Mike Parr Historical Context

Mike Parr

Social, Cultural, Historical Context
Mike Parr is an Australian performance artist and printmaker. Born in 1945 he grew up in rural Queensland and was born with a misshapen arm that featured heavily in his performance works. In 1965 he began a law degree at the University of Queensland however he discontinued it the year after, instead opting to move to Sydney and enrolling in the National Art School to study painting in 1968. In 1970 he established an alternative art space for conceptual and performing art and video with Peter Kennedy, known as Inhibodress. Parr’s performances involved exploring the physical limits of the body as well as the memory and subjectivity, most depict self mutilation or present extreme physical features

for example in his piece Close the Concentration Camps, 2002, where Parr films his lips sewn together to create a representation of the thoughts and feelings of those suffering in Australia’s detention centers.

All his performances are documented either photographically or via video, and his works are exhibited internationally. Parr’s printmaking contrasts greatly with his performance pieces. His prints consist of emotionally and visually beautiful etchings that consist of a barrage of raw and sharp lines. He is fascinated with observation and the possibilities of memory distortions, his ‘landscape’ prints examples of his experimentation with memories of views passed by. When he began his art career his pieces were designed to get a reaction out of the audience, to really shock them. This is a continual theme throughout his performing works.

Parr is considered one of the most if not the most successful artist of his decade. He has been influenced by

multiple situations and occurrences within his context. When Parr was born, he had a misshapen arm. This featured highly in his works and through an interview with Susan Gibb revealed that from a young age he learnt the power of performance. When gawkers would question him about his arm he would create gruesome tales about farming machinery accidents in which he lost his arm before his eyes, they would quickly leave him alone as he gained the intended result. Living in Sydney at the time of completing his studies (1968-early 1970s) he stated that the avant-garde Australian artists that littered Sydney were highly politicized, the Vietnam War and the anti-American opinions being their driving influences. Parr was very anti-Australian government as he makes both social and political comments or criticisms through his performance pieces, not only on political quarrels such as the detention centers but also social comments about society’s behavior towards malformation and the outsider, or the different not being accepted. The more open exploration of the 1960’s and 70s allowed for a lot of freedom and freedom of expression through art, this allowed for the more radical opinions of Mike Parr to surface and become known through his collection Self Portrait, that began in the early 1970s and has over a thousand pieces making up the collection. There is a major focus on cathartic release within Parr’s works such as his piece For Water from the Mouth, that was a ten day performance piece filmed live for 24 hours where Parr had to survive only with water, in an isolated room with no human contact.

Julie Rrap is a contemporary Australian Artist born in New South Wales in 1950. She is the younger sibling of Mike Parr and her name Rrap is her biological surname spelt backwards enabling her to establish herself as her own artist without her brothers controversial name and works weighing her down. Rrap studied at the National Art School, East Sydney Technical College in Sydney. Since the 70s Rrap has been involved in the contemporary arts experimenting with techniques such as photography, sculpture, painting and other mediums in an ongoing project studying the depictions of the body. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and she won the Hermann’s Art Award in 2001 for her photography, Overstepping.

Rrap has a central focus on the representations of the human body, in particular the female body through out western history. Over the time of 30 years Rrap has explored the human body through the use of differing techniques including photography, and sculpting. Her use of digital techniques further enhances her contemporary style while she also explores minor styles such as surrealism. During 1986 and 1994 Rrap lived in Europe, more specifically France and Belguim where she began to exhibit her pieces, broadening her horizons and becoming an international artist.

Visual Analysis

Over the 3rd and 4th of May in 2002 Parr sat in his gallery with his only arm nailed to the wall.

According to Michelle Jamieson of Artlink, ‘The work has politically motivated a social conscience that is strongly opposed to Australia's treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.’ The similarity to Parr’s other performance pieces emerges through him testing the boundaries and limits of his body and of his mind.

The use of a blindfold suggests anonimity, as well as grouping everyone as the same, that this message not only applies to everyone but it is about the equal treatment of all refugees who suffer at the detention centres. By restricting his only arm Parr is suggesting that by treating the refugees as such and placing them in these detention centers only for some to be sent back to where they came from we are cutting off all options, paralysing them to the fact that they have no opinion or choice in the matter of whether or not they are allowed refuge. Secondarily the blindfold reinforces the idea that the refugees are metaphorically blind throughout the whole process, they are not included in the decision of whether they be granted asylum or not. The metal chair that Parr is seated on represents the false welcome the refugees are gifted with when they arrive at Australian shores. They are bought straight to the detention centres and locked up only provided with the necessities. The non-descript clothes Parr is wearing again suggests anonimity as well as

a representign a broad number of people, refugees.

Through his use of colour and tones Parr is suggesting that instead of racism and sexism beign quelled as the political parties of australia promote that it is actually become apart of our everyday lives through language and culture.

Rraps use of bronze to create the feet represents the amount of surgery that people are getting done today to make their bodies appear more acceptable to society. The bronze represents the falsness of individuality as well as the influence society maintains over appearances, particularly women.

Meaning and Purpose
Throguh the artwork A Political Arm Mike Parr is commenting on the treatment of refugees in the detention centers on Australian soil. He is also creating a representation of the dilemna of how a culture such as Australia is highly privelidged yet absent in any sense of care at the same time. The confrontational nature of this piece suggests that we live in a society that is willing to ignore everything they are uncomfortable with, or in other words sweep it under the rug. Parr is pointng out that this is inconvenient because all you are left with is a lumpy rug that is a hazard. Parr uses multiple techniques through out his pieces yet his major canvas so to speak would be his body. By experimenting with his body and the nature in which it can be stretched, as well as the limits that are tested Parr is commenting on our ability as humans, and our beliefs and values and how we choose to act as a society. After researching Mike Parr’s works so heavily it has reached my knowledge that his pieces are so broad and almost non-descript in their meaning at first glance that should someone from America or Europe analyze A Political Arm they would interpret it to apply to their own government and their own social and political quarrels.

Personal Response
The artworks I have chosen to analyze represent the identity of not an individual but a group of people. Whether it be culture, nationality, or a religious belief system the artworks make comment on the political and social struggles of that group or created by that group in the case of A Political Arm. These artworks inspire me to further my knowledge of identity and realise that it not only applies to the individual and their personality but identity can take multiple forms in different ways and comment on different things. I hope to create a representation on the understanding of identity, and the multiple forms that may seem similar but contain different views that it can take.