MIKE PARR

Focus Artist by Denise Payne, volunteer Gallery Guide

Mike Parr’s charcoal drawing, “Landscape of the Webb” was selected by John Olsen himself as the winner of the inaugural John Olsen Drawing Prize in 1990. This $5,000 drawing prize, the richest of its kind in Australia at the time, had been donated by John Olsen to celebrate the opening of the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in its present Keppel Street site on December 8, 1990.

At the time, Mike Parr was in the middle of his career which has seen him become an innovative, influential, celebrated and often controversial contemporary Australian artist. He is renowned for his mastery of a variety of media including, drawing, etching, printmaking, performance art, photography, video and sculpture. 

“The Landscape of the Webb” is one of his Webb Series of drawings. Made up of overlapping spiky lines, the drawing uses the circle, a motif of safety. Parr creates tension with the lines reaching beyond the safe circle towards the unknown. 

Whatever the medium, Mike Parr’s works generally explore the self – his own body and its limitations; experiments to test his own ability to withstand physical discomfort; and his observations of human endurance. He has done this through innumerable self portraits and his performance art. 

Mike Parr’s performance art began in the 1970s and continues to this day. It has brought him wide publicity and his controversial reputation.  His performances  challenge and confront his audiences as he continues to explore his identity and the limits of his own physical endurance. 

In a 1970’s performance, Parr sat in front of his audience, most of whom had no idea that he has one prosthetic arm. Suddenly he got out an axe and began hacking into his prosthetic arm which he had filled with mincemeat and fake blood. 

In 2002 he performed “For Water from the Mouth” at the Art Space Gallery. Over ten days Parr was isolated in a room with no human contact, with nothing but water to keep him alive. His every action was surveyed by a video recorder and web cams and broadcast on the internet for 24 hours a day. These are just two of his many performances. 

Mike Parr has travelled, exhibited and performed widely in Australia, including at the 2008 Biennale and internationally in Brazil, Cuba, Switzerland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and the United States. 

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery has five works by Mike Parr including two drawings, an etching and two sculptures. Some of these have been gifted to the gallery by Parr and his wife, Felizita.

IMAGE: Mike Parr The Webb 1989, Collection of Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, gift of Mike and Felizita Parr.