When: Friday, July 9, 2021, 6:00pm (arrive 5:45pm)
Where: The Mill Breakout, 154 Angas Street
Duration:1 hour including post-show discussion
Cost: Free
Trimates (working title) is inspired by the work of the pioneers of primatology, Drs Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas.
Through a highly physical representation of the great apes, Trimates will explore the different ways that chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans communicate, whilst also telling the stories of the three women who studied them. Using text, movement and mime, this show will explore the parallel lives of the great apes and the pioneering scientists, in a bid to understand our complex relationship with the natural world.
Due to venue capacity restrictions, we ask you only book a ticket if you are able to attend. All attendees must be aware of our hygiene policy before attending our venue.
Jess Clough-MacRae is a British/New Zealand Lecoq-trained performer, director, and movement director currently based in Adelaide. She founded award-winning Clownfish Theatre and has toured their award-winning show Attenborough and his Animals to sell out crowds in Adelaide, Perth and Edinburgh Fringe.
Where: The Exhibition Space, The Mill, 154 Angas Street
Cost: Free
Join us for the launch of Holly’s exhibition Reality Winner, the outcome of work produced during her sponsored studio residency at The Mill. Reality Winner opens alongside Stitch and Resist on Friday July 2, followed by an artist talk with Holly in conversation with The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas date now TBC in July.
Language falls asleep in dreams. Reality Winner is the name of an NSA contractor convicted under the Espionage Act for leaking a report about Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Salvador Dali was kicked out of the surrealist movement for being too surreal. Post-rational author and consultant Venkatesh Rao defines “surreal” as “underflowing with life”, as in, there isn’t enough life force to go around, but “underflowing” also has a specific meaning in computation when a value is smaller than a computer can compute. Venkatesh: "Dreams *are* an underflowing-with-life state since they occur in sleeping bodies capable of much higher flows when awake". This exhibition contains materials derived and reworked from exhibitions, performances and collaborations that I contributed to but that I could not attend "in real life" due to the pandemic and associated travel bans.
Holly Childs is a writer and artist. Her research involves filtering stories of computation through frames of ecology, earth, memory, poetry, and light. In 2020, she was an associate artist at Jacuzzi dance space, Amsterdam; and alongside Gediminas Žygus she released Hydrangea (Subtext), an album exploring narrative fracture and reality bubbles. She is the author of two books: No Limit (Hologram) and Danklands (Arcadia Missa), and is a former Gertrude Contemporary studio holder (Melbourne), an alumna of The New Normal (Media, Architecture and Design) programme at Strelka Institute, Moscow, and she holds a Masters in Film, Design and Politics from Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam. She has been in residence at Arcadia Missa (London), RM (Auckland), Firstdraft (Sydney), Rupert (Vilnius), and DAR (Druskininkai). She is currently writing her third book, What Causes Flowers Not to Bloom?; teaching in the Graphic Design department at Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam; and developing Cliffhanger, a text, installation, and choreographic collaboration with Angela Goh.
When:Friday, July 2, and Saturday, July 3, 2021, 7:30pm
Where: Australian Dance Theatre, The Odeon, 57a Queen St, Norwood
Cost: $30 + booking fees
Future History began as a research project to investigate the influence of personal history and artistic lineage on the way we work and the art we make. From this a strategy for collaborative devising was developed and the raw material for this new solo was born. An award-winning team including, Australian artists Luke Smiles, Martin del Amo, Kristina Chan and Joshua Thomson along with international artists Rasmus Ölme and Vania Vaneau have contributed to this collaboratively devised work.
Weaving notions personal and universal, Future History reflects the precarious nature of the human body and the natural world. The work manifests the cyclic quality of global uncertainty throughout time in response to threat – conflict, epidemic, escalating climate events – and illuminates the vulnerability and resilience implicit in life on earth.
Although conceived and developed long before the spectre of COVID-19 entered the scene, this project and the conversations it provokes feels decidedly urgent when facing our current predicament as artists and a society.
A new ritual.
Melancholic resolution. Unresolved continuance. Grieving something we haven't yet lost. Losing something we only just have a sense of. An endless oscillation between hope and despair, fear and courage, past and future, life and death.
Credits
Made by Gabrielle Nankivell in collaboration with Luke Smiles, Martin del Amo, Kristina Chan, Joshua Thomson, Rasmus Ölme and Vania Vaneau, with contributions by Harriet Oxley and Meg Wilson.
Supporters
The creative development of this work has been generously supported by:
The Government of South Australia Arts South Australia, Australian Dance Theatre’s International Centre for Choreography, The Mill’s Emerging Producer Xchange, Stockholm University of the Arts, Lieues Lyon and Legs on the Wall.
Presented by The Mill supported by venue partners ADT, and Dance Hub SA.
Dance Launchpad is a professional development program designed to support emerging contemporary dancers to build experience in the professional industry, by working with local South Australian choreographers. The program nurtures the ecology of dance in SA is supported by venue partners ADT and Dance Hub SA.
The program will commission two established choreographers, to share their wealth of industry knowledge with four emerging dance artists. Choreographers will be announced mid-end June 2021.
The outcome will be the creation of two choreographic works each performed by four selected dancers, presented in a double bill performance platform at ADT’s Odeon Theatre.
The choreography will be filmed by a professional videographer to create a ‘showreel’ for each dancer to showcase their skills nationally and internationally, promoting future employment.
The successful dancers will be selected through EOI process & Audition at Dance Hub SA in July 2021.
Dance Launchpad has been postponed until May 2022.
Dance Launchpad has been generously supported by Australian Dance Theatre.
Photo Credit: Chris Herzfeld Imagery
Audition details
When: Sunday July 18, 1pm - 4pm
Where: Dance Hub SA, Lion Arts Centre, Cnr Morphett St & North Tce, Kaurna Yerta
Dance Launchpad Rehearsal Dates:
Stage 1: 1 week rehearsals at ADT Odeon Theatre
Stage 2: 2 weeks rehearsals at ADT Odeon Theatre
Additional after hours rehearsals at Dance Hub SA outside rehearsal blocks (TBC)
Performance details
Dance Launchpad Performance Dates: May 20 and 21, 2022
Performance Venue: ADT Odeon Theatre.
Audition criteria
You must be an emerging South Australian contemporary dancer, trained in tertiary dance institution. (not limited to SA tertiary dance institutions)
You must be available for the rehearsal and performance periods outlined.
You must be aware this program is a professional development opportunity where dancers receive industry experience, profiling and a professional show reel. It is not a paid opportunity.
Please email your EOI including the following information to director@themilladelaide.com :
Your CV
Up to 200 words about why this professional development experience will be valuable for you at this time of your professional career.
EOI Due Date: Monday,July 12.
Notification: EOIs will be notified on receipt of their application.
The Mill Showcase is an exhibition series dedicated to artists who work in The Mill’s studio spaces on Angas Street, Adelaide. The exhibition includes artworks and products that have been produced under our roof by incredible artisans. This touring edition of The Mill Showcase brings a selection of our artists to McLaren Vale, so that we can share their practice with you!
This edition of The Mill Showcase features work by Blake Canham-Bennett, Steel Chronis, Amber Cronin, Andrew Eden, Matea Gluscevic, Evie Hassiotis, Yana Lehey, Kirsty Martinsen and Kate O’Callaghan, curated by Adele Sliuzas
The Mill is excited to present Complexities, a solo exhibition by artist Thomas Readett. This new body of work uses self-portraiture as a medium for exploring the complexities of contemporary life. Thomas’ self-exploration and personal narratives become opportunities to reflect the wider world, through themes of love, loss, and grief.
Taking inspiration from the Rubik’s cube, Thomas sets the scene of a ‘thinking game’, asking viewers to consider a multi-layered reading of his works. Complexities and connections can be found throughout, with audiences able to bring personal interpretation to their journey through the exhibition environment. Rather than self-portraiture being self-focused, Readett speaks of empathetic connection and creative interpretation of the challenges of 21st century life.
Thomas’ graphic aesthetic is powerfully rendered in black and white, with careful attention to detail. He melds street art style with classical training to produce work that is technical and conceptual. In Complexities he pushes his practice into 3D sculptural space, playing with the pictorial plane and interrupting our usual modes of interpretation. The Rubik’s cube gives us an opportunity to see portraits in flux, opening up the medium (and meaning) to change.
Perception is a fundamental trait of the creative mind. It allows us to interpret ideas differently to others, bring fresh ideas but also brings a different set of mental and social processes. These processes mean that we have deep and empathetic connections to people and the world around us.
Complexities explores how convoluted the creative mind can be. In this abstracted self-portrait body of work I reflect on the importance of self-expression and how overwhelming the world, life and relationships can be without it. In the world’s current climate all aspects of life have been more challenging than usual, using a form of self-expression has never been more important and, for me, it has become compulsory.
My love of video games and thinking games has driven the development of these works, using these games as a conduit to describe the complexities of connection and reflection. Using a small and technical object known as the Rubik's cube as the starting point, the original thinking game. My Rubik’s cube speaks to the pixel like painted snapshots on the walls and creates an environment to explore and contemplate life, connection, and love.
Thomas Readett is a Ngarrindjeri man and established artist from Adelaide, South Australia. He is currently working as Tarnanthi Education Officer at the Art Gallery of South Australia part-time alongside his art practice.
Thomas has been a drawer his entire life ever since he was a child, wanting to further his career as a professional artist he enrolled into Adelaide Central School of Art in 2011, and it was then he began painting. This is now his main practice among others. Thomas graduated his study at Adelaide Central School of Art completing his Associate Degree and Bachelor of Visual Arts Degree (BVA) in 2015. During his time at Adelaide Central School of Art he held group shows with fellow graduates and ended the degree with his final body of video work based around ideas of solitude and a personal journey through his identity.
Thomas has since exhibited solo exhibitions Beneath the Skin, Dark Light and latest body of work From Within, which was completed through the University SA and Country Health SA Artist in Residency program. He is a huge advocate for raising mental health awareness and most of his current concepts enforce this. Thomas has recently been working on large scale public art murals across South Australia both solo and collaboratively in events such as Wonderwalls, Big Picture Fest and other large-scale commissions.
Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yerta
Cost: $20 + booking fee
Presented in The Mill’s gallery space, this workshop will explore how to experiment with poetry and use text to respond creatively to other art forms.
About the workshop:
This two hour poetry workshop is for all levels, from beginners to confident poets wanting to expand their creative toolset.
The workshop will lead participants through a variety of performative approaches to improvising poetry and resisting self-censoring your writing.
Jess will introduce you to the techniques of lyrical poetry, developing a poetic voice, and experimenting with themes and content. This session leads on from Jess’s previous workshops through The Mill, though previous writing experience is not necessary.
The workshop is designed to be approachable to people from varied creative practices, for writers and non-writers wanting to learn more about poetic techniques and kick start their creative process.
The Mill is an accessible space. Disability access is available via Angas Street, and a disability toilet is also available. More access information is available on our website. If you have any questions or additional accessibility requirements, please contact us at info@themilladelaide.com
Jess Martin is a poet, critic, and interdisciplinary artist whose work is informed by their collaboration with artists across a variety of disciplines including dance, photography and sound art. Their recent work is investigating improvised ekphrastic poetry in performance contexts.
Jess is interested in experimental performance, sharing experiences of queerness and disability, and making work in regional contexts. They have experience facilitating creative projects and workshops as a poet, performer and textile artist.
As a reviewer, Jess’s work has appeared in Witness Performance, The Adelaide Review, and Fest Magazine among others. Jess was 2020 Writer in Residence at The Mill, and in 2018 was a Vitalstatistix Adhocracy festival residency artist.
Jess’s recent projects include participating as an artist in National Young Writers’ Festival 2020 and collaborative scriptwriting for the joint State Theatre Company SA & ActNow Theatre project Decameron 2.0.
For SALA festival 2021 The Mill presents Biophilia: Call of the Wild, a group exhibition and public program featuring designers exploring connection to nature within built environments
Biophilia: Call of the Wild is a group exhibition that explores our innate human desire to be connected with the living world. Biophilia, from Greek translates as ‘the love of living things’, which Exhibition Curator and maker/designer Robyn Wood has used as a conceptual starting point. At its core is the principle to connect humans with nature and as a result improve wellbeing. In our urban setting we yearn to connect to the natural environment.
Held in The Mill’s Exhibition space, Robyn has brought together South Australian designers Enoki, Caren Elliss, Jake Shaw, Peter Walker, Sally Wickes, whose works connect humans with nature. These designers demonstrate a variety of thinking and approaches from within their contemporary creative practices. They express their ideas through sculpture, furniture, interior installation and experiences. The exhibition includes diverse materials, process and concepts, experiences evoking space and place (prospect, refuge, mystery and risk); natural elements-water: greenery and natural light; use of materials, textures and patterns; and botanical shapes and forms.
A symposium will be held at The Mill alongside the exhibition and will feature a line up of Adelaide Creative thinkers, furniture designers, writers, architects, artists and environmentalists exploring a range of topics around Biophilic design. Exploring themes of art, contemporary design, the need for nature in our human environment, well being, sustainable practices and science that intersect with the topic of Biophilia.
Presented with partners The Design Institute of Australia, Adelaide Sustainable Building Network and with support from City of Adelaide,Gilchrist Connell, Bank SA Foundation, and Arts SA
About the artists:
In considering this project I have looked at the repeated forms that occur in nature. The gentle undulations of sand along the shoreline, the ridge formations in cockle shells and the lapping of waves against the shore.
Describing herself as a designer/maker Caren Elliss is known for producing thoughtful, original furniture and lighting. Caren has a Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honors) and Master of Sustainable Design from University of South Australia. She undertook a four-month Industrial Design internship at AirDesign, Mexico and completed the Associate Program at JamFactory.
Caren has worked with Koskela, Estilo Commercial and Woodmark, and from 2016 -2018 was a Studio Educator in Product Design and a Workshop Instructor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia.
Traces by Enoki is a cocooning interactive sculpture that will transport the viewer on a short journey to a place of sensory immersion. The installation will include experiential offerings of sights, sounds, smells and textures from the 5 artists personal memories and associations with nature to evoke emotional connections with the participant. Traces is the collaborative work of Susanna Bilardo, Cindy Chay, Amber Lewis, Ash McCammon and Jacky Spencer.
Enoki is a multidisciplinary design practice, we design our projects to work well now and in the future. We endeavour to enhance the experience of those that use, live with, or live in our projects. Every project, no matter how small, is explored, reworked and given complete attention, until a unique and inspiring design solution is achieved.
We endeavour to share, experiment, learn and remain open to changing direction throughout the design process. We choose to include each other and our clients in our thinking. We take responsibility in touching the earth as lightly as possible. We embrace and incorporate sustainable practices in our projects.
Jake Shaw's 'Forager’s Chair' is made from 100% Tasmanian Reishi mushroom mycelium and the hardwood timber on which it natively grows. The work reads as a resolved piece of furniture, but in actuality does not significantly deviate from the process of the mushroom growing in the wild. By emulating the natural conditions and environment of the mycelium, the work strives to be demonstrative of harmony between maker and material.
Jake graduated from the University of South Australia in 2019 with a Bachelor in Interior Architecture.With his background in interior design, Jake Shaw's work looks at the relationship between the built environment and human experience. Primarily composed of grown mushroom mycelium furniture and sculpture, his practice is led by explorations of new and sustainable materials, phenomenology, design as art, public art, and spatial experiences. His work seeks to challenge the idea that organic materials and textures are somehow unrefined in design and to pursue material subtlety with discipline and restraint.
In the bush, a branch, a rock, a log, can spontaneously become a place to rest and impromptu furniture. Perching is a series of objects that combine naturally formed branches with machined timber to provide support for the body.
Whether resting while standing, sitting or lying down, the body and Perching form a symbiotic relationship. This tactile experience elicits a connection with the natural world, encouraging reflection on the nature of wood and its origins.
Peters practice encompasses a range of activities utilizing wood including sculpture, surfboards and furniture. Peter gained a BFA in 1986 and an MFA Degree from the School of Art, University of Tasmania, Australia in 1993. He ran his own studio for 14 years in Tasmania, moving to Adelaide to Head the Furniture Design Studio at the JamFactory Craft and Design Center in the late 90’s. Peter has worked as Design Consultant for Chiswell Furniture, Designer Makers Tasmania Cooperative 1985, Co-Director of the 1991 Hobart Design Triennial and a partner of Dezco Furniture LLC. He is currently Program Director, Master of Design, School of Art, Architecture & Design. Prior to this Peter was Associate Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design USA, 2001-2011.
His work is represented in public and private collections, including the Australian Parliament House, Canberra and the RISD Museum, USA. Peter exhibits work regularly across Australia, Europe and USA.
The Kaurna name for Carriageway park (Park 17) is Tuthangga meaning “grass place”. Native grasses have miraculously survived in our Park lands and provide refuge for the rare grassland copper butterfly. This grass is the inspiration for this installation. The sun shines down on these precious strands of grass forming elongated shadows that stretch and move.
Grassplace installation is a series of slender panels that both define space and create a delicate sculptural backdrop. The screen design is a repeat pattern of strands gently curved reflecting grass gently moving in the breeze. Designed to make use of resources close to home it is made from steam bent Australian timber with a variety of natural coloured stains applied. Grassplace provides both prospect and refuge. We are protected and comforted by a place to hide but can peak through the open strands to seek a view. We are connected to our unique natural landscape by bringing these forms inside.
Robyn Wood is a South Australian designer working in a diverse range of disciplines from Furniture design, sculpture, installation and product. Maintaining a connection to nature in a contemporary context is important in her creative practise.
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. In 2014 she established her studio working on furniture and interior installations.
She has worked on a wide range of international and local commercial and government interior projects, private furniture commissions, exhibition pieces and small production runs. Being hands on in her joinery work and experimenting with other media continue to be important in developing new work.
The ambience created by light filtered through foliage has a measurable influence on humans. Whether it revives awareness of our interconnection with the natural world or sense of shelter and sustenance, its impact is created as much through shadow as light. green.light draws on the visual experience of plants and light in concert.
Sally Wickes is a sculptor, visual artist and industrial designer interested in exploring traditional, new and existing materials to create artworks.
Sally holds a degree in Visual Art (Sculpture) and a Graduate Diploma in Design (Industrial Design). She has also created permanent public artworks for several councils; received Arts SA and Helpmann Academy grants to undertake marble carving tuition in Pietrasanta, Italy; and has been awarded several prizes for sculptural work including in the Waterhouse Art Prize.
Visually, Sally's works are diverse as they are enriched by individual concepts and stories. She is inspired by nature and in turn hopes to inspire feelings of oneness and belonging, leading to acceptance of responsibilities that come with being part of a greater whole.
This exhibition is a finalist in the City Of Onkaparinga Contemporary Curator Award
The Mill welcomes Ruby Chew, the painter and Ida Sophia, the performance artist for a bold new collaborative exhibition, which transforms The Exhibition Space into a site for exploration, interpretation and multidisciplinary practice.
‘What happens when a Painter (Ruby Chew) and a Performance Artist (Ida Sophia) assemble for a period of 4 weeks to make work based on the methodologies, materials and processes of the other’s?’
Ruby and Ida invite audiences into the gallery to watch as their work develops over the first four weeks of the exhibition. Working within a process driven structure outlined in a joint manifesto, both artists will be bringing their own understanding of artistic practice, and a willingness to extend into new zones. While present in the gallery over the first period of the exhibition, the artists will be responding to weekly provocations traded in sealed envelopes. The final two weeks will remain as a static exhibition for audiences to view the work produced during the first period.
Our objective is to subvert the normal system of an exhibition; how it is prepared, presented and received. Through this we will develop new theoretical underpinnings for our practices, birthed through process. The process is the exhibition.
We will respond to the materials, methods and processes from each other, and build from the foundation of our own practices. Envelopes containing instructions, provocations, methodological considerations and processes will be traded between us weekly. These directives will dictate the work that we make. We anticipate an exchange that is challenging and fruitful, producing work that pushes the edges of our practices into fresh territory.
Adherence to a co-written manifesto, written specifically for this system intervention, provides us with artistic constrictions, intentions and declarations. This includes a list of materials; 5 from Ruby’s practice, 5 from Ida’s and each a meaningful object to work from.
We invite you into this experimental exhibition where you can view work and engage in a participatory capacity. This is a purposefully fluid space, you will encounter all stages of artistic output. Consequently, the gallery will morph and transform weekly, we encourage you to return and witness the space as it evolves.
Ruby Chew is a painter who employs process-based making techniques to create open dialogues with her viewers whilst exploring the fluidity of pictorial space. Completing a BA Visual Arts Hons. at Adelaide Central School of Art (2010), along with further study at Central Saint Martins, London and the Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Ruby’s practice is deeply rooted in traditional painting techniques, which are the foundation of her practice.
Ruby is a Ruth Tuck Scholarship recipient (2015) and has exhibited, taught and held residency positions interstate and overseas. She has had numerous solo exhibitions, notably ‘Portraits’ at Magazine Gallery (2011), ’Spitting Image’ at Hill Smith Gallery (2012) and ‘The Difference Between Things’ at Floating Goose Studios (2021).
Her artworks are in public and private collections across Australia, Canada, Malaysia and London. She currently lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia.
Ida Sophia’s live art participatory performance, sculpture, installation and sound practice investigates how to approach loss in modern, secular life. Looking to facilitate our need for ritual, contemplation and completion, her works intend to slow down the dilution of ceremony.
2020 has seen Ida further develop her practice in durational performance through training with international artists Vest&Page, performances at The Venice International Performance Art Week Co-Creation Live Factory: Dissenting Bodies Marking Time. Her next durational performance will be at Floating Goose, spanning the month of June 2020. Ida Sophia has been mentored by a range of performance artists and curators, among them Joseph Morgan Schofield (Artist/co-ordinator of the Live Art Development Agency, UK), La Pocha Nostra (Artist Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Voin de Voin (Artist/Curator, Æther, Sofia) providing critical advice for her practise and development of participatory encounters.
In 2019, Ida held her first international solo exhibition at Æther Art Space in Sofia, Bulgaria, following her participation in the World of CO Artist Residency (Sofia, 2018). Ida has participated in the ‘Cleaning The House’ workshop with the Marina Abramovic Institute and exhibited in multiple group shows locally and internationally since 2017.
The Mill Showcase is a gallery spacededicated 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 fifth edition of The Mill Showcase features work by Sandy Kumnick, Kate O’Callaghan and design studio Small Room.
About the artists:
Sandy Kumnick is an experimental multidisciplinary environmental artist. Following Media Studies at Uni SA, Sandy’s Video Art productions were shown at Adelaide Festival Centre and Media Resource Centre. Since completing a Visual Art and Design degree at Adelaide College of the Arts in 2012, Sandy has exhibited paintings, drawings and sculptures at galleries in China, Adelaide, Goolwa, and undertaken an Artist Residency at Sauerbier House, Port Noarlunga.
My work leads me as I create, with no intent of final outcome when choosing colours, making gestural marks or tossing dried kelp onto paper. It is humbling, meditative and enriching. I often incorporate found objects from the natural world as pure aesthetics and for thier significance, such as how Nature’s spiral pattern represents beginnings, resilience and eternity. I pay respect to the First Nation people and their connections with the natural materials used in my exhibits
Kate O’Callaghan graduated with Honours from the National Art School in 2004 majoring in Ceramics, where she won the graduate prize for her unique vessel designs. Her writing about South Korean Ceramics has been published in The Journal of Australian Ceramics. Kate is the Founder and Director of Artful, a company focused on teaching the benefits of clay to people of all ages.
I am completely drawn to throwing clay on the wheel, along with teaching as many people who are as equally excited by the possibility inherent in working with clay.
Small Room is the ongoing creative project of Lachlan Stewart, Angus Plunkett & Rafal Liszewski. Lachlan, Angus and Rafal have been working together since 2013. Graphic design was a gateway and framework for the creative practice they have developed. Small room has taken many forms since its conception and is currently exploring work through screen printing, illustration, painting, installation, photography, web and graphic design.
We have created an installation which displays work from the past two years. This installation which houses our work is a glimpse into the creative environment Small Room like to operate in. Taking inspiration from many zones and internet holes we get caught in, linked with a hindsight view of our childhoods and working experiences. We use our creativity as a way to express and process the world. Informed by y2k tech aesthetics, metalheart/depthcore, consumer culture, minimalist furniture, international style design and brutalism.
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When:Friday, March 12, 2021, 3pm-5pm, arrive 15 minutes early to sign in and warm up
Venue: Dance Hub SA, Lion Arts Centre, level 1, corner Morphett St and North Terrace, Adelaide
Cost:$30 + booking fee
The Mill in partnership with Adelaide Festival and venue partner Dance Hub SA, present a masterclass with Branch Nebula (NSW).
About the Masterclass:
The creative team working on High Performance Packing Tape have been exploring how objects and the body collide in risky situations. Doing the wrong thing. What happens when you change the priorities in terms of risk. The workshop participants are invited to prepare by bringing materials and objects that they would like to work with. Thinking about everyday items that can be sourced from shops, or off the street. Materials that when multiplied may have increased integrity. Or perhaps no integrity. Things you may wish to climb, or be used to change your shape. Its ok to bring more than what you think you will need for your exploration. As a workshop leader, Lee will share some techniques for controlled falling, stages of preparation for a risky manoeuvre, and escape routes. We will work with the props to create short pieces.
Participant level:
Emerging and professional artists: performers, dancers, physical people.
Lee Wilson is one of the co-Artistic Directors of Branch Nebula. He is based in Sydney, and has toured extensively throughout his 30 year career as a performer and director. Lee trained at UWS Theatre Nepean and with the company Acrobat. Since co-founding Branch Nebula with Mirabelle Wouters 20 years ago, they have created many new works including the Helpmann Award winners Snake Sessions and Whelping Box. Branch Nebula’s aesthetic draws its dynamism from a passionate engagement with street culture. Refined art-making is everywhere, if you know how to look. We champion the exquisite skills of the skater as we do the fluid movement of the contemporary dancer, and we build our work with both.Branch Nebula is one of Australia’s most adventurous performance companies working at the nexus between theatre, dance, sport & street-styles. They work with non-conventional performers to collaboratively devise work that defies categorization. Lee’s credits with other artists include dramaturgy on Nick Power’s dance pieces Cypher, Between Tiny Cities and Two Crews. He has also worked with Roslyn Oades, Ahilan Ratnamohan, Shaun Parker, Shaun Gladwell, Urban Theatre Projects, Kate Champion, Acrobat and Post Arrivalists. Lee has led many workshops including Body of Ideas at Critical Path.
A choreographic commission, The Move is a curated initiative of Dance Hub SA, The Mill and Ausdance SA, presented by Adelaide Festival Centre.
The project seeks professional South Australian Choreographers and their artistic teams to each create and present a fully realised 20-30 minute dance work for The Move to be staged at Adelaide Festival Centre’s Space Theatre as a combined production in April 2021.
When: March 5, 2021, 10am to 12pm, (arrive 15 minutes early to sign in)
Where: Dance Hub SA, Lion Arts Centre, level 1, corner Morphett St and North Terrace, Adelaide
Cost: $30 + booking fees (Dance Hub SA Member Discount $25 plus fees)
The Mill in partnership with Adelaide Festival and venue partner Dance Hub SA, present a masterclass with Gravity & Other Myths.
About the Masterclass:
This masterclass will be divided into two sections:
Acrobatic Skill Training
As an acrobatic based company, skill training is integral to our process. With guidance from some of Australia's leading acrobats, you will have the opportunity to trial GOM's favourite physical languages from creative floor based tumbling to towers and acrobatic swinging, this will be a little taste of the fundamental components of Australian contemporary circus.
An Introduction into GOM's Creative Process
Drawing from many varied influences, GOM has built a strong toolkit for creating physical work from a conceptual or thematic launching point. From acrobatics through to dance and even theatre, our experienced artists will run you through a collection of creation exercises that we use to create our own work.
Participant level:
Emerging and professional artists: performers, dancers, actors, physical people.
Gravity and Other Myths (GOM) is an acrobatics and physical theatre company pushing the boundaries of new circus. Formed in Adelaide, Australia in 2009, GOM has rocketed to stellar acclaim with a series of disarmingly accomplished ensemble works. GOM utilises an honest approach to performance, to create work with a focus on human connection and acrobatic virtuosity.
Our first work, A Simple Space, has achieved momentous international success, having performed more than 850 times across 34 countries and receiving multiple awards, most notably the IPAY Victor Award for People's Choice. Backbone, GOM’s subsequent work, premiered as part of the 2017 Adelaide Festival to critical acclaim and 3 Helpmann Award nominations, cementing the company’s position as a leader in contemporary circus. GOM’s latest work, Out Of Chaos…, premiered at the 2019 Adelaide Festival and went on to receive the 2019 Helpmann Award for Best Physical Theatre.
Alongside our onstage work, GOM deeply values engaging with both our immediate and wider community through workshops and education. Our artists are all experienced coaches in both physical skill training and conceptual creation and are eager to share their skills and knowledge.
The Mill is excited to present Life Maps, an exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Jingwei Bu. This series of drawings are both the artworks itself and a document of performative action. Jingwei speaks of her process as intuitive action, where she uses techniques of focus and meditation to translate emotion and memory onto the paper.
Formally, the works have a simple palate and are constructed of a handful of stylised gestures- repeated lines, shading, sequenced numbers and spirals. Each drawing is created in one sitting, which lasts several hours, drawing from the genre of time based performance. They are built through an intricate and layered mark making process, where Jingwei moves about the page purposefully. Meaning shifts as earlier marks are covered, or extended over. Abstraction allows Jingwei to express deeply personal and emotional experiences through movement in a way that allows audiences to engage their own curiosity, their own mental performance of map-making. The exhibition also includes a performance by Jingwei, extending her Life Maps into live action in the gallery space.
My Life Maps drawings are a performative movement of the hands. The marks, numbers and lines carry the intuitive motion performed on the paper. The endurance of the movement uses the paper as a stage and as a boundary for action. The results of the performances are either purely intuitive or an action for a reflection on a life event. The repetition of motion is like meditation and ritual. The repetition is never the same.
The freedom of movement is paralleled by the process of creating space among lines, forms, and marks that resonate the actions of navigating distance and space among people. The longer the movement, the deeper I can go into the subconscious of emotion and memory accumulated in the life journey. To reach, to fix, to answer the questions locked.
Each mark has its character to me, together they are telling complex stories. This exhibition shows the old Life Maps from the previous years and the recent ones since my mother’s passing two years ago. The making of new life maps has helped me get through the grieving and to gradually heal.
Jingwei Bu is an art student from Adelaide Central School of Art, graduating with her associate bachelor degree of art in 2020. Jingwei’s practice draws on Buddhist Chan/Zen teachings. She references both Western and Eastern cultural and artistic traditions in duration-based works on paper titled Life Maps. In creating them Jingwei utilises the principles of a mindfulness meditation, committing to a length of time engaging memory, experience and reflection to document her life’s journey using mark-making.
She is passionate about sharing this creative process with others and credits the cathartic artmaking process as possessing positive and even therapeutic benefits, citing an emphasis on acceptance and the ability to transform negative thoughts and feelings through creativity.
Cost: $30 + booking fees (Dance Hub SA Member Discount $25 plus fees)
The Mill in Partnership with Adelaide Festival and venue partner Dance Hub SA, present a masterclass with Sydney Dance Company.
About the masterclass:
A visceral and thrilling exploration of the juxtaposition of beauty and devastation, Sydney Dance Company’s full-length work, Impermanence is Rafael Bonachela’s newest creation. This two-hour masterclass led by Company Dancer Jesse Scales will incorporate contemporary technique, an opportunity to learn repertoire from Impermanence, and exploration of the creative tasks that informed the choreographic process behind the work. Aimed at tertiary and professional-level dancers, this workshop provides insight into the contemporary dance processes used in the development of a work at Sydney Dance Company.
Born in Hobart, Jesse is from Adelaide where they trained with Terry Simpson and was awarded their RAD Solo Seal. They received full scholarships to study with Complexions Contemporary Ballet in New York and Nederlands Dans Theatre in The Hague and went on to major in classical ballet at the New Zealand School of Dance.
Since joining Sydney Dance Company in 2012, Jesse performed a feature role in the Australian premiere of William Forsythe’s Quintett for which they were awarded the 2015 Green Room Award for ‘Best Female Dancer’ and a nomination for the 2015 Helpmann Award for ‘Best Female Dancer’. Jesse made their choreographic debut in Sydney Dance Company’s 2016 New Breed season. In 2017 Jesse was named ‘Most Outstanding Dancer’ in the Dance Australia Critics’ Choice Survey.
Jesse choreographed a new work for New Breed 2020.
Dance changes you. More than simply witnessing something beautiful, or engaging with culture, to experience dance is to be positively altered. From performances at the Joyce Theatre in New York, to the Grand in Shanghai, the Stanislavsky in Moscow and the Sydney Opera House at home, Sydney Dance Company has proved that there are no passive observers in a contemporary dance audience.
Venue: Dance Hub SA, Lion Arts Centre, level 1, corner Morphett St and North Terrace, Adelaide
Cost: $23
The Mill in partnership with Adelaide Fringe and venue partner Dance Hub SA, present a contemporary dance masterclass with Thomas E.S. Kelly, a proud Bundjalung-Yugambeh, Wiradjuri, Ni-Vanuatu man, who co-created Karul Projects in 2017.
About the masterclass:
The masterclass, suitable for contemporary trained dancers, explores Contemporary Indigenous Dance Technique, a grounded physical form that will leave you sweaty, energised and connected.
Karul Projects is a company led by new First Nation voices telling new stories. Karul is situated in South East Qld and Northern NSW. Thomas creates work that explores high intensity physical works stemming from a cultural practice fused with contemporary, which incorporates voice and physical percussion. Creating work that ebbs and flows whilst mimicking nature. Remembering the past to better understand the present so we can move forward into the future.
The Mill presents a much anticipated 10-day professional development project, Cinematic Experiments, in partnership with artist Margie Medlin and Mercury CX, funded by Arts SA.
In response to creatives pushing further into exploring digital spaces, this intensive workshop challenges a mixed cohort of dance, performance, film and design artists to explore the development of interdisciplinary, hybrid and digital platforms. The stimulating, experiment-based structure builds digital technologies skills for participating artists and ignites new ways of thinking and practicing.
The partnership between The Mill and Mercury CX reflects the labs interdisciplinary aspirations.
Images: Margie Medlin, dancer Vicki Van Hout, Cinematic Experiments 2019
Participants can expect:
The project, spans two weeks working with Margie Medlin as lead artist, a film/camera production person and editing teacher/facilitator. The process will combine;
Introduction to avant-garde cinema practices:
Exploring aesthetics of the cinematic frame e.g. on-screen and off screen, depth of field, focus
Practical sessions such as: working with the video camera (video or DSLR camera), light for the camera - practical lighting movement in the void (black box studio, cameras, tripods, lights, sound), video editing (introduction of premiere pro-editing software), layering testing ideas and exploring the potential of projection
Participants will work in small groups to create, share, and discuss cinematic experiments at The Mill’s studios and Mercury CX editing suites.
When: May 10 - May 21, 2021, 9.30am - 5.30pm (Monday to Friday) Artist Fee: $2000 + $200 super contribution (artists paid for this workshop)
Applications open: February 24 Applications close: March 18, 12am midnight Applicants notified: March 31
The Mill Breakout Space is a versatile black box theatre. Expect everything from theatre to circus, comedy, live music and more.
This year, we will be playing host to 90+ Adelaide Fringe shows from across Australia, the UK, and Europe. Take a look through our program list below or browse our shows via Adelaide Fringe
The Mill is an accessible space. Disability access is available via Angas St, and a disability toilet is also available. If you have any questions or additional accessibility requirements, please contact us at info@themilladelaide.com
The over-produced drama and the production values of reality TV and movies sure have a lot to answer for.
Meet Carla; 34, single, Virgo, outgoing, straight forward, Cabaret Artist and she's looking for love... still. From first love to happy ever after, every relationship seems to have 'a catch'! Sometimes the road to love is definitely not what you expect and a bit longer. Ok, a lot longer.
If you've ever been in love, out of love, looking for love, or happily ever single - this cabaret show is for you.
Winner of Best Cabaret Weekly Award, Adelaide Fringe 2020.
Heroes never die...they just cry deep down inside.
Sam Dugmore (The Latebloomers Scotland! & The Bakers) is back as one of the greatest action heroes of all time, MAN-BO.
MAN-BO must un-earth his ruthless man skills to confront his greatest nemesis...himself. A deadly mission filled with calamity and raw emotion. One-man vs himself. A feel-bad comedy about heroism.
Three bakers, one bakery! Dough up the walls, flour in your eyes. Join The Latebloomers, award winning creators of 'Scotland!', for another dose of the ridiculous and the sublime.
Winner Best Comedy weekly award Adelaide Fringe 2019.
The newly formulated one man solo project of South Australian musician, Hunter Rogers, embarks on a narrative and auditory spectrum of song and journey. Drawing elements from multiple flavours of music performance from Rock to Baroque Pop; Synthwave to Music Theatre; Industrial to Prog. This showcase of work will be a crack in the ice.
Do you suffer from an ache that ails you or a maddening malady? Do you feel like a chunk of rotting butcher's meat that's been ripped apart in the sweltering heat of the day by hungry dogs?
Then look no further than the miracle cure we have for you. Two brothers performing sketch comedy: it will make you laugh, make you cry, put a pep in your step and some fuel in your mule.
Dad used to say, "anything worth having comes at a price". Are you willing to pay what it takes for 'Success'?
Success is not always a direct path, not everything works out like we planned. Maybe, we think we are just not good enough. Overcoming self-doubt and fighting those destructive thoughts may be the biggest battles we experience.
The Baroque is running free in hedge mazes and dancing in champagne fountains. Bursting with silliness, Swedish clown Oliver Nilsson ('The Latebloomers' 'Scotland!' & 'The Bakers') will charm and titillate in this rollercoaster of stupidity, slapstick and the sublime. Curtains draw! Lights up! BEHOLD! This is The Baroque!
Directed by Britt Plummer ('Chameleon' by FRANK. Theatre).
Johnnie and Janine Smithergreen (Stuart Day & Dianne Reid) are a middle-aged brother-sister singing act (not so) fresh from the sixties and seventies. They revisit a selection of groovy girl-boy duets that outdo the Osmonds, crush the Carpenters and reconcile Sonny and Cher. Delivered with their own unique mix of wholesome positivity and ageing hippy sarcasm, they will blow your idea of political correctness to Smithergreens!
She's been in the same room for a while now, and things are starting to get weird. Out of a smokescreen of dirty laundry and shaggy dogs, a mysterious voice challenges her to cut the bull. But can she work out how?
Does unravelling the truth mean unravelling herself in the process? If the foundation of sanity is knowing fact from fiction, was it the outside world or her own brain that first started feeling a bit shaky? When the hell is the sun going to come up?
A mind-bending and jaw-dropping journey through the human psyche. The demonstrations within 'Confessions' will look like genuine psychic ability. But they are not. And Tom is honest about that. The show will provide a glimpse into how it works and why so many people want to believe it's real.
Join Rebel Lyons in her Adelaide Fringe debut as she muses on Matrimony, Monogamy and Masturbation. A Hen's Night party for those who aren't sure if they're ready to commit to an eternity of mediocre sex. This hysterical ride will leave you questioning the romanticism of romance and the absurdity of bridal culture in the present day.
A poignant yet funny play with original songs. The story spans 3 generations of women and begins in Northern England in 1965. Jennifer follows her sisters to Australia leaving her mother Dotty with an empty nest. Weaving in and out of time, Jennifer says the last goodbye to her own daughter many years later.
Christine Firkin wrote the book from snippets of family history. Her single woman show premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017. Audiences loved it for its strong writing and nuanced performances.
Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Cost:Free
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St. The Mill has concrete flooring throughout and a disability toilet. View more in-depth information on our accessibilitypage.
Join us for the launch of Hussain’s exhibition In search of a good laugh, the outcome of work produced during his sponsored studio residency at The Mill. In Search of a good laugh opens alongside The Many Faces of Frances on Friday, November 26. Hussain will also present an artist talk in conversation with The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas in November.
As much as identity defines who we are, our culture and morals; it is always a challenge to prevent misconception, misrepresentation and misjudgment. This challenge and other issues like belonging, individualism, autonomy, gender tension make no identity idle. Through In search of a good laugh I explore the possibilities of identity within a Saudi/Middle Eastern and Australian context.
Over the past few years, I have been working with the significant visual elements that represent Arab people, creating an abstract visual catalogue of identity. The artworks suggest the colourful shapes and patterns that speak truly about Arabic diversity and culture.
The title of the exhibition is inspired by an interview I recently watched where visitors to an art exhibition were asked: ‘What you are looking for in this exhibition?’ One visitor answered ‘I don’t know! Maybe a good laugh!’ This answer struck me, and took me back to ten years ago when I worked as a cartoonist at KFUPM newspaper (a university publication in Saudi Arabia), where my art work attempted to generate laughter about the hardest issues faced by students. Since then, my work has shifted to become more abstracted and conceptual, however, I believe laughter is a worthwhile pursuit. This exhibition may not be overtly comedic, but I would like to invite audiences to consider the work through a lens where it can be both serious, conceptual and parodical.
In constant flirting with meaning and medium; Saudi visual artist Hussain Alismail focuses on the pleated part of Saudi society in his work. Coming from the marginal community of Shia in the Eastern providence, he was constrained to examining a rich perspective of social interactions and discourses. Alismail draws inspiration from direct/indirect communications, experiences and history to tell stories about our culture.
He holds BFA in drawing & painting from OCAD U with an emphasis on illustration and social science. He is currently in the final year of visual effects and entertainment design studies (VEED) at Flinders University. Alismail exhibits both nationally and internationally, most recently presenting work in his third solo show Frilly at Argo on the parade in Adelaide. In 2020, he was one of the recipients of Maan grant from Athr gallery and one of the participants of the inaugural Albalad residency by Saudi Arabia Ministry of Culture. He was awarded in many competitions including Alkassbi International Award II (2015) and MCY by Edge of Arabia (2011).
Where: The Mill Breakout Space, 154 Angas St (enter via Gunson St), Kaurna Yerta
Price: $25 + booking fee
The Mill is an accessible space. Disability access is available via Angas St, and a disability toilet is also available. If you have any questions or additional accessibility requirements, please contact us at info@themilladelaide.com
The Baroque is running free in hedge mazes and dancing in champagne fountains. Bursting with silliness, Swedish clown Oliver Nilsson (The Latebloomers, Scotland! and The Bakers) will charm and titillate in this rollercoaster of stupidity, slapstick and the sublime. Curtains draw! Lights up! BEHOLD! This is The Baroque!
Directed by Britt Plummer (Chameleon by FRANK. Theatre), The Mill and Adelaide Fringe 'Centre Stage Residency' Recipient 2020.
