All That Taz – The Salamanca Market and the MONA

The Jackman McRoss was a local bakery just a stone’s throw away from the Montacute.  We decided to get our breakfast there, since all tourist sources recommended it.  It clearly was a local favorite.  We felt the energy of the place as soon as we entered its doors.  At just a little before 8am, the bakery was serving a crowd.  There was a wide selection of both savory and sweet kinds.  My mom and I got a walnut loaf and a muffin for breakfast.

The Salamanca Market, on the other hand, was a set of steps away from the Montacute as well.  It was a street fair held on every Saturday, mostly for the sake of the tourists.  The stalls there sold Australian-made (or so they all claimed) products in every imaginable variety.  There were all kinds of pots and pans; and many knick-knacks like cheese knives or leather products.  Yet I was not able to find anything there suitable for my uncle’s wedding.

The food stalls were especially appealing to me that morning.  Although I had my breakfast already, I wanted a taste of all the foods there.  Eventually, I decided to get a scallop pie, which apparently was a popular Tasmanian food, and an empanada.

I spent about an hour at the market looking at an endless display of goods.  The walk was refreshing.  The market teemed with a carnival-like atmosphere.

Came the afternoon and it was time for us to see the MONA (the Museum of Old and New Art).  The reviews on TripAdvisor gave it a must-see rating.  The Museum being on an island off the coast, the fare, including the ferry, was quite expensive.  We probably spent $45 to $50 each.

I know little about art.  If something is beautiful, I appreciate it for its aesthetic value.  To be honest, I was disappointed at the art shown at the MONA.  Surely, the name “New Art” suggested that we would see some modern expressions of ideas.  Modern art tend to be more provocative than artistic (or otherwise aesthetic), and indeed the art we saw was provocative.  The problem was that it was provocative and nothing else.  There was this installation called Cxxt Conversation (the C word itself is too obscene for this blog).  It was a display of a *lot* of clay vaginas along the wall of a long corridor.  These renditions of women’s private part were detailed to a point of obscenity.

To sidetrack a bit, I have seen modern art that was both provocative and artistic.  Along the lines of the feminist revolution, a local artist in Hong Kong has once made an installation celebrating femininity with clean sanitary napkins.  She wrapped the napkins around a ping pong ball, painted red, that resembled an egg.  Each individual component of her installation was a beautiful flower.   The egg was a reference to life.  That was acceptable to me.  When the installation was viewed as a whole, one almost could not tell that the petals were sanitary napkins.  The installation at the MONA was nothing close to the effect that modern art is capable of achieving.  In fact, it was repulsive.

The art at the MONA impressed neither me nor my mom.  We came away with the only comfort knowing that we have seen the Museum itself.  It was the pride of Hobart.

That evening we prepared our own dinner at the kitchen of Montacute.  Wineglass Bay was for the next day.  We prepared our own lunch as well.