Art ponders life in our planet’s future
A GLIMPSE into our future? Gee, you’d really hope not.
Tasmanian artist Joel Crosswell has unveiled his new Dark Mofo exhibition, with the intense postapocalyptic setting his largest work yet.
Anthropoid depicts lifesize apes gathering in a barren wasteland, filled with fog and an ominous red light.
“I can’t watch a David Attenborough documentary on apes or monkeys any more without flashbacks, I just start sweating,” said Crosswell, who made the furry subjects
by hand. “I want them to be humanoid, they’re playing off each other within this environment.”
Planet of the Apes, Apocalypse Now and Terminator 2 all had influences on the work, “like a stew”, he said.
“It’s sort of a reverse cycle situation – what if humans disappeared, after what we’ve done to the planet,” he said.
“It’s like you’ve walked into an environment and it’s a still frame of a movie – it’s for you to wonder, ‘what’s happened here’.”
Crosswell said Dark Mofo had been an “amazing opportunity” to showcase his work.
“It’s been a great experience to do this and I hope I can do more of this kind of work,” he said.
Anthropoid is a free entry exhibit at 31-33 Bathurst St until Monday, open from 3pm to 10.30pm daily.
Other key Dark Mofo attractions this weekend include Winter Feast at Princes Wharf and Salamanca Lawns from 4-11pm each day – with free entry after 9pm Saturday and free entry on Sunday – and Ogoh-Ogoh, a giant Tasmanian masked owl on Parliament Lawns.
Visitors are encouraged to “purge their fears” by putting them on paper and offering them to the giant owl, before it will be burnt following a procession from the lawns to the Regatta Grounds from 5.30pm Sunday.
The festival’s popular Winter Feast has drawn thousands each night to Salamanca. Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael urged Tasmanians and visitors alike to get out and savour the sights and sounds of the festival.
Mr Carmichael said adjustments had been made at several of the free venues with art installations to assist in shortening wait times, after some problems last weekend.
“Crowds are all pretty good ... we’re encouraging everyone to get out and about,” he said.
“There’s so much to do in Hobart, both at the festival and fringe events.”