Artist keeps it all in the dark

PROVOCATIVE performance artist Mike Parr has approached his 2019 Dark Mofo work in typically enigmatic style.

The 74-year-old Sydney artist, who last year buried himself under Macquarie St in the centre of Hobart for 72 hours, yesterday was hidden away in an undisclosed location, blindly painting white walls black.

Festival goers could see Parr’s performance via a live stream set up on the ground floor of the old Mercury building on Argyle St. The performance began at 10am yesterday and went all day.

Parr’s Dark Mofo work last year was billed as memorialising the victims of 20th century totalitarian violence but also drew comparisons to biblical times.

This year, little has been given away about what Parr’s Towards a Black Square formance symbolises.

Dark Mofo visitor Lynne Santos said she found the performance fascinating.

“I think it’s quite obscure, which is OK because it forces me to think about what his intentions might be and what my responses to those intentions are,” she said.

“The way he was navigating his way around the space was very interesting.

“It’s hard to interpret what the exhibition might mean, it’s quite cryptic I think.

“I imagine he’s had a fairly long career in the work he’s doing and I think it’s fascinating to consider what his future works might look like.”

Parr will take part in a Q&A conversation at the Odeon Theatre at 1pm today, where details of the meaning of his performance may be revealed. An exhibition of the work is at the old Mercury building from noon to 6pm. perMONA visitors can experiment with augmented reality and navigate a giant life-size board game as part of a new museum exhibition aimed at highlighting the link between resource and data mining.

Launched yesterday at Mona, Mine is the interactive exhibition by New Zealand artist Simon Denny, which explores the role technology plays in environmental damage.

The exhibition’s layout creates a path for visitors to walk through what looks like the showroom of a trade show for the mining industry.

The catalogue for the installation is in the form of a giant playable game based on sheep-farming board game Squatter.

Mr Denny said it was about highlighting the inextricable connection between how technologies mine resources from the land and mine data through our internet use.

“Coming to terms with a picture of the world that includes the effects of industry on the planet, people and other forms of life is urgent,” he said.

“I’m excited to present an exhibition in a cavernous