The Tilted Stage

Editorial Review

A fearless artist is willing to put himself on the front line and make statements with his own body.

Event Schedule

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

40 Macquarie Street, Hobart

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When:

2008-11-21

Start:21-Nov-2008

End:01-Mar-2009

2009-03-01 23:59:59

Editorial Review

Mike Parr has long been recognised as one of our most fascinating and important Australian artists, having exhibited and performed extensively throughout his 37-year career both here and abroad.

His performances are often political and frequently confronting and he is notorious for using his body as a canvas. In his 2002 work, Close the Concentration Camps, Parr's lips were sewn together as he sat on a chair holding an Australian flag; a protest not only against the refugees held in Australian detention centres but also a comment on the so-called democratic rights that managed to put refugees into such horrendous living conditions with no rights whatsoever. Other performances have included Parr having the word "artist" branded on his arm and also having his arm nailed to a gallery wall as part of an endurance piece.

The Tilted Stage is a retrospective exhibition stretching across two spaces in Hobart and displaying sculpture, print and moving-image works by Parr. It also, inevitably, includes a performance by the artist, the details of which have yet to be disclosed other than the title; Cartesian Corpse, and the information that the gallery, Detached, will remain open for the duration of the performance, however long that may be.

Julianne Gill