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Days after the controversial Dark Mofo art show featuring a bull's carcase being torn apart, the festival's parent MONA and its founder David Walsh is still the target of public anger over the event.
But a key player in the performance, titled 150.Action, has defended the show and challenged opponents to it to question their beliefs, while admitting the three-hour ordeal took its toll on her.
WARNING: this story contains graphic images
The performance, directed by Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch, took place on Saturday in a warehouse in Hobart's CBD, and included mock crucifixions set to music, culminating in a frenzied squabble by blood-soaked participants writhing in the entrails from a freshly slaughtered bull carcase.
An online petition calling for the performance to be aborted, a "no, thank you" from Tasmania's Premier and an animal rights rally outside the venue on day of the performance failed to halt the show.
Audience member Tabitha was one of many who did not last until the end, saying it was "two hours I will never get back" as she left.
But Paul said the spectacle was definitely "worth the wait", although it was "very slow, (with) lot's of blood".
The Facebook page of MONA has been bombarded by angry members of the public voicing their disapproval - although none said they had attended the show.
"Sick bastards slaughtering animals and covering yourselves in blood ... you don't deserve to be allowed to open your doors," thundered Maxine. "You are a disgrace to humanity and an insult to true artists."
"This business is utter filth, allowing people to slaughter and smother the insides of a bull on themselves, kids too. AND THEY CALL IT ART!!! WHAT THE ACTUAL F***!!?!" said Bec.
"Disappointing. Wouldn't recommend it. Making a spectacle out of killing animals is not art," wrote Angela.
A day after the show, Nitsch was reported as telling the audience at a discussion event that "many people understand my work, many people don't. That's normal".
Show participant tells of ordeal, blasts critics
Emma Lancaster, a paid performer, posted on social media that despite a few moments when she "wanted to tap out" she enjoyed taking part, and she thanked Nitsch "for the opportunity and experience".
Lancaster, who performs under the name Xothica, was photographed by her partner after the show, who described Lancaster as having "chunks of meat in her hair, still smells like a butcher, still has blood in her ears and is bruised from head-to-toe".
"It was a very uncomfortable few hours. I loved every minute of it and I'm so very glad I experienced it, but 'I can't take any more of this' did go through my head a few times," she said.
"I wanted to tap out, but instead screamed at the top of my lungs, clutched onto the [bull's] gaping sternum and just rode it out, literally riding the waves of human bodies and blood."
Lancaster said "as a meat eater and person who regularly wears leather and uses glue and plastic bags and all of those products derived from dead cow fat and skin, I find it mind-boggling that there are other animal consumers who have the cheek to complain about it".
"Pulling faces of disgust whilst I play in raw flesh, whilst they stand there wearing the finished product of leather on their feet.
"Every time we buy steak, leather products, milk, dairy...we are funding factory farming with our money. I simply touched (well, bathed in) a cow that was already, and always, going to be dead.
"The smell and the thought of what happened to the animal had no effect on me, in terms of repulsion, because I accept reality and always have. I know the meat I eat is a cow; that it has blood and a face is no surprising thing to me.
"If it bothered me at all, I wouldn't eat it, and I suggest that those who ARE bothered by that reality should reconsider their diet and perhaps support veganism. I find that worthy of respect. Hypocrisy, I do not."
MONA boss Walsh unrepentant
MONA founder David Walsh was photographed leaving 150.Action in high sprits, which further enraged some opposed to the show.
Walsh defended the show in the lead up to the performance, describing the shock value of such performances as being good for MONA and, ultimately, Tasmania's tourism industry.
Nitsch, whom Walsh described in the lead-up to the Hobart show as "a great social artist", has used blood and animal entrails to explore the themes of ritual and sacrifice in his performance works for decades.
Walsh, who built MONA from the proceeds of his gambling operation, admitted before the show he had contemplated "whether Nitsch's performance is justified".
"If Nitsch's performance is wrong ... get out there and stop it. It won't be a disaster for Tassie, since it'll just generate a few headlines and a bunch of Facebook discussion," he said in April.
"But stopping Nitsch won't stop me doing the sort of self-serving, status-enhancing, biologically bound good that I do through MONA. You should be protesting that, too.
"And you also should have a crack at getting your own 'house in order' (as the Bible says)."
David Walsh has been approached to comment for this story.
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, contemporary-art, social-media, animal-welfare, livestock, hobart-7000
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