Tasmania Part Four: Wonderful & Weird MONA, and a bit of Hobart Blues fest too

Well, where to start with the Hobart entry…if you’ve been to Hobart, you know that there’s an incredible amount to see and do and eat and drink all in a relatively small city! Hobart, with a population of about 220,000, is Tasmania’s capital and the largest city on the small island (40% of Tassie peeps live there). You can read a bit more about the history on Hobart’s Wikipedia article – but the highlights for me are that it was founded in 1804 as a penal colony, and is Australia’s second-oldest capital city (after Sydney, natch).

Our first stop, after checking into our adorable B&B, was to check out some of Hobart’s happening food and drink scene. We had a particular craving for Laksa (a Southeast Asian spicy-creamy soup), and of course wanted to check out a couple of the historical pubs we had read about online – in particular the New Sydney Hotel (craft beer), Preachers Bar (craft beer & cocktails), and Society Salamanca (Tassie gin & cocktails).

Gin tasting platter at Society Salamanca

Stomachs full and gastronomical curiosities sated, the next day we turned our attentions to a more cultural (??) target…the infamous MONA (Museum of Old and New Art).

Prism room – the first “art exhibit” you experience

I could totally spend the entire blog post talking to you about MONA – I loved it that much. I’m not usually that into museums – I’m not really very interested in art – and I know that sounds like, totally hipster or something. But I recently watched this episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians on a plane ride (it’s the best plane TV, because it doesn’t matter if you fall asleep or get interrupted or have to get up to use the bathroom…you don’t even need to pause it), where one of the Kardashian daughters pulled a prank on the mom by splattering a bunch of paint on a canvas, framing it, and then selling it to her as painted by a famous upcoming artist – and I thought the paintings were really quite good and not much different from what I’ve seen in museums, so. I’d be equally happy to hang paint splatters as fine art. Where was I with this?

Some paint splatter art at MONA – this was a vat of used engine oil but looked like a solid surface as it was filled to the absolute brim. A small child whacked the surface and created her own interpretation of the piece…which the MONA staff then wiped up. Art is so temporary…

Oh yeah, MONA. So MONA is the pet project of a Tassie millionaire/billionaire named David Walsh. He made his money as a professional gambler, liked collecting art but had nowhere to put it, decided to display it in 2001 at his “Moorilla Museum of Antiquities” (which, in his own words, nobody went to), closed the museum in 2007 and spent $75 million on renovations, and re-opened as MONA.

One of the current exhibitions – a hallway of light and a round room where you stand silently as the lights morph and change colour – very weird sensory experience

MONA costs about $12 million a year to run but only nets about $4 million in revenue. David Walsh funds the rest, and thank goodness he does because there is probably no other place on earth like MONA.

A kitten throw rug – with tiny diamonds for teeth (not really visible in this photo)

My absolute favourite part about the museum is the context and back story behind the pieces and curation. I think this is what’s been missing for me from other museums. There are no signs or interpretative plaques near any of the art – instead, you’re handed an iPhone as you enter, which contains accompanying music, interviews, musings by the artist/curator/founder…so much CONTEXT.

An example of some of the commentary in the app about a particular piece – sometimes, the curator/founder (two different people) seem to not even like the piece they’re featuring in a collection.

The app is why I know the back story behind the Meat Hook piece and the Goldfish piece, which are displayed right next to each other for no obvious reason unless you read the writeup by David Walsh in the app. Or – spoiler alert – if you read nickandpam.com! Aren’t you lucky.

Goldfish piece – yes they’re alive and swimming around in there

Both pieces are by the same artist, and the meat hooks are actually supposed to have sides of beef hung on them. MONA does do this a few times a year but it’s impractical to have it that way all the time. The goldfish are part of a rotating cast of goldfish and are only in the bowl for a limited number of hours in the day, and a limited number of days in the week. David Walsh said that he gets more complaints from museum-goers about the quality of treatment of the goldfish, than he does about the sides of beef hanging on the meat hooks right next to them. And then there’s a whole bit about what makes meat not an animal – and at the end, he reveals that he and the artist have an agreement that when the artist dies, David Walsh will be allowed to carve up his body and hang it on the meat hooks (I’m pretty sure this will never happen, but…?) and see if the goldfish still get more complaints.

Tim’s back tattoo was commissioned by an artist and is now regularly on display at MONA. I wonder if there are ever any complaints about how Tim’s being treated.

If you’ve heard anything about MONA at all, you’ve probably heard of this thing – the cloaca ?

So yes, clearly I loved MONA. I can’t wait to go back. I even made a little video montage – check it out below.

Not done with culture yet, (we had after all spent a lot of time in the bush), we met up with our friends Joolandi to hit up Hobart Blues Brews and BBQs festival, on a beautifully unseasonably warm Tassie day (even though it was the middle of summer, the previous night we’d been bundled up in layers and wishing for a campfire!).

Lovely warm and fun day at the Blues festival

It was a truly awesome show. My favourite performers were Claire Anne Taylor (a Tassie local!) and the Black Sorrows. A video of each is below if you’d care to check either of them out any further!