An Australian performance artist who was buried in a steel container under a busy road for 72 hours as part of a so-called dark arts festival was released from his self-imposed prison on Sunday.
Mike Parr, a 73-year-old performance artist whose creative endeavors typically explore physical limits, was entombed in the mini-shipping container late on Thursday and the road was resealed above him.
A bulldozer was required to pull away at the section of the road that covered the entrance into the artist’s temporary home.
After three days buried under a busy street, artist Mike Parr (pictured) has been excavated from his steel cell
‘To my knowledge, it will be Tasmania’s first monument referencing both the Black War and the convict system,’ Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael said
A bulldozer was required to pull away at the section of the road that covered the entrance into the artist’s temporary home
The artist chose to exit in silence, according to the ABC.
Despite the legions of onlookers who came to see him, Parr vanished as soon as he exited the tomb.
Almost 4,000 people looked on as he climbed into a steel container under the busy street.
Oxygen was pumped into the container where Parr had access to water, reading and writing material, a heater and a distress button in case anything went wrong – but no food. He was equipped with a bucket for sanitary use.
The steel container was fitted with a fan forced air supply where Parr will spent the three days fasting, meditating, reading and drawing in his sketchbook.
The artist is ‘an endurance performer’ and has been doing this for years now.
Mike Parr (pictured) submerged beneath Macquarie Street last night for his third artwork
Parr will have a bucket with him for toilet emergencies while he is in the container (pictured)
The artist took a copy of Robert Hughes’s The Fatal Shore and his sketchbook while he was sealed underneath.
Parr consumed a ‘strictly limited amount of liquids’ during his three day trip underground.
Previously, the 73-year-old has hacked at his own prosthetic arm, laid motionless as he was splattered in large amounts of his own blood, and has had his face sewn together all in the name of art.
Parr’s conceptual practice in relation to the piece, entitled ‘Underneath The Bitumen The Artist’ is reflective of the 20th century totalitarian violence in all it’s forms.
‘To my knowledge, it will be Tasmania’s first monument referencing both the Black War and the convict system,’ Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael said.
‘It is a story that is not well known, but is ever-present, just beneath the surface of our contemporary culture.’
His reference to the under ground way in which this historical moment is cultivated in Australia is evident in his desire to take his performance under the surface of the busy Macquarie Street, where he will fast, draw and meditate as cars continue about their commute directly above him.
Parr has incorporated large amounts of his own blood (pictured) into his art pieces previously
Whilst the performance isn’t out of the ordinary in considering Parr’s previous performance pieces, it has certainly divided audiences thus far.
Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre chief executive Heather Sculthorpe was insulted by the project, according to The Mercury.
She said Dark Mofo’s representation of the Aboriginal story in Tasmania is insulting and ‘some old fella under a road is not the way to do it’.
The box has been sealed but in case of an emergency Parr will be removed ‘in minutes’
Since her statement, spokesperson for the centre, Michael Mansell released a second statement.
‘The Aboriginal people of Tasmania are right behind [Parr] for making the point that Tasmania’s historical treatment of Aboriginal people has been hidden — buried, as it were — for far too long.’
Hobart Mayor Ron Christie voted against the location of the performance, voicing his concern for traffic control during the construction of the room.
The festival has previously garnered controversy for the placement of inverted red crosses across the Tasmanian capital, promting suggestions of satanic implications by some Christian groups.
Parr emerged at 9pm on Sunday.
Concrete will be poured to fuse the chamber and its contents as a time capsule.
He will speak of his experience underground at the University of Tasmania on Tuesday.
Parr was ‘calm and composed’ before descending into the steel container