The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) announced today that one of the rarest, most valuable pieces of music ever created, the Wu-Tang Clan’s fabled Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, will be part of upcoming exhibition, Namedropping. For a limited time, visitors can see the album on display, with limited access to public listening events held in Mona’s Frying Pan Studios.
Jarrod Rawlins, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Mona, says:
Every once in a while, an object on this planet possesses mystical properties that transcend its material circumstances. ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ is more than just an album, so when I was thinking about status, and what a transcendent namedrop could be, I knew I had to get it into this exhibition.
‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ was recorded in secret over six years, and pressed onto a two-CD copy with the digital master files deleted. It was completed and put to auction in 2015—since then it has changed hands and is now owned by digital art collective Pleasr. The album is bound by a legal agreement with the purchaser, which stipulates that the album cannot be commercially exploited until 2103, although it can be played at private listening parties, only heard before by a handful of people around the world. The album’s appearance at Mona is the first time that the album has been loaned to a museum since the original sale.
A statement from Pleasr:
10 years ago, the Wu-Tang Clan had a bold vision to make a single copy album as a work of fine art. To “put it in an art gallery…make music become a living piece like a Mona Lisa or a sceptre from Egypt”. With this single work of art, the Wu-Tang Clan’s intention was to redefine the meaning of music ownership and value in a world of digital streaming and commodification of music Pleasr is honoured to partner with Mona to support RZA’s vision for ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’.
Visitors can experience a curated thirty minute mix from the album, played from a personalised Wu-Tang PlayStation 1 in Mona’s own recording studio—Frying Pan—by attending a listening event. Namedropping the Wu-Tang Clan will run twice daily, Friday-Monday, between 15-24 June 2024. Mona will release a limited number of free tickets for each event
Music fans will also be able to see original handwritten lyrics to David Bowie’s ‘Starman’, showing edits and spelling corrections. Purchased at auction by David Walsh in 2022, this piece of music history will make its debut at Mona in Namedropping. Walsh says: ‘I like David Bowie. If you like Bowie, it’s a pretty good bet you’ll like Mona. That’s why we namedrop.’
He adds: ‘So why might this rendition of only the lyrics (after all, it’s the performance that made it famous) be worth the £40,000 that the auction house estimated? Well, it makes the point about Namedropping, so it has come in handy for this exhibition.’
Running from 15 June 2024 until 21 April 2025, Namedropping delves into our human nature—we all seek status, but for what?—and goes to the heart of what makes Mona, Mona.
‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ will be on display in Namedropping from 15 June to 24 June. Tickets for Namedropping the Wu-Tang Clan will be available via the Mona website from 10am AEST, Thursday 30 May.
