MONA love

There's a whole lot of beauty, inspiration, and surprise waiting for you if you haven't yet been to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in Hobart, Tasmania.

Where do I begin?

The location for one. Oh my goodness. MONA sits carved into a cliff face on the gorgeous Derwent River. You can arrive by ferry or car. I've heard coming via ferry is pretty special. I had a car so went that way. However, I parked about a kilometre away (accidentally) and walked in. That was pretty special in itself. You get to see glimpses of MONA sitting there on the edge of the cliff facing the water from various angles around a small cove.

That cement truck iron sculpture in the pics above captivated me. How extraordinary that someone could make something so mundane and ordinary so intricately beautiful! Something so bulky like a cement truck has been utterly transformed into this delicate sculpture.

Inside MONA was mind boggling to say the least. Exhibition pieces have been chosen deliberately to push the boundaries of peoples' expectations about art. There are a lot of surprises in stall. And I won't ruin them for you by telling you too much here. Let's just say you need to set aside at least half a day - one day to be there. It's massive. There's so much to see and experience. And the place is gorgeous so you might like to have lunch and a glass of wine and sit outside on the pink bean bags and look at the river while you're there.

I was especially moved by the pencil rubbings (pictured above) by Okabe. These were made by hand over a 9 year period of the Ujina Station train platform in Hiroshima. Eventually the train station was demolished to make way for a freeway but Okabe's rubbings remain as simple reminders of what was once there. You can read more about their background here. And here's a picture of Okabe with his work.

I'll be going back to MONA later in the year. My brother also loves the place so we thought we might go again together. There is no other art gallery like this in Australia. It's extraordinary on so many levels. So if you can, go!

making, eating, listening, seeing

Heide Gallery are currently showing an exhibition showcasing 30 years of their collection. Two pieces that stood out for me were Charles Blackman's 'Alice' and Mary Boyd's 'Hands'. Such powerful works, both of them.

Aimee Mann's music is keeping me blissfully happy. As is this beautiful autumn weather.

Have been eating at Pope Joan. Their corn cakes are to die for.

Lot's of carving still to do but am hoping to print next weekend. Now that it is said, I'm committed. Ha.

soho art

Yesterday was spent wandering the streets of Soho with a guide book (Memorable Walks in New York) loaned to me by a friend who lived here a decade ago. Enough said I suppose, but I just couldn't believe how much things have changed to the point where the art trail just wasn't going to work with about 95% of the places having moved or closed. But that's ok because a few great places like Artist Space still exist and was a lot of fun. And The Drawing Centre is still there too. The current exhibition uses a really wonderful way of displaying works on paper (image above). The curvy stand was designed by an architect and brings the work up really close for the viewer.I loved some of the streets in Soho: Prince St, Spring St, Sullivan St (so leafy and lovely), Elizabeth and Mott Streets. I was particularly in love with all those old buildings which used to be artist lofts in the '60's and 70's but now house very expensive apartments. Roaming the streets turned up some interesting finds like the Apple store on Prince St which has to be seen to be believed.

packing and printing

It's been a bit mad around here since we made the decision to sell our wee little house a week ago. We're starting to prepare for the open for inspection period where all and sundry can walk through the house and check out our stuff. So some of it's being packed up and put in the shed at the back of the garden including a lot of my woodblocks. It's so hard doing this because I have so many and I don't know which ones I'll be needing over the next few months. I'm hoping our next house will have a bit more space inside for me to spread out my blocks, tools, inks and paper. I'd love to have one of those amazing big paper drawers but haven't found one yet. That way I could keep all my paper stored flat rather than rolled up. If you happen to know where I can find one of these in Melbourne please let me know.

I'm getting a bit excited about seeing the new print exhibition by Australian artist Sarah Amos. Sarah lives and works in the USA now but in Melbourne next week Gallery 101 will feature her prints. Click here if you'd like to see more of her work. This lovely print below is one of hers.

miho museum

I'm having a few dramas with blogspot and so for 4 days these photos of Miho Museum have been up on my blog with no text. Hopefully the text will upload today.

Last week when I was shuffling through bits and pieces in a gorgeous old box of things from Japan, I re-found these postcard images of one of the most incredible museums I have ever been to. The Miho is a museum with a futuristic structure plonked in the middle of the mountains of Japan, about 90 minutes by train and bus from Kyoto. It was designed by the American-Chinese architect, I M Pei, who amongst other things, also designed the Pyramids of the Lourvre in Paris. Miho Museum is one of those places, if you like architecture, galleries, museums and art, you should make an effort to go to if you're ever visiting Japan. Why? It's urban structures poke vividly out of the mountains of Shiga and present to you, right from the entrance, a very modern view of how art and history can be viewed. In the hills of Shiga surrounded by rice farms, you just don't expect to see this. I've been there twice and would easily go again. The last visit was especially good. My Australian friend C was visiting and we packed homemade bento lunches, along with our chopsticks and a flask of green tea and set off for a perfect early summer's day.