New role for this little Fokker

After its final flight across Australia a QantasLink Fokker F100 jet aircraft has a new home at Shellharbour Airport, where it will begin a new chapter with the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS).

The recently retired 100-seat aircraft has been donated by QantasLink to HARS, where it will join its collection of aircraft as a public exhibit.

VH-NPU “Meekatharra” is the second aircraft to be donated to HARS, with another QantasLink F100 domated to its Parkes Museum in February.

Meekatharra will sit alongside Qantas’ first Boeing 747- 400, VH-OJA, that was donated by the Australian flag carrier in 2015. City of Canberra arrived at HARS following 26 years of service and is one of the museum's most visited attractions.

QantasLink’s fleet of F100s are being replaced by Embraer E190 aircraft to improve reliability, fuel efficiency and customer comfort. The first E190 is expected to arrive in Perth next month.

Meekatharra began flying for QantasLink in December 2016 and was the final F100 to be added to the fleet. The aircraft has flown more than 11,250 hours for QantasLink, carrying around a million passengers across regional Western Australia.

HARS President and chief pilot Bob De La Hunty said: “We're honoured that QantasLink has entrusted HARS with another important piece of Australian aviation history.

“Meekatharra will help tell the story of the aircraft that connected regional communities and supported industry across Western Australia.

“Our volunteers are passionate about keeping these stories alive and giving visitors the opportunity to experience these remarkable aircraft up close.”

* VH-NPU joined the QantasLink fleet in 2016 and prior to that it flew for American Airlines and Austrian Airlines. It recorded 9 million kilometres and 7,543 flights flown for QantasLink.

Tribute to Springsteen: New edifice is born to run

Fans of Bruce Springsteen will want to note that the new Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music at Monmouth University opens next month.

The Springsteen Center will be officially inaugurated on June 13 on the college campus in New Jersey. 

The 30,000-square-foot structure is largely inspired by Springsteen's music and includes a 240-seat theatre for intimate performances.

The Center promises to "preserve the legacy of Bruce Springsteen and celebrates the history of American music and its diversity of artists and genres". 

As the home of the Bruce Springsteen Archives, the Center serves as the official repository for materials related to Springsteen and the E Street Band, including photographs, historic memorabilia, and oral histories. 

The Center also explores American music more broadly by producing exhibitions, concerts, and educational programming that interprets and honours the cultural impact of American music past, present, and future.

The collection consists of thousands of rare photographs, documents, recordings, artefacts, and more related primarily to Springsteen and The E Street Band.

It stands just a short walk from the New Jersey shore where Springsteen wrote Born to Run.

Robert Santelli, the centre’s founding executive director, said the building places Springsteen within the wider story of American music rather than treating him in isolation. 

Recalling the moment he first put the proposal to the musician, Santelli said Springsteen told him he would prefer to be seen as a chapter in that ongoing story.

See https://springsteencenter.org/

We have Mercier: Meet MONA's new installation

 

The latest art blockbuster at Tasmania's ground-breaking MONA opens this morning.

Théo Mercier, French artist and stage director, presents an immense sand sculpture inhabiting MONA's  former library space.

Created in situ from sand and water, MIRRORSCAPE depicts a debris-strewn landscape evoking the aftermath of disaster. It will be on display for a whole year.

Mercier’s site-specific installation is a new work commissioned by MONA, and its presentation is his first time exhibiting in Australia.

MIRRORSCAPE draws inspiration from the detritus of the island and sites where nature and human production collide, as well as local rock formations that have been altered over time -transformed by wind, water runoff and waves.

The multi-layered sculpture "explores a tension between erasure and erosion, the scene corroding our sense of time and scale," Mercier says: ‘The earth shuffles and trembles. It is a collection of catastrophes and its surface bears witness to the natural and political changes - and cataclysms - that pass through it.

"In this work devastation finds itself petrified in the stone, as if we opened a mountain here in Tasmania and discovered the great fossil of a disaster.

"We don’t know whether this would have happened in the past or if it’s a foreshadowing of the near future. MIRRORSCAPE is a conflict suspended in time, quarantined inside a panoramic cell that recalls the scientific laboratory or a vivarium. It is something to be studied at a distance.’

MONA curator Sarah Wallace says: ‘Crafted entirely from Tasmanian sand, Théo's work is a reflection of the fragile and temporary nature of the world around us, and of life itself. I hope visitors will be drawn in by the intricate detail in this captivating installation, while considering the questions he raises about our ecological predicament.’

Théo Mercier is a sculptor and stage director, who lives and works in Paris.

See mona.net.au

Khe Sanh half a century on

"I left my heart to the sappers round Khe Sanh

And my soul was sold with my cigarettes to the black-market man"

- Khe Sanh, Cold Chisel

--

"I had a brother at Khe Sanh

Fighting off them Viet Cong

They're still there, he's all gone'

- Born in the USA, Bruce Springsteen

It looks just like many other small country towns in the highland of Vietnam; slow paced, surrounded by untamed terrain but modern and full of noisy motor bikes. 

We are around 10km from the border with Laos.

At the local market there are unfortunate chickens tightly packed into metal cages, awaiting their fate. Ready to be purchased, slaughtered and plucked on the spot.

There are songbirds in tiny wooden cages. You would like to release them, but they would not survive out of captivity.

But sudden death is not uncommon in these parts. The small town’s name is known around the world: Khe Sanh.

Just take a drive of around 2km from the main street of the capital of Qung Tri Province – there are no signposts that I could see – and you will find yourself at what the locals call San Bay Ta Con.

Khe Sanh Combat Base was a United States Marine Corps outpost just south of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and a key battleground during the Vietnam War (which the Vietnamese call the American War).

Khe Sanh occupies a key spot on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of roads and trails that ran from North Vietnam to South Vietnam including border regions of Laos and Cambodia.

It was a route used to move supplies and reinforcements from the north into the south via 
Laos, which the Americans and their allies wanted to halt.

The Battle of Khe Sanh ran from January 21-July 9, 1968, with US forces defending their combat base against the North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN).

The base was subjected to artillery, mortar, and rocket attacks, and several infantry assaults, placing it under siege.

The Royal Australian Air Force No 2 Squadron took part in daylight bombing operations around the base, occasionally also flying night missions.

After many bloody battles, the base was eventually evacuated and largely destroyed. The Battle of Khe Sanh was widely believed to have played a major role in distracting US forces from the crucial Tet Offensive that foreshadowed the end of the war.

The defenders’ losses were reported to be about 1,000 killed and 4,500 wounded, with North Vietnamese casualties believed to be far higher, but unsubstantiated.

Small parts of the Khe Sanh runways survive and there are munitions, several tanks and helicopters and transport aircraft captured from fleeing US forces a half a century ago that lie scattered around the former base.

A Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Boeing CH-47 Chinook and a Bell UH-1 Iroquois are all on display.

You can walk through some remaining tunnels of the base, peer through the firing slits in the camouflaged bunkers, even jump onto one of the tanks for a happy snap.

Many of the few Australian and US visitors visiting on this October day do. 

But this is a melancholy place, eerily quiet, with barely a bird to be heard. The same is true
of Dachau and other places where bad things happened.

Much of the fertile red soil surrounding the base is now used for agriculture: coffee plants thrive here, as do avocadoes. Green peppers, sugar cane, passionfruit, and taro leaves (similar to spinach) are also grown here. 

But much of what used to be Khe Sanh military base is now simply overgrown. Reclaimed by nature.

There is a lady serving Ta Lu Khe Sanh coffee at the only concession kiosk. It is rather good.

She tries to convince me to take some home. 

The coffee beans are grown by members of two ethnic minority tribes in Huong Phung and Hương Tan.

The lack of mass tourism means the only seller of trinkets we see is selling pieces of shrapnel, and some bullets that may, or may not, be real.

While the outdoor exhibits are at the mercy of the elements and look a little down-at-heel, the small on-site museum is well maintained with commentary from one viewpoint. To the victor the spoils.

Not far from Khe Sanh you can also visit the Vinh Moc Tunnel, the tunnel shelters that Vinh 
Linh people used to hide from the intense bombing in the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone, and other battlefields.

Strangely, while the name Khe Sanh may be known to just about every Australian, many young Vietnamese have never heard of the town or the battle. Several people I spoke to in Hanoi and Da Nang gave me blank looks when I mentioned it. 

There are a few small hotels in Khe Sanh town where visitors can stay - including the Hotel Thai Ninh and The Khe Sanh Luxury Hotel (both have rooms for $20-30 a night and get decidedly mixed reviews) - along with several decent eateries.

Most tourists, however, take a day trip or tour from either the former capital of Hue (around 2 ½ hours by car), or from Da Nang, where the Pullman Da Nang Beach is excellent place to stay. See https://www.pullman-danang.com/

He paid his own way to Khe Sanh with Connect Travel, which conducts bespoke group and individual tours to both Khe Sanh and the DMZ. https://connecttravel.vn/en/product-category/tours/ 

# All images by Winsor Dobbin. This is an edited version of a story that appeared in Explore magazine. https://www.exploretravel.com.au/explore-magazine/ 

Apocalyptic sandscape revealed as MONA's next scene stealer

Acclaimed French artist Théo Mercier has been unveiled as the man behind the next major installation at Hobart’s MONA museum.

Mercier, 40, is a contemporary sculptor and stage director who splits his time between Paris and Mexico City.

He is about to begin construction on an immense sand sculpture that will inhabit MONA's former library space.

To be created in situ from sand and water, DARK TOURISM will depict a debris-strewn landscape evoking the aftermath of disaster. It will open for viewing in February, 2025.

MONA owner and founder David Walsh says: "When Théo was last in Hobart he said he was 'going for a walk.' He walked to the top of kunanyi (Mount Wellington). He’s back, and he’ll be doing something just as mad at MONA."

Mercier’s site-specific installation will be a new work commissioned by MONA and its presentation will be his first time exhibiting in Australia. 

The installation will take inspiration from the notion of ‘dark tourism’: our human propensity to seek out and travel to places associated with suffering and death. 

Tourists have long made visits to sites charged with history’s grim residue, from Pompeii to Auschwitz, the catacombs of Paris to the Cambodian killing fields, Hiroshima to Ground Zero, and Tasmania’s Port Arthur, the MONA team points out. 

DARK TOURISM is also a commentary on earth’s changing climate and its impact on the environment and humanity. 

Visitors to MONA are promised a scene reminiscent of the wake of a hurricane, landslide or tsunami. 

"Crafted entirely from Tasmanian sand, Théo's work is a reminder of the fragile and temporary nature of the world around us, and of life itself," says MONA curator Sarah Wallace. 

"I hope visitors will be drawn in by the intricate detail in this captivating installation, while reflecting on the questions he raises about how we cope with catastrophe."

 

A recent Mercier sandscape in Prague

Mercier asks: "What does it mean to sculpt catastrophe, or to construct collapse? 

"Like others who have painted ruins in the past, DARK TOURISM is about sculpting contemporary ruins, which are also natural disasters. 

"Faced with this frozen landscape, humans find themselves at the heart of the devastation, as spectators and consumers. 

"But there's something contradictory about this project, something romantic and utopian at the same time. Because the sand allows the world to tremble and shuffle itself in infinite figures."

Théo Mercier: DARK TOURISM will run at MONA from Saturday, February 15, 2025, until Monday, February 16, 2026. 

Images: Jérôme Lobato, and Gut city punch, 2023, French Pavillon, Prague Quadrennial, Ondrej Pribyl

You know you are an icon when a museum devotes an exhibition to you

Taylor Swift is officially a pop culture icon.

The Museum of Arts and Design in New York is to present Taylor Swift: Storyteller, a career-spanning look at the artistic reinventions of the 12-time Grammy Award–winning songwriter and singer.

Opening on May 20, the exhibition will be on view exclusively at MAD through September 4, 2023.

Taylor Swift: Storyteller highlights include the cheerleader and ballerina ensembles from the award-winning music video for Shake It Off (2014); the red wedding dress and bellhop uniform from I Bet You Think About Me (2021) and the sparkling ensemble from Bejeweled (2022),

Concert attire by couture fashion houses will be featured along with props, jewelry and projections of music videos rounding out the exhibition.

“At MAD, fashion and the decorative have long been valued as a critical visual language and no one speaks that language quite like Taylor Swift,” says Alexandra Schwartz, the museum's curator of modern and vontemporary art, craft, and design.

“Whether dressed down in a flannel shirt and untamed hair or literally dazzling her audiences in head-to-toe Swarovski crystals, Taylor gives greater meaning to the palettes, textures, and depths of feeling expressed in her songwriting.”

OK. Alexandra is obviously a huge fangirl.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of public programs and events inspired by Swift's fan base: from video and film screenings to karaoke singalongs.

Additionally, The Store at MAD will stock a curated selection of Taylor Swift merchandise, from apparel to accessories. That was a given. This is the US after all. The dollar is king.

Tickets for the exhibition cost $US25 per person. For more information, visit madmuseum.org.

Museum to honour Kiwi soldiers to open in France

A new $15 million museum will open in Le Quesnoy, France, in October, to commemorate the New Zealand soldiers who liberated the town from four years of German occupation during World War One.

The museum will be the first in European for Kiwi soldiers who died on the continent during the war, and will be called the New Zealand Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata. 

"The museum will be Aotearoa's tūrangawaewae on the Western Front," said Sir Don McKinnon, chairperson of the New Zealand Memorial Museum Trust (NZMMT).

"It will be a memorial that commemorates the approximately 12,500 New Zealanders who died in France and Belgium during World War One."

Te Arawhata will open officially on October 11.

Its name means "the ladder" in te reo Māori, after the way Kiwi soldiers used a ladder to scale the town's walls on November 4, 1918.

It also refers to a "pathway to higher things, which enables learnings from the past to be used to reflect on the price and value of freedom and the importance of friendship to support a better future", a statement announcing the museum's opening said.

"It will be a place that honours our past, highlights the importance World War One continues to hold, and tells the extraordinary stories of Kiwi men and women who served in Europe," McKinnon said.

He said allied nations including Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, and the US built commemorative museums in Europe after the first World War, but New Zealand has never had one.

The museum will feature an "immersive storytelling experience" from Wētā Workshop to highlight those stories.

"Visitors will experience a mix of cinematic, sensory, and emotive environments," said Andrew Thomas, senior creative director at Wētā Workshop.

"They will be able to immerse themselves in the dramatic storytelling, sculptural artworks, soundscapes, and projections to connect on an emotional level and remember the people involved in what is a hugely significant event."

Among the exhibits will be a giant "hyper-realistic" soldier.

A number of place names in the town are inspired by the connection between Le Quesnoy and New Zealand, including the Place des All Blacks and the Avenue des Néo-Zélandais.

Le Quesnoy is in northern France, less than three hours from Paris near the Belgian border. 

The town railway station is a one-hour train journey from Lille TGV train station. Lille is a one-hour TGV train ride from Paris and less than 1.5 hours on Eurostar from London.

The New Zealand Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata is located in a renovated mansion house which was the former mayoral residence and later the headquarters of the local Gendarmerie (French Police). The NZMMT purchased the building in 2017 and have been renovating it over the past two years.

Full details of the museum project and fundraising efforts can be found at nzliberationmuseum.com

Where to unleash your inner ninja warrior

One Japanese city is hoping to boost tourism by promoting the region's links with Ninja warriors.

A ninja was a covert agent, mercenary, or guerrilla warfare expert in feudal Japan. 

These black-cloaked figures were believed to possess superhuman powers and were masters of a style of Japanese martial arts known as ninjitsu.

 

Some legends say they were capable of invisibility, teleportation and shapeshifting. 

Now the tourism association of Iga, a city in Mie prefecture known for its historical ties with ninja, has launched a program to give tourists the feeling of being a ninja themselves.

The plan will see replicas of items from the local Iga-ryu Ninja Museum (above) displayed in in hotel rooms, along with artworks depicting ninja, the Washington Post reports.

The Iga-Ueno Tourist Association, which runs the museum, has named the program Ninpak, a play on the words ninja and minpaku, the latter of which refers to a private lodging.

Under the program, shuriken throwing stars and other ninja tools will be exhibited in hotels.

The first hotel to join the program is the Iga Ueno City Hotel, which has prepared three guest rooms that meet the program’s standards.

The program is being jointly operated by the association and Fujiya Co., a Kyoto-based company specializing in planning and producing display projects that was in charge of refurbishing the museum.

So if ninja weapons such as shuriken stars and makibishi caltrops (sharp, spiked weapons) are your thing then you might be interested. Just don't get drunk and start throwing them around.

“Tourists from Europe love our ninja rooms," says Iga Ueno City Hotel manager Kazuhiro Matsumoto. "Now that the rooms have become more attractive with ninja tool exhibits, I think the rooms will be very popular.”

Indigenous culture on display in Wagga Wagga

There is a new reason to visit the Museum of the Riverina in Wagga Wagga with the opening of the new Wiradyuri Gallery at the Botanic Gardens site.

Seven significant cultural objects from the Australian Museum's First Nations collection will be on display as a highlight of the gallery's offering.

The seven objects, a parrying shield, a shovel and five clubs, have a deep connection to the area as they were all collected around the 1860s on Ganmain Station on Wiradjuri/Wiradyuri Country.

The selection of the long-term loan objects was undertaken in consultation with the Wagga Wagga-based Indigenous Reference Group Mawang Gaway, chaired by Aunty Isabel Reid.

Wiradjuri/Wiradyuri Elder Aunty Cheryl Penrith said: “I am honoured to be a part of the return of these significant cultural objects from the Ganmain collection held at the Australian Museum back to the Museum of the Riverina on Wiradjuri/Wiradyuri Country.

“I acknowledge and pay respect Yindyamarra to our ancestors. The Elders involved in the process are extremely proud and excited these significant objects will be on display and home on Wiradjuri/Wiradyuri Country. Thank you Yindyamarra.”

The redeveloped Museum of the Riverina opens to the public at the end of the month.

Laura McBride, director, First Nations, Australian Museum, a Wailwan and Kooma woman, said these objects travelling back to Country is part of the Australian Museum’s commitment to facilitating long-term loans to communities and regional museums to increase accessibility for Aboriginal peoples to their cultural objects.

"Undertaking long-term loans is a way in which we can return objects back on Country, so they are more easily accessible to their communities,” McBride said.

“When museums loan objects, they also support the conservation, display and research of the objects. Through the loan of objects, museums also help regional museums that might not have the resources of the major cultural institutions.

“It’s so special these objects are going home; I look forward to seeing them displayed on their own Country and interpreted by their own peoples when the new gallery opens.”

See https://museumriverina.com.au/

MONA unveils a special treat for Tasmanians

Tasmanians are being encouraged to raid David Walsh’s private wine bunker with a new MONA experience unveiled for locals for a limited time. 

From Saturday, September 25, Tasmanian residents can indulge in a decadent day out at the museum, with special access to artworks, top-notch wine and live music. 

Walsh sums the deal up as an "‘Locals-only VIP-ish day of art and overly expensive wine that we need to get rid of’ experience". 

Guests will begin the day rising to MONA in style, with return ferry travel and bottomless bubbles in the MONA ROMA Posh Pit. 

On site, guests are granted exclusive entry to James Turrell’s transportive Event Horizon (currently only open to Faro diners) and can explore the museum’s extensive collection as well as the current exhibition, CRONE by Sally Rees. 

In the afternoon, visitors are invited to MONA's fine-dining restaurant, The Source, for an hour-long wine tasting session at 2.45pm. 

With borders closed, Walsh's personal cellar has been left languishing, so MONA is encouraging locals to do their bit and drink him dry. 

MONA's sommeliers have hand-selected some of the finest and fanciest wines from the boss's booze collection, exclusively for Mona’s home state VIP-ish guests. 

Later, guests will head back into the museum for the performance by Dean Stevenson of his 4pm project in the Void Bar.

Pip Anderson, the hospitality operations manager at MONA says: ‘With very few mainlanders able to visit, it’s time for us locals to live it up. I’m not one to let a good wine go to waste, so we’re cracking some of the seriously good stuff for our Tassie mates. 

"Come on down and help us put a dent in David’s collection—you’d be doing us a favour. David certainly can’t drink it all by himself, though I know he’s tried."

Costing very fair $83, the Locals-only VIP-ish experience is available exclusively to Tasmanian residents on Saturdays only, and for a limited time (Tasmanian ID is required on site). 

The package includes museum entry (already free for locals), the fancy wine tasting experience, Event Horizon entry fee, return Posh Pit ferry travel and a drink from the Void Bar. 

The experience will run every Saturday for five weeks (Saturday September 25–October 23), with only 44 tickets available on each date.

For more information or to make a booking visit: https://buy.mona.net.au/localsonly 

# Locals tell me tickets sold out within a couple of hours  

Kyoto is calling all Nintendo fans

Japanese electronics and video game company Nintendo has unveiled plans to convert one of its former factories into the world’s first Nintendo museum. 

The Nintendo Uji Ogura Plant in Kyoto, which is to be the site of the new museum, is one of Nintendo’s older factories. 

Constructed in 1969, the Uji Ogura Plant was used to make playing cards and hanafuda cards, a traditional game played in Japan and throughout Asia that is sometimes referred to as “the battle of the flowers” for its floral designs, as well as for product repairs, Travel Mole reported. 

The building has been empty since its functions were transferred to a new Uji plant in 2016.

Nintendo, which began as a producer of playing cards in 1889, has achieved success with its game consoles as well as with the Mario, Legend of Zelda and Pokémon media franchises.

In 2020 Nintendo was named Japan’s richest company. 

The release of the new game Animal Crossing, New Horizons coincided with the pandemic lockdown, which contributed to record sales of the Nintendo Switch handheld gaming system. 

Profits increased by 34% as the company earned over $16 billion in sales.

Pokémon playing cards have also found renewed interest during the pandemic, with a rare sealed Pokémon card set fetching $408,000 at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas.

The museum, tentatively titled the Nintendo Gallery, will showcase the company’s historic products as well as related exhibits and game experiences. It is scheduled to open in 2024, Nintendo said in a press release.

Enjoy some museum wines in the heart of a museum

Fancy a night at the South Australian Museum, some fine older wines and some good tunes? 

Bottles of wine are being brought up from cellars and dusted off in preparation for the pop-up event RESERVED wine at the South Australian Museum on Friday, June 25.

No fewer than 15 South Australian wineries will be serving reserved, museum release, back-vintage, cellar-door-only and hard-to-find wines from 5.30pm to 8.30pm.

Listen to tunes from a local DJ while you sip wines from Bec Hardy Wines and Pertaringa, Bleasdale, Chateau Yaldara and 1847 Wines, Gatt Wines, Hentley Farm, Kirrihill, Karrawatta, Knappstein Wines, Levrier by Jo Irvine, Loom Wine, Schild Estate Wines, The Pawn Wine Co., Thistledown Wine Company, Woodstock Wines and Zonte's Footstep while enjoying exhibits in the Mammals and Pacific Cultures Galleries.

Chief executive of the South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) Brian Smedley says he is excited to be hosting pop-up wine events again.

“We’re thrilled to once again be able to bring a selection of South Australia’s best wineries from our regions to the CBD after a brief event hiatus due to COVID restrictions,” he said.

Bec Hardy will be pouring the 2016 Pertaringa Over the Top shiraz.

“This wine acknowledges the very best site, climate, vines and production techniques, hence its name,” she says. “The 2016 museum release showcases how amazingly well this McLaren Vale shiraz develops with a few years in the cellar.”

To accompany aged drops will be tasty bites served up by the team at the South Australian Museum. Food is included in the ticket price which is $20 + booking fee. This also gets you a Great Wine Capital wine glass to keep and two tasting tokens to be redeemed by any of the wineries.

Once your tasting tokens have been redeemed, wine will be available for purchase directly from the wineries by the half-glass, the glass, the bottle or to be packaged and taken home.

RESERVED is presented by the South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) and Adelaide a Great Wine Capital of the World, and celebrates 2021 the Year of South Australian Wine.

Visit  www.eventbrite.com.au/e/reserved-wine-at-the-south-australian-museum-tickets-156024925753 to book your RESERVED ticket.