Lights, Travel, Action

Our visual sociology for the end of the year sees lots of change for this intrepid visual sociologist. From interstate travel to lots of Christmas lights everywhere, to women’s art. November-December 2016 was never-ending with surprises.

Sociology of Hotel Art: Cairns

4 November: Travelling back to back for work, from Canberra to Melbourne to Cairns. This is not the worst hotel art, by far. I was in Cairns for a workshop I ran on the health impact of intimate partner violence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women elders, community and health workers.

Diner

Step into an Aussie re-imagining of 1980s middle America. 6 November

Christmas panda

Remember the Christmas Panda from the Mandarin Centre from last month? Now on 6 November, we’re reconnecting again. He’s been working hard and still has over another month to go before Christmas.

Bright lights

People watching in Sydney. 7 November

Angels, stars and trade secret. 7 November

Museum Station, Sydney.

La Dolce Vita. (Dendy Cinemas Circular Quay) 16 November

Oh what fun it is to sing! Leichhardt Expresso Chorus. 26 November

Sociology of Trolleys: fridge friend

Moving into 6 December, the highlight of my Sociology of Trolleys career: an abandoned shopping trolley with an abandoned mini fridge. It doesn’t get any better than this!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNq6JBpBl3j/

Primavera 7 December

Primavera exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. With great difficulty you will fight back the impulse to walk across the ladder as you remember that you are, in fact, *not* a trapeze artist. 7 December

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNtYmjVBhwe/

Louise Herman

Louise Hearman’s hypnotic works inviting us to dive inside our inner abyss and reflect back our souls. Also it’s Wednesday. 7 December

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNtaWU-hrgx/

Run tiny dancer. At the Louise Hearman exhibition.

Eleven

8 December

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNwQEziB9m0/

Sydney Christmas

Sydney does Christmas. 13 December

https://www.instagram.com/p/BN8zaw3Bk5G/

Christmas tree goals. 13 December

https://www.instagram.com/p/BN80FJ8BJ2t/

Towering above the city. Cue ominous rain clouds please. 17 December

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOHK8qshlBQ/

The Queen Victoria Building Swarovski Christmas tree has shattered all the Sociology of Lights entries out of the water. 17 December

Chopstick etiquette

Instructions of how to eat with chopsticks! 16 December

Bodies in time

18 December: Barbara Cleveland, “Bodies in Time.” This collective of artists who revive and reimagine the work of their namesake. “By further translating the action into video, they construct a dialogue between the body as volatile form of ‘living architecture’ and mediated status of performance documentation, which foregrounds the multiple levels of authorship at play in the work.” This work is wonderful for many reasons. One particular way it speaks to me is that it shows that although art history favours White men especially from Western Europe, the only thing stopping the art world from changing our understanding of what art is worthy of attention is to go back and really see all the people of colour and White women artists that created but did not get the recognition they deserve.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOJTr8thhns/

Carols in the Domain

18 December: Holy holly! Sydney is serious about Carols by Candlelight… erm I mean Carols in the Domain. Props to the awesome humans who pitched tents. The sky has ideas about how tonight should end. Unfortunately there’s no good food.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOJgMGbhKNt/

Festive city, 20 December

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOPNnrxBwK-/

Egyptian mummification

24 December: Cultural diversity in Egyptian mummification. Under Roman rule in 30 BCE, Egyptians lived alongside Greeks and Romans with many people adopting (or forced to use) Greek names. Techniques on mummies evolved including the use of wooden panel “portraits.” European artistic styles also prevail with more traditional Egyptian art moved to the back of coffins. Egyptian Mummies exhibition now on at the Powerhouse Museum.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOY16QVhAe0/

Sociology of trolleys

Managed to sneak one more in before the end of the year! This stranger wanted to be in my photo for the #SociologyOfTrolleys. This is taken in the centre of the Sydney CBD with the closest shopping centre at least 10 minutes walk away. That’s commitment. 26 December

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOeO1VwBIUq/