Disfruta – our visual sociology of October-November 2018.
Our backup career has been taken by The Unemployed Philosophers Guild. 1 October 2018.
The Bank, a local pub in Newtown, New South Wales, greets everyone with respect. Except racists, sexists, transphobes, direspectuful people and dickheads. Useful policy for our weary days. 2 October 2018. Continue reading We Have All the Time for Diversity
Our visual sociology for August 2018 gives us the gift of union-inspired art, 130 years of contemporary works and a blue zebra.
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
I have a rule of faith when it comes to film festivals – I don’t watch trailers or read reviews. I read the program and decide to see movies based on the blurb. I make an effort to see movies written or directed by women first and foremost (documentaries or dramas especially), or about minority groups and women in general in the second instance. Third, I try my hardest to see horrors because they’re rarely released in Australian cinemas. ‘What Keeps You Alive’ hits two of three: a movie about two (White) women and a horror flick. Directed by Colin Minihan (of Grave Encounters, which I disliked) was not what I expected. What I knew about the plot: Jules and Jackie are celebrating their one year anniversary in an isolated cabin in the woods. It is a horror. That’s it! The leap of faith paid off. It was so strong! Great characters. Lots of bad decisions but cleverness too. I won’t say more. Slick 7/10.
(Postscript: Now on Netflix)
The Sydney Biennale kicked off on Thursday with a special event featuring Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, in conversation with the Biennale’s Artistic Director, Mami Kataoka. A Japanese artist, Kataoka is the is the first Asian region director of the program which has run for 44 years. Weiwei proved to be a fascinating, but challenging guest.
He was incredibly thoughtful in discussing the plight of refugees, which feature in his works for the BIennale, including a giant raft filled with cowering figures on show at Cockatoo Island, made from giant black rubber. Kataoka was wonderful and incredibly gracious in managing her self-effacing interviewee, who began to make jokes about how the conversation was boring and he started noting the countdown of time.
There was a lot of goodwill from the audience who laughed along with the jokes and cheered Kataoka who valiantly continued to ask about Weiwei’s film, Human Flow, also on refugees, and his other works for the Biennale. Weiwei could have come off as difficult, but instead was endearing and at times sobering.
He talked about being exhausted of talking about his art, which to him is a clumsy expression of his emotions, and specifically in this case, his inability to grasp the lack of compassion we collectively show refugees. He also noted he’s done 350 interviews and did not want to keep talking about works that are meant to be experienced in other ways. He also expressed a sense of futiilty. He noted it probably was uncooth to mention – but did regardless – that art festivals are expensive to produce but are poorly funded. He praised Kataoka for having curated a beautiful program that masks her (relatively) low budget. He also said that despite the turnout that night, the Biennale and his artshows in general, which are exhibited around the world, lack a large audience. He said that art was important, but it is rapidly losing attention.
He noted that the people who will go and see his documentary, filmed in multiple refugee sites around the world, and featuring the voices of hundreds of asylum seekers, will not reach the audience it needs to. It will be seen by people who recognise the crisis, not those who ignore it.
A contemplation of our humanity, through a reflection of our treatment of refugees. Ai Weiwei, “Law of the Journey, 2017,” part of the Biennale pf Sydney.
My trip to New Zealand Aotearoa was lovely. I was a guest of the Women in Science group, the New Zealand Association of Scientists and various other partner and sponsor agencies. In Wellington, I gave a talk about gender equity and diversity. I discussed how intersectionality can be used in various national models of change, to increase the number of minorities and White women in leadership positions. I also addressed some considerations for creating a more inclusive research culture that draws leadership from Indigenous scientists. I then joined a panel of distinguished academics to further discuss diversity in the local context.
Most of my trip in New Zealand was spent at the University of Auckland. I gave a talk on intersectionality and the March for Science as well as attending various meetings providing advice and listening to progress and thinking on inclusion in science. The campus is stunning. This is the inside of the Clock Tower, an impressive tall, white building with beautiful architecture.
Check out more about my trip, the art, culture and food. Continue reading Aotearoa New Zealand Sights
At the Corsini Collection: A Window on Renaissance, at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tāmaki. The Corsini family settled in Florence in tge 13th Century and had a stranglehold of power in banking, trade and Government. They had ties to the strongest families in Florence, the Medici (there’s an excellent social network analysis article that documents how families used their social ties to maintain influence). The Corsini also had strong religious capital, with tge cardinals, one Pope and one saint in the family. The latter is seen at the end here – Saint Andrea Corsini. There are two bullet wounds in the painting, which was painted in 1630, and hidden behind a safe wall in 1944. A soldier shot through the wall, noticing fresh plaster.
The ‘Mini-Matsuri’ Japanese Festival in Chatswood. Continue reading Mini-Matsuri Japanese Festival
Eye of the Storm. Jenny Watson. Continue reading Jenny Watson
This is the Rocks Discovery Museum. It’s interesting historically as the artefacts tell the story of Sydney prior to European invasion. But it’s more fascinating sociologically – in how this history is represented. The first room you see (“Warrane. Pre-1788”) uses words like “arrival” and “first contact” to describe the relationship between colonialists and traditional custodians of Sydney, the Gadigal people. The second room (“Colony. 1788-1830”) uses words like “settlement” and “colony” prominently… but not *colonialism.* The word “invasion” only appears on a side panel – this display is excellent, reflecting on British treatment of Aboriginal people as a “catastrophe.”
For the past three years, I’ve written about the gender and race dynamics of the chosen portraits, painted by children up to the age of 18 for the The Young Archibald Prize (the “Young Archie”). Most of the subjects are women, especially mothers. Few artists and subjects are people of colour. This year, while mothers, grandmothers and sisters feature, described for their caring qualities, I was delighted to see a handful of works by and about Asian Australians. Remarkably, two of these paintings, one by a nine year old and another by a 16 year old, explicitly depicted themes of death in terms of acceptance and wonder. Truly wonderful.
The Other Sociologist 