The next day was cold and rainy so we chose an indoor activity – Mona. Other than saying that it is an art gallery, I’m not sure how to describe this place. The terms avant-garde, unconventional, eccentric, edgy are pretty tame. Maybe over-the-edge is closer.

Anyway, Mona is privately funded directed/controlled by a man named David Walsh. His words probably provide the best insight to his world and Mona.

 

How does art fit into life? It is a behaviour, a practice, that congeals humanity like the fat in a fry-pan; it clarifies and distills, evaporates the excess, until we can see (just for a moment) into the base of ourselves. And perhaps — let us phrase it as a question. Is human-ness nothing but a set of such behaviours?

The answer, we hope and aim, will remain elusive; there will be no lessons learnt or taught, only contagious inquiry into the messy machinery of human nature.

Okay, moving right along, we arrived at Mona and as we pulled into the parking lot Tom pointed out the designated parking spaces in the picture and said, “That says it all.” Pretty funny, but I think Tom is correct in assuming that David Walsh has a major and strange ego.

We were directed to the entrance where we paid the entrance fee and received headsets and mp3 players that allowed us to read artists names and captions about each exhibit and to register (love it/hate it) our response to each display. These devices also allowed you to program in your email address to get an electronic copy of your individual tour and your responses – very modern and high tech.

The gallery is built into the side of a hill so for the most part is underground.  The carved sandstone provides much of the wall and some of the ceiling throughout the building and it was beautiful – form and function.

 We took the stairs (a circular staircase that wound around a cylindrical elevator (again, beautiful form and function) down four stories to the recommended beginning of the exhibit.

We spent the next four hours wandering through a dimly lit, very Alice in Wonderlandesque world of “art”. Some of it was beautiful, much of it very disturbing (I chose not to add those to my photo gallery), a fair share intriguing, a great deal of it was just plain bazar. That’s my summation and I’m sticking to it.

The Crossing Guard was my favorite display.

I will, however, say that my favorite part of Mona is the architecture both building and the grounds. Where much of the art was frenetic and disturbing, there is a quiet grace in the building itself and in its surroundings.

The sidewalks, palisades, sculptures, sloping lawns, vineyards, and gazebos as well as the panoramic views of Hobart across the river all combined to create a tranquil counterpoint to the gallery’s displays.

All-in-all, it was an interesting way to spend a cold, rainy Tasmanian day.