MONA...X +

MONA from the ferry

MONA – Museum of Old and New Art is unlike any art museum I have seen. It is the largest private museum in Australia and a monument to the ego of its’ owner David Walsh; maybe not so much ego, but more the character of David Walsh. It was built at a cost of ~200 million dollars to house his private art collection. It just opened earlier this year, and the museum is currently free to the public. There is talk that he will begin to charge admission to non-Tasmanians, but this has yet to happen. My understanding is that David is some sort of genius mathematician, a savant, like Dustin Hoffman’s character in “Rain Man” and has made his untold millions gambling. That is a nice job if you’re good at it and apparently David is an expert. He has the money to do what he wants, doesn’t care what others think and seems to relish controversy. You can look him up on the internet and draw your own conclusions. He is an interesting individual.

Art museum, not haunted house



Art museum, not fun house

The one thing I know he has done is create a fantastic museum for showcasing art, especially contemporary art. This is the best presentation of contemporary (and antiquity) art that I have ever seen. The museum is fairly nondescript from the outside. If you drive in from land, the building appears low and small; and there is a tennis court near the front entrance. Why is there a tennis court you may ask, because David likes tennis and it’s his museum so there is a tennis court, screw parking. The museum sits on the edge of a peninsula and when you see it from the water, the outside is brown rusty metal which belies what awaits for you inside.  I took the ferry over from Hobart; Yes MONA has its’ own ferry service. The is $15 but the museuem is free and the views of Hobart harbor and the river Derwent are worth the price. The museum is built 3 stories underground into the sandstone, with the lower floor being only 1 meter above sea level. Upon entering the museum you are given an ipod like device as there are no signs or information placards on any of the art. The ipod has a GPS system, you push a button, it knows where you are in the museum, and then presents you with information about the art in that area. Touching other buttons you can get as little information as a summary of the art, like the artist name and title of the piece; or delve deeper and get more information, quotes from artists, commentary by David and others, and with some pieces audio. Not your standard fare at an art museum. As you go through the museum observing the pieces, you can also vote on them touching the X (hate) or + (love) on the ipod. I was told that David will take all the pieces people love and remove them and only keep the pieces people hate. He’s that kind of guy. You can also enter your email address and the museum will then send you a link so that you can view the art on line along with your judgements (X’s and +’s). Maybe on second review you'll change your mind on how you feel.



Not the real library but another piece of art

The museum building itself is like a piece of art itself. The bare sandstone walls show through in some places. The overall color scheme is dark and black, even the museum workers wear black. I didn’t notice them at first; they blend into the background like museum ninjas. The museum is not symmetrically laid out, it is more like a labyrinth of art. There is even a tunnel connecting the museum to a 20,000 book library, that looks like a concrete conduit, but it too is really a piece of art.



bit.fall

Coffin of Pausiris

The current exhibition is titled “Sex and Death” and is intended to create controversy with its’ subject matter.  As to whether any of the art is good, you have to be the judge. Some people think contemporary art is crap and MONA can support that theory. For you scientist artists there is a piece by Wim Delvoye, “Cloaca Professional”. It is basically a series of digesters, you feed it at the beginning, it goes through a digestive process including the elimination of gasses and at 2pm or 3pm each day it produces a brown “work of art”.  If that’s art, then I’m Michelangelo after a big dinner. You’ll see hanging bloodied limbs, 150 plaster casts of a certain female body part and a fat car, but you will also see pieces by Sydney Nolan (who if you remember from an earlier blog is hanging in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne)including his largest piece which need a special room to be built to house it, a wonderful piece “bit.fall” by Julius Popp (water falls from the ceiling in the form of words. It’s pretty cool) and some fantastic pieces from ancient Egypt. There is a room that they only allow one or two people to enter at a time. It is dimly lit and there are stepping stones, surrounded by water, that lead you to a small island. On the island are two equally sized, glass covered containers. Inside one is the mummy and coffin of Pausiris and the other contains an image of the same. The image is a layered scan of the coffin and as you watch, the scan is run and it starts going through each layer slowly the coffin begins to dissolve revealing the mummy inside. Super high tech scanning imagery used on a coffin from antiquity. A great juxtaposition of technology in a superbly lighted setting. MONA is like the Louvre on acid.

Another Sidney Nolan Ned Kelly on the left

Cloaca Professional

 If you love art, come to Hobart and visit MONA. If you’re in Hobart for any other reason, make the time to go visit MONA. + it or X it, MONA is a museum well worth seeing.

Cheers mate.



Oh look another rainbow on the way to MONA

norb