Embracing the darkness in Hobart

IT’S long being written-off as the black sheep of Australia but this former ugly cousin is completely embracing its dark past, and it’s winning.

Shining the light on Australia’s darkest place

TASMANIA has being the long-maligned black sheep of the Australian family — left off maps and the butt of incest jokes.

It has a dark history stretching from its penal era under European settlement to the rogues gallery of miscreants and criminals to have wandered our southernmost land.

It also has breathtaking natural beauty and a foodie culture to rival anything on the mainland. And for years that was the emphasis of Tassie tourism campaigns — scenes of old growth forests and lush green mountains.

But, Australia being what it is, you can find similar outlooks all over the country and there wasn’t anything that made it distinctly Tasmanian.

Not long ago, Tassie’s tourism body decided to embrace the state’s dark history as its selling point, rather than produce more run-of-the-mill, could-be-anywhere glossy campaigns. It helped that David Walsh’s pet project, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) became one of the main attractions in the state.

Anthony McCall’s Solid Light Works. Image: Courtesy of MONA.

Walking through the underground rooms housing MONA’s catalogue of challenging works is akin to having a mild episode of anxiety, with stimuli jumping out at all your senses (except touch, obviously).

With MONA’s notoriety, a highlight of Tasmania’s calendar is now the Dark Mofo festival, celebrating all those things that go bump in the night, but not the Scooby Doo, cartoony kind. More like the irreverent and confronting kind — boundary-pushing installations and disturbing experiences to shake you out of your everyday stupor.

In its third year, the Dark Mofo festival is a 10-day midwinter festival that says to the country: “Yeah, we’re cold and gloomy in June, what of it?”

Feasting at the food festival. Image: Courtesy of MONA.

Wholeheartedly embracing the chills of Hobart’s night air and its reputation for being just a little bit like the bad guy in high school your mum would’ve hated, the festival featured sold-out concerts from Antony and the Johnsons, free art installations, including Anthony McCall and Marina Abramovic, littered throughout the city, as well as a five-day food festival.

Shining a light.

A Fire Organ lit up the dark sky while a nearby bass installation gave festival-goers the most visceral all-body experience they’ve had standing in an industrial warehouse.

A late-night Blacklist dance party, described as a death ceremony of sorts, gave revellers the chance to really kick back among their equally enraptured compatriots.

It was capped off with hundreds of people running into the cold waters of the Derwent River, in the nude, at sunrise to mark the winter solstice. How pagan.

The Blacklist ‘death ceremony’. Image: Courtesy of MONA.

With 174,000 people getting in on the action, you can rest assured that brands saw the commercial opportunity to align themselves with such a ‘cool’ experience. Skincare brand Aesop set up a room in which it pumped in a smoky fragrance so overwhelming it remained on your tastebuds 10 minutes after you leave the room.

Gin brand Hendricks set up its ‘Parlour of Curiosities’, a tent designed to invoke a Barnum-esque freak show feel, but a bit more classy. People also crowded around the drums of firepits outside, looking for a reprieve from the wintry chill.

Inside the Palour of Curiosities.

The Tassie government are delighted with the visitors the festival have brought out. Premier Will Hodgman said: “There’s no doubt now that people are opening their eyes to the opportunity of shining a very warm light onto our darkest, coldest months in winter, Dark Mofo is a classic example of that. It can be done.”

All of sudden, Tasmania is no longer the freaky one no one wants to talk to, it’s solidly the cool kid.

The writer travelled to Hobart as a guest of Hendrick’s Gin.

See? Cool kids. Image: Courtesy of MONA.