As so-called Black Friday draws near (it’s this Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day in the US), a cutting-edge Australian museum has emphatically rejected the retail frenzy that Black Friday implies, by holding its own rival sales event a day earlier – backed by a giant poo machine.
In the name of capitalism and art, Mona’s ‘Brown Thursday’ campaign will see shoppers forced to endure a livestream of the museum’s much-maligned poo machine, Cloaca Professional, in order to nab a bargain from the Mona Shop.
To be broadcast live from within the museum tomorrow (Thursday 25 November, Thanksgiving Day in the US) this streamed shopping event has all the makings of a high-end fashion campaign, albeit with a defecating artwork as its centrepiece.
In countries with a British heritage, Black Friday has for years been a nickname for Friday the 13th. In the US, however, it’s a colloquial term for the Friday following Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving being a federal holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November – which this year falls tomorrow, 25 November.
The following day, Black Friday, sees many American stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices. Black Friday has been the busiest shopping day of the year in the US since at least 2005.
Retailers in Australia have jumped on the bandwagon and the ads are already flowing, though Australia hasn’t yet gone so far as to adopt Thanksgiving Day.
Cloaca Professional (detail)
This year, Mona, the stunning museum of old and new art near Hobart, is getting in a day early with Brown Thursday tomorrow. As per its regular routine, Cloaca Professional will be fed at 11am coinciding with a palate-cleansing starter deal unveiled to shoppers. More deals will be unlocked as the day’s meal progresses through Cloaca’s digestive system.
As Mona puts it: “The final and biggest offer will be revealed (painstakingly, letter-by-letter) whilst Cloaca Professional shits itself. The generous tail-end discount code will be valid for a limited time only post-poo.”
Brown Thursday discounts and other deals will be applied to select items from across the Mona Shop, including the store’s wild novelty soap, museum apparel and other gifts. The soap, modelled on the female pudenda, has a startling name and appearance – peruse it on shop.mona.net.au if you dare. Brace yourself!
Shoppers with a weak stomach can enjoy an 11% discount from 9am ‘Brown Thursday’ (Thursday 25 November) through to midnight Cyber Monday (Monday 29 November).
Cloaca Professional is the work of Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye. Mimicking the human digestive system, the elegantly designed Cloaca Professional is fed and maintained at body temperature, with the machine’s daily meals traveling through an organ-like mechanical and chemical assembly line. Cloaca Professional was commissioned by Mona’s founder, David Walsh, in 2010 and is the first of Delvoye’s ‘gastro-intestinal’ machines to enter a museum’s permanent collection.
Mona’s ‘Brown Thursday’ live shopping event will run from 11am–2pm on Thursday 25 November, via Facebook and Instagram.
To browse the Mona Shop, please visit: shop.mona.net.au
Written by Peter Needham
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