We're in Hobart, finally getting to see the infamous (??) MONA - Museum of Old and New Art, on the banks of the Derwent River, a twenty minute ferry ride up from Sullivans Cove in Hobart port.
Past the old (but still working) zinc refinery - looking pretty good under the clear blue skies of Hobart with Mt Wellington as a backdrop.
Then we disembark at MONA - a complex of monumental, contemporary and heritage buildings, housing a mind bending art collection around the themes of sex and death, and a full scale vineyard and winery - all the the grand vision of the extraordinary gambler-genius David Walsh.
After climbing the 91 steps up from the ferry the first thing you see is a tennis court??? constructed over the flat earth roof of much of the underground galleries - and this trampoline type object........
This young woman was taking selfies as she was jumping!!
......and this amazing cast iron construction by the Belgian artist Wim Delvoye - a real crowd pleaser.
David Walsh bought the struggling Moorillo winery in 1995 (for a song apparently). It had two Roy Grounds designed buildings on the estate which had to be incorporated into the construction of the new MONA museum. David Walsh got around it by building a subterranean museum so the heritage structures still have their dominant place in the landscape.
with some interesting contemporary juxtapositions......
We see another James Turrell designed Skyscape at MONA...but probably not at the best time of the day......
...and another Wim Delvoye structure.......
The chapel's stained glass windows incorporated X-Ray pictures of animal bones and other somewhat creepy biological references...
David Walsh's humour (?) is evident throughout MONA.
But then this part of the vineyard probably looks just like it always has since the days when the Alcorso family founded it in the late 1940s.
We had lunch and a glass of cider/beer at the MONA wine bar..
.......before starting our visit to the underground museum - we had to stop and admire the entrance......
The entry to the collection is deep within the earth, at least three levels down in spectacular spaces carved out of monumental layers of beautiful sandstone rock.
It's David Walsh's personal collection of art work we're viewing - The Matthew Barney installation, documenting the visual journey involved in creating a 6 and 1/2 hour long film titled River of Fundament was pretty amazing as were the 151 plaster cast vaginas (can I say that on my blog?) all along one wall of one whole gallery.....
But showing my artistic conservatism I was probably most awestruck by the astounding Sydney Nolan work "Snake" filling one whole gallery........ a fairly traditional work in pastel, hand drawn of course - beautiful, and throbbing with life.
No matter what anyone says about this ideosyncratic collection we are all gobsmacked at the vision of the man, the bravery, the optimism and the extraordinary generosity in making this happen (over 200 million dollars worth so they say) just to share a love of art and ideas with his fellow man/woman.
I hope your luck on the gambling tables continues David Walsh, to keep all this and the amazing MONA afloat for many years yet.
Past the old (but still working) zinc refinery - looking pretty good under the clear blue skies of Hobart with Mt Wellington as a backdrop.
Then we disembark at MONA - a complex of monumental, contemporary and heritage buildings, housing a mind bending art collection around the themes of sex and death, and a full scale vineyard and winery - all the the grand vision of the extraordinary gambler-genius David Walsh.
After climbing the 91 steps up from the ferry the first thing you see is a tennis court??? constructed over the flat earth roof of much of the underground galleries - and this trampoline type object........
This young woman was taking selfies as she was jumping!!
......and this amazing cast iron construction by the Belgian artist Wim Delvoye - a real crowd pleaser.
David Walsh bought the struggling Moorillo winery in 1995 (for a song apparently). It had two Roy Grounds designed buildings on the estate which had to be incorporated into the construction of the new MONA museum. David Walsh got around it by building a subterranean museum so the heritage structures still have their dominant place in the landscape.
with some interesting contemporary juxtapositions......
We see another James Turrell designed Skyscape at MONA...but probably not at the best time of the day......
...and another Wim Delvoye structure.......
The chapel's stained glass windows incorporated X-Ray pictures of animal bones and other somewhat creepy biological references...
But then this part of the vineyard probably looks just like it always has since the days when the Alcorso family founded it in the late 1940s.
We had lunch and a glass of cider/beer at the MONA wine bar..
.......before starting our visit to the underground museum - we had to stop and admire the entrance......
The entry to the collection is deep within the earth, at least three levels down in spectacular spaces carved out of monumental layers of beautiful sandstone rock.
It's David Walsh's personal collection of art work we're viewing - The Matthew Barney installation, documenting the visual journey involved in creating a 6 and 1/2 hour long film titled River of Fundament was pretty amazing as were the 151 plaster cast vaginas (can I say that on my blog?) all along one wall of one whole gallery.....
But showing my artistic conservatism I was probably most awestruck by the astounding Sydney Nolan work "Snake" filling one whole gallery........ a fairly traditional work in pastel, hand drawn of course - beautiful, and throbbing with life.
No matter what anyone says about this ideosyncratic collection we are all gobsmacked at the vision of the man, the bravery, the optimism and the extraordinary generosity in making this happen (over 200 million dollars worth so they say) just to share a love of art and ideas with his fellow man/woman.
I hope your luck on the gambling tables continues David Walsh, to keep all this and the amazing MONA afloat for many years yet.
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