Exhibition: Tanya Voges, 'Postcards from Motherhood'

---

Image: Zoe Freney, Postcard from Close to Home #3, 2020, pen on paper postcard, 152 x 132mm (Photographer: Chloe Metcalfe)

October 6 – 30, 2020

Opening event: Friday, October 6, 2020, 5:30-7:30pm

Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta

Cost: Free

---

Postcards from Motherhood is a group exhibition and community engagement project curated by multidisciplinary artist Tanya Voges. The exhibition features work by artists who are also mothers: Bridget Currie, Zoe Freney, Rochelle Haley, Alana Hunt, Tania Mason and Tanya Voges.

Postcards from Motherhood centres Mother Artists who continue to practice in the arts alongside their commitments to their families. The exhibition responds to the idea of sending a postcard from within the time and space of motherhood. Presenting paintings, drawings, textile works, photographic, film, performance and community contributions of postcards-as-artwork. Sent from around the world, these postcards connect local audiences to a community of mothers working across the globe. Postcards from Motherhood will be accompanied by a series of public programs which allow parents to participate as part of a rigorous arts community.

This project is presented as part of The Mill’s new program CaM-Res (Curatorial and Mentorship Residency) presented in partnership with City of Adelaide. In August Tanya Voges began a twelve week studio residency at The Mill, during which she has been developing this exhibition, collaborating with The Mill Studio resident Louise Flaherty and undertaking mentorship with The Mill’s staff. Tanya is stepping into a curatorial role for the first time, in an act that she refers to as ‘choreographing an exhibition’.  

The Mill Adelaide · The Mill in Conversation: Postcards from Motherhood

• Curatorial Statement

  ‘Wish you were here…’

  A postcard is sent from a place you visit, not the place you normally inhabit. 

  For this exhibition I’ve invited  mothers who are practicing artists throughout the early years of motherhood to create work about the process and time of life we are in. The resulting works across a broad spectrum of mediums are influenced by inhabiting motherhood, yet not prescriptively about the act of mothering. This exhibition embraces the connections that these artists have to their families and because of that focus on creating life, respects that there is multiplicity at play in their practice.

  Through curating this exhibition I aim to create an exemplary process practice modelled on the movement for Mother Artists that is taking place throughout the world. The model of an Artist Residency in Motherhood that Lenka Clayton detailed as an open source model has given me an anchor to my changing practice at a time where my life is in flux. Developing a supported studio practice with integrated childcare and arts spaces that welcome children has become part of my process as I recognise the need for my community, inspired by the Mother House model in London. My focus is on caring for more than just my own wellbeing, and the importance I feel to be an example for the next generation, so  that we can stay engaged in meaningful work and connected to a broad community, while being a mother.

  Mothers should be supported. There is a profound need in society of understanding what motherhood means, the invisible unpaid labour of caring for a child and raise him or her into an adult in this society should be evaluated and recognised and not ignored…Starting from this awareness then we can try to create more infrastructures that facilitate a woman in pursuing her career while nurturing her practice as a mother.– Dyana Gravina (Procreate and Mother House)

• About the program

  Tanya Voges is The Mill’s inaugural CaM-Res artist. She has begun a twelve week studio residency at The Mill as part of a new program, CaM-Res (Curatorial and Mentorship Residency), presented in partnership with City of Adelaide.

---

Call for Contributions

In the lead up to the exhibition Tanya invites mothers to contribute postcard sized works. Imagined as a way of capturing a moment from the time and place of motherhood, send us a postcard that speaks to some aspect of your experience of being a parent. Use an existing postcard and modify it, use either side of the paper, or create something out of other materials that is 4”x6”/A6. This modest size has been selected as it is manageable, small and fits between all of your other commitments.

Please send postcards to:
ATTN Tanya Voges
C/o The Mill,
154 Angas Street,
Kaurna Yarta
Adelaide 5000 

---

This exhibition has support from

Artist Talk: Frances Rogers, 'Future Fossils'

---

Artist talk

When: Friday, September 25, 2020, 5:20pm for a 5:30pm start

Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St

Cost: Free

COVID-19 Note: Our capacity for this event is 25. Doors will close at 5:30pm, please arrive early for contact tracing and to get a seat. All attendees are required to know our hygiene policy before attending.

---

The Mill invites you to hear from ceramicist Frances Rogers in conversation with The Mill's Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas. Frances will be speaking about her exhibition Future Fossils, currently showing at The Mill.

About the exhibition:

Future Fossils is a new solo exhibition by ceramicist Frances Rogers. Within this body of work Frances explores a sensory connection to earth, asking the audience to consider the materiality of clay through sound and touch, as well as the formal qualities produced through sculptural shapes.

Exhibition Details

Frances Rogers
Future Fossils
September 4 - 25
EXTENDED- now open Saturday 26th 10am-1pm and Sunday 27th 11am-3pm

Showing alongside Evie Hassiotis, Xenitia
August 3 - September 25

EXTENDED- now open Saturday 26th 10am-1pm and Sunday 27th 11am-3pm
The Mill, 154 Angas Street, Adelaide 5000

Gallery open: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday 10am-4pm

---

Exhibition: Frances Rogers, 'Future Fossils'

Frances Rogers, Chain Series, 2019, Raku clay, 12 piece set, multiple dimensions, Photographer: Sebastian Vivian

September 4 - 27, 2020

Opening event: Friday, September 11, 5:30-7:30pm

Artist talk: Friday, September 25, 5:20pm-6:30pm

---

Future Fossils is a new solo exhibition by ceramicist Frances Rogers. Within this body of work Frances explores a sensory connection to earth, asking the audience to consider the materiality of clay through sound and touch, as well as the formal qualities produced through sculptural shapes. The relationship between the human body and the material world are at the core of Frances’ practice. Central to this is her own exploration of process, which emphasises intuition and the sensory. Within her practice there is a temporal tension between the ancient (clay earth, primitive memory) and the contemporary (formal considerations and sculptural practice). Frances brings the audience’s attention to aspects of our contemporary urban environments which can block our access and connection to nature. 

• Artist Statement

  This ceramic body of work is a material exploration of how shelter and architecture affect our wellbeing and sense of identity. The acceptance of impermanence and potential fragility of our security within the ever changing environment. I aim to draw focus upon human processes, sensitivity to our natural surroundings, and the importance of vernacular materials within our built environment. Our urban landscape is rapidly changing with the expansion of fast fabricated structures, lacking natural 'living' materials, which are void of evidence of manual process. The grey concrete boxes, spreading across the urban landscape.

  The chain series was made using Raku clay links and a repetitive manual process of connecting circular forms, playing with the malleability and strength of clay, each link supporting the next. These objects go beyond three dimensional; they are adaptable, rearrangeable, textured and graspable, naturally scented instruments of percussion. I aim to capture the multi-sensory experience of clay, and the importance of understanding the materials we use to construct our environment.

   “Nature itself is public space, not of people but for people as well. Nature needs no art; it is art. when we introduce art into nature, it must be done with great sensitivity." - Herman De Vries.

• About the artist

  Frances Rogers is a sculptural artist intrigued with ceramics and found objects. Her recent work provokes concepts of fragility and impermanence. Within her practice she explores how we relate to the material world and the personification of objects, considering the multi sensual experience of each piece. With an emphasis upon process, Frances believes that the act of making pulls us into the present moment. Her goal is to make artworks that highlight the intrinsic value of vernacular materials and to manipulate our sense of time.

  Frances Rogers completed her Bachelor of Contemporary Arts at the University of South Australia in 2019. During her studies she completed a year long study exchange in Spain at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, mentored by Sculptural artist Vicente Orti in 2017.

  Frances received the Harry P. Gill memorial medal for her ceramic body of work in the Graduate exhibition ‘IN SITU’ 2019. Her work ‘Chain Series’ was then selected for the Helpmann Academy Graduate exhibition where Frances received the JamFactory Award. She is currently completing a mentorship program with the JamFactory and is an artist in residence at George Street Studios.

Photographer: Daniel Marks

Exhibition: Yana Lehey, 'Face Up'

Image: Yana Lehey

August 3 - 28, 2020

Opening event: Sunday, August 9, 2-4pm

Artist talk: Friday, August 21, 5:30-6:30pm

Showing as a part of SALA Festival concurrently with Xenitia, Evie Hassiotis

---

Please join us in The Exhibition Space for Face Up, a solo exhibition by Yana Lehey for SALA Festival. Face Up is a series of large-scale watercolour portraits of youth climate activists. 

Inspired by the energy and drive of youth climate activist from around the world, Yana has produced a body of work that celebrates determination and conviction. The series of larger-than-life portraits are arresting in their scale, and in their stance. Yana has taken inspiration from Australian artist Cherry Hood, creating intensity and conveying emotion through the glowering expression of the subjects’ faces. The levity of these large-scale works seeks to emulate the importance of their work. Yana has also focused on Indigenous activists, highlighting and centring their voices within the climate change discussion.

• Artist Statement

  Face Up started life as an assignment for Life Drawing 2.2 at Adelaide Central School of Art, taught by Christopher Orchard. While sketching at the Art Gallery of SA I noticed that many portrayals of marginalised people in artworks seemed to be wearing the same pinched, fed up glower. I recognised the same expression in climate activist locally and worldwide. This caught my interest, as young climate activists are often discredited as ignorant, naive, and easily manipulated children. It brings to light a tendency to associate infantilisation with dismissal. 

  I decided to portray a very real and existential rage felt by a highly driven, but consistently dismissed group of people. This is especially true of the majority of the people portrayed in the Face Up series of Youth Activists. I have painted Greta Thunberg (Sweden), Jamie Margolin (USA), Vanessa Nakate (Uganda), Kevin J Patel (USA), and Isra Hirsi (USA), Xiuhtezcatl Martinez who has Indigenous Mexican heritage and is based in Colorado (USA), Artemisa Xakriabá of the Xakriabá tribe (Brazil), Helena Guaglinga of Kichwa-native & Finnish origin from Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon (Ecuador) and Autumn Peltier, who is Anishinaabe-kwe and a member of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation (Canada). Each activist has different strengths, different approaches, and different nuance in how they think of their activism. Despite their young age, many of these activists have been fighting for a decade or more.

  The size of each portrait creates intensity which makes the gaze of each individual hard to ignore. Due to the layered nature of watercolour each piece is quite heavily worked, the facial expressions end up being quite complex. The many layers of the fragile medium make for a powerful effect, which echoes the strength in numbers of the climate movement. The portraits are deliberately composed so that most people would have to look up to meet each individual’s eyes in the portraits, creating a monument to the subject. 

  The point of the exhibition is to shine a light on diverse groups who are largely ignored in favour of white, comparatively privileged people. I hope it will start some conversations which need to be had. 

• About the artist

  Yana Lehey is a student at Adelaide Central School of Art. Her primary practice is in drawing, especially ink wash and watercolour. Her recurring themes are the environment and sustainability, and subjects which connect the world on a global scale. She has done a SALA exhibition in 2017 titled Meet The Locals, using boiled down espresso to create tonal drawings of animals native to coffee-growing countries. The aim of the exhibition was to encourage the audience to ponder the origin and impact of our coffee culture. This has led to her joining the ranks of RAW artists, and participating in their 2018 ENVISION showcase. She joined the Mill in 2018, and has been developing her practice in her studio space there since then.

---

Yana Lehey’s exhibition started life as an assignment for Life Drawing 2.2 at Adelaide Central School of Art, taught by Christopher Orchard.

Exhibition: Evie Hassiotis, 'Xenitia'

---

Evie Hassiotis, Sitsa, 2019, mixed media on wood, 95 x 79cm, photo: supplied

August 3 - September 27, 2020

Opening event: Sunday, August 9, 2-4pm

Artist talk: Friday, August 21, 5:30-6:30pm

Showing as a part of SALA Festival concurrently with Face up, Yana Lehey

---

Please join us in The Mill Showcase gallery for SALA exhibition Xenitia a solo exhibition by Evie Hassiotis.

Roughly translated, Xenitia means self imposed exile. This project explores Greek migration to Australia during the 1950’s, speaking from Evie’s personal experience alongside the experiences of her family and friends. Evie has investigated the impact of migration, following narratives through the generations in order to more deeply understand how culture is transmitted and how migrant families have built communities and culture in Australia. Evie’s expressive multi-arts practice builds layers of understanding through the use of collage and paint alongside dolls made by individuals within her community, and a film ‘Made in Greece’. She speaks about community, identity and the role of art in the understanding of the self.

***The Mill’s galleries have reopened to the public following government guidelines, please observe social distancing and make sure to practice good hygiene. ***

• Artist Statement

  This project explores the migration period that saw my family and many Greek migrants come to Australia mainly by passenger ships. It is about wanting to see what is happening now to those migrants and their children and grandchildren and how the contribution of these people has made a big difference in Australian culture and economy.

  Many of my artworks are multilayered and I keep adding layers until the piece is finished. I have created some artworks relating to my own grief experience of being forced to leave my small community in Northern Greece to come to live in Adelaide in 1964. Producing this body of work has been a healing and transformative process for me, and has also allowed me to investigate how others have navigated life after migration.

• About the artist

  Evie Hassiotis is an Adelaide based artist who works intuitively with textures and mixed media, photography and improvised dance. Evie believes in the potential of art to emotionally heal the human soul and to promote spiritual growth in the art practitioner and in the viewer. Improvised movement together with her art practice have been an avenue to express spirituality, creativity and art as a healing practice.

  Evie began her art studies while living in Sydney in 1995 at the Bondi Road Art School. These classes ignited her enthusiasm for the visual arts and she is indebted to her inspiring tutors at Bondi for guiding her into the world of art. In 2019 she undertook Life Drawing classes at Central School of Art. She joined The Mill as a studio artist in February 2019 and has continued her develop her art practice there, including hosting regular open studio events as well as conducting art workshops for beginners and those people who want to tap into their latent creativity.

  Evie has worked as a facilitator of art workshops for adults, including those living with dementia and has experience working with people in residential and community care. In her workshops she creates a space for participants to express themselves without fear of judgment and encourages participants to reveal their inner landscape using a variety of media. She currently works in a primary school with 5-9 year old students with learning challenges

  Evie is currently working on an exhibition Xenitia, to be shown at The Mill during SALA 2020. Xenitia, meaning exile, explores the theme of migration of children and their families and centres around Evie’s experience of migrating to Australia from Greece in 1964 when she was 6 years old. The exhibition will include installation of handmade dolls, film and mixed media artworks.

  Evie has exhibited as part of the Mitcham Art Prize, Victor Harbor Art Show, Walkerville Art Exhibition, The Hapmsted Rehabilitation Centre, SALA 2019 at Gallery One, and a solo exhibition Bitten by Bologna at Rusco & Brusco as well as hosting exhibitions from her home studio and her studio at The Mill.

• Accordion Item 3

  Description text goes here

Exhibition: Kirsty Martinsen, 'Our Lady: en feu'

Artwork: Kirsty Martinsen (photographer: Alex Makeyev)

June 15 – July 29, 2020

Opening event: Sunday, July 19, 3-4pm

Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta

Cost: Free

---

Please join us in The Exhibition Space for Our Lady: en feu, a solo exhibition by Kirsty Martinsen.  

***The Mill’s exhibition space will be open to the public from June 15, please observe social distancing and make sure to practice good hygiene. ***

Our Lady: en feu (Notre Dame: on fire) is a significant new body of work by painter and colourist Kirsty Martinsen. Inspired by the images of Notre Dame Cathedral ablaze in 2019, the work explores powerful moments within recent history: the #metoo movement, recent political conflict, human-induced climate change, the Australian bushfires, and most recently COVID-19. Kirsty uses her medium to comment on our individual and cultural responsibility to the world we live in. The centrepiece, and namesake of the exhibition is a life sized portrait of a woman in crucifix position. Kirsty draws our attention to humanity and fragility while simultaneously recognising the role that humans have played within these disasters.

Kirsty’s use of colour and gesture is emotive, highlighting the urgency that she feels to draw attention to these profoundly affective events. Within each work she captures fleeting moments, a whip of flame enveloping the spire of the cathedral sits alongside a glowing Sturt Dessert Pea, pointing toward the sacred, which can be found in many forms. Through this series of works, Kirsty questions ‘what we as humans respect and value and the state of the anthropogenic world we live in’. 

• Artist Statement

  I’ve been a painter for 20 years and consider myself a colourist. I’m interested in the issues of climate change and human relationships. ‘Our Lady: en feu’ is a series of recent drawings that began when I saw the colourful flames and smoke of the burning Notre Dame cathedral. I immediately connected them to the naked crucified woman I was working on. The naked figure was for me a burning spire. Witnessing the spire and cathedral burning, a Parisian bystander said it was “significant beyond its religious meaning”. I was left pondering how the world would be today if Jesus was a woman.  

  Our Lady appears with pastel drawings of the Notre Dame fires, all individually framed by Tom Borgas, and others of the Bushfires, Australian Native Flowers series, and Chernobyl and Gaza as examples of a human population hellbent on destruction. The scale of these disasters are totally diminished by the enormity of what is happening to the world currently. The burning of an 800 year old church is almost trivial in the face of a worldwide pandemic that has irrevocably altered everything. This body of work is an invaluable memento of life as we know it that’s gone forever. It questions what humans actually respect and value, and the state of the anthropogenic world we live in.

• About the artist

  Kirsty Martinsen has had a studio at The Mill since 2014. Her practice is predominantly drawing and painting, and recently as a Writer/Director of the short documentary, Limited Surrender, with SBS and SA Film Corporation. She has a BA Visual Art from SA School of Art (UniSA) and Dip. Painting from New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, has exhibited in USA, Australia and Amsterdam, and is the recipient of awards from Richard Llewellyn Arts and Disability Trust, Arts SA, AGNSW and NY Studio School. Her short film, Breathe, won the Mercedes Matter/Ambassador Middendorf Award at X Marks The Spot: Women of The NY Studio School, the 2018 Alumni show. She teaches drawing and enjoys watching clouds.

  View short film documentary about Kirsty’s practice via SBS On Demand: Limited Surrender

Exhibition: The Mill Showcase

---

Photo: Andrew Eden, image supplied

March 23 - July 29, 2020

Andrew Eden, Blake Canham-Bennett, Annabel Hume and Mark Mason

---

*** Please note that due to the unfolding COVID-19 situation, The Mill’s galleries and studios are closed to the public. If you have any questions, please email our Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas***

The Mill Showcase is a gallery space dedicated to artists who work in our studio spaces at our Angas Street location, exhibiting some of the artworks and products that have been produced under our roof. The Mill Showcase profiles our artists, so that you can put a face to the name and get to know some of our dedicated makers.

This sophomore edition of The Mill Showcase features work by Andrew Eden, Blake Canham-Bennett, Annabel Hume and Mark Mason.

About the artists:

• Andrew Eden

  AG is an Adelaide based design studio led by Andrew Eden. Specialising in furniture, lighting & interiors, the studio's focus is to partner with other local manufacturers, trades and artisans to produce high quality pieces & outcomes that are competitively priced. Andrew Eden is an industrial designer, graduating with honours and a minor stream in furniture design. He undertook the associate program in the furniture studio at JamFactory in 2013-14.

  He has worked extensively throughout the design industry with over 15 years commercial experience. A highlight was working on Indigo Slam in Chippendale, Sydney and a private commission with Khai Liew including over 200 bespoke furniture and lighting pieces.

  ‘AG is a design studio with a philosophy of cadence, functionality & artistry. My designs are approachable, utilitarian products with a knowing handmade reticence. I believe elaboration does not aggrandise beauty–simplicity does.’

• Mark Mason

  Mark Mason works primarily as a tattooer, using handpoke techniques to create new and relevant work. Having a history in fine art, Mark has exhibited in many group exhibitions both home and abroad. Having enjoyed tattooing full-time for over a decade, he has recently been working part-time which has allowed time for the rekindling of his artist practice and new inspirations have come to life.

  ‘This work is part of an ongoing process concerning both interpretive symbolism and blended techniques. Each work stands alone, while also acting as a stepping stone to the next, where shared aesthetic cues and conceptual links explore themes of masculinity.

  Design and pattern have been a strong component of my tattooing practice and serve as the point of departure. The focus shifts between technique, imagery and concepts to produce pieces that that intrigue the viewer, with a nod to the primal nature of tattooing. It is my intention that the viewer can ascribe their own experience to the abstract images and create their own meaningful dialogue.’

• Blake “Blakesby” Canham-Bennett

  Blake “Blakesby” Canham-Bennett is a multi-award winning hatter (he is not a milliner), and one of very few in Australia reviving the traditional artform of men’s hats. His hats have crossed the world, worn in the United States, England, New Zealand, Switzerland, Siberia, Egypt, and many more.

  ‘I focus largely on traditional and heritage hat design, drawing inspiration from styles upwards of 100 years ago. These are shaped by hand through steam using a range of mostly antique and a few locally made wood hat blocks, in addition to other unique hand tools.

  The pieces featured use a range of materials, with the felt bases ranging from the standard rabbit, to the premium beaver and nutria fur felts. These hats are trimmed with a variety of materials, including varied naturally dyed Japanese textiles, and featuring the traditional sashiko technique of decorative reinforcement stitch.’

• Annabel Hume

  Annabel Hume is a visual arts graduate from the University of South Australia with a major in sculpture and printmaking. In the last 10 years she has completed further study in metal casting, intaglio printmaking and ceramics at ACArts . For the last three years Annabel has focused on ceramics. She has participated in several group shows in Adelaide and had her first solo exhibition in Melbourne in 2019.  She also teaches workshops in textiles, printmaking and sculpture . 

  ‘After travelling to America three years ago I began to really appreciate how delicate, unique, fragile and ancient Australia is and I celebrate our endangered and diminishing fauna in my work .  Each piece is unique. I hand build then surface paint using sgraffito before glaze firing.’

Visual Artists in Residence: The Bait Fridge, 'Art Basics'

---

Image: Courtesy of The Bait Fridge

March 17 - May 29, 2020

Art Basics home workshop
When: Sunday, April 19, 10am
Cost: Free

Art Basics performance
When: Sunday, May 24, 11am
Cost: $15 car performances

---

The Bait Fridge are our incoming Artists in Residence in The Mill's Exhibition Space in 2020. Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, this residency is developing new ways of creating digital content so that the residency can be available online. The Bait Fridge collective will be in residence from March 17 to May 29. With a focus on artistic process, this two-month residency allows audiences direct access to creative research and making. This residency is presented in partnership with City of Adelaide.

The Bait Fridge is a multi-disciplinary collective from South Australia whose members collaborate under a unified banner to create works and performances which combine the practices of music, art, dance, costume and theatre. Through this project The Bait Fridge will be developing ideas, costumes, performances, sculpture and music. Working with materials that other people might consider to be trash allows the collective to see beyond traditional boundaries of artists practice. Each of the members of the collective brings their own unique energy, while working collaboratively, with each other as well as audiences, allowing The Bait Fridge to explore new ways of creating and bringing new understandings to concepts of ‘art’ and the role of the ‘artist’.

The Mill invites you to witness The Bait Fridge’s creative practice digitally and gain insight into their collaborative process as the residency unfolds across a 10 week period.

Although we are currently practicing social distancing, in light of COVID-19, we will be presenting digital content for you to enjoy from the comfort of your homes. Please keep an eye on our social media for updates.

‘Collective practice is the mitochondria of the BF cell. All of our individual practices have been challenged and mulched by the collective environment of the Bait Fridge. It has taught all Baities at different times how to let go of sole authority over their own work (independence is an illusion! No person is an island!), and that can be an incredibly liberating experience but also something uncomfortable! The Bait Fridge is a constant exercise in creative compromise and resourcefulness, and everyone in the crew has gone on to draw from the group in different ways in their personal projects, whether it is by reaching out for people to perform in their work or get involved in some way, or even just to have a tight community to use as a springboard when we need support.’ -Emmaline Zanelli

The Mill in Conversation Podcast

During the residency The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas recorded a podcast with members of the Bait Fridge. Visit The Mill’s soundcloud to listen to podcasts with previous residents Carly Tarkari Dodd, Sonja Porcaro & Matthew Fortrose.

The Mill Adelaide · The Mill in Conversation: The Bait Fridge

Workshop

In April The Bait Fridge collective held a ZOOM workshop that explored costuming and performance.
Artist collective The Bait Fridge will be exploring themes from their project 'Art Basics' as part of The Exhibition Space Residency program at The Mill.

Log in from home (We'll post a link on the day) for a creative session using household items! Bait Fridge artists will talk about their creative process, their use of materials and the collaborative & performative aspects of their project.

Details:

FREE- please register your place via Eventbrite
Open to anyone
Beginner skill level
use your own household materials
Now presented via ZOOM

• About the artists

  The Bait Fridge is a multi-disciplinary collective from South Australia whose members include Felix Rossbach, Zeno Kordov, Dave Court, Declan Casley-Smith, Greta Wyatt, Adrian Schmidt Mumm, Annabel Scheid, Henry Jock Walker, Liam Sommerville, Tom Hannagan, Arlon Hall Hari Koutlakis, Mat Morison, Emmaline Zanelli, Kaspar Schmidt Mumm and Daria Koljanin. They collaborate to create works and performances which combine the practices of music, art, dance, costume and theatre. It began in 2014 at Blenheim Music and Camping Festival in Clare Valley as a spontaneous performance of expressive art and experimental music. The Bait Fridge has consistently performed at Blenheim Festival every year since - growing from a 5-piece outfit in its inception to over 15 participants in 2018 - finding its way into elaborate costume construction, audience participatory art making and The Bait Fridge Band. Recent works have involved improvised narrative performance with accompanying music, sculptural instruments, professional dancers, audience involvement, workshops and elaborate stage construction. The Bait Fridge have performed and activated spaces consistently from their conception including SALA’s Finissage events, Activate Ramsay’s Place (Colonnades Shopping Centre), SMOCK and AGSA Neo Teens workshop.

• About the program

  The Mill’s Exhibition Space Residency program positions artistic process to the fore, allowing audiences direct access to creative research and making. During this residency The Exhibition Space operates with a studio-like mentality where knowledge arises through collaboration, participation and experimentation. The Exhibition Space opens the creative process to the public, connecting people to cultural experience, insights, understanding and meaning.

Exhibition: The Mill Showcase

---

Photo: The Mill resident artist Morgan Sette

January 17 - March 15, 2020

Opening event: Friday, January 17, 6-8pm

Where: The Mill Showcase, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta

Cost: Free

*** Please note that due to the unfolding COVID-19 situation, The Mill’s galleries and studios are open by appointment only. If you wish to make a time to come and see our exhibitions, please email our Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas***

---

In 2020 The Mill will be launching a new gallery to sit alongside our remodelled Exhibition Space. Dedicated to artists who are working in our studio spaces, The Mill Showcase is a space to display some of the artworks and products that have been produced under our roof. The Mill Showcase will profile our artists, so that you can put a face to the name and get to know some of our dedicated makers.

The innaugural The Mill Showcase features work by Peter Fong, Matea Gluscevic, Morgan Sette, and Ozlem Yeni alongside The Mill’s limited edition prints by Small Room, Matthew Fortrose, and Naomi Murrell and Nadia Suartika.

About the artists:

• Peter Fong

  Peter Fong is a process driven handcrafted custom furniture designer and maker with a love for all things handmade. He is an illustrator turned woodworker honing in on his skills and eye for detail in a 3d medium.

  I specialise in considered one-off pieces that feature proud joinery and wood on wood construction, avoiding the use of nails and screws where possible. My aim is to impart a sense of permanence into our everyday objects through the use of well thought-out construction and materials paired with timeless clean designs that will live through generations.

  Each piece is created with the intent of ageing beautifully and being passed down. Preferring to work carefully and slowly, I am a traditional hand-tool enthusiast and will use a hammer and chisel over a power tool when possible. Hand tools connect me to the process, of that I value and enjoy just as much as the final product which I hope permeates through each piece

• Matea Gluscevic

  Matea Gluscevic is an artist and qualified shoemaker. She has completed a Cert IV in Custom Made Footwear, and a Bachelor of Visual Art Specialising in Sculpture and Installation.

  “DONE by Matea” is an ethical, slow, and sustainable handmade leather footwear and accessories label. I design and handmake all of my items in my studio at The Mill. I enjoy working with local, recycled, and low impact materials such as; cork, kangaroo leather, vegetable tanned leather and recycled rubber. 

• Morgan Sette

  Morgan Sette is an Adelaide based photographer, with the past few years spent shooting a mixture of news photojournalism, editorial, product and press shoots. Morgan has varied experience in all things photography, film, events, publicity and marketing that has ultimately come down to one thing; a desire to document and promote the good things. 

  The images explain what happens when I raise a hunk of metal in between myself and the outside world. When I’m taking a picture, I’m not trying to impact what’s happening inside the frame - I’m trying to document it.

• Ozlem Yeni

  Ozlem Yeni is a Turkish born artist who now lives and works in Adelaide. She studied painting, completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Suleyman Demirel in Turkey. Before becoming a full-time artist, she enjoyed an 18-year academic career as a lecturer in Theatre Stage Design Department at the University of Dokuz Eylul in Turkey, where she attained a Master’s Degree and PhD. She has had a number of solo and group exhibitions in Turkey, Japan, Australia and Albania.

  Earthpeople is an interpretation of our evolving relationship with nature that underlines the noteworthy attempt of humankind. The aim is to increase awareness of humankind situations and power in life on earth, relate them to common global goals, so we can make changes to improve the existence for all.

Exhibition: Lucas Croall, 'BEAST'

---

Artwork: Lucas Croall.

February 12 – March 15, 2020

Exhibition opening: Wednesday February 12, 6-8pm

Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta

Cost: Free

---

The Mill is excited to present this new body of work by Adelaide ex-pat and former The Mill resident Lucas Croall. BEAST takes the form of a series of prints presented alongside the plates used for their creation. The content of the exhibition seeks not only to consider the themes of the artist’s work but also to offer insight into the medium of printmaking.

‘BEAST investigates notions surrounding the tension between civilisation and wildness. By putting particular focus on the impossible demands that civility places on the human animal, the work seeks to highlight the familiarity of life’s most troublesome beasts.’

• Artist Statement

  BEAST

  During the late stages of construction of London’s tallest building (the Shard), staff discovered an animal living on the 72nd floor of the tower. It was believed that a fox had entered the site through a central stairwell and was surviving off of food scraps left by construction workers.

  Traditionally most foxes have lived in rural areas, in a series of underground tunnels referred to as dens. Recently numbers of urban foxes have increased, mimicking human migration from the country to the cities. One reason for this migratory pattern in foxes may be due to a lack of food in the countryside and an increasing tendency to scavenge. Generally, a fox’s territory in the countryside can range up to 40 miles, and with the exponential growth of cities and the large areas a rural fox would ordinarily cover, it is easy to see how the two have become enmeshed.

  The fox in the Shard represents a humorous anomaly for the British media but underneath this example belies the fox’s characteristics for survival in precarious urban areas. In this case upon discovery of the fox, the animal was removed by Southwark Pest Control, fed and given a health check before being released onto the streets of Bermondsey (not far from the tower). To this date the Shard remains the tallest building in Western Europe.

  *

  The tenuous nature of certain forms of wildlife in their encounter with the domestic world of human beings is connected to the elusive associations that surround our distinction between wildness and civilisation. The contemporary connotations of rudeness are impropriety and lacking manners. The Latin root of rude is rudis which means ‘unwrought’ (referring to handicraft), and figuratively ‘uncultivated’. Rudis is a cognate with rudus meaning broken stone, debris, or lump (especially that of bronze). Here the Latin root of the word rude becomes suggestive of the Bronze Age. In terms of civilisation then, ‘rudeness’ would become suggestive of something uncultivated and rough but also that of an early civilisation. 

  Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson, in Essay on The History of Civil Society, argues that what withholds civility from falling back into ‘rudeness’, or in other places he calls that which is ‘savage’ and ‘bestial’, is the fact that civility is built up through progress. He generously states that early ‘inhabitants of Britain’ were akin to ‘the present natives of North America: They were ignorant of agriculture; they painted their bodies and used for clothing the skins of beasts.’ For Ferguson those who wear the skin of the beast has a clear demarcating role in showing who is and who is not civilised. 

  Ferguson’s separation of civility and rudeness, arguably, is a false one. Looking at Ferguson’s example of a time when people in Britain ‘used for clothing the skin of the beast’ this is easily proved as inaccurate as we still today make use of material to wear from what Ferguson might call the ‘beast’. This can be seen in particular in the form of leather. 

  *

  Jacques Derrida, in his series of seminars, The Beast & The Sovereign, insists not on the proposition of an opposed dichotomy between what is unwrought and what is civil, but on a grace found in the recognition of each existing within the other. The beast is the sovereign, and sovereignty is found in wildness. One distinctive feature of deconstructionism is its insistence on the maintenance of that awareness, and the interrogation of mental separations between animality and what is anthropocentric. Derrida says that the process of deconstructing the relation between animality and sovereignty is a key theme of the deconstructive process in that understanding this demarcation or threshold between the pair shows how structures of the state and nation-state operate and how logic, reason and progress are thought. Derrida states in the third seminar of Vol. I that deconstruction is a rationalism without debt, that is unconditional, and that requires it to be ongoing, therefore enlivening rather than taking stable meanings in dichotomies.

  This may seem an interminable task, however, Derrida gives deconstruction a limit. This limit is found at the threshold. He states that the ‘threshold [is] at the origin of responsibility, the threshold from which one passes from reaction to response, and therefore to responsibility… the indivisible limit between animal and man.’ The question is of locating the threshold, the limit, the demarcation, between civility and rudeness, between the beast and the sovereign. 

  PRINTMAKING

  The confrontation of the beast and the sovereign within the tradition of printmaking is seen in the tension between the limited edition and unlimited reproduction. As a response to the privileging of authenticity in art history, printmaking employed the limited edition as a means of securing its status as a sovereign medium. This practice also seeks to rescue the medium from falling into the spectral practice of commoditization. Reproducibility and authenticity rise up in relation to each other and have a tendency to reify the other’s legitimacy.

  Hito Steyerl, in her essay, In Defence of The Poor Image, elucidates the contemporary promise of new media, namely their ability to constitute dispersed audiences while it disseminates images. The beast of printmaking rears its head in the form of reproducibility, pushing at the threshold of authenticity and spilling over into accessibility.

  Printmaking exists as an antagonism. It simultaneously makes a promise as a democratising agent and threatens to seal itself off as a limited edition. In the context of the BEAST exhibition, the image is dispersed in a myriad of iterations, but its numbers are fixed in edition numbers, positioning the BEAST on both sides of the antagonism.

• About the artist

  Lucas Croall is an artist who specialises in Printmaking, and has a background in Interior Mural works. Lucas graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts at The University of South Australia in 2015 and completed his Masters at the Royal College of Art in London in 2019. He is also a curator, and has curated a number of art shows in galleries in Adelaide, Melbourne and London. Lucas’ printmaking works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows. In 2018, his work was selected by Grayson Perry to be exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts 250th Summer Exhibition in London. 

  He has designed and painted interior murals in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Barcelona and London.

  Lucas Croall’s prints and installations investigate notions surrounding the tensions between civilisation and wildness. His images often depict mutated animals or humans and aim to realise states of the psyche. By putting particular focus on the relationship between public presentation and private life, his work examines these themes through social criticism and evaluations of modern psychology.

• Accordion Item 3

  Description text goes here

Exhibition: Selina Wallace, 'Perfectly Imperfect'

---

Selina Wallace, Perfectly Imperfect (Lasso), 2018-19, C-type photograph on silver halide lustre paper, 76.2cm (w) x 50.8cm (h)

January 15 – February 7, 2020

Opening event: Friday, January 17, 6-8pm

Artists talk: Sunday, February 2, 2pm

Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta

Cost: Free

---

Perfectly Imperfect is a photographic series which seeks to document the tension between conventional cultural constructs and the lived experience of gender roles. Placing herself within the image, Selina performs her ‘femininity’ and ‘domesticity’ in unconventional ways. Against the backdrop of the Australian natural and urban landscape, Selina poses with discarded domestic objects that she has found on the side of the road. The cord from a vacuum cleaner becomes a lasso, an iron is transformed into a necklace (or maybe something more sinister).

‘Domestic implements connote housework, and in turn; women’s work. Subverting the viewer’s expectations via the use of performance and humour are critical elements of Perfectly Imperfect. The detritus of abandoned household objects discovered on suburban footpaths drives me to make images outside of accepted norms. Travelling to remote parts of Australia, I do not need the domestic items I carry, but they are a reminder of the societal expectations that weigh me down.

Cultural constructs can be escaped, and through my performance in Perfectly Imperfect I seek to do just that, with the aim of brief personal liberation from constraint.’ 

About the artist:

• Selena Wallace

  Selina Wallace is a female Australian photographic artist. Her photography explores the relationship between women and culture, and how we are influenced by the world around us. Wallace is studying a Bachelor of Photography through Open College of the Arts, University of Creative Arts, Yorkshire, UK.

  Her work State of the Environment was exhibited in South Australian Living Artists in 2015. She was the inaugural winner of the Don Dunstan Foundation Award for artists whose work explores themes of equity, the environment, homelessness, mental health and unemployment. In 2019, Perfectly Imperfect was exhibited at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale Open Program.

Visual Artist in Residence: Carly Tarkari Dodd, ‘Shackled Excellence’

---

Photo: Carly Tarkari Dodd by Kayla Dodd

October 1 - December 10, 2019

Weaving Workshop: Sunday, November 17, 11am-1pm, $15

Artist in Conversation and Exhibition Finissage: November 24, 3-5pm

---

The Mill welcomes Carly Tarkari Dodd, our new Artist in Residence in The Mill's Exhibition Space. Carly will be in residence from 1 October working on her project Shackled Excellence. With a focus on artistic process, this two-month residency allows audiences direct access to creative research and making. This residency is presented as part of Tarnanthi, Festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art.

Carly Tarkari Dodd is a proud Kaurna\Narungga and Ngarrindjeri artist who is passionate about expressing her Aboriginal heritage through art and storytelling. Through this project Carly will develop a body of work that uses sculptural practice to discuss topics of contemporary Aboriginality. Using weaving techniques, she will create a number of 3-dimensional works that celebrate the achievements of Aboriginal people alongside highlighting some of the injustices that Aboriginal people face. The process and materiality of the weaving process will be central to the development of these works, and will sit alongside the conceptual and cultural research that underpins Carly’s project. The Mill invites you to witness Carly’s creative practice and gain insight into her process as the residency unfolds across a 10 week period. During her residency Carly will be presenting a number of public programs!

‘I’ve started weaving a trophy, which is going well. I’ve never made a shape like that before. I’ve been talking to my dad about sports. I feel like there is a lot of political Aboriginal art about history, but there’s not much on sport. Dad was one of the top players in his footy team, but he didn’t get acknowledged for that really. My Brother as well, Travis Dodd, has achieved a lot in soccer in Australia. So, this exhibition is a way of showcasing their achievements.’

The Mill in Conversation Podcast

The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas sat down with Carly to talk about her practice for The Mill’s podcast. In our chat Carly talks us through the genisis of this project, and the way the works have evolved through her residency.

The Mill Adelaide · The Mill in Conversation: Carly Dodd

About the artist:

• Carly Dodd

  Carly Dodd is a Kaurna\Narungga and Ngarrindjeri artist. She has been mentored by Indigenous Tasmanian artist Max Mansell and was taught traditional weaving by Ngarrindjeri artist Ellen Trevorrow. In 2013 she took part in a cultural camp to Coober Pedy, learning traditional methods of painting. Within her practice Carly mixes traditional and contemporary techniques, to produce works that are conceptually and culturally driven. In 2018 she was the recipient of the Carclew Emerging Curator Residency. Her works were exhibited during SALA 2018 at Adelaide Town Hall. Carly won the South Australian NAIDOC Young Aboriginal of the Year in 2018. Carly has facilitated art workshops at WOMAD, Spirit Festival, The Art Gallery of South Australia and the Adelaide Fringe.  

• About the program

  The Mill’s Exhibition Space Residency program positions artistic process to the fore, allowing audiences direct access to creative research and making. During this residency The Exhibition Space operates with a studio-like mentality where knowledge arises through participation and experimentation. The Exhibition Space opens the creative process to the public, connecting people to cultural experience, insights, understanding and meaning.

---

Shackled Excellence is presented as part of Tarnanthi Festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

Exhibition: Girl Space, 'GODDESS'

September 4 - 27, 2019

Opening Night: September 6, 2019, 7-10pm

Where: The Mill, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta

Cost: $5

---

The ancient goddesses of varying mythology are often regarded as the reason for existence of water, of crops and harvest and of the human race. From the ancient Greek goddess of spring and re-birth, Persephone, to the indigenous Australian mother goddess, Kunapipi, women in mythology are heralded as heroes – strong, wise and of eternal importance. Yet, often when depicted in art, we see these heroes from a male gaze and not as the strong, raw women they were. These goddesses were also often mistreated and subjected to heinous acts of abuse and violence.

This exhibition will show these goddesses in all of their human glory – as wmn with strength, weakness, power, determination and courage. It will also showcase our current goddesses – the wmn in modern times who have shown us the qualities of the goddesses of ancient times.

Come along to the opening night and share a drink with us, have a chat with the artists and enjoy the incredible art by these amazing local wmn artists. We will have a curator talk at 7:30 with Laura Gentgall and Hannah Southcombe - the Girl Space team, and the exhibition will be officially opened by Amber Cronin.

Visual Artist in Residence: Grace Marlow, Doors & Windows

---

Grace Marlow, Let me carry that for you, Grace Marlow with audience participants, performed in Psychache co-curated by Adele Sliuzas and Ray Harris, Holy Rollers, 2018. Photographer: Sam Roberts.

July 1 - August 28, 2019

Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta

Cost: Free

---

In July and August, 2019, Grace will be exploring collaboration and participation within her practice. Sitting somewhere between performance and social engagement, Grace’s residency will include research, writing and collaborative practice that investigates understandings of authorship and value.

Come check out the evolving work in The Exhibition Space at The Mill. Grace’s residency runs through to the end of August 2019.

Grace Marlow, WE ARE GATHERED HERE TODAY, black painted text and line on the gallery skirting boards, in Who speaks for a community? curated by Bella Hone-Saunders, Sister Gallery, 2017. Photography by Christopher Arblaster.

Grace Marlow, again back, remain through, performed with Virginia Barratt, in Into My Arms co-curated by Frances Barratt and Toby Chapman, Ace Open, 2018. Photography by Sam Roberts.

Exhibition: Robyn Wood, 'Natural Progression'

Robyn Wood, 2018, photo: James Knowler, courtesy of Brand SA

Robyn Wood, Reflect Desk, 2015, Victorian Ash, photo: Simon Vaughan

Robyn Wood, Wave Coffee table, 2019, American Oak, glass photo: Nick Clayton

Robyn Wood, Bud lamp, 2015, hand/ turned timber and bonded parchment, photo: Simon Vaughan

Robyn Wood, Daisy low stool, 2016, Hoop pine ply, wood wash and wax, photo: Simon Vaughan

Please join us in The Exhibition Space for Natural Progression, an exhibition by Adelaide based designer/maker Robyn Wood.  

Natural Progression is a solo exhibition of furniture and objects by Robyn Wood. The exhibition features new work and previously unexhibited pieces, alongside a visual exploration of Robyn’s prototyping development. The exhibition gives insight into artistic process, showing how raw materials are transformed into something useful and beautiful. For this exhibition Robyn has explored new materials and processes, extending from her previous work in timber. 

‘Maintaining a connection to nature is an important theme in my designing; simple sculptural forms, lines gently curved, the touch and feel of warmer materials. These are things I am drawn to. I am looking for ways to connect the end user to nature and provide warmth and character to spaces they inhabit. Designing furniture and objects with character, balance and restraint. The use of natural materials and a preference for organic forms are tools I use to express my ideas.’ 

Artist Biography

Robyn Wood (www.robynwood.com.au) is a Furniture designer and maker based at The Mill, Adelaide. Her practice is informed by traditional joinery and current manufacturing techniques. She is influenced by the everyday things she observes, gaining fresh insight from her travels. Maintaining a connection to nature is important in her designing. She expresses her ideas through the use of warmer natural materials and a preference for organic forms. Robyn studied and practiced as a teacher before following her passion for design and returning to study as a designer. She has a Bachelor of Design - Interior Design from the University of South Australia.

She has worked for Australian Joinery firm IJF, during which time she oversaw a 3-year interior project fit out in Paris on the Australian embassy residences. As an Interior designer she worked on a wide range of commercial and government projects, where she continued to develop her interest in joinery. In 2014 she pursued her love of furniture design and established her studio. Since then she has been designing and making. Being hands on in her joinery work has become important in developing new work. Robyn is undertaking mentorships with two traditional woodworkers, learning techniques in using hand tools and traditional joinery techniques.

In 2016 Robyn exhibited in Home in the Asia Pacific space design alliance conference and as part of the WOMADelaide Creative Industries Showcase. She was selected as an artist for Guildhouse’s Wellmade program in 2016 and is currently an ambassador for Brand SA craft industries. She has presented her work at Big Design Market Melbourne (2015-18) & Sydney (2016-18), The Mill Market (2018) and Bowerbird Market (2014-18). Her work has been featured in the Adelaide Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and City Messenger. 

She has worked on a range of commercial projects and private commissions. Her one off pieces and small production runs were launched at Bowerbird in Adelaide in 2014. She is currently working on a new collection of furniture and objects in collaboration with leading South Australian artisan makers and artists. 

EXHIBITION DETAILS
Robyn Wood
Natural Progression
June 3- 28 2019
The Exhibition Space, The Mill Adelaide
154 Angas Street, Adelaide SA 5000

Visual Artist in Residence: Louise Flaherty, 'Memorial for Forgotten Plants'

September 1 - November 10, 2018

Louise Flaherty presents Memorial for Forgotten Plants, an exhibition developed through her residency in The Mill's Exhibition Space. An evolving and participatory body of work, Louise has used her ten week residency to explore the native Flora of the city.

“I am currently working on a project titled Memorial for Forgotten Plants. From my initial research into the original flora of the Western Suburbs in the Adelaide Plains, I have been creating memorials for these plants that rarely exist in their natural environment; having been taken over by introduced species. These “memorials” have been in the form of ink drawings, which have been photocopied and pasted up into the local area. The work is about highlighting native plant conservation as well as mourning the loss of the landscape that is no longer there.”

Artist biography:

Louise is an artist and arts worker based in Adelaide. She studied Visual Arts at the South Australian School of Art, receiving first class Honours. She was a Founding Director of Downtown Arts Space, and has worked at the South Australian School of Art and as the Arts Program Manager at Barkly Regional Arts in the Northern Territory. She has exhibited at Light Square Gallery, Adelaide Central Gallery, Artroom5 and Murray Bridge Regional Gallery and ran community workshops at the Woodville library. Louise recently undertook a mentorship with artist Laura Wills, focussing on community engagement and participatory practice. She has an upcoming residency at Sauerbier House.

About the program:

The Mill’s Exhibition Space Residency program is presented in partnership with the City of Adelaide. The program positions artistic process to the fore, allowing audiences direct access to creative research and making. During this residency The Exhibition Space operates with a studio-like mentality where knowledge arises through participation and experimentation. The Mill believes that art positions itself within transitions and passages; it opens up opportunities for incursions through relation. The Exhibition Space opens the creative process to the public in a way that positions the city’s community as foundational to artistic research and the creative process, thereby connecting people to cultural experience, insights, understanding and meaning. This is our second Residency, following on from our innaugural Exhibition Space Residency John Blines, memorias exspirare.

Visual Artist in Residence: Sonja Porcaro, 'Small Moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps'

Sonja Porcaro, Work in progress, 2019, glitter netting, paperclip, approx. 11 x `15 x 14 cm

Photograph: Sonja Porcaro

Sonja Porcaro, Work in progress (detail), 2018, felt, masking tape, dimensions variable

Photograph: Sonja Porcaro

Sonja Porcaro, Work in progress (detail), 2019, felt, dowel, foldback clip, dimensions variable

Photograph: Sonja Porcaro

Artist Studio with Sonja

April 1 - May 29, 2019

The Mill welcomes Sonja Porcaro, our new Artist in Residence in The Mill's Exhibition Space. Sonja will be working on her project ‘Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps’.

Porcaro’s predominantly sculpture and installation work uses everyday objects- including found objects- and humble materials to create restrained and poetic assemblages, often investigating notions of memory, uncertainty and the fluidity of language and representation. In combining both intimate, hand crafted objects and materials with more robust structures and often employing repetition, Porcaro’s work also acknowledges and reworks minimalist traditions, often through gendered perspectives. The Mill invites you to witness Sonja’s creative practice and gain insight into her process as the residency unfolds across a two-month period. During her residency Porcaro will be presenting a number of public programs- watch this space!

‘The project for the residency at The Mill ‘Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps’ will explore the idea of daily rhythms and rituals within the city, with repetition (both as an investigative idea and formally through processes and materials employed) featuring throughout its duration. I will explore rituals/rhythms connected to the city of Adelaide (in particular to the Central Market, with reference to early childhood memories) and investigate the rhythms of those who inhabit, work in and visit the city also, with attention to the various languages spoken within the city and beyond.

The work will also respond to the nuances and particularities of the site of The Mill itself- both as a physical space and as a site of diverse social and cultural production and interaction- with ‘Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps’, ‘activating’ the space in quiet, contemplative and intimate ways: enacting attention and care.’ - Sonja Porcaro

Kids studio with Sonja Porcaro at The Mill

When: April 15, 10-11:30am, and April 16, 10-11:30am

Artist in Residence Sonja Porcaro invites kids to join her for a drop in studio session at The Mill this school holidays. Participate in Sonja’s project Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps, kids will be invited reflect on themes of sunset, sunrise and the rhythms and rituals of daily life.

Come with your parent/carer for a short creative session where kids will make an artwork looking at bright colour and bold form. Sonja will also be looking at some of the ideas explored in iconic children's book 'How the Sun got to Coco's house' by Bob Graham, and abstract painting by artists such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Melinda Harper and Wassily Kandinsky. At the end of the session kids will be able to take their artwork home.

Kids Studio details:

Age: 5 + (primary school age)

All materials provided

Children must be accompanied by parent/carer (the idea is to spend the session working alongside your big person), Please wear 'studio clothes' or bring a smock

Cost: $10 for a Kid + accompanying adult, $10 for additional children

Concession pricing available of request, please email Adele at visualarts@themilladelaide.com

Artist biography:

Sonja Porcaro is an Adelaide based artist working predominantly in sculpture and installation. Since graduating from the South Australian School of Art (SASA), University of South Australia in 1993 with First Class Honours, Porcaro has exhibited in spaces such as the Art Gallery of South Australia, the SASA Gallery, the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, the Experimental Art Foundation (SA), the Australian Centre for Photography (Vic), The Performance Space and Artspace (NSW) and at Viafarini (Milan, Italy). Porcaro has also exhibited in many independent and artist run spaces in both South Australia and New South Wales.

Porcaro has undertaken many residencies throughout her career- funded by both Arts SA and the Australia Council for the Arts- including at the College of Fine Art (COFA), NSW, at SASA and in Milan, Italy (the Australia Council Residential Studio) and at the Athens School of Art Studio (Delphi Annexe), Greece. Porcaro has also curated and co-curated several exhibitions, given guest lectures to undergraduate Visual Art students, written reviews and articles and has contributed digital image/writing pieces to on-line publications/sites including the Electronic Writing Research Ensemble. Porcaro’s work has been collected by the Art Gallery of South Australia, COFA, NSW and is in private collections.

About the program:

The Mill’s Exhibition Space Residency program is presented in partnership with the City of Adelaide. The program positions artistic process to the fore, allowing audiences direct access to creative research and making. During this residency The Exhibition Space operates with a studio-like mentality where knowledge arises through participation and experimentation. The Mill believes that art positions itself within transitions and passages; it opens up opportunities for incursions through relation. The Exhibition Space opens the creative process to the public in a way that positions the city’s community as foundational to artistic research and the creative process, thereby connecting people to cultural experience, insights, understanding and meaning. The Exhibition Space hosts four residencies across the year. Artists in Residence have included John Blines, memorias exspirare 2 June – 25 August 2018, Louise Flaherty, Memorial for Forgotten Plants, 1 September – 14 November 2018, Matthew Fortrose, Cityboi 1 December 2018 – 10 February 2019 and Sonja Poracro, ‘Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps’ 1 April – 31 May 2019.

RESIDENCY DETAILS
Sonja Porcaro
Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps
April 1 - May 29, 2019
The Exhibition Space Residency
The Mill Adelaide
154 Angas Street, Adelaide SA 5000

Exhibition: Matthew Fortrose, Naomi Murrell, Nadia Suartika and Small Room, 'The Mill's Limited Edition Print Series'

Nadia Suartika

Lachlan Stewart of Small Room

Rafal Liszewski of Small Room

Naomi Murrell

Matthew Fortrose

27 February – 23 March 2019

The Mill’s Limited Edition Print Series

Matthew Fortrose, Naomi Murrell, Nadia Suartika and Small Room

Opening:
Sunday, March 3, 3-5pm

Showcasing the work of four amazing artists associated with The Mill, The Mill has commissioned Matthew Fortrose, Naomi Murrell, Nadia Suartika, and designers Lachlan Stewart & Rafal Liszewski from Small Room to contribute an artwork. The Limited Edition Prints will present one work from each of the four artists, each with an edition of 15 prints.

This exclusive series of artworks by leading South Australian artists appeals to a crowd of young collectors as well as art aficionados. The series makes artworks affordable for a wide audience while at the same time supporting The Mill, a not-for-profit Arts organisation. The funds raised by Limited Edition Prints series will feed directly back into The Mill’s organisational programming, and help to support artists residencies, subsidised studios and other aspects of our Professional Pathways stream.  

Artists biographies:

Matthew Fortrose is a multi-disciplinary artist whose current practice spans studio paintings and sculptures, outdoor paintings, installation and photography. Working with synthetic materials, Fortrose's work creates tensions between natural and manufactured, intentional and incidental, digital representation and physical artefact. Drawing influence from colour field painting and early Bauhaus graphics, the use of rudimentary tools and industrialized processes assist in constructing a strong visual language towards his work. Using documentation of the built environment, interventions within urban space and explorations into materiality, Fortrose work seeks to engage an audience through a series of investigations around the use of public space, and how this communicates to a formal practice.

Naomi Murrell designs romantic street fashion, fine jewellery and home products for the thoughtful woman, to bring small moments of beauty, calm and confidence into her day to day life. Unlike the mass-market, she aims to inspire by using design as a graphic art form. Naomi’s visual language is minimal, on point - yet irrepressibly playful. Inspired by colour, and graphic shape her label turns out refined everyday pieces for the individual. The Naomi Murrell flagship store in Ebenezer Place is an oasis of awesome for the fun lover who delights in the details.

Nadia Suartika is an artist, designer and tattooist with XO L’Avant. She is the founder of Nadika, a range of jewellery and embroidery pieces.

Nadia is a self taught artist and has had a particularly strong interest in plants from an early age which led her to study horticulture. Now living on a native bush block in the Adelaide hills, Nadia continues her study of plants using a creative process of documenting local and South Australian natives through illustration and design.

Nadia draws inspiration from her Balinese-European heritage and her family of creatives. Built on a foundation of intuitive art, her work is simultaneously delicate and bold. Playful colours and shapes interact with each other, reminiscent of multicultural tapestries and the intricate patterns of the natural world.

Small Room is a graphic design and visual communication studio that focuses in creative fields with a strong process based work style. A love for experimental design, pushing the boundaries and breaking the rules fuels our passion for design. But the Small Room design sensibility itself is simpler with a priority for communication, timelessness, visual conquest and collaboration. Small Room work primarily in identity, print and graphics. And also work in broader areas of visual media like packaging, objects, experimental web design and exhibition (‘Death of a Designer’ (2017).

Shop The Mill’s Limited Edition Prints

Exhibition: Georgia Matthews, 'WALLS'

27 February – 23 March 2019

Opening:
Sunday, March 3, 3-5pm

Please join us in The Exhibition Space for WALLS, an exhibition by Adelaide based photographer Georgia Matthews, showing concurrently with launch of The Mill’s Limited Edition Print Series.

‘I like to express the 'self'- the cognitive apparatus to be self-aware and to think about ourselves consciously. I think we ought to abolish the word 'self' in psychology in order to communicate more clearly – perhaps, by representing 'self' through a visual portal, images, portrayals of external stimulus that may be more widely understood. My interest in psychotherapy has allowed me to concentrate on metaphorical 'walls' which have recently become a staple in my work.’

In this exhibition Georgia explores representations of the 'self' through photographing the construction and deconstruction of architecture. WALLS illustrates an interpretation of 'mental walls' or ‘mental blocks', via the use of Moghul symbolism. In this series she captures Indo-Islamic spaces, focusing on complexity, decoration, transportation, and isolation in order to push the boundaries of form and colour. Vivid and natural colours are combined with geometric shapes, creating a series of abstract landscapes that fall somewhere between painting and photography. WALLS attempts to open doorways into the psyche and aims to evoke a personal response to our surroundings.

Artists biography:

Georgia Matthews is a photographer, videographer and arts therapist from Adelaide, South Australia. Her work delves into topics of the human experience and photo-journalism. She graduated as a photographer from The University of South Australia in 2013, and completed an Advanced Diploma in Transpersonal Art Therapy in 2016. Her theatrical night photography touches on themes of psychoanalysis and the notion of the ‘self’, using layered textures in isolated environments. She has exhibited at Factory 9, Port Elliot, The Artisan Cafe, Peter Walker Fine Art Gallery and Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi.

Visual Artist in Residence: Matthew Fortrose, 'Cityboi - The Mill in conversation with Matthew Fortrose'

The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas sat down with Artist in Residence Matthew Fortrose to have a chat about his practice. This is the first in a series of podcasts ‘in conversation’ with artists for The Exhibition Space Residency Program.

In our chat Matthew talks us through the evolution of his practice, his processes and materiality and how the streets of Adelaide form the inspiration for his Cityboi project.

Follow this link to the Podcast on The Mill’s Soundcloud

More about Matthew Fortrose, Cityboi