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It was dark when we sailed back to Hobart, but we’d been drowning in a dungeon of art and our creative palettes saturated, so river air and lights on busy water were fathomable. (Sorry. Pun.) We talked. ‘Did you see ‘Loop System Quintet?’’ (Conrad Shawcross) Over pre-dinner drinks, cheese and olives we remembered William Wordsworth’s (Joanne Kane) likeness – sketched from his death mask – emerging luminously from the whiteness, firm and handsome, but we knew the secrets inside. On the walk to the restaurant we talked about ‘Cloaca,’ (Wim Delvoy) though no one saw feeding time. Nor pooing time. Over dinner we questioned ‘The Body Malleable’ (Philip Brophy) and what it was like to put you finger in. Yes, art that you put your finger in. Walking home we discussed the disturbing elements of ‘Catacombs.’ And ‘White Library’, (Wilfred Preto). Some of us found a pub with a band. After MONA we assumed the man in the fifties floral button through and the girl dressed as a spaceship and the person wrapped in orange reflective material were Tasmanian-folk in their workaday wear, but it turned out to be dress-up night.
Over a nightcap and chocolate we talked about ‘bit fall’ (Julius Pop) but woke in time for breakfast and our flight. The ash cloud was on its way back. We found Trish in the departure lounge cleaning out her purse. She’d missed her early flight. Since we were all together again we consumed Champagne and cake until they called us.
Rosalie Ham is the author of Random House Australia’s July Book of the Month, THERE SHOULD BE MORE DANCING. Watch Rosalie in an exclusive interview or get bonus extras, including a sample chapter and reading group questions on our Book of the Month page.
We were the loudest people in the dining room. Lunch was, again, delicious, as was the wine and our first hours at MONA; we were incredulous, amazed, inspired, entertained and shocked. Exactly what’s meant to happen on adventures, which, as it turns out, had started in the toilet. Some readers might have experienced that particular toilet at MONA. It’s around the corner from the wine bar on the bottom floor. The toilets are ‘unisex,’ so you get your own mini bathroom; mirror, soap, fan, hand basin, the works. And they’re stylish. Angela was so taken with her own private cubicle that she forgot to lock her door, but before she could get reorganised to latch it her attention was taken by the vision in front of her. There’s a camera somewhere in there, under you, and it projects what you do – literally – onto a screen in font of you as you’re doing it. It’s a bit of a shock, interesting to some I suppose, uncalled-for others might think, but more shocking for Angela was the man who walked in on her as she watched, heard, smelled her daily eliminations. And that was just the first highlight.
Rosalie Ham is the author of Random House Australia’s July Book of the Month, THERE SHOULD BE MORE DANCING. Watch Rosalie in an exclusive interview or get bonus extras, including a sample chapter and reading group questions on our Book of the Month page.
Lunch was fish and chips on the wharf. Delicious, as was the wine to wash it down. The shopping at Salamanca Place was excellent, afternoon tea creamy and rich, so we could only fit in Tapas for dinner, and wine, and then more wine and cheese at our portside serviced apartment. A deep slumber meant we were energised for the Saturday morning market, and we were mostly on time for the MONA ferry, though the captain was kind enough to wait for Freia – everyone could see her running through the market crowd with her shopping, waving at us. The trip to MONA was chilly, but we were snug in our warm hats and gloves from the Wool Shop. There was a nice silk shop too. And craft shops with Huon Pine kitchen utensils. Lovely Felted garments as well. Silver earrings and brooches… Thankfully, MONA provides a cloakroom for bags and coats and shopping. We organised to meet for lunch, and down we went into the wonderland that is MONA with our ‘O’ iPods to tell us what we were looking at.
Rosalie Ham is the author of Random House Australia’s July Book of the Month, THERE SHOULD BE MORE DANCING. Watch Rosalie in an exclusive interview or get bonus extras, including a sample chapter and reading group questions on our Book of the Month page.
Happily, as we casually but decorously hurried from the auction rooms, someone bid $32,000 for the hanging man. Half an hour later, crimson mirth contained, we slunk to a rear seat at the auction house and raised our paddle to purchase an average painting which only two of us liked, but we’d proved ourselves serious buyers in front of those smirking expensive-at-heel, over-coiffed, authentic art experts nonchalantly waving paddles at $150,000 worth oil paint smudges on canvas cloth. And then Art Group was broke again. So while we were broke we decided to go to Tassie; to MONA. We booked flights. The ash cloud arrived, but floated off around the world and the anticipation of our brief, luxurious weekend built, which meant at first it was difficult to contain group attention, but when our names were called at Tullamarine we ran, and in the departure lounge we pledged to pay attention for the remaining art excursion, and to not hold everyone up at the metal detector. I didn’t know my orthotics had metal in them.
Rosalie Ham is the author of Random House Australia’s July Book of the Month, THERE SHOULD BE MORE DANCING. Watch Rosalie in an exclusive interview or get bonus extras, including a sample chapter and reading group questions on our Book of the Month page.
I belong to an art group, a euphemism for six girls on a slow mission to appreciate art and all things related and unrelated. We meet, drink wine, chat, attend galleries from time-to-time, even exhibition openings if we can get the partners to look after the kids. We each put aside $40 a month and when we have enough, we buy a painting that we like – well, that most of us like… It’s taken ten years but we’ve collected 5 pieces; slow, but affective. Once, we almost bought a painting for thirty thousand dollars. If you wrote the following scene in a story it would be declared far-fetched, but it happened. At Sothebys. It was our first auction. As the auctioneer listed its provenance Suzanne and I looked at the painting displayed for sale. It was a man hanging from a tree by the throat. Suzanne said, ‘That’d be a fun thing to have on your wall, Rose,’ and I said, ‘I‘d hang it way up in the stair well so no one could see it,’ raising my arm to demonstrate, and the auctioneer cried, ‘And I have thirty thousand dollars from madam in the front row.’
Rosalie Ham is the author of Random House Australia’s July Book of the Month, THERE SHOULD BE MORE DANCING. Watch Rosalie in an exclusive interview or get bonus extras, including a sample chapter and reading group questions on our Book of the Month page.
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