Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi: Democratic Torture

Duration Performance
Mike Parr
6pm Fri 2 May to Midnight Sat 3 May

I am not sure why this hasn't been advertised very heavily, even on the Artspace website, but a flyer has just made it into my hands containing the following information. I remember reading a tiny article about Malevich, a similar performance by Parr last year, buried deep in the Sydney Morning Herald, and thinking about the tragedy of a world where art isn't front-page news. The fact that nailing your arm to a wall as a political protest falls beneath our cultural radar is staggering (though, in the end, no more staggering than the collective willful ignorance of the human rights violations in Australian refugee camps that the protest was addressing). Hopefully this latest performance will get wider coverage. Here is the information. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies.

MIKE PARR: At 6pm on Friday May 2, in the presence of the public, an assistant will begin sewing up my face. My face is sewn into a bind. Godot has left for Iraq and the bewildered Australian amputee has followed him! I sit still facing the audience. Through Friday night, all day Saturday. A small Australian flag hangs limply from the stump of my left arm. On the wall behind me is lettered a vast field of lyrical aggression, interspersed with newspaper headlines BLOODBATH, HUNTING PACK, FILLING HOLES IN A BULLET-RIDDLED NATION, KILLING ROOM, HUNDREDS OF VICTIMS IN COFFINS, CHILDREN WERE BURNED ALIVE, CRITICS BRANDED WITH HOT IRONS, END GAME, WE ARE CLOSER TO THE CENTRE OF THE IRAQI CAPITAL THAN MANY AMERICAN COMMUTERS ARE TO THEIR DOWNTOWN OFFICES, PLEASE DON'T HATE OUR DADS etc, etc. At 6pm on Saturday night until midnight Democratic Torture begins. By touching a hotspot on their screens the Global audience can shock my exhausted face. Go to http://www.artspace.org.au/ and click onto the Mike Parr link to access the performance. Anyone can contribute an electric shock direct to Mike Parr by interacting directly with the webcast. This project is real and you can attend the performance at Artspace throughout the 30 hours duration.