{"id":2046,"date":"2013-06-09T17:03:53","date_gmt":"2013-06-09T22:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=2046"},"modified":"2013-06-10T08:18:05","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T13:18:05","slug":"museum-of-old-and-new-art-mona-tasmania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=2046","title":{"rendered":"Museum of Old and New Art – MONA, Tasmania."},"content":{"rendered":"

While visiting family and several friends in Tasmania recently, we made a point of going to the relatively new art museum there, MONA<\/a>, Museum of Modern and New Art,\u00a0at Glenorchy just north of Hobart.\u00a0 I’d heard a lot\u00a0about it, many people love it, and many say they don’t care for it.\u00a0 \u00a0I think some of those\u00a0opinions are tinged by knowledge that the wealthy art patron David Walsh, who established and finances it, made his rather large pile through various highly successful gambling activities.\u00a0 Tasmania is so very\u00a0conservative about money.\u00a0 ‘Old Money’ people don’t talk about\u00a0their wealth\u00a0at all,\u00a0and tend to\u00a0look down on ‘New Money” people, who do talk about it quite openly.\u00a0 My mother was from Sydney, NSW, where they constantly and freely\u00a0talk about the cost of everything, especially\u00a0property and business developments.\u00a0\u00a0 She married into a Launceston family, who certainly knew their place on the financial ladder there – and when\u00a0she talked of someone in the community, typically there was often a little qualifying comment, something like\u00a0 “Of course, he could buy and sell half of Launceston…” or ,”They made a lot of money in …”\u00a0 I have no idea whether she was ever right, close to right, or just tossing in such comments from habit and unfounded assumptions!\u00a0 But, since\u00a0one of her own aunts made a packet in Sydney industrial real estate in the ’30’s and ’40’s, and despite being a keen gambler\u00a0at the dog track, she\u00a0 managed and kept her fortune together well all her life, I\u00a0think Mum would have been thrilled at David Walsh’s moves.\u00a0 She might not have cared for some of the sexually explicit and other provocative exhibits, but it was Walsh’s intention all along to shock and challenge through art – he must be a curator’s dream patron, since nothing seems to be taboo, from what I saw, and indeed there is a focus on things that other institutions might have difficulty in justifying\u00a0exhibition of them. \u00a0 People are\u00a0visiting in droves, and certainly talking about it.\u00a0 Tourists and locals alike are also attending and talking about all the ancilliary events at MONA, too, including orchestral\u00a0 concerts and wine and food events.\u00a0 Tasmanian residents have free entry.\u00a0 I liked that –\u00a0 as although born and bred Tasmanian,\u00a0I’m not living there just now and\u00a0so didn’t\u00a0didn’t qualify,\u00a0of course.<\/p>\n

So it’s been controversial to say the least\u00a0– and not just in Tasmania.\u00a0 It has had no trouble attracting publicity and reviews, and there is a lot about it online.\u00a0 Here are a couple of\u00a0 comments I found in the Wiki<\/a>, representing\u00a0quite different points of view:\u00a0 First – Michael Connor of the conservative literary and cultural magazine Quadrant<\/a><\/i> said that “MONA is the art of the exhausted, of a decaying civilisation. Display lights and\u00a0taste and stunning effects illuminate moral bankruptcy. What is highlighted melds perfectly with contemporary high fashion, design, architecture, cinema. It is expensive and tense decay.”[10]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>Then – Richard Dorment, art critic for the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph<\/a><\/i>, said that Walsh “doesn’t collect famous names; his indifference to fashion is one of the strengths of the coollection. He likes art that is fun and grabs your attention, that packs a sting in the tail or a punch in the solar plexus.”[11]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>And, they could both be right.<\/p>\n

In another article published in the UK’s Telegraph <\/a>this very weekend,\u00a0\u00a0a long article\u00a0profiles the man David Walsh, his eccentric and perhaps elusive character, his life\u00a0and the development of the museum from concept to reality, and what the world is making of it… there are mixed opinions, and this is a long but comprehensive article,\u00a0but\u00a0very worthwhile reading, particularly if you’re planning to go there.\u00a0 Quite fascinating.\u00a0\u00a0 When we visited,\u00a0I’d heard far less than I now think I know, and I\u00a0thought it was fabulous, Mike not so much so -and that may be putting it kindly.<\/em>\u00a0 I’m still fascinated.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a strange rather forbidding building exterior that reminded me a little of those huge monasteries perched on precipitous mountain sides in Tibet.\u00a0The first pic is the one used in the recent ‘Telegraph’ article\u00a0really illustrates what I mean – and perhaps it was taken on a\u00a0cold dreary day just like the day we visited – <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"MONA<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And this next photo, in a kinder light, is courtesy Australian architect Lindsay Johnston:<\/p>\n

\"MONA<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This building complex, however, is not perched on a mountainside but sits on a slightly elevated site above the River Derwent,\u00a0lodged in a hollowed-out sandstone hill (we wondered\u00a0how they got\u00a0planning permission for that\u00a0in a green state like Tasmania? )\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"MONA<\/a><\/p>\n

You go in at the top and\u00a0descend to the bottom where you pick up your ‘O’ – an adapted iTouch device, and then self paced you wander through exhibits of old and new art.\u00a0 Your path through the several floors of galleries regularly brings you face to face with massive limestone walls rising from the bottom to the top floor.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the pic above\u00a0are people watching a water display that shoots out droplets to form words of the day’s headlines and popular\u00a0search engine\u00a0words.\u00a0\u00a0 it was rather mesmerizing.\u00a0 The walls are awesome in their rockbolted state for stability, although the geologist in our party was not sure they had been correctly bolted, according to his underground experience.\u00a0 Water was entering and running down the walls in places, and it definitely felt like being in a mine.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"MONA<\/a><\/p>\n

Your ‘O’ senses where you are in the museum and what works are around you – and on it each of the near works\u00a0is pictured, and when you touch the pic it takes you to basic information, perhaps some review or critique ( called ‘wanks’) although not every work has a wank app – and you can vote on whether you love it or loathe it – no in between opinions – you like it or you don’t …\u00a0 and I loved that decisive approach, although found it hard once or twice and then just refrained from giving my opinion.\u00a0 It tells you then how other museum visitors have rated that work.\u00a0 That was fun, to me, to know how my voting compared.\u00a0 Of course, it really doesn’t matter, does it, as love it or loathe it is a personal choice only,\u00a0and in the end, who cares?\u00a0 \u00a0There is often humour,\u00a0and often ugliness, there is lots of old and new beauty run through with themes of sex and death predominating.\u00a0 Many exhibits are definitely confronting – you can read about them elsewhere, written about by people far more erudite in art matters than myself… I just happily made my way among them, loving or hating as I went.\u00a0\u00a0 After about 3 hours I was mentally exhausted and although I would like to see more, we didn’t have time to go back on this visit.\u00a0 It will keep, as long as water levels don’t rise more than a metre or two.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0was thrilled to be able to see Sidney Nolan’s “Snake” in its entirety: <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sidney<\/a>\u00a0Photo Lindsay Johnston<\/p>\n

You just can’t get any idea of its overwhelming power from the pages of a book or tv doco.\u00a0 It’s never been previously\u00a0hung it its entirety in Australia,\u00a0and\u00a0I learned just now that Walsh’s apartment windows afford him a commanding view of the total installation.\u00a0 Well its the least he could have in return for the massive debts and running expenses for the museum!\u00a0 I’ll go back sometime, and look forward to that.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While visiting family and several friends in Tasmania recently, we made a point of going to the relatively new art museum there, MONA, Museum of Modern and New Art,\u00a0at Glenorchy just north of Hobart.\u00a0 I’d heard a lot\u00a0about it, many people love it, and many say they don’t care for it.\u00a0 \u00a0I think some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[188,206,205],"class_list":["post-2046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-modern","tag-museum-of-old-and-new-art","tag-tasmania"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uxpF-x0","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2046"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2123,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions\/2123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}