Van Diemen's Land. Battery point. Rising up on the same mattress in different years; cool and brisk and subdued as the haft-end of the earth ought to be. Here be gull, that be sea-star, this be fish conjoined to chip. Sun's been stretched, as is the blue, thin – dashed – thin – like fading boat trails in the upper atmosphere. A market. A Saturday Salamanca in the heady, overpriced overcast. Clatter, oyster shell. Tremble, tarpaulin. A perfect landing; cleaner than beach stone. Cleaner than every footnote this land ever uttered, ever rasped or guttered. Look forward, land, march and march from colonies of blood. (forget, forget) Mount Wellington. A day hike, an aural hike of scramble and scritch and swish and snap, up kunanyi, struggle and up: scrunch hunch and crunch! Crunch! to end in sublime laziness, or decadence,
with cheese atop the dolerite pipes, with Hobart – nipaluna – at my feet – crisp and wide and longing like the spade-end of the world.
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I like art. I like weird art. MONA has weird art. I like MONA. MONA is in Hobart. Hobart is in Tasmania. Tasmania is in Australia. They have gambling in Australia. Some people made lots of money by gambling. David Walsh made lots of money by gambling. David Walsh is from Hobart in Tasmania. David Walsh used his money to make MONA in Hobart in Tasmania. You can take a ferry to get to MONA. You can sit on sheep on the ferry. Sheep are called Ovis aries. There are lots of pretty views on the way there. You can have a wine on the ferry. I had an overpriced glass of wine. Wine comes from the flowering plant genus Vitis. I saw a travelling exhibition on my first visit. The travelling exhibit showcased outsider art. Outsider art is sometimes called art brut. It is made by outsider artists. Outsider artists are self-taught. They are outside the conventional art world. They just want to make art. Outsider art can sometimes be fantastic. There was aeroplane art. There was firearm art. There was taxidermy art. There was mystical art. There was undefinable art. There was everything art. They even had art by Henry Darger. Henry Darger was a hospital janitor. But Henry Darger was also an artist. Henry Darger wrote a 15,000+ page fantasy book with hundreds of drawings. Henry Darger's drawings are childish and violent and outlandish. Henry Darger's art was only discovered by his landlords after his death. Seriously. Look up Henry Darger. MONA proper has strong themes. MONA proper is all about sex and death. Sex is all about carnal knowledge. Death is all about the end of knowledge. I saw a machine make poop. That was funny. I also saw a man with a tattoo on his back. The man with a tattoo on his back is Tim Steiner. Tim Steiner is a human artwork. Tim Steiner spends his life sitting in galleries displaying the tattoo on his back. When Tim Steiner dies his skin will be framed. It was a privilege to have seen him while he is alive. I saw phallic stuff. And I saw yonic stuff. I saw metallic stuff. And I saw bread stuff. I saw Asian stuff. And I saw occidental stuff. I saw architectural stuff. And I saw dynamic stuff. There was loud stuff. And there was immature stuff. There was confronting stuff. And there was political stuff. Stuff is from the Old French estoffe. Estoffe means quilted material, provisions, stock. Estoffe is from the word estoffer. Estoffer means to equip, to stock. Estoffer is from the Old German stopfon. Stopfon means to plug, to stuff. Sometimes I feel sad. Sometimes I feel bored. Sometimes I feel tired. Sometimes when I feel sad and bored and tired I will also look at art. Sometimes this makes me feel better. Sometimes this happens even when the art is bizarre or sexual or disturbing or immature. Sometimes this makes me feel more alive. You should like art. You should like weird art. MONA has weird art. You should like MONA. |
AuthorMing is an economist, traveller, and creative writer from Melbourne, Australia. He’s a nebulous collection of particles on the lookout for a good corner to sit with a book and a cup of coffee. Archives
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