The gambling enthusiast with an explosive character
In the belief he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, labelled as a high-functioning autism usually displaying above-average intelligence, Walsh studied maths at university whilst simultaneously discovering his passion for gambling. During this period, Walsh met Zeljko Ranogajec, today considered one of the most innovative black jack players in the world. Together, they created new challenges. The partners in crime descended on the gambling rooms and hippodromes, successively winning thanks to Walsh’s detailed mathematical equations. Banned from the Australian gambling scene, Macao, South Africa and even Korea become their new gambling hot-spots. Yet as Walsh’s wealth quickly amassed, his feelings of guilt grew deeper.
Role of the museum re-examined
Completely by accident, Walsh found his salvation in art. A winning of $20,000 in South Africa highlights the beginning of his new venture in 1992. Unable to leave the country with more money than when he arrived, Walsh bought a Yoruba door from a Nigerian palace, the first piece of his collection. A few years later, Walsh attempted to create his first museum in Tasmania, however visitors were seemingly disinterested and the project failed.
In January 2011, MONA Museum of Old and New Art opened in Hobart, challenging traditional intricacies of the museum setup. Walsh’s museum has made the space more accessible and less intimidating in the eyes of the public. At the entrance, visitors receive an iPod with a GPS system. As works of art are not labelled, the iPod locates the viewer to inform him or her of their surroundings in real time. The new technology named “O”, was developed especially for the museum. John Kaldor, member of the international committee for MoMa in New York, heralded the museum, cited in The New Yorker “MONA has been a watershed in the way that art is understood by the general public.” (The New Yorker, 2013).
Somewhere between sex and death
The estimated €78 million collection sits within 6000m2 of open space. Curators Olivier Varenne and Nicole Durling painstakingly constructed the layout with Walsh, where the varied collection coexists between sex and death. The explicit content of the museum is surprising. Wim Delvoye’s Cloaca machine, sculptures of women’s vaginas by Jamie McCartney mounted on the wall, a transmission of Boltanski’s life on repeat, 24 hours a day and an Egyptian sarcophagus dating to 600 B.C.E. Between the sarcophagus and suggestive photos, themes of sex and death are omnipresent in the museum.
