I Fkn Love MONA
If you’ve hung around long enough to read and watch my drivel, you know that I really love Tasmania. My ideal living situation would be me and seven dogs living in a secluded beach house hut in Coles Bay.
But until I actually manage to afford Australian property (read: never), I am going to be annoying asf and harp on about how much I LOVE TASSIE AND MONA.
No, MONA isn’t my estranged aunt, it’s the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart.
And I fkn love it. So today I’m gonna list all the reasons why.
WTF Is MONA?
First off, I’m going to directly quote ChatGPT here (I can’t believe I actually got it to swear):
“If you've never heard of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania, then you must have been living under a fkn rock. MONA is, hands down, the coolest fkn museum in the country, and possibly even the world. And that's not just my opinion - it's a fact. Trust me, I'm a robot.”
MONA was founded in 2011 by a wealthy art collector named David Walsh, who decided to turn his private collection into a public underground museum.
It’s literally underground and houses some pretty weird shit, including a wall of vaginas, a lot of installations with hair and various other human body parts, a “poo machine” dreamt up by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye…the list goes on.
How Do You Get To MONA?
MONA is located in Berriedale—I know nothing about Berriedale: all I know is that you grab the ferry from Hobart's Brooke Street Pier.
You could drive to Berriedale, but the ferry is part of the whole experience, okay? You have to try it at least once.
Ferries are cool, don’t be a chump.
There are options to buy the “posh pit” in the ferry, where you get complimentary drinks and whatnot. My honest opinion is that it’s honestly not worth the price—you can buy bevvies onboard and the ferry ride is so short that it’s not worth the zillion extra dollars to shell out for lukewarm champagne, but that’s juuuust me. You do you, boo!
The MONA ferries are actually pretty cool—the one I grabbed was decked out in graffiti and had a fun personality: it was giving Melbourne underground warehouse rave. The ride is super fun and quick, and the view from the ferry is pretty sweet.
A Bit About MONA’s Weird Architecture
Once you step off the ferry, you can already tell that MONA’s a bit of an architectural weirdo.
The museum is built underground, and the majority of the building is hidden from view, to create a sense of mystery and intrigue. The whole Spiel is intentional—it’s to make visitors feel like they're discovering something secret and special and honestly: it works. I mean, it got me. I felt special. Anyway.
Once you get inside, you have to start from the bottom up, so you descend this massive spiral staircase that takes you to the depths of hell (not literally! I think). The staircase is made of steel and concrete and was designed to resemble a mine shaft (a nod to Tasmania's history as a mining state!).
The museum's galleries are arranged around a central courtyard, which is open to the sky and it is preeetttyyy fkn dope. The courtyard is surrounded by a glass-walled atrium, which lets in natural light and provides stunning views of the River Derwent. It is STUNNING. I could sit there all day.
One of the most striking architectural features of MONA is its "heavy walls." The walls are made of reinforced concrete and are up to a meter thick and are designed to give the museum a sense of solidity and permanence (and to protect the artworks from damage, obvs).
Most of MONA is raw material: polished concrete, natural stone and timber, which is pretty sick and creates a cool juxtaposition between the artworks and the space.
And it’s constantly evolving! Since the museum opened in 2011, Walsh has continued to add new galleries and artworks and has even made changes to the building's layout and design, which means that no two visits to MONA are the same (unless you live in Hobart and swing by constantly, idk!).
Cool Shit I Saw At MONA
Okay, sooo obviously, MONA is pretty heavily policed when it comes to taking photos and videos inside. You have to be somewhat of a camera ninja to sneak photography ‘cause their security guards ARE ON THE CASE—these motherfuckers have eyes in the back of their heads, so there’s no way you can actually photograph the REAL COOL shit.
That’s not the point of MONA, though: the point of MONA is to experience it in the moment.
I really recommend going. Some of the installations are very thought-provoking and some of them are downright disturbing. Here’s some stuff I sneakily photographed that DOES NOT DO IT JUSTICE—if anything, it should tell you about the sections where the security is super lax, so GET ON IT, MONA.
Literal staircase to hell
A library in which ALL THE BOOKS WERE COMPLETELY BLANK. Very IKEA.
Ai Weiwei's White House
