Dark Park & Mayonaize

Flames fuel the final breath of Dark Mofo at the burning of the Ogoh-Ogoh. Paraded through the street, the Indonesian sculpture is followed by a rugged up throng of festival-goers from Parliament Lawns to Dark Park. Musical support is given by Itchy-O the American 32-piece percussion orchestra as people shout, sing and dance their way in a winding procession through Hobart. The Ogoh-Ogoh, a paper mache sea dragon sculpture, is an Indonesian tradition to ease our fears, as thousands of people placed these fears, written on notes, inside the idol before it is set to flame.

Coming to rest in the centre of Dark Park, the Ogoh-Ogoh sits before a giant red neon arch proclaiming "FEAR EATS THE SOUL" and is set on fire, a symbol of the ousting of our terrors and daily demons.

Dark Park is a large industrial addition to this year's Dark Mofo. Taking up several blocks including parts of the University of Tasmania's Fine Art School, the free event is a celebration of spectacle. Walking through the underpass of the school visitors are able to use virtual reality headsets. Through the large gates that proclaimed we were at 'Dark Park', 600 metres of red LED strips guided punters through the rabbit warren of the industrial estate, with the occasional spurts of flame from several tall metallic pyramids the only occasional source of light. Walking through a series of roaming spotlights in a pitch-black room the crowd winds its way into the House Of Mirrors. Exploring the halls of mirrors you are suddenly plunged into a maze of uncertainty, unable to find your way in or out. In the centre of the hall on the last night a single cello player crouches, covered by a dark cloak, their image reflecting thousand-fold through the corridors of people, the full moon visible through the open roof.

"Is this the exit?" A woman asks up ahead, to which the MONA staffer nods and opens a door slowly, as he closes it behind us we hear "We've got eight more." And then we are all alone, the eight of us in a single brightly lit room of mirrors, with no noticeable door, and we PANIC. Finally finding a large mirror that pushes open, we successfully escape into the next maze.

Mayonaize is a shipping container labyrinth partnership between maze-makers Tasmazia and intricate text-based graffiti artist Mayo. As we get there out front there are graffiti artists Rone and Jamin building an intricate mural across the face of one large container. Winding your bodies through dozens of turnstiles and shipping containers in an industrial estate in the freezing black night you eventually come to the heart of the labyrinth. Inside a door you find yourself in one huge room, hastily constructed out of glass and plywood. A young kid walks up to Mayo and asks for him to write his name. "What's your name? Alex? That's pretty difficult, you're going to have to come here and help me spell it." Mayo brings over a small step ladder and letter by letter adds Alex's name in tiny intricate calligraphy with his spray can. The room is floor to roof covered in this floral white script on red glass. What Dark Park does for the festival is create a free and open space to delight, frustrate and challenge all members of the public, with live music and food vans it's one incredibly successful addition to the oeuvre of art created during the festival. In the same day that they destroy words in a great burning of their idols, they save them on a wall for safe-keeping.