Mona: Museum of Old and New Art

Ferry with sheep

The Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobart is a Museum you don't easily forget. I was there two weeks ago but it remains very fresh in my memory.  It is like no other museum you have ever visited. I usually last about an hour in a museum, but I was at Mona for five hours and there was not one bored moment of the many I spent there.

Ferries and buses take visitors from Hobart. I took the half hour ferry ride and was pleased I had. I was also pleased I had not read much about it as the many surprises, including the building itself, made my visit memorable. I will not spoil the surprise for those reading this who have not visited, but I can talk about some of the exhibits, not all of which are permanent. 

Mona thumbs its nose at everything: the art establishment especially, but everything else as well, including the creator of this gallery. I didn't notice on my way there, but as the ferry arrived for the return journey to Hobart I could see the group of sheep on the back deck. They looked at us as we looked at them. These quirky, amusing and sometimes in-your-face moments are what Mona is all about.

Golden vase ...
and reflection of me listening to
information via Mona device

Each visitor is given a phone-like device which 
automatically calls up prerecorded information about the art works near that visitor. You can have the information about the works that interest you emailed to you.  (The battery of my device died, so I lost my information - thus few of the images here are captioned.)

Henry Moore head

Woven carpet

The bottom level of the gallery had been divided into four spaces, each comprising several rooms. Four curators had been asked to exhibit art that answers the question 'What is art?"  I found the question captivating as I had written an essay in my second year at art school with the title 'What is art anyway?'

Interestingly two of the curators answered the same way, although with different exhibits. I didn't agree with their premise though, that art is all about survival of the species.

Fat red car

As I sat waiting for the ferry, I realised there was an art video playing right in front of me:

My Mona Video

Hobart, the ocean and Tempest

Who's looking at me then?

Tempest, the show on at the Hobart Museum and Art Gallery seems to encapsulate Tasmania, sitting as it does with its face towards the squally antarctic.

Bass Strait to the north of Tasmania is equally as treacherous and always spoken of in tones of awe by race commentators during the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Some boats don't make it. Some crews don't make it.

Tempest includes seafaring and shipwreck paintings, video installations and museum pieces to do with storms, pirates and parrots.

Outside in the courtyard is a large 'mobile' made of plastic detritus from the ocean. It is an effective comment on our plastic society.

Plastic Rubbish Mobile

New Plymouth

New Plymouth is an interesting place. It has a wonderful coastline, perched at the eastern tip of New Zealand's North Island but the town seems to thumb it's nose at the sea, with light industry assigned coastal real estate. New Plymouth Burnings must have the most stunning view in New Zealand.

The information service is on the busy coastal road in the city, across from the seashore, but I couldn't find any parking there. After a long and windy (though beautiful) trip from Turangi I was tired and an inaccessible information center was an inauspicious start to my New Plymouth visit.

Crossing the coastal rail line

If you cross the busy main road from the city and then the railway line which is still in use, though only local, you finally find yourself on the seashore.

It is a majestic vista, crashing waves on big black rocks.

Shoreline at New Plymouth

This morning I gave up the idea of finding a cafe with a sea view but instead I found a very good alternative, a cafe/coffee roaster called Ozone. The coffee was excellent, the atmosphere quirky and the staff friendly. If I was a New Plymouth resident I think I would become a permanent fixture there.

Coffee being roasted at Ozone

Then I discovered the retro yellow roof.

I don't know if it has a name, but in the middle of the city stands a large yellow structure with no apparent use. A passing resident told me that there had been a building there which was demolished and that the council asked the residents what they wanted in its place. This yellow roof was what had been chosen. My informant said with some embarrassment that it had been 'very expensive'.

Retro yellow lid

 





I'm not sure of the artistic or other value of the yellow structure but I think a population that chooses such a thing surely deserves the famous Len Lye museum as a reward.

The Len Lye Museum of Contemporary Art is as stunning as the photos that had made me want to visit New Plymouth in the first place. Even seeing the exterior was worth the trip. My photos speak for themselves (yes, this is really how it looks!)

Len Lye: Four Fountains

MCA through new eyes

MCA 4th Floor Cafe

The Museum of Contemporary Art on Circular Quay in Sydney has hit a sweet spot. Since they abolished entry fees they have gone from strength to strength, adding a whole new wing in recent years.

I drop in often but until last week I had never ventured into their 4th floor cafe.

I was astonished at the view - it has to be one of the best public viewing platforms in Sydney, looking out over the opera house and harbour.



A statue of a child with ancient fish head sits overlooking the harbour. It is a definite 'must visit' on a trip to Sydney.

All museumed out

If you buy a three day museum card you feel obliged to use it, so for the last three days we have been to see more museums than you could poke a stick at and tonight we are too tired to move another inch.

This morning we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art ... huge spaces full of work by Joseph Beuys and others of his ilk which we found exhausting and boring, probably reflecting the mood of the people who made the art.  There were groups of students there but not many other people.

The Old National Gallery, however, was full of people looking at (and taking pictures of) the 19th century paintings. That says a lot about 'contemporary' art really.

My young companion whipped out her camera and snapped away.  In between we had visited the Museum of Communication and she had found telephones like those my patents had on their hall wall quite hilarious.
"And that wasn't so long ago," she marvelled, "because it was in your lifetime!"

History can be fun

I always imagine museums to be full of stuffed birds (which perhaps they were once upon a time) so I am caught by surprise when one captures my imagination. Today was one of those days.

The Museum of German History in Berlin is a fascinating place and my 15 year old companion and I spent more than four happy hours there, slowly making our way through the history of Europe and Germany in particular. I was interested to see a very early clock as I had once thought of making one for an art project before discovering that they are exceedingly complicated. 

My companion responded to anything about women and children but we had to make our way through centuries of religion and wars before women and children made much of an appearance.