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Themes And Explanations Of Tasmania 's Museum Of Old And New Art 's New Exhibit ' The Red Queen

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THEORY ASSIGNMENT 2 AMY WHITE THE RED QUEEN EXHIBTION MONA “DELUXE SUICIDE SERVICE” By artist Meghan Broody “IF I HAD A WORLD OF MY OWN, EVERYTHING WOULD BE NONSENSE. NOTHING WOULD BE WHAT IT IS, BECAUSE EVERYTHING WOULD BE WHAT IT ISN 'T. AND CONTRARY WISE, WHAT IS, IT WOULDN 'T BE. AND WHAT IT WOULDN 'T BE, IT WOULD. YOU SEE?” ALICE - LEWIS CARROL (ALICE 'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND & THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS QUOTES, N.D.) This essay will explore the themes and explanations of Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art’s new exhibit ‘The Red Queen’ and a chosen piece, ‘Deluxe Suicide Service’, 1994; an intense mixed media sculpture by the artist Meghan Broody. Lewis Carrol was very creative in putting some order and sense in his …show more content…

The Red Queen’s character is seen as an antagonist, the opposing force to Alice’s adventures. Upon their first encounter in this story the queen explains the rules of her kingdom as like the rules of a game of chess, as a story and game of advancement and promotion. Alice is like a pawn piece and can move up the board in such a way that she too can become the queen, like as in chess the queen can move effortlessly in whatever manner she likes. The queen perturbs Alice into an endless run with Alice having no real direction of where she is heading and meeting other strange characters along the way which develops her idea of the impossible being possible. Elizabeth Pearce, a curator and writer for MONA states; “the Red Queen exhibition asks us to consider whether doing something without a seeming purpose is the product of us, or whether it actually contributes to changing us.”(The Red Queen arrives at MONA 2013) This exhibition, takes us into the realms of the science behind the theme. The evolutionary concept that in the earlier 20thcentury scientist’s believed there was an end point, a goal to the evolutionary process. A parallel story of Alice put forth this idea when the Red Queen tells Alice: “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”( The Red Queen Hypotheses n.d.) Then this

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