We set off in high spirits and, since we couldn't turn right out of our street, we took the scenic route into Hobart. This took us over the Goodwood Road Bridge, one of two bridges into the city. Entering the city, unfortunately, meant the beginning of the most frustrating part of the trip for me.
The one way streets in Hobart are a nightmarish trap for tourists and there is a complete lack of direction to all day parking. I followed a bus into a no-car zone and wound up facing one-way traffic, I almost ran a red light and ran over pedestrians, I followed the bus through a no-car zone, I failed to give way at an altered intersection, by the time we parked anywhere I was just about ready to say fuck it and vow never to return to this city.
Launceston had some one way streets too but it was no where near as mind-boggling as this. At one point we did finally find an all day car park only to find it was full, so we went back into the nightmare and wound up in a three hour park. Our original plan was to park all day, explore the waterfront, catch the ferry to and from MONA and perhaps take in dinner on Elizabeth Pier when we returned. The horrible traffic and parking situation changed my mind. I just couldn't take it anymore. It took me a good hour of walking about to finally calm down mentally but given the temperature was getting close to 35°C (95°F) I was very hot and bothered for a good long while. Tip for future travellers, take the bus into Hobart.
We wandered around Salamanca Place and up two flights of stairs into the Salamanca Arts Centre Gallery. It was playing host to an exhibition of works by the students of the Nolan Art School called "Dress Ups". My three favourite pieces were, Professor Rabbit by Tom, age 13, What Prada Does Next by Eleanor, age 14 and finally Canine Warrior by Campbell, age 10. I particularly love the noble look on the pudgy canine warrior's face and his tiny little weapon.
Soon after this little delight we found ourselves in a back alley promising that Battery Point was a mere five minutes walk via Kelly Street Stairs. After all the stairs on the ZigZag Track my thighs did not seem overly keen but they managed and before long we were looking through the streets of Battery Point at all the old historic houses. We decided that the one we simply must have is Oscalusa. It's at the top of the hill and has double verandahs overlooking the bay on both sides.. sigh.
We walked on down to the shore line and into a small park called A.J.White Park which was tucked behind the CSIRO only car park that had frustrated me earlier and from there back around to Salamanca Place. On Castray Esplanade we started to pass a few more galleries and just by chance we entered the Sidewalk Tribal Gallery. I think my eye must've been caught by something shiny. We entered and I soon heard Mr Smart call for me and look miffed as if I'd missed something important.
After lunch we had cooled down a bit in the airconditioned restaurant so I was ready to face driving in Hobart again. Mr Smart promised to find me the swiftest, least confusing way out of the city he could and on to MONA, The Museum of Old and New Art. I must say too, despite this morning's traffic kerfuffle, Mr Smart has been an exemplary navigator this entire trip. He did indeed manage to direct us out of Hobart and onward very quickly.
MONA is Australia's largest privately funded museum and houses over 400 artistic works from David Walsh's private collection. David Walsh interestingly enough, is a professional gambler turned art collector. I'll say one thing for him, he has interesting tastes. I didn't love everything, I didn't hate everything, but then that's art for you.
The building of MONA itself is quite astounding. It's three underground levels and you work your way up from the bottom. They don't have display labels on the wall that give the title and artist, rather they issue every visitor with a custom iPhone that searches out the nearby art works in any given location. The benefit is that you can grab additional information about the piece or artist at the press of a button but for that benefit it was mostly just a facetious pain in the hole. Also some art pieces have integral audio commentary and that wasn't explained to us when we entered so we missed out on the full experience of one or two pieces. Overall though, something truly interesting and intriguing, not to be missed.
Two of my favourite pieces were interactive. The first was an untitled work by Christopher Townsend, a musician, producer and sound engineer. It's a tunnel with pressure sensitive floors. Load on the sensors triggers sound. Parts of an ever changing composition. The more people, the more sound. I went through it several times and each time was unique.
At the top end of the sound tunnel was a work by Ruth Schnell called Patterns of Perception. It's a slit in a plywood surface that sends out LED light patterns at various speed rates. If you look directly at it you see nothing but a white slit of light but if you move your head and try to catch it while squinting or in your peripheral vision then you can see various words and numbers. The first thing I saw was the number 23 and then later the words communicate and perception. Other people around me saw different words depending on where they were standing and how they were moving their heads. I managed to get a photo by carefully waggling my camera from side to side.
Another one I liked that caught me a little off guard was Kryptos by Brigita Ozolins. A series of chambers with binary coding of Assyrian text on the walls. You go in and in and in until you reach a very low door way which you have to duck to get into. When I rose I scared the crap out of myself as there is a mirror on the ceiling and the movement of my own reflection startled me.
Speaking of crap by the way, take a peg for your nose if you visit the piece entitled, Cloaca Professional by Wim Delvoye. Not for the weak of stomach that one.
There were a lot of worthwhile and thought provoking pieces and I could go on and on. I took over a hundred photos in MONA alone but you should all go and see it for yourselves so I will share just two more. One very thought provoking piece, a large scale piece, was an untitled piece known as the 'White Library' by a Cuban artist, Wilfredo Prieto. We checked with the staff member in attendance in the piece and she assured us that each book was made and bound with completely blank pages. It made me think about how empty a world without words would be.
The final one I'll leave you with is found on the outside of the building. A hulking rusting beast of a thing called Cement Truck also by Wim Delvoye the creator of the stinky exhibit I mentioned above. Cement Truck is a glorious thing. Laser-cut corten steel in Gothic style and large as life as you can see with me as reference.
It was a stinking hot day today but the visit to MONA and it's underground chambers certainly did a lot to improve my internal temperature and temperament. On our way back to Orana House, another fun thing happened which buoyed my spirit.
We pulled in at a Caltex petrol station to get another tank of fuel in preparation for handing the car back tomorrow. I got out of the car and popped the fuel cap, stood up and the attendant was standing at the fuel cap, hose in hand ready to fill 'er up. That's right folks, he pumped my fuel for me and I just stood there gobsmacked, I'd not seen anyone do that since I was a small girl in Adelaide. What a treat it was! He said it often catches 'mainlanders' off guard as they're just not used to that level of service. He was regrettably too right. Petrol was $1.509 per litre which was about average across Hobart but I didn't mind it nearly so much this time because I was too chuffed to care.
The heat today made my arms ridiculously red and sore (on top of being sunburned but not terribly badly) so I had a cool shower before contemplating anything else. Mr Smart, exhausted after all this time on the go, had a small nap while I got stuck into Wednesday's blog. Once he awoke we discussed dinner options. Anything that involved driving back into Hobart was automatically out so we decided on plain old fish and chips.
Mr Smart once again relied upon the internet on his mobile phone and streamed the Melbourne Victory v. Perth Glory match. Victory won 1-0 which made him a happy man. I also managed to get Wednesday's blog finished at long last. Tomorrow is our last day in Tassie and we both pouted at one another mopeily foreseeing the end to our journey. It's been jam packed and had its ups and downs, but we've both enjoyed it thoroughly.
Jess
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