'Vibrating with life': Christian Orthodox icons in Australia's prestigious Museum of Old and New Art

Jane Clark is the Senior Research Curator at the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania's city of Hobart. She talks to SBS Greek about Mona's new exhibition 'Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox World'

Royal Doors with the Annunciation, Albania or Northern Greece, 16th century, Onoufrios of Neokastro (active 16th century)

'Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox World is the first exhibition at Mona comprising only old art and the largest ever showing in Australia of jewel-like icons and related treasures—dating from around 1350 to 1900.

More than 140 devotional objects depicting saints, virgins, and other Christian holy subjects will together reveal centuries of spiritual and aesthetic tradition.

Charting a journey rich in universally human emotion, the exhibition intersects with Mona’s interest in what drives behaviour and the ultimate biological motivation for things we earthbound beings do.

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Mona's Senior Research Curator Jane Clark on exhibition 'Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox world'

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Heavenly Beings explores the continuity and vitality of icon painting, largely in Russia, Crete, and mainland Greece, in subjects vibrating with life against shimmering gold leaf surrounds.

A number of Ethiopian, Egyptian, Syrian, Balkan, and Palestinian icons are vivid reminders of other traditions that have flourished throughout the far-flung but interconnected Orthodox world while retaining their distinctive local histories and meanings.

The circular design of the exhibition is suggestive of a sacred space, hinting at ritual, procession, and contemplation.

Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox World / Mona/Jesse HunnifordImage Courtesy Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Most have never been on public display in Australia before, offering a rare look at works that may be unfamiliar, yet evocative, to visitors.

As well as painted icons, there are exquisite silver crosses, portable altars, holy books, and an 18th-century pilgrim’s ‘memento map’, the personalised souvenir of one devout man’s journey to the Holy Sepulchre inside the walled City of Jerusalem.