TasWeekend: Tassie author Heather Rose launches prize-winning novel in the Big Apple

When Heather Rose became intrigued by the world’s most famous performance artist, she had no idea she would end up launching a novel about her in a stunningly appropriate location.

Tasmanian author Heather Rose, at her Kingston Beach home, is enjoying international success with her latest novel. Picture: PETER MATHEW

IN the end the artist was not present, but it did not matter. The no-show of world-famous performance artist Marina Abramovic at Tasmanian writer Heather Rose’s book launch in New York last week just added another dramatic chapter to the curious connection between the pair.

When the Serbian-born artist fell ill and was hospitalised in Austria instead of flying home to New York in time to launch the novel she inspired, Rose took it in her stride.

“It’s strange to say, but I wasn’t disappointed,” says the writer, adding she was just concerned for the artist’s health.

It was also to be the first time the author and artist had a proper real-life conversation, meeting only in passing at the Abramovic retrospective at Mona launched at Dark Mofo three years ago.

Eminent Australian writer Anne Summers, who was going to introduce the session, filled the breach, conducting the live q&a.

About 30 of Rose’s family and friends – including her three children, her sister and her 84-year-old father – flew to New York for the launch of The Museum of Modern Love in the atrium at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on November 28.

It was the same space Abramovic’s epic 75-day show took place in 2010. The Artist is Present attracted more than 850,000 people.

Some of those visitors lined up for a chance to sit opposite and gaze into the eyes of the artist across a small table. One of them was Rose, who became fascinated by Abramovic after seeing elements of her work at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria years before.

Three days before the launch, Rose was interviewed by the influential New York Times newspaper, and recalled seeing people racing to get to the front of the line to sit opposite Abramovic.

Some visitors ran to get in line to sit opposite artist Marina Abramovic during her 75-day performance, The Artist is Present, in 2010. The MoMA epic is at the heart of Tasmanian writer Heather Rose’s prize-winning seventh novel, which had its US launch at the famous New York museum last week. Picture: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images

“I thought I could just walk up and be the next person,” Rose said. “I’d never seen people running for art.”

She returned to the museum again and again over the following weeks, as a cast of lonely, grief-stricken characters converging on the performance began to form in her mind.

Arky Levin is a film composer in New York who is conflicted about visiting his wife, who is ill in hospital and finds his way to the Abramovic performance. As it unfolds, so does Arky and the other pained souls who are also drawn to the performance.

Last week’s museum event for 200 guests is believed to be the first novel the world-famous venue has launched.

The Museum of Modern Love, Heather Rose, Allen & Unwin, $27.99.

“It was both a homecoming for the novel and a dream come true,” says Rose. “A lot of wonderful people came together to create this.”

The Museum of Modern Love is the seventh novel for Rose, who writes for both adults and children. While always well-regarded and with a devoted Tasmanian readership, the Kingston Beach writer soared with the publication of this novel, winning the high-profile 2017 Stella Prize, the Christina Stead Prize for fiction and the Margaret Scott Prize in the Tasmanian Premier’s Prizes in Australia.

Now it is taking wing internationally. The Museum of Modern Love will be published in multiple territories beyond the US next year. In the UK, Weidenfeld & Nicolson published an e-book version last week with plans for a paperback next April, ahead of Marina Abramović’s exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2020. Deals are also in place for its release in China and several other territories.

Rose’s next novel will be published by Allen & Unwin in Australia next year.