We have set aside today to visit MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). It wasn't around when we were in Tasmania 18 years ago (only opening in 2011), and over the years, we have heard so much about it. Consequently, it was a "must see". MONA houses ancient, modern and contemporary art from the David Walsh collection. Noted for its central themes of sex and death, the museum has been described by Walsh as a "subversive adult Disneyland".
We chose the ferry as our way of getting there. MONA was designed to be approached from the water, with visitors landing and climbing a long stair, in the manner of the ancient Greeks ascending to their temples (as they say).
So it was once again the trip into downtown Hobart, but this time we had done our homework and parked in the Argyle Street Car Park, which did not have a time limit.
The ferry is indeed the way to get to MONA and the 30-minute trip up the Derwent was a pleasant way to start the day. We paid the bit extra to travel in the Posh pit, which was a bit less crowded, a bit more exclusive, and you get free drinks and canapés. The guava mimosas were "to die for".
There's no doubt that the approach to the museum and the grounds is spectacular. Its construction - mind-boggling.
The single-storey MONA building appears at street level to be dominated by its surroundings, but its interior possesses a spiral staircase that leads down to three larger levels of labyrinthine display spaces built into the side of the cliffs around Berriedale peninsula. Walsh has said that he wanted a building that "could sneak up on visitors rather than broadcast its presence. It certainly does that!
There are no windows and the atmosphere is intentionally ominous. On entering the museum, visitors descend the "seemingly endless flight of stairs", an experience one critic compared with "going down into Petra". To see the art, you work back upwards towards the surface.
As for the art - we were a bit underwhelmed. Certainly, some of the modern art is very clever and quite stunning. We could, however, have done without some of the grotesque art which obviously came from Walsh's original collection.
We had lunch in the grounds overlooking the most extraordinary playground slide we have ever seen. Now that's modern art.
Back on the ferry at 3 o'clock for the trip back to Hobart and then on to Seven Mile Beach.
