Performance artist Mike Parr starts his subterranean show for Dark Mofo

WITH not even a hint of panic in his face, performance artist Mike Parr has disappeared into a container below a busy city street. REPLAY THE LIVE VIDEO

WITH not even a hint of panic in his face, Australian performance artist Mike Parr has disappeared into a container below Macquarie St in front of hundreds of stunned spectators.

Parr went subterranean about 9.30pm, with the road above him resealed with bitumen as part of his three-day Dark Mofo performance Underneath The Bitumen The Artist.

Performance artist Mike Parr, right, prepares to enter the chamber he will live in for 72 hours under Macquarie St. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

While traffic continues as normal, Parr will entertain himself with only a book, diary and sketchpad. He also has water, bedding, blankets, a chair and a heater in his temporary lair until he resurfaces on Sunday night.

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Replay the live video of the ‘burial’ below. Parr makes his appreance about the 1hr17min mark.

The performance is Parr’s response to the transportation of convicts in the first half of the 19th century and the subsequent violence against the state’s Aboriginal population.

Dark Mofo curator Jarrod Rawlins said Parr would be reading Robert Hughes’ The Fatal Shore, a tale of Australia’s colonial invasion, as well as writing notes, drawing and meditating.

“Dark Mofo and the City of Hobart are very good at putting on excellent events where art gets to create the opportunity for people to have opinions for things they wouldn’t normally have opinions about,” Mr Rawlins said.

Mike Parr is helped into the chamber. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

Rawlins said Parr had been fasting for the past few days in preparation and would not be eating during his time underground.

Parr will have a communication system and a panic button for emergencies. Mr Rawlins said in an emergency the road would be immediately closed and that Parr would be removed in “minutes”.

Mr Rawlins added Parr would be told the time at noon each day and that he would breathe air pumped into the container.

The lid for Mike Parr’s chamber is moved back into place before the road surface was resealed.. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

Parr, 73, is no stranger to confronting artworks, having once hacked a prosthetic arm with an axe in front of an audience who thought it was his own.

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Australian artist Mike Parr photographed in his studio in Alexandria in Sydney. Picture: BRITTA CAMPION/THE AUSTRALIAN

Signs will be put up to let people know Parr is underneath Macquarie St.

Dark Mofo, produced by the Museum of Old and New Art, is no stranger to odd performances, having last year copped heavy criticism from animal rights groups over a bloody sacrificial ritual that included a bull carcass.