an interesting protagonist" in ongoing debates about what constitutes valuable art in contemporary culture.
