Some images remain fixed in your psyche, forever embedded like a sharp steel instrument pierced through the eye to your brain. Those images are not always about body horror as depicted in film genre, but often generated by psychological fears. One such film I saw when I was a young person and I've never forgotten was Premature Burial (Roger Corman, 1962) in which the main protagonist Guy Carrell (Ray Millan) suffered from cataleptic attacks occasioning him to have a pulse so faint that he might be considered dead. His very real fear was that he may be buried alive. Paranoid about his predicament he constructs a coffin with what he considers fail safe devices so that he can continue to breathe whilst underground and a communication device to herald help for his obviously desperate situation. The conclusion to the film is terrifying.
When I heard that Australian performance artist Mike Parr intends to have himself buried alive beneath the bitumen below Macquarie Street, Hobart on 14 June this year as part of Dark MOFO I immediately thought of Premature Burial and the psychological fears that undertaking such a task may invoke. Of course it's not the same because Parr will be interred in a steel container measuring 4.5 x 1.7 x 2.2m. It will contain a fan forced air supply and he will have water, but no food, a meditation stool and sketching materials.
Parr will be underground for three days and as such immediately invokes Christian scripture, especially Corinthian 15:4 that states Jesus Christ was 'raised on the third day'. Contentious always is whether Christ was dead and raised up by God or whether he was still alive when placed in the tomb and walked out of his own volition having survived his ordeal on the cross. Parr's interrment evokes this idea of death and resurrection and that other political word 'internment' which refers to those refugees interned in substandard accommodation in Australian detention centers with little to do except ponder their dire situation. Parr who will be alive underground as the traffic passes over him creates an interesting proposition since we, the general public will not be able to see what he is actually doing and as such will draw upon our own possible fears of claustrophobia even though Parr is adept at remaining still and controlling his mind. We really cant help projecting our own anxiety onto others.
Performance artists use their own bodies as art material and rely on the audience witnessing their performance. In this case those present will only see Parr's entry into the underground encasement and his departure from it. I'm almost certain that Parr's entrance and exit will be surrounded by the spectacle of the audience, which may be considered part of the performance.
Parr addressed the absence of the artist's body in relation to an artwork early in his career in his performance Dream 2 (The Lights of Empedocles) 1982 he installed a blue chair from his artwork Parapraxis 1 in the bedroom of a friend and turned the blue light it on and off by remote control, suggesting simultaneusly the artists presence and absence.
We live in a society that generally does not freely discuss death, so in this sense Parr's performance is timely in that it asks us to contemplate our own death and burial. I won't go into it here but I can't help but think of other 'heroic' males in the public eye such as Todd Sampson and his Body Hack documentaries in which he pushes the boundaries of what the body can do. It will be interesting to see some of the discussion around Parr's performance. I for one look forward to it.
Julie Clarke (c) 2018
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