Don’t Ever Forget Where You Come From

Our visual sociology for August 2018 gives us the gift of union-inspired art, 130 years of contemporary works and a blue zebra.

State of the Union

Exhibition at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, about student and workers’ industrial action (mostly at Melbourne University and local industrial rights movements). Very interesting look at social protest and solidarity across groups. Banner art has been a staple element of the union movement, but eventually waned. The artform rose once more in the 1980s. One of the quotes is by Melbourne Union alumni, Christos Tsiolkas, who was the first in his Greek migrant family to graduate from university. His uncle pointed out that his working class labour made the university buildings possible. He warned his soon-to-be successful nephew, ‘Don’t ever forget where you come from.’ 9 August

MoMA at NGV

This exhibition at the National Gallery Victoria celebrates 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art. Collection of some of the most famous artworks held by the Museum of Modern Art from New York, currently in Melbourne. Covers families artists from Impressionism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and more. 12 August

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Grandfather Clock by Maarten Baas.

Manly cockatoos

Manly has humungous cockatoos and beautiful abandoned shopping trolleys. Also I’ve lived in Sydney for a couple of years and never travelled to Manly before today because that’s how I choose to live life – on the edge of acceptable society. (From my Sociology of Trolleys series.) 13 August