Down Under Down Under
⬅ previous ⬆intro next ➡Day 5 ~ 26 Dec - Hobart
Today we're visiting Mona. What's that? The "Museum of Old and New Art" of course. Or alternatively, the "Museum of Whatever I, the Owner, Fancy in My Museum". That's not quite how it's officially phrased, but not far off.First though, some sights from Amanda's morning run...
No, it's not a pub sign! I quite fancy the idea of a pint down the Duck Crossing Caution, but it will have to remain a figment of my imagination for the time being.
And this?!
Well it's got lots of advertising, or sponsorship, or something, but what's it for?
By zooming in on the original, I can see what appears to be its name, "Regines Roller", and then a bit of online searching reveals that it's a participant in "TasBash", a fundraising event for a children's charity called Variety. There's an article about the event here, and the car has its own social media pages: LinkedIn and Facebook for example.
TasBash itself was in October, but presumably they continue the charitable work the rest of the year.
Ok, Amanda's back, I'm awake, time for a bit of culture...
Now you can just drive to the place, but to get the full experience, they recommend you take their ferry service, which happens to start from the next pier along so it seems a bit churlish not to.
This is Mona Roma II, which we will be on shortly.
MR-I is basically the same but very different cosmetically. We've seen both of them a few times as their quay is so close.
We have chosen to be plebs. For a lot more money, you can get priority boarding and a lounge with free drinks and snacks, but you'd be hard pushed to make a profit on the deal in only 25 minutes, so cheapskates we will be.
Besides, the Posh Pit doesn't have tigers to sit on.
As we leave, MR-I is now berthed in readiness for the next trip. As you can see, they have no tigers but they do have a cow.
If Bridget Riley designed toilets?
We can not enter!
But it doesn't look all that exciting from what I can see. My idea of 'posh' is definitely posher than that.
I do not believe the Posh Pit is watched over by a monkey either.
Anyway, we're here.
Up we go.
And then down we go.
To a philosophical bar.
If we don't buy any cocktails or pizza, does that mean we will automatically receive emptiness? But if we don't buy any emptiness, shouldn't that mean we do get cocktails or pizza?
I think I've maybe mentioned it in a blog before, but in the old computer game of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of the puzzles was solved by having both tea and no tea simultaneously. That's probalby the kind of drink they serve and don't serve here.
Anyway, let's have some proper art.
Would you like to know more about it?
None of yer poncy signs on the wall here! You need to be hip and happening and have an app to be in with the Mona in-crowd.
Some works explain themselves, of course.
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's little-known masterpiece, "Mondrian in Furs". Or something.
We see the reason why tanks are generally not crafted from finest Italian leather. You will not find anything like this at the Bovington Tank Museum.
Or will you...?
This is a Chinese Type 59 tank at Bovington. It's the model of tank that was used to crush the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, which is precisely what He Xiangyu's artwork is referencing. Strictly, the work itself is made from measurements of a Soviet T-34, predecessor to the T-54, of which the Type 59 was a licenced copy.
It turns out that there's a lot about this piece on the Web: here and here for example.
I don't think Bovington will feature again in relation to Mona, but then again I didn't think it would feature at all initially.
I have completely forgotten what this is, or what it signified.
There's quite a queue to be the one person at a time standing on the end of this cantilevered walkway. What he's looking down at is a pool of engine oil that reflects the waffle-pattern concrete walls and ceiling. I will tell you what the artist says about it and then you will understand.
20:50 The gallery is filled to waist height with recycled engine oil, from which the piece takes its name. A walk way leads from a single entrance, leading the viewer into the space until they are surrounded by oil on all sides. The impenetrable, reflective surface of the oil mirrors the architecture of the room exactly, placing the viewer at the mid-point of a symmetrical visual plane.
Don't tell me you still don't understand.
Oh, "20:50" isn't quite right. The correct term is "20W 50", referring to the viscosity of the oil when cold (W='winter') and warm. That grade is a bit thick by today's standards, so most modern engines won't use it, it's generally sold as a formulation for 'classic' cars now.
You get to be part of the art yourself here. It's a room with silver foam terraced hills to lounge on while admiring the mylar bubble walls and the strange light fittings.
Very strange light fittings.
The Bellman's map would clearly fit well into this library.
Remember?
He had bought a large map representing the sea,
Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
A map they could all understand.
"What's the good of Mercator's North Poles and Equators,
Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?"
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply
"They are merely conventional signs!"
"Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
But we've got our brave Captain to thank"
(So the crew would protest) "that he's bought us the best—
A perfect and absolute blank!"
Ah, the artificial digestive tract, of course. It gets fed at the far end and the, err... result... is supposedly very realistic.
The far side of the Ladies Lounge, which I, a mere man, may not enter.
Mona achieved a certain degree of worldwide attention when a man took them to court in 2023 under anti-discrimination legislation. A lower court agreed, but the decision was overturned on appeal. If you don't recall the case, this is a quick summary.
But on this side, I may gaze upon plaster casts of female genitalia to my heart's content.
Later I will find that Amanda couldn't be bothered to join a queue, and while Jo and Meta did go in, they didn't think we'd missed all that much.
There are some larger installation pieces outside the main building.
And some things that blur the line between art and architecture.
And a vineyard. I think we may have drunk some Moorilla wine but I won't swear to it.
We return on the other ferry, with sheep this time instead of tigers. Jo and Meta have gone back for second helpings, but we've done enough being deep for one day.
Another day, another giant cruise liner. Unlike the previous one, this doesn't seem to be getting many glowing reviews.
And we leave the boat with one final philosophical travel lesson.
More about Mona's Namedropping exhibition if you want to be further enlightened.
We'll have a bit more of a walk around Hobart now.
So Marilyn Monroe has turned into a rabbit and Sam Shaw is a dog. (Ok, I'll admit, I didn't know the photographer's name without looking it up, so score a point if you did!). Damned deep these Tasmanians, I suspect Mona is just everyday normal to them.
I fear I am none the wiser, despite being better informed.
Now had I been a bit less tardy in my blogging, we would be passing by with no further comment, BUT...
What do we see at Kingston, near home, in March? It's Gillie and Marc again, and this time the meaning is a little clearer.
They are obviously much more famous than we'd realised, so a-web-searching I will go. Here, Wikipedia has the gen, and from the brief bio there, they almost have to be artists: "[They] met in 1990 during a film shoot in Hong Kong, where Gillie was a model and Marc was the creative director. She is Catholic and he is Jewish. They married through a Hindu ceremony seven days later. They have lived in Singapore, New York, and now live in Sydney"
Their own website is gillieandmarc.com, but their 'bio' there is mainly a list of exhibitions. Well, it's prefaced by a comment: ‘We are two people working as one, with a single vision — something no one else is doing in art’. which suggests to me that they've never heard of Gilbert and George, just like we'd never previously heard of them.
And I suppose while we're on the subject of rhinos, I should link to this blog featuring Chris Green, aka "Rhino Boy": Rhino Boy Hits His Century.
Anyway, back to Hobart.
RV (Research Vessel) Investigator is a bit smaller and less luxurious than a cruise liner, but I suspect given a straight choice that's the one we'd take.
Lady Nelson again, with people in the rigging this time. We can't be sure, but we think that they are tourists getting into the spirit rather than formal crew.
The kitchen area as I'm in the middle of preparing dinner. As you can see, there's not a huge amount of workspace, and the small hob is barely able to contain the larger pan at the rear, but we've bought some nice things from the local shops and we're keeping it simple (by my standards, anyway).
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