Veronika Wild

As we hurtle towards the solstice it’s time for Hobbits and Hobartians to venture out of their holes, cold. dark and scary though it may be. Dark Mofo is on. Haven’t seen much of it so far, though thanks to my daughter we did go out to Doctor Sketchy’s Anti -Art School on Wednesday night and last night our lovely neighbours lured us out into "A Forest” another Dark Mofo event.  So what's a Dr. Sketchy Anti Art School?  I’ll begin with Dr. Sketchy’ s. There are now hundreds of these around the world from Ireland to Antarctica. They were begun by illustrator and former artist’s model Molly Crabapple and illustrator A.V. in the Lucky Cat café in Brooklyn in 2005. Tired of the usual still life exercises involving boring bowls of fruit and static models, they injected some life into the proceedings by adding flamboyant characters such as burlesque dancers and freak show performers, not to mention ample glasses of wine and a few art based games.  Tonight's Star ...

  Dark Mofo – Tasmania’s Winter Festival Primaeval hearts beat in the dark of winter. It’s hard to be blue when the town is painted red. There’s music, feasting, fire and art. This year Dark Mofo runs from June 8 – 21. Check out the program here  Incredible laser light show to music Worship of a different kind - music to uplift the soul The Ogoh Ogoh rides again, this time in the form of a Tasmanian Tiger, to carry off your regrets and consign them to the fire

Winter has come to Tasmania with a vengeance. Today there’s snow to 400m and before that we had heavy rain and screaming winds for a week. In the north of the state they had the worst flooding in 85 years. It gets dark at 4.30 p.m. Despite the temptation to hibernate, preferably in bed to keep warm, it is our first fine evening in quite a while, so mustering all my courage and my Nepali jacket - they know a thing or two about cold in Nepal, I head downtown to experience a bit of Dark Mofo. Now in it’s fourth year, Dark Mofo is Tasmania’s winter festival inspired by M ONA ’s themes of death, darkness and sex. How better to fight the cold and the dark than in true pagan tradition with fire, food and fellowship? The Sheraton definitely looks better like this     The theme colours of red and black glow from city buildings as I make my way into town. In Dark Park, one of the venues, triangular obelisks spew forth flames at regular intervals lighting up...