Tag Archives: Hobart

Postcard from Tasmania: Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania

The Museum of Old and New Art is one the largest privately-owned gallery in Australia. While I really didn’t know what to expect before our visit, I had heard that it was an amazing building but that some of the exhibits were a little controversial. I think it lived up to that description quite well.

We decided to forgo the boat ride from Hobart to the museum in the interest of saving a little money both for the boat and for downtown parking. I’ve heard the boat ride is beautiful but I think it’s most convenient for people who are staying in the downtown area. It just wasn’t practical for us.

It’s hard to tell from this picture, but the museum building is carved into the side of the limestone cliff which makes it look a lot smaller from the outside that it actually is. It also means that the inside layout is a little quirky to say the least, but more on that shortly.

The museum is more than just a building and that becomes obvious as you walk to the entrance past a garden with a stage, a beer garden, multiple bean bags and some interesting pyramid structures.

The courtyard just before the entrance holds some pretty amazing sculptures and is host to a great view. This trick made from rusting, yet intricate, metal, was just beautiful.

Parts of the outside of the building are covered in a reflective surface…

… which provided the perfect opportunity for a family portrait.

After a short wait, we headed inside and were handed iPhones containing a guided tour app. I think this was a great idea and the kids were definitely more interested (duh! electronics!). At the end of the tour, you have the option to send yourself the recording so you can relive the experience all over again. Not that I did look at it again, but it was nice to have the option.

As I mentioned, the building is built into the side of the cliff so this amazing limestone wall is one of the first things you see when you walk down three flights of stairs to the belly of the building.

Then it was on to the exhibits. The first one was a temporary exhibit by Matthew Barney that really didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Some of it was very interesting but I didn’t understand why they mixed in Ancient Egyptian artifacts. Here’s the description from the website:

Matthew Barney’s River of Fundament is a sprawling, ambitious interpretation of Norman Mailer’s chequered masterpiece, Ancient Evenings. It comprises a symphonic film by Barney and Jonathan Bepler, an exhibition, and a selection of Egyptian antiquities from Mona’s own collection.

As I mentioned before, building a museum into the side of a cliff means that it doesn’t conform to the classic layout of a museum. I think it was largely intentional in an effort to make this a museum a little more out of the box but the problem is that museums are laid out the way they are for a reason. The large rooms and white walls make it easier to enjoy the art, especially amidst crowds of people. While the unusual hallways and weirdly shaped rooms were interesting, they didn’t allow for a good flow of traffic and could sometimes feel claustrophobic.

Although this tunnel was very cool. It played sounds as you moved through it.

I really liked this sculpture as well but it was at the end of a long dead-end pyramid-shaped hallway.

See what I mean?

This puffed-up Ferrari was an interesting look at consumerism. It was also very cool to look at.

But this was my favorite – a giant mural by Australian artist Sydney Nolan. It was an enormous rainbow serpent made up of hundreds of smaller images. Just beautiful.

This one was fun – a spooky dark maze that led to a room with a mirror on the ceiling when you least expect it. It was creepy in a really fun, weird way.

And this one had about 50 old TVs showing people all singing Madonna’s “Cherish”. The videos were recorded separately but play in synch. It spoke to my inner karaoke diva.

Finally, we made our way to the infamous “Digestion” exhibit. It’s set up to mimic actual human digestion so you feed it in one end and it “poops” out the other. It also smells like digestion. I’ll let that sink in.

After a good four or five hours, we decided we’d experienced enough of the museum. We made one last stop at the (poorly laid out) gift shop before heading back outside to make the most of those mirrored walls.

We also took one last look at the view.

And then walked through the beer/sculpture garden which had become a lot more lively since our arrival.

While Nan and Grandpa waited…

Thomas and I explored the pyramids.

Finally, we said goodbye to MONA with mixed feelings. While I enjoyed it, Kei wasn’t as thrilled. Sure, there was an air of pretentiousness about the whole experience, but it was something different and some of the artwork was beautiful and thought provoking. I’m not sure I ever need to go back, but I’m glad I experienced it just once in my lifetime.

Postcard from Tasmania: Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary

Our travels around Tasmania helped both Thomas and Samuel develop a deep fascination with Tasmanian Devils. I’d always thought of them as vicious, disgusting animals but, the more we learned about them, the more interesting they became. By the time we reached Hobart I was on a mission to find somewhere for us to see the little creatures up close and in person. Thankfully, Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary offered exactly the sort of experience we were looking for.

Much like the Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria, Bonorong provides a home for animals who might not survive in the wild due to injury or abandonment. They also house Tasmanian Devils in a quarantine-like environment to help with repopulation. Devils have been afflicted by a mysterious facial cancer that has threatened their population and the Sanctuary is on a mission to maintain a disease-free group of animals to ensure the species’ survival.

On the 30 minute drive to the Sanctuary, Samuel gave me instructions to “take way too many photos of Tasmanian Devils” and, while I won’t share them all here, I didn’t disappoint.

We listened to a Ranger talk about the Tasmanian Devils and I can’t help feeling that they’re a little misunderstood. Sure, they’re smelly and sound like angry little monsters, but they act as nature’s cleaners. I assumed they were vicious predators but, in fact, they only feed on animals that are already dead. So I guess they’re doing us all a favor. Unfortunately this does make them extremely vulnerable as a lot of their food can be found on roads and they are often hit by cars.

After the tragedy of losing the Tasmanian Tiger to extinction, I appreciate everything that the Tasmanian Government and places like the Bonorong Sanctuary are doing to help ensure the Tassie Devil survives for generations to come.

But, as “cute” as these little guys were, this fat little guy was more my style.

Wombats are adorable little battering rams. I have memories of coming across them when we used to camp at Wilson’s Promontory. We’d never get too close because we were warned that they’re not a fan of strangers and, while they look harmless, wombats are incredibly strong. After giving us a lesson in all thing’s wombat, the Ranger passed him around so we could knock on his thick rump bone(he couldn’t feel it). Fun fact: wombat pouches face backwards so they don’t fill with dirt when a mother wombat is digging a burrow. This means that a baby in the pouch will look backwards and you may sometimes experience what looks like a two-headed wombat.

We also had the opportunity to pet this guy…

… and catch up with some native birds, like the kookaburra…

…and the Tawny Frogmouth – one of the most interesting creatures I’ve ever seen.

Finally, a trip to a Wildlife Sanctuary is not complete without the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of Australia’s most famous residents. We set out with a supply of kangaroo food and strict instructions to only pet them on the chest to avoid an unwanted encounter with some powerful legs.

As a special treat, we were able to see some joeys still in the pouch. Can you spot this one? I think I’d be telling him he’s big enough to leave home if I was that mama.

The Sanctuary provides a safe area for Kangaroos and Wallabies who have had enough of human interaction and just want a quiet space to hang out.

I took this next photo just to show how big this kangaroo was next to the toddler. In fact he was bigger than Samuel. He was also pretty pushy about getting to the food so we chose to walk away and find some calmer friends to hang out with.

 

I’m so glad we had the opportunity to visit the Bonorong Sanctuary. If you look back through my posts recapping our trips to Australia then you’ll see that I try to ensure at least one interaction with Australian wildlife on every trip. I’m hoping that by feeling close to these animals, it will help my children connect more closely with their Aussie side and understand just how special this place is.

Like no other place on earth.