Eighty tonnes of sand and junk: why Mona’s latest exhibition is destined to collapse in front of our eyes

Mirrorscape, an intricate sand sculpture by French artist Théo Mercier, is a ghostly scene of decay that resembles the aftermath of a disaster – or perhaps ‘a fossil from the future’Get our weekend culture and lifestyle emailThéo Mercier, the French visual artist, choreographer and stage director, has spent months in Tasmania taking photos of junk.In Mirrorscape, an exhibition that opened on the weekend at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), he and an international team of expert sculptors – Kevin Crawford, Enguerrand David, Sue McGrew and Leonardo Ugolini – used 80 tonnes of compacted sand to recreate the scenes of decay and detritus he found, serving them as a mirror of our own ruin. It’s a ghostly scene of domestic, environmental and industrial decay in still life, and it’s beautiful. Continue reading...

Feb 17, 2025 - 15:14
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Eighty tonnes of sand and junk: why Mona’s latest exhibition is destined to collapse in front of our eyes

Mirrorscape, an intricate sand sculpture by French artist Théo Mercier, is a ghostly scene of decay that resembles the aftermath of a disaster – or perhaps ‘a fossil from the future’

Théo Mercier, the French visual artist, choreographer and stage director, has spent months in Tasmania taking photos of junk.

In Mirrorscape, an exhibition that opened on the weekend at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), he and an international team of expert sculptors – Kevin Crawford, Enguerrand David, Sue McGrew and Leonardo Ugolini – used 80 tonnes of compacted sand to recreate the scenes of decay and detritus he found, serving them as a mirror of our own ruin. It’s a ghostly scene of domestic, environmental and industrial decay in still life, and it’s beautiful. Continue reading...