Mona Foma Invites the World to ‘the Tasmanian Queer Woodchop Championships’

Music and art festival Mona Foma—in partnership with Tourism Tasmania—is staging a live work by performance artists Pony Express on February 24.

And in anticipation of The Tasmanian Queer Woodchop Championships, The Glue Society has directed a film inviting all-comers to join in the festivities. 

Written by the Mona Foma in-house team, the film encourages visitors from far and wide to witness the fastest growing queer timber-splitting-based sport in action—in celebration of World Pride (Australia).

This only-in-Tasmania event, curated by Mona’s senior curator Emma Pike, brings together the classic form of the once male-dominated woodchopping competition with joyous queerness in a spectacle of flying wood and fabulousness.

Created and produced by experimental performance duo Pony Express—Ian Sinclair and Loren Kronemyer—The Queer Woodchop is what happens when you fuse LGBTQIA+ artists with a traditionally heteronormative sporting activity. The artwork will involve performers and timbersports athletes battling it out on a subverted agricultural show ring. 

Sarah Clark, CEO, Tourism Tasmania says ‘Tasmania is the perfect place where art, woodchopping and queer inclusivity can spectacularly collide. Tourism Tasmania is delighted to partner with Mona Foma to support this artwork and provide a compelling excuse for WorldPride festival-goers to visit the state.’

The film promoting the event was directed by The Glue Society’s Pete Baker—alongside a crew predominantly featuring members from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Pete says: ‘It’s a film and event that taps into what it means to be outrageously, subversively and gloriously queer, celebrating the community in a way that isn’t tokenistic—and shows what it really means to be proud of who we are.’

The Queer Woodchop takes place on Friday 24 February on the Mona Tennis Court, nipaluna / Hobart.