sofiamog contributor

MONA Museum, Hobart

Vulvas and Poop at the Museum of Old and New Art

Snake by Sidney Nolan

A controversial museum funded by an eccentric millionaire (Yes really), features a poo machine, the chocolate-coated entrails of a suicide bomber, and a vagina wall and has become one of the biggest tourist destinations in Australia. Devoted to the themes of sex and death the museum is a 30-minute ride on the MR-1 fast ferry from Hobart's Brooke Street Pier (they serve wine on the ferry) It's a must if you're looking to be shocked and pulled out of your comfort zone. Museums are no longer boring!

When you get to the museum’s dock, you climb up 99 steps as if going to a temple or your in a Rock film. At the top, you are confronted with a hard-surface tennis court where Mr. Walsh (The museums founder) plays in the morning. He lives on the grounds and his chickens wander the museum because he 'loves omelets' (He's a weird dude)

The Poo Machine The Poo Machine

One of the most shocking and entertaining exhibitions is Wim Delvoye’s cloaca machine, otherwise known as “the shit machine.” The Belgium artist’s vast array of whirring tubes and bags mimic the workings of the human digestive system. The apparatus is fed food and produces poo. While the machine is MONA’s most hated piece by critics, it is also where everyone spend the most tim. Visitors spend the most time taking it in and I did as well. Its hard to get your head around how someone woke up one day and decided "I'm going to make a crap machine!" but it was entertaining. It is magnificent and repulsive. And that is exactly how David Walsh, multimillionaire, professional gambler, and MONA’s founder, likes it (Again... he's a weird dude)

Mona Gallery Tunnel Mona Gallery Tunnel

Dedicated to sex and death, pieces include Stephen Shanabrook’s “On the Road to Heaven the Highway to Hell,” which features the entrails of an 18-year-old suicide bomber cast in dark chocolate. Yes. Chocolate.

\x22On The Road To Heaven the Highway to Hell\x22 By Steohen Shanabrook "On The Road To Heaven the Highway to Hell" By Steohen Shanabrook

The museum is also home to 151 porcelain vulvas sculpted from real women. The British artist Jamie McCartney set out to quell anxieties about female body image. So the artist cast dozens of women’s vulvas and then the piece was shipped to the musuem. I love the concept and message behind it as do the hundreds of women who come from all over the world JUST to see this wall.

This exhibit made alot of people uncomfortable but once you settle into it its profound and riveting. This exhibit made alot of people uncomfortable but once you settle into it its profound and riveting.

I wonder who volunteered for this. I wonder who volunteered for this.

As Beautiful as it is invasive I won\x27t write the name of the exhibit here LOL its inappropriate but you should google it ;) As Beautiful as it is invasive I won't write the name of the exhibit here LOL its inappropriate but you should google it ;)
\x22The Fat Car\x22  by Erwin Wurm "The Fat Car" by Erwin Wurm

Stop at the “Fat Car,” a glistening red Porsche plumped with fiberglass into a bulbous symbol of greed and consumption by the Austrian sculptor Erwin Wurm.

\x22Artficat\x22 by Gregory Barsamian "Artficat" by Gregory Barsamian

A giant head lays on its side and when you peer through you are greeted with ALOT. A three-dimensional cartoon. With a network of steel rods, apples falling from branches into bright green hands where they melt into colored liquid, which fall into hats arranged in a circle below. Meanwhile, little yellow birds fly out of womblike bladders, swoop up and around and crash into small, open, antique books that slam shut on them. They repeat on high speed and its both beatiful and confusing.

Drink up Drink up

Walsh is a character who you ahoukd look into bc hessians innovative and controversial. His aim has always been to “democratise art”, using science, philosophy and agitprop to disrupt the art world.

We were there for HOURS and still didnt manage to reach everything. The place is massive and really amazing. After a long weird day we had a MUCH needed drink.

#art, #museums, #tasmania