We ask curators why Northerners should see MONA's Namedropping exhibition (2024)

A original collection of Shakespeare plays published just six years after his death; handwritten lyrics for David Bowie's hit Star Man - just two of the over 200 artefacts featured in the Museum of Old and New Art's Namedropping exhibition that kicked off last week.

MONA curator and senior writer Luke Hortle says there's something for everyone in the exhibition, which runs until April next year.

"It's meant to be fun! It's designed that way," he says when asked why Launcestonians should travel down to see the display.

"We're exploring an idea from Mona's creator David Walsh, who said he wants to use this exhibition to figure out what status is and why it's useful, in a deep biological sense.

"Humans have evolved to seek status, it seems, and art appears to have played, continues to play, a fundamental role in our desire to look good in the eyes of others."

A clue to the meaning behind the project seems to be in the name - the exhibition drops big, eye-catching names associated with objects that are rarely seen in our island and may never return.

Some are nearly priceless, from Sir Isaac Newton's own first copy of his famous physics work and ceramic works by Pablo Picasso.

One piece that drops a lot of names is a cricket bat signed by the stars of 1980s cricket, from Greg Chappell and Dennis Lillee to Viv Richards and Abdul Qadir.

The helmet worn by Heath Ledger in the film Ned Kelly is another.

In his promotional material for Namedropping, MONA founder David Walsh asks why we are drawn to certain objects and people. What is status and why is it useful to us humans?

There's a hope among curators that the many exhibits will prompt thinking about why some objects are given meaning, and why us humans are drawn to status.

Is status the reason we started on this journey of art and creativity with those cave etchings thousands of the years ago?

There is interesting history attached to many of the pieces in Namedropping.

Take Australian artist Danius Kesminas' Post-traumatic Origami.

The piece is a compressed car wreckage sourced from the accident of art critic Robert Hughes in Western Australia in 1999.

Another piece is Shared Fate (Oliver) by Cornelia Parker. It's a simple doll that has been cut in half - by the very guillotine that struck off the head of Marie Antoinette in 1793.

Perhaps the funniest piece is Gordon Hookey's colourful A painting for the underdawg, where a dog is depicted driving a speeding car.

'I used to chase cars. They said if I caught one, would not know what to do with it,' is the text descriptor.

'F..k 'em. I juss wanna prove em wrong'.

If gaining status was the motive behind art, then is art about biology, or culture?

MONA senior writer Mr Hortle says ultimately it's up to viewers of 'Namedropping' to decide.

"We're presenting a joyous mish-mash of art and objects, and it's up to our visitors to make up their own minds about what they're looking at," he says.

He says MONA doesn't pick favourites, but there are important must-sees.

"If I had to pick a few, be sure to see Shared Fate (Oliver) by Cornelia Parker, which is a doll cut in half with the guillotine used to chop off Marie Antoinette's head," he says.

"Three enormous photographs from Taryn Simon's Paperwork and the Will of Capital, which recreate the floral centrepieces that sat on the tables when political agreements were signed by world leaders."

There is even a newly commissioned series by Indigenous artist Steven Rhall. Called Ideas of First Nations art practice, one piece features a billboard picturing the artist and the headline: 'Aboriginal Art? Better Call Rhall!'

"[There's] the helmet worn by Heath Ledger in the film Ned Kelly; things made by artworld names, from Marcel Duchamp and Francis Bacon to Elizabeth Peyton and Sylvie Fleury; and signed documents and rare books courtesy of total lightweights such as Einstein, Newton, Dickens, Darwin and Shakespeare," Mr Hortle says.

The exhibition began on June 14 and will remain until April 21 next year. The exhibition is included with museum entry.