Sunday, February 27, 2011
REVIEW: Agvas De Marco- Dylan Martorell
Nothing ever dies. I once heard a metaphor that explained the idea of nothing ever really dying by likening living organisms to hippy communes. All the cells, nutrients and biological building blocks that belong t a living organism are the members of that hippy community. They all share the same vision and ethos. They are dedicated to its ongoing survival. They procreate. They, the members (the cells) of the commune (the living organism) call in help when it’s needed (eating, drinking, medicine). Later, much later, when the organism dies and begins to decay, the members that it consists of shake hands and part ways. They might join another organism. Or they might fossilise.
Evolution is biological jerry rigging. Martorell uses jerry rigging as a construction technique in order to create a bright coloured, plastic arte-povera yacht titled ‘The Raelian Kraal’. Old and broken objects have become reused and replaced, in order to keep their new collective form, The Raelian Kraal, in complete working order.
Martorell’s plastic arte-povera constructions have function, unlike many other artists whom also utilise societies plastic detritus as an artistic medium. His works are different and disparate objects collaged into new functioning forms. The objects are united in their collective function, even if the new function of the unified group wasn’t necessarily the original function of the individual objects before they were assimilated.
This idea of ‘functional unity’ is not missed by Martorell who has also included a social and relational element to Agvas De Marco. Throughout the exhibition Martorell has invited different groups of people to conduct discussions, musical performances and workshops. These groups of people can be seen as ‘relational collages’ or ‘social collectives’, and are similar in their functional unity to the objects that compose The Raelian Kraal. For a complete list of events and gigs check the online schedule at http://raeliankraal.blogspot.com.
The Raelian Kraal will have its water launch in late March.
Fluid Intelligence, A Clockwork Orange, Leet and the Evolution of Thought.
The first time I read A Clockwork Orange I found Alex’s Nadsat language annoying. Annoying enough to give up reading it, and for good reason: it’s a composite of altered Slavic and Russian words, rhyme, out-dated language (which to me was out-out-dated because it was written 22 years before I was born) as well as Burgess throwing in his own number of created words.
It wasn’t until I’d se3n Kubrick’s film adaptation that Nadsat made any s3nse: it needed to be heard, and seen in context. I hon3stly wonder3d how people had und3rstood the book at all before the film had be3n made. How could p3ople compreh3nd the d3ad symbols and signs on the pag3?
Fluid Intelligence is th3 nam3 given to the ability to b3 abl3 to le4rn through patt3rn recognition and probl3m solving; b3ing able to adjust thinking and cognitiv3ly ad4pt, a kind of perp3tu4lly adv4ncing st4t3 of m3ntal evolution. The dust j4ck3t of th3 first edition of A Clockwork Or4nge f3atur3d ev3ry l3tt3r of th3 titl3 print3d in a diff3rent font, an 4ctive if not simplifi3d ex4mpl3 of th3 ad4ptive thinking m3thod th4t would b3 r3quir3d of th3 r34d3r w4s right th3r3 on th3 cov3r.
Our m!nds ar3 b3com!ng mor3 ad3pt to th!s appro4ch to th!nk!ng, w3 4ch3iv3 a h!gh l3vel of it subconsc!ously w!thout r34lis!ng, ev3n !n th3 s!mpl3 4ct of thumb!ng through a n3wsp4p3r. On 4ny g!v3n n3wsp4p3r p4g3 w3 c4n s34ml3ssly r34d 4nd corr3ctly !nt3rpr3t a r4ng3 of differ!ng information, pr3sent3d in num3rous w4ys, w!thout exp3nd!ng 4ny l3v3l of 3xtr4 conc3ntrativ3 3xh4ust!on.
W3 4r3 qu!ck t0 ad4pt t0 n3w f0rms 0f t3chn0logy 4nd c0mmun!c4t!0n structur3s, !’m sp34k!ng sp3cific4lly, but n0t 3xclus!v3ly, ab0ut sm4rtphon3s 4nd s0ci4l n3tw0rk!ng pl4tf0rms l!ke f4c3b00k 4nd t3xt!ng via SMS. 0f c0urs3, !t is !n the b3st !nt3r3sts Th3 cr34t0rs 0f th3s3 4dv4nc3m3nts t0 bu!ld th3m in w4ys wh!ch m!rr0r 0ur l34rn!ng pr0c3ss3s.
!n th3 b3g!nn!ng 0f th3 !nt3rw3bz (th3 d3c4d3 th4t w4s th3 1980’s), th3r3 w4s n0 0nl!n3 g4m!ng 0r l!v3 v!d30 str34m!ng, th3r3 w4s 0nly th3 BBS (Bull3t!n Bo4rd Syst3ms), 4m4z!ngly th!s w4s a t!m3 b3f0r3 p0rn h4d !nf3ct3d th3 gh0st !n th3 sh3ll. Us3rs 0f th3 Bull3t!n Bo4rd Syst3ms d3v3l0p3d a n3w f0rm 0f c0mmun!c4t!0n, 0n3 c4ll3d leet (0r m0r3 4ptly: 1337) wh1ch subst!tut3d l3tt3rs w!th!n w0rds w!th numb3rs 4nd or 0th3r ch4r4ct3rs 0r symb0ls. !ts b3l!ev3d th4t 1337 3v0lv3d !n 0rd3r f0r BBS us3rs t0 3v4d3 t3xt f!lt3rs that w3r3 3mpl0y3d by BBS’s t0 c3ns0r 4nd pr3v3nt c0nv3rs4t!0ns 4b0ut r3str!ct3d 0r f0rb!dd3n t0p!cs such 4s h4ck!ng.
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Saturday, February 26, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Writing About Writing About Art.
I like art and I like words, on all levels: creating, experiencing and thinking about them. Its difficult to say if one is better than the other, that would be like comparing an apple to a pear; they are just different. My preference see-saws between the two.
Sometimes I like words more than art because they have the potential to be more utilitarian, it don't have all these needless, superfluous decorations and images to beautify the ideas like art. This is only a thought I have occasionally, of course because I also relish in vapidly illustrative forms, like artwork on kitsch home wares and common culture tee shirt image designs. On my days of loving words and their simplicity that trumps visual art by in terms of communicating ideas, I usually eat simply also, taking pleasure in bread, butter and water, and prefer to walk places rather than catch trams for destinations a short distance away.
Its difficult to choose what format the writing will take. I could revel in sarcasm, hiding big concepts behind juvenile bravado, but does anyone take that seriously? Will the distance between myself, the writer and the audience cause them to think I'm a fool as opposed to just posing as a fool? If I write too seriously, too academically, I feel fake. A fraud dressing up words in sheep's clothing. As you can see I've never been very good at mixing my metaphors. That path in between entertaining and intelligent when writing is not an easy one to navigate.
One desire I have when writing is to match the form of my writing to the subject matter, for example: when I'm writing about a repitition, I'm tempted to follow suit and write in a repetitive fashion. On one occasion I was writing about how art academia can be needlessly complex and I had to fight the urge to write in an overly complicated, convoluted way. Needless to say I still feel a twinge of desire to write the word 'write' a lot.
Truth of the matter is that most big art ideas or concepts can usually be described in plain English with just a word or a sentence, and this isn't a failing of the art works ability to be conceptually rich and complex, but more of an achievement of language and human understanding, for example, 'relational aesthetics is just art that uses people and human interaction and that (the actual actions between people) or the documentation of the interaction as the art', 'post structuralism is the super melding of everything because the structures and hierarchy of different subject matter no longer exist', 'Romeo and Juliet is about a love so great that not even life is worth living without it' and 'Mash-ups are musical collages'. Complex can be made simple quite easily.
Blogs are notorious for being opinionated, but, I don't think I've ever read a newspaper article wasn't opinionated also. Its what we do as human beings when we communicate.
The biggest problem is that the author knows their own thoughts and opinions, whereby which they have little value to the author because they are common, so the difficult part is the justification of writing and recording thoughts to be transmitted to others. I end up evoking one part of the spirits of dead punk rockers and one part of Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox and just screaming 'Cuss it! I'll write what I want! Whoever has a problem with it: cuss them!'. Every piece of writing written about writing about art should end with both a reference to punk ideology and a Wes Anderson film. You can't get more opinionated than that.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
ARTICLE: Radiohead are The King of Limbs
What caught my attention was Radioheads strategy for releasing the album, which they plan to release in three stages. The first release of The King of Limbs was two days ago, online, a clear pronouncement of Radioheads ability to keep abreast of the way music is currently being sourced, shared and experienced. The second release date will be for an actual physical CD version of the album a little over a month later on March 28th. The real crowd pleaser, and the main reason for this article, will be the third release of the album: the 'newspaper' edition.
The 'newspaper' edition will include 'two 10 inch vinyl records, in a special record sleeve many large sheets of artwork, 625 include tiny pieces of artwork, a compact disc, and a colour piece of oxo-degradable plastic package'(1). In a world in which media, both video and audio, is becoming ever increasingly digital and intangible, this is an amazing act of generosity through production. The sheer amount of physical collateral that will no doubt surround and conceptually support what Radiohead have created musically with the album.
The obscure title has been rumored to refer to an ancient oak tree, I foresaw, like Lovecraft, visions of the dark lord Cthulhu and many limbed cephalopod-like sentries. The album artwork could be read in this way quite easily as could elements of the music: the dominate percussion in parts shares similarities with the drumming of a tribal ritual, Yorkes own vocals "I’m moving out of orbit, turning in somersaults" sound like the articulation of Lovecraftian travel between our world and the dimension of the Great, Dark, Old Ones. Yorkes dance moves in the music video for 'Lotus Flower' are extremely energetic and erratic, making it easy to imagine a fit or demonic possession as he sings “I will sink and I will disappear/I will slip into the groove and cut me up and cut me up.”
I for one am enjoying the new album and my well-whetted appetite is keen to see how this new direction for the band brews and ferments over time.
For a more detailed and extensive album review check out Greg Kots review on 'Turn It Up' (http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2011/02/album-review-radiohead-king-of-limbs.html).
(1) Swash, Rosie (14 February 2010), 'Radiohead to release new album this Saturday', The Guardian (London)
Friday, February 18, 2011
REVIEW: Signs of Life- Adnate
Writing is the signs and symbols of language. That is no small feat. Just the simple act of writing is a huge feather in our evolutionary cap. Fatboy Slim knows this and retells our journey of adaptation in his music video-clip for the single 'Right here, Right now' on the album 'You've come a long way, Baby'.
We have come a long way, Baby: as a specsies we've flourished into a multitude of cultures with rich and varied histories. We write, we create, we are actively engaged in recording evidence of our existence everyday. We want to leave our mark, that we were here: 'right here, right now'.
'Signs of Life' is Matt Adnate's solo exhibition at the No Vancancy Gallery Project Space in Federation Squares Atrium. Adnate works are a simple visual proposition, each work is a portrait combined with text, his execution and the concept behind this duality of images give the works strength. It is a consolidation of highly skilled realistic work, fluid graffiti tags and an almost spiritual connection between the two.
Adnate's work features only the subjects faces, all of which are from differing ethnicities and have strong physical traits: a tribute to humanities diversity. Within this context, the layered and stylised graffiti script that forms the background for each portrait, assumes qualities akin to other languages, it becomes anonymous and inclusive, joining all peoples in their existential desire to create proof that they exist long after they've left this world.
These works show off Adnate's deft hand and mastery of a variety of artistic styles and his astute eye for composition.
Creativity is a 'sign of life'.
REVIEW: N-N-NERVOUS
Anthropomorphisation. Its what happens when you're stuck on a desert island in the middle of the ocean with only a volley ball smeared in your own blood(1) or a coconut headed pop-star for a friend(2). Its born out desperation, loneliness, and n-n-nervousness. As human beings, we need companionship, even if it is imaginary. No man is an island(3)... especially if they're on one.
Tom Hanks and Wilson (above),
Milky Joe (below).
Solo shows can be isolating, soul bearing, no one else's work or ideas to hide behind. Kirsten Perry disperses the anxiety in a number of ways for her own solo exhibition N-N-NERVOUS at No No Gallery (or, as I had begun referring to it: N-N-NERVOUS at N-N-No No Gallery).
One way to side step around anxiety is to disperse the burden to others, preferably fictional anthropomorphised sea gulls (below) who, as the spirit animals of Australian suburbia, are only too happy to absorb any excess negative energy as they mill around smoking. Despite adhering to the cut aesthetics of an Aardman clay stop-motion film, which makes them look like they've flown from the set of the latest Wallace and Gromit(4) movie, theres some dark undertones, namely the cancer causing cigarettes in their beaks and x's for eyes, which in the world of comical cartoons means that a character has died.
Perry infuses the cuteness thats almost always inherent in the act of anthropomophising with bleak humorous satire into almost all the works. She humanises hands (below) fixed in the 'okay' gesture with faces on both sides, making them literally two-faced: one side fixed in cartoon mortis (x'd out eyes, and straight, unmoving lines for mouths), the other side making do with a mouth thats either manically grinning or in wiggle of worry.
Not all the works are operating on such a delicate line opposites. Some cleverly take up residence in being stratified puns. Like the pot plant work title titled 'track suit plant' (below) which has only one letter of difference between the object its been made to resemble: track suit pants. The plant in in the pants is of course a small 'bush'. Perry makes pubic humor public.
The 'Track Suit Plant' also made me think of Wallace and Gromit again, specifically their film 'The Wrong Trousers' in which the plot revolves around the use (and misuse) of a robotic pair or trousers that can be controlled via remote. Perry also pays homage to the Japanese who are gods of anthropomorphising and making ordinary objects super kawaii, by crafting small faces (below) on a tree stump that're reminiscent of the 'tree spirits' from Hayao Miyazaki's 'Princess Mononoke' (5), and like Perrys work in the exhibition, Miyazaki's films often revolve around humanity's relationship to nature, or perhaps I'm reading too much into the coincidences that can arise from the the simplicity and minimalism Perry utilises when creating faces from a mere two circles and a line.
Perry has a wealth of technical and practical skills up her sleeves to manage a range of mediums in order to produce the eclectic collection of work in N-N-NERVOUS: jewelery making, paper mache, clay, drawing, painting, glazing. All these techniques have aided in the creation of Perry's diverse cast of characters.
If you're n-n-nervous, its best to face it (cringe-worthy puns ahoy!).
(1) Robert Zemeckis (Director), 'Castaway' (film), 2000
(2) The Mighty Boosh, 'The Nightmare of Milky Joe' (season 2, episode 6), 2005
(3) John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (Meditation XVII), 1624
(4) Nick Park (creator), Wallace and Gromit
(5) Hayao Miyazaki, 'Princess Mononoke', 1997
REVIEW: ART MACHINE at The Hole
ART MACHINE is an art vending machine that has been bought into this world by alife. I have seen art vending machines have in existence before as a part of festivals and fairs through the simple act of requisitioning an old obsolete machine and packing it with small craft or artworks, zines, or one off artist decorated t-shirts. What makes alife's ART MACHINE different to the usual grassroots art vending machines, is that it has major financial support from G-Shock and a selection of work from over 50 world-stage artists and cultural contributers who include Bast, Eric Haze, Goeff McFetridge, Kenny Scharf, Neckface, Romon Yang aka “ROSTARR,” Ryan McGinness, and Todd James.
The items in ART MACHINE include an artist’s underwear, actual miniature artworks, and limited edition products from G-Shock, however, a customer of ART MACHINE wishing to make a purchase can only choose from those at the front. As purchases are made, the options cycle forward revealing a new product becoming available that was previously unknown. There is are elements of chance and risk in the buying process because what can be seen in the front display of ART MACHINE may be a one off opportunity.
Ordinarily when art vending machine projects are carried out by smaller arts groups or communities, they can be seen as political acts commenting on the commercialisation of culture but ART MACHINE cannot make this argument as it is heavily supported by a business who has a commercial interest (G-Shock) and is using ART MACHINE as a platform to disseminate its own product and increase brand awareness. The crux of ART MACHINE is a result of commercial consumption becoming a leisure activity. The machine as object, is singular, an oddity or a sideshow, a fun and novel way of experiencing the 'buy'.
links:
alife: http://www.alifenyc.com/
The Hole: http://theholenyc.com/
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
REVIEW: In the Year 2525
This selection of Grays newest work revolves around the same concept realised in three different ways. Gray examines the Moiré (pronounced: mwa-rei) effect: an optical illusion which occurs when two sets of grids or sets or parallel lines are overlaid at slightly different angles.
This work is a departure in terms of aesthetics and mediums compared to Grays previous work of delicately sculptured miniature craft forests of paper tendrils and fern fronds or organic colourful chaos, which was a notable presence in his 2010 solo exhibition (‘Attack Decay Sustain Release’) at Craft Victoria and which was the sole focus of his exhibition (another solo: ‘Tudo Que Acho/ Everything I Think’)the previous year (2009) at The Narrows.
The moiré effect is an illusion, a suggestion of something that doesn’t exist and Gray likens this to anthropological forecasting: seeing what is present within contemporary culture and trying to predict the as yet unrealised, undetermined and unknown future. This act of seemingly logical-soothsaying by some individuals has had devastating effects, like the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, although more often it has been responsible for envisioning optimistic future utopias as dreamt by writers and dreamers of science fiction, such as musicians Zager and Evans who penned the song ‘In the year 2525’ which forms the title of the exhibition.
These thoughts of the far off future was also inspiration for Grays sound work exhibited as a part of The Zero Dollar Show at West Wing gallery (a temporary space run by West Space) a month before ‘In the year 2525’. Gray recorded an audio tour of Melbourne Central as though the shopping centre were a complex projected reality used as a teaching device for students in the far future as a part of a history lecture.
Grays musings of the moiré effect are manifested as three distinctly different types of work: a large scale installation, smaller drawings, and framed moiré patterns screenprinted on mylar which have then been placed over moiré screenprints on paper, which capture the effect in action.
The installation (above) is comparable to his miniaturist jungles of vegetative paper works, except on a larger scale and utilising more industrial materials. Multiple A2 sized sheets of Perspex with parallel lines created with black electrical tape are suspended from the ceiling, which demonstrate the visual interference of the moiré pattern in the wild, a natural environment of angled planes (ply wood panels) and bold straight lines ruling their way through the chaos (long strips of electrical tape).
Grays framed works (above) act like smaller versions of the installation: live captured moiré patterns, confined to a restrictive enclosure, living examples of visual interference keep in captivity and trapped for its privileged owners wall.
The drawings are perhaps the most curious of the trio. Being works on paper, the lines share the same flatland and fixed positions, the human eye (and mind) can’t compensate for the discrepancy caused by the mismatched angle of lines.
The exhibition will also host a series of ‘acoustic tests of pre-post-human perception’, which is a pre-post human way of saying 'gig', which will include Snawklor, Mof Far Far Rah, Julian Williams, and Northlands at Utopian Slumps gallery on Sunday 20th of Feburary from 6:00 til 9:00pm.
The present is just a suggestion of a future illusion.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
REVIEW: I want to feel what you are feeling with every fibre of my being and then I want you to feel what I feel
I want to feel what you are feeling with every fibre of my being and then I want you to feel what I feel
Klara Grace Kelvy
KINGS ARI (Level 1 of 171 KING ST, MELBOURNE)
exhibition runs from: FRI 11 FEB til SAT 05 MARCH, (open WED-SAT from 12:00pm – 6:00pm)
opening night: FRI 11 FEB 6:00pm – 8:00pm
performance:
Once is an experiment, a fluke or an accident. Repetition is conscious and questioning. Kelvy’s work is interested in the Other and their actions. She is a mimic that seeks truth to know another person’s truth through imitation. Previously she has sought out strangers in public places to secretly observe people’s behaviour in order to duplicate their mannerisms in an honest bid to get inside, within, another’s existence. The simulation of behaviour could be misread as facetious criticism, but the effort of her endeavours and openness of performance suggest an earnest longing to understand why we interact and conduct ourselves in the ways that we do.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Gallery is your friend, literally.
Internet based social media platforms started off as another way for people to keep in contact that was more fluid and easier to use than email. Very soon after business owners realised the value of anthropomorphising their businesses and listing them online with a profile as though they were a human entity. Theres obvious benefits such as added exposure, its inexpensive (or in most cases free), and as an online form of word of mouth, anything that a customer or fan of a business or organisation listed online is seen by all their 'friends'. The last point however is a double edged sword because if a business has delivered a poor product or service, customers with smart phones can instantaneously shame you to up their immediate friendship circle (a maximum of 5000 on Facebook) and if the comment or post is public, its able to be seen and searched by anyone with an internet connection, which makes businesses more accountable than ever.
Beechworth Bakery's service is obscenely questionable: WTF
Art Gallerys are quickly jumping on the bandwagon. Yesterday, the National Gallery of Victoria was all smiles because they hit 7000 fans and posted thankyous and a link to an equally bright artwork (one from their own collection).
This is progress. I like being able to view different gallerys profiles so easily, checking events, timings for performances, lectures or openings, is easier than clicking through a bunch of hyperlinks on a website. Its more humanising and descriptively comparable to 'having a conversation', as opposed to checking a timetable or schedule.
Friday, February 11, 2011
REVIEW: “This is REAL! life / is communication still possible?” at artBEAT
“This is REAL! life / is communication still possible?” is the current exhibition at artBEAT in North Melbourne. Rex Veal curates and uses the title in two parts to effectively take a conceptual stand on the nature of the exhibited work and open a dialogue, the first part boldly states that the artworks, and by extension, the exhibition, closes the gap and multitude of differences between art and real life, which seems near impossible seeing as what defines the two are defined by opposites: art is fictional, the displayed, proposed theoretical and the viewed whilst real life is truth, experienced and consists of the implemented and the practical. To grammatically strengthen this standpoint, Veal capitalises the word ‘real’, and backs it up with its own exclamation point, regardless of its mid-sentence positioning.
The second part of the title asks ‘is communication still possible?’ and Veal is keen to open up the lines of communication and dialogue by going to extraordinary and commendable lengths to have the gallery open from 10:00am to 10:00pm everyday of the week for the duration of the exhibition with the additional opportunity for attendees to sleep over in the gallery (if they arrive before the gallery closes in the evening) every night, essentially enabling the viewer to constantly experience the gallery in ‘real-life’ time, or real time, without the closures or opening hours dictating the viewing hours that we are so used to experiencing art within.
There’s a strong allegiance in the materials used to create the work within the show, the main constructive medium leans towards a new form of art povera, a plastic povera that utilises decades of capitalist gluttony in which we over-dosed on cheap plastic manufacturing.
Dan Bell uses these cheap and discarded objects in a way not dissimilar to bushcraft, as though they are natural detritus (sticks, stones, pinecones, twine, etc) as opposed to the throwaway household tacky plastic moulded products and fare you find in discount variety stores, which they are.
One of Veals work was a boxing bag half filled with the same polystyrene beads which would usually fill bean bags, changing what would otherwise be a hard, vertical, strong object used in machismo fight training in leiu of a human body to punch and kick, and giving it a new less threatening and less abused life as a functional object that slumps flaccidly and powerlessly on the floor, giving itself up to be laid upon or sat on. All the innuendo and allusions to failure are intentional; if this is REAL! life, how can they not be?
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Vicarious MONA Mythologised
Has the world realised the full extent of the recently launched MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) yet? It sounds like it is the disparate and chaotic glory of the internet laid bare, and made real, not just existing as a series of Wikipedia pages, image searches and forum threads somewhere in the electrical ether.
Reports from close friends about the opening night (which rolled into ‘nights’) made its excess and debauchery sound comparable to Rome’s golden age of opulence: hundreds of excessively expensive caviar tins stacked against walls, free flowing booze, curators from the Australia’s art scene making out drunkenly like teenagers with teenagers, rock stars inserting the phallic supports of collectible modernist design seating into their anus for a viewing public, a trio of naked writhing and trysting women prank calling a phone elsewhere in the gallery. All this tucked away several levels underground, embedded in the rock, on a peninsula of an island, in the southern-southern-southern hemisphere, the furthest point before you’re Antarctic, a million-zillion-gabillion miles from the rich and esteemed art history of Europe and the grand collections of the Americas, Germany, Britain, France and Italy.
The collection and gallery, that is the spirit and body of MONA sounds more like fiction than reality and whose existence is more akin to Charles Foster Kanes estate Xanadu from the film Citizen Kane, or the underwater sanctuary Rapture that was built to promote the unbridled development of the avant-garde and for creative individuals to flourish, or even the animated Super Jail, which is the worlds most secure prison built inside a volcano, inside another volcano, within which the laws of space and time seem to act according to the Wardens will who resembles a mad version of Willy Wonka and can change existence with mere thought like a god. I imagine Walsh, MONA’s creator, has similar superhuman powers within its walls.
clockwise from top left: Xanadu as featured in Citizen Kane, Superjail from the ultra violent manic paced animation of the same name, (the very real) MONA, and the Utopian city of Rapture from video game Bioshock.
MONA is an anomaly. From the sounds of it, MONA is an entirely new, hybrid, mutant-beast in comparison to its much older and more serious siblings: little boy Tate, Mister Guggenheim, and Miss Louvre. If their family portrait were taken, MONA’d be dressed in odd flamboyantly and possibly metallic coloured sneakers with differing and multiple fluoro laces, trashed and second hand designer jeans so that the fishnets or long johns (depending on the weather) worn underneath were visible, a checked rockabilly shirt, a prim golf knit with an antique Wedgewood brooch, listening to a mash-up of country, classical and Norweigian death metal music on its headphones.
David Walsh is just as much of an anomaly: self proclaimed dilettante and a maverick self made millionaire whose fortune was amassed by card counting and swindling casinos at their own game.
Maybe I am mythologising MONA like new lovers might do. Is there room for mythologising about a phenomena such as MONA whose existence is already somewhat fantastically unbelievable? I recommend ignoring everything I have to say about MONA for now as I’m writing about heresy and rumour. What you should do is google the facts, like the fact that Walsh sunk $75 million in renovations into MONA. To get your googling started, here’s some MONA related links:
http://www.utne.com/Arts/Subversive-Tasmanian-Art-Museum-David-Walsh.aspx
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/01/01/197505_mona-foma.html
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/a-revolt-in-art-20110114-19rdf.html
and MONAs own site:
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Virtual Galleries
I was diligently researching online (aka facebooking) this morning/afternoon/evening/morning and stumbled across this gem, which is probably best described as 'Google Street View' for Art Galleries. Its pretty incredible, especially if you aren't operating on a dial-up connection.
http://www.googleartproject.com/
I can see less reasons for international travel after this discovery. In fact, I'm not leaving the house until they've perfected teleportation now.
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