On a Friday or Saturday night the city/ town’s main street is infused with cultural identity. Nightlife rituals are a dominant aspect of identity formation in mainstream Australian culture. The social significance and meaning of ‘going out’ has been transformed from a ‘rite of passage’ to a practice that symbolically reinforces national identities by playing out what it means to be ‘Aussie’ on city centre streets and pubs.
Cars are inscribed with significant cultural meaning that communicate ideas about who we are. They are a forum for self-expression that often act as markers of social and cultural difference. A “cruise” or “mainey” is a social ritual that often involves playing loud music while driving up and down the main street to check out what’s happening, be seen, and socialise with others. The car becomes a mobile family room in which friends experience the pleasure and warmth of being together in a semi-public sphere.
The road/ street is where interesting things happen. It is an in-between place, a liminal space, that exists to be travelled through. Liminal spaces are where collective experiences of nation, community interest, or cultural value are (re)negotiated. The main street is also a space of encounter and dialogue across lines of ethnicity where values, attitudes and identities can be (trans)formed in encounters that dissolve boundaries and recompose in different directions. The prevalence of Shisha bars on main streets represents a multicultural drift away from dominant social practices. Shisha bars offer ethnic youth spaces to confirm their cultural identity, socialise with friends and create alternative identities outside dominant social expectations.
A ‘cruise’ is a complex space for performance that is rich in cultural meaning. Cars not only operate as visual iconography, they are spaces of conviviality where people inside the car congregate, socialise, and establish relationships and friendships.
‘Friend/free (to love)’, at Bus Projects, 2025. Curated by Alice McCool and Ena Grozdanić.