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 accessibility page.
The Mill will be hosting a work-in-progress Q&A for Samuel Lau’s Walk of the Ancestors, with mentorship from Brink Productions director Chris Drummond.
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Walk of the Ancestors is a project that explores how Eastern philosophy and values, such as filial piety and ancestor veneration have manifested and directed Samuel Lau’s life as a second-generation Chinese- Australian.
This development opportunity has provided a mentorship with Director Chris Drummond to explore further into the writings of the play.
The Q&A will be between Samuel and Chris, supported by The Mill Associate Producer Louie Dempsey.
Samuel Lau is an Adelaide-based actor and musician. With cultural roots in Hong-Kong, Sam is a second- generation Chinese-Australian. A 2019 graduate of the Adelaide College of Arts Acting program, he has since worked in a variety of mediums such as ABC’s TV series Aftertaste, Anifex studio’s animation film The Better Angels and Too Dumb Blonde’s productions of Does it Please You? which was the recipient of the 2021 Holden Street Theatre Award. Sam often explores themes of diaspora in his works, such as through his 2021 MakeSpace Artist Residency where he dove into the cultural identity of being in-between cultures; investigating his lifelong navigation of liminal spaces both culturally and spiritually.
Chris Drummond is Artistic Director of Brink Productions. His productions have been presented by most major theatre companies and arts festivals in Australia. Credits include The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Memorial, Long Tan, The Aspirations of Daise Morrow, Babyteeth, Thursday, The Hypochondriac, When the Rain Stops Falling and Night Letters. He was nominated for a 2009 Helpmann Best Director Award for The Flying Dutchman (SOSA) and his productions have won Ruby, Adelaide Critics Circle, Green Room (Vic) and Sydney Theatre awards. Chris was Associate Director of State Theatre Company of South Australia from 2001 to 2004.
The ilDance Professional Development program provides the opportunity for an emerging South Australian based dancer within five years of graduating from a tertiary institution, to work with ilDance’s project-based junior company, ilYoung, in the creation process and tour of a new dance work throughout Sweden.
This program is presented in partnership between The Mill, Adelaide, and ilDance, Sweden.
The opportunity will provide valuable mentorship from ilDance company’s founders and choreographers Lee Brummer and Israel Aloni, as well as experience working and touring with a professional dance company.
ilDance is an international and independent contemporary dance company that initiates and operates several pioneer projects. The company was founded in 2012 by its current Artistic Directors, Israel Aloni and Lee Brummer, and it is based in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The total value of The ilDance Professional Development opportunity, going directly to the artist and presented in partnership between The Mill and ilDance, Sweden, is approximately $17,000.
Important information
This is comprised of both cash and in-kind support provided to the successful recipient:
$4,000 cash from The Mill toward travel, travel insurance, any necessary visas and accomodation
$13,000 value from ilDance, a significant in-kind contribution to the dancer’s participation in ilYoung. This will cover costs associated with the creation process, travel and accommodation during the creative development and performance tour, artistic mentorship, workshops and creator fees.
$35,000 SEK accommodation
$7,000 SEK travels (creation + tour)
$50,000 SEK mentorship, workshops & classes with guests
Total: $92,000 SEK ($13,000 AUD)
Residency and Tour Dates: Late June/early July - September 2023 (exact dates TBA).
Eligible dancers:
Final year students or graduates from AC Arts or other SA-based dancers from other institutions within 5 years of graduation (and between the ages of 18-27 at the time of the audition)
Audition details
When: Sunday, December 11, 2022, 10am-5pm (studio available from 9am, audition will include a warm-up class)
Where: Dance Hub SA, Lion Arts Centre, Cnr Morphett St & North Tce, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide)
Dancers are required to bring:
A printed version of your CV including a recognisable photo of yourself on the day of the audition
A bottle of water and a small lunch with them for the audition day
Following the audition, applicants will be shortlisted. These applicants will progress to the next round of the audition process and will be asked to complete a more detailed written application and/or interview. The successful applicant will be notified by the end of January 2023.
Applicants are required to read the information sheet about ilDance and the program before registering.
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility information page.
You are invited to the work-in-progress showing of I am Root, a ritual performance piece by Olenka Toroshenko.
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Most of us are transplants. Uprooted from one country and resettled, making home in another's. Do you remember where you came from? What happens when culture, language and ancestry are left behind?
Told from the perspective of a Ukrainian Canadian living in Australia, this ritual performance piece wonders how one might question, create and nourish culture in a globalised, colonised world. Olenka enlists her mother tongue (Ukrainian) and the mediums of song, dance, folk traditions and recipes, story, poetry and prayer to enliven the depths of the unspoken, mysterious places where spirit lives...if we're willing to cultivate it.
We are future roots.
The showing with be followed by a short Q&A with Olenka, presented by The Mill CEO / Artistic Director Katrina Lazaroff & Associate Producer Louie Dempsey. Audiences will have the opportunity to ask questions about the development and provide feedback about the performance.
Olenka Natalia Toroshenko is a Ukrainian Canadian artist, writer and producer whose life is in service to a saner, meaningful existence. She is a multidisciplinary performer whose mediums include spoken word poetry, dance, clowning, song, storytelling and ritual performance art.
She is a Katonah yoga teacher, student of The Orphan Wisdom School and lover of coniferous forests. She has worked in news broadcasting and politics which helped shape her understanding of the current cultural paradigm. She was the co-producer of “wild”, “Shakti Showcase” and “Shakti Rising” multi-artist/disciplinary productions and has toured 4 different continents as a singer, poet and dancer.
She enjoys producing video projects, Burning Man theme camps, and multidisciplinary shows. She is inspired by collaborating with other artists.
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 accessibility page.
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 Eighth edition of The Mill Showcase,Bodiness: call and response is a collaboration between painter Kirsty Martinsen and dancer Erin Fowler. The exhibition further develops ideas begun in 2016 when Kirsty collaborated with NY-based theatre maker Erwin Maas creating a work based on the experience of ‘otherness’ as a disabled woman.
The exhibition is part retrospective, including works spanning a 21 year period, alongside new works and works in progress. This significant exhibition follows the evolution of Kirsty’s practice, from large format drawings and paintings through to recent smaller scale works and a new work to be created in situ with Kirsty using her wheelchair as a tool to draw across a working surface on the floor.
We also welcome award winning theatre-maker, dancer and singer Erin Fowler to collaborate with Kirsty in a ‘Call and Response’ performance that extends the relationship between the body, movement and gesture as explored through Kirsty’s ourve. Erin was a Co-Founder of The Mill, she and Kirsty have had a long term creative relationship since connecting here back in 2014.
“That tangle of limited surrender/ Is the human mire. We’re sodden in bodiness.” - Rumi, The Ground’s Generosity
People say to me ‘you are so much more than your body!’ What does that even mean, nay look like? Living with MS has taken an emotional & psychological toll, but all people see is the physical, the body. I feel like I’ve lost who I am in a chasm of loss and grief and bureaucracy. I have had to fight to keep my spirit alive. We are all much more than our flesh. My work seeks to explore the ways in which difference is a site for connection, the body is a site for potential, and process is a site for emotional/psychological/spiritual exploration.
My work invites audiences to consider process, gesture, scale, materiality, movement, and collaboration. Through this exploration myself and Erin will be responding to these aspects in each other’s work and locating intersections of commonality. Erin’s rich spiritual practice contributes to a dialogue about body, spirit and notions of ‘self’ which echo my exploration of Bodiness.
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
Erin Fowler is an award-winning Australian artist and producer working across dance, music, film, cabaret and theatre. As a performer, Erin blends together an eclectic mix of contemporary dance, feminine movement, clowning, cabaret and martial arts. Erin’s choreographic work includes solo works EGG (2021, Weekly Best Dance Award, Best Dance Hollywood Fringe, 2022 NZ Tour Ready Award), and FEMME, (2019 Adelaide Fringe - Best Dance Award, 2020 Adelaide Fringe – Made in Adelaide award). Other works include Gen-y (2018) commissioned for the Adelaide Dance Festival; Epoch (2016) created on Australian Dance Theatre for their Ignition season; and the acclaimed environmental dance film, Gaia (2014, 'Best Experimental' London Film Awards and Byron Bay Film Festival). Erin is a certified teacher of Qoya - a holistic movement practice for women, and is also the Co-Founder and previous Artistic Director of Adelaide arts organisation and studio, The Mill. Erin is also the founder of The Gaia Movement - a non-for-profit platform for people around the world to collectively make lasting, positive impact for the planet and climate change, through global schools’programs, tree planting, and arts projects.
When: Friday, May 20, 7pm; Saturday, May 21, 3pm and 7pm
Duration: 45 minutes
Where: The Odeon Theatre, 57a Queen St, Norwood
Cost: $18 (+ booking fee)
Presented by The Mill, supported by Venue Partner ADT,Dance Launchpad is a professional development program designed to support emerging dancers to build experience in the professional industry.
The program nurtures the ecology of dance in SA by commissioning established SA choreographers to make new work, and share their industry knowledge with emerging SA dance artists.
Dance Launchpad 2022 is a contemporary dance double bill by choreographers Amanda Phillips and Tobiah Booth-Remmers performed by four emerging dancers Jess Minas, Isobel Stolinski, Amelia Walmsley and Amelia Watson, presented at ADT’s Odeon Theatre in May 2022.
Work 1:
Loom is a new dance work about the forces that drive us, directed by Amanda Phillips.
Loom is layered with both the impact of an irrepressible pull and desire, and the dread and knowing that follows or predicts our destination. On this pathway, it’s the shadows we can’t shake or the belief systems that are ingrained, or the disease/s we face or live with – that are ever present. We all have something looming or deep set inside us, which is part of us. The work aims to explore this terrain - the interplay of paying attention to the things that define us, or control us, or conversely to release and find a freedom in being: carried by these forces. How are we controlled? Is it a choice? Does what is looming, define us?
Loom is about what walks with us, follows us, hangs over us and what we carry within.
Composer: Alexander Waite Mitchell
Amanda Phillips s a multi award-winning Australian Director, Choreographer, Digital Media Artist, Filmmaker, Educator and Creative Producer across stage, screen and events. Her “mastermind” ground-breaking work is hailed as “the new deal arts-wise at its mesmerising best”. Amanda holds a Masters of Dance (Laban Centre, London) and has worked prolifically in the UK, Europe and Asia. She is a Churchill Fellow and Centennial Medallist, and has received numerous accolades across her body of work including a Ruby Award for Innovation. In the past decade, she has created over 30 projects across dance, theatre, film, installation, public art and performance art.
Amanda works in partnership with composer, music producer and media artist Alexander Waite Mitchell in researching and realising hybrid projects through the application of 3D-stereo, immersive cinema, sensors, real-time systems and emergent technologies. Since 2003, their creations include: MASS – Moving Audience Street Sculpture, Future Memory, 3xperimentia: Live Cut in 3D, Otanical and conceiving X for Dance Hub SA.
Amanda is the Artistic Director of Dance Hub SA – Adelaide’s home of independent dance.
Work 2:
Semblance will revolve around ideas of seething, subtlety and singularity, directed by Tobiah Booth-Remmers. These will be the starting points that the dancers will jump off from, diving into movement research that seeks strong imagery and poignant moments within these ideas.
In general, Tobiah is interested in work that explores humanity and relationships to each other and ourselves. He likes to use a combination of movement, imagery and moments to create a world or atmosphere that an audience can fall into and inhabit for a time. Semblance will continue this line of research and creativity.
Videographer: Peter Drew
Lighting designer: Aaron Herczeg
Tobiah Booth-Remmers is a freelance dance creator, performer, teacher and facilitator from Adelaide, Australia. He has worked with Garry Stewart, Graeme Murphy, Branch Nebula, Brink Productions, Larissa McGowan, Lina Limosani, Gabrielle Nankivell and Paulo Castro among many others. Tobiah has performed in major arts festivals including the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Brisbane Festival, WOMAD, Dance Massive, Dublin Dance Festival and has performed at the Barbican Centre in London.
As a dance maker Tobiah has choreographed numerous commissioned and self-produced works, including large immersive, site specific and more traditional format performances. Tobiah has lectured and taught dance to students at Adelaide College of the Arts, LINK, WAAPA, QUT, Transit Dance and at SDC Pre-Professional Year. Tobiah also regularly works overseas and has received residencies and made work in Bulgaria, Brussels, Sweden and Greece. He has taught workshops on his own creative and movement practice in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, France, Israel and Mexico.
About the artists:
Isobel is an emerging freelance contemporary dance artist from Adelaide, South Australia. Since completing her formal training at Adelaide College of the Arts (2020), Bachelor of Creative Arts (dance), Isobel has embarked on her professional development journey, transitioning into the industry. In recent years, Isobel has collaborated with a wide-ranging mix of Australian and International artists.
Whilst in training, she has most notably worked with Gabrielle Nankivell, Peter Sheedy, Paulo Castro, Niv Marinberg (Israel), Joanne Stone, Carlie Angel and many others. Isobel has performed in arts festivals such as WOMadelaide (aus, 2019), The Adelaide Fringe (2020) and Paul Gazzola’s ‘SUE Festival’ (Series of Unexpected Events, 2019). Isobel has also gained industry experience whilst on secondment with Dancenorth (2020), Chunkymove (2021) and Australian Dance Theatre (2020).
As a maker, she has self-directed short performance works, both live and on screen. Isobel now spends her time exploring new information and opportunities across Australia, looking to inform her growing practice as an emerging artist
Amelia Watson is a contemporary dance artist based on Kaurna Land in Adelaide, Australia. Since graduating from Adelaide College of Arts in 2020 they have worked across various performance disciplines including contemporary dance, puppetry, theatre and dance theatre. Amelia has worked as a collaborator and dancer with artists and groups such as Windmill Theatre Company and HVK Productions on Bluey’s Big Play, Windmill Pictures on Beep and Mort, Daniel Jaber and Lina Limosani for Projekt Moxie’s Declivity, Lina Limosani for Dekolta Vs Auzinger, Motus Collective for Open House, Carclew as an assistant teacher for Stage Sparks and with DanceHub for the November iteration of X. Amelia has worked on short projects with local Adelaide artists Alison Currie, Tanya Voges, Carlie Angel and Jen Lush.
Amelia is a passionate emerging artist and strives to lead a practice that is inclusive, curious, collaborative and vulnerable.
Jess Minas is an upcoming Adelaide based artist working in dance, theatre, puppetry, and film. Whilst studying Jess worked with Niv Marinberg, Jo Stone and Paulo Castro, Peter Sheedy, Kialea-Nadine Williams, Rosemary Myers, Lewis Major and Tobiah Booth-Remmers. In 2019 she was photographed by Chris Herzfeld in a dance-based photoshoot directed by Erin Fowler, as well as a promotional photoshoot led by Australian Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director, Garry Stewart. Jess danced in Anifex’s award winning stop motion animation titled The Better Angels (2019). Since graduating Jess began working as a puppeteer for Windmill Theatre Company and HVK Productions on their 10-month national tour of Blueys Big Play, directed by Rosemary Myers. Jess recently worked as Movement Director on Lachlan Barnett’s ActNow Theatre MakeSpace Residency (2021) whilst also puppeteering on Windmill Pictures production of Beep and Mort, supported by the ABC. Most recently Jess worked as a dancer/ collaborator on Projekt Moxie, directed by Lina Limosani and Daniel Jaber.
Jess has created works for live performance and digital medium, Salute (2020) as part of Rip Drag and Ruminate in the Adelaide Fringe Festival, winning Best Dance Show at the weekly Adelaide Fringe Awards (2020), as well as creating two movement-based short films Etiquette and Snail Mail, in collaboration with Australian Dance Theatre and MusicSA.
Amelia is an independent dancer and artist based in Adelaide. She holds a Bachelor degree (2018) in contemporary dance, and has spent time freelancing in performing, teaching and visual arts contexts. Over the last few years Amelia has worked and performed both overseas and around most of Australia, in dance shows, circus shows, and cross disciplinary works, working with both other local independent choreographers and groups, and wider scale companies. She has collaborated closely with groups such as Lewis Major Projects, Motus Collective and MAD|DAN Productions; and with solo choreographers: Jessie McKinley, Tobiah Booth-Remmers, and Sophie Theodoros. Amelia has choreographed and performed in many of Adelaide’s festivals and parades: Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, OzAsia Festival, the Fringe Parade and Moon Lantern Parade. Although predominantly trained classical ballet and contemporary dance, Amelia is well versed in the disciplines of yoga (Ashtanga), circus acrobatics, improvisation, jazz, pilates, progessing ballet technique (PBT), and tumbling, and has dabbled in other areas of dance and physical movement such as circus, aerial arts, pole dancing, Javanese dance, Kandyan dance and fencing.
Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Cost:Free, limited tickets
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 accessibility page.
Continuing our focus on Visual Arts collaborations in 2022, The Mill is excited to present One, a new exhibition by emerging multidisciplinary artists Tarsha Cameron and Tailor Oriana-Julie Winston. With an interest in developing relational connections and shared stories, Tarsha and Tailor will be developing a unique, evolving installation in the gallery. During the first ‘soft opening’ week audiences are invited to visit and witness the work in progress, share their responses and also contribute. With sculptural, installation, sound, photography, video, painting and textiles, One is an exploration of collaboration and connectivity.
The threads of connection
Stay
Forever present
In our genes
Across space and time
And
In our bodies; flesh and ethereal
Life is an entangled whole
Connectivity surrounds us. It is more than just between you and I, but also between the moon and the stars, the trees and the sea; all living beings living in symbiosis with one another. Close your eyes and notice for a moment. Breathe. Feel it in the air. Feel it in you.
One attempts to creatively explore and materialise the more complex and subtle forms of collaboration that occur in everyday life, yet remain hidden to our visual and auditory perception. We are in constant developmental flux with ourselves, nature, our immediate and distant surroundings; reciprocally invoking the law of cause-and-effect that expands across time, space and place.
The process leads us into a philosophical investigation where everything co-exists, akin to an ecosystem with many differing identities that inform, inspire, and rely on the other. It is a continuous collaborative exploration as we respond to and negotiate nature, each other, and our close and more remote environmental, historical and ancestral storylines.
Situated on Kaurna Yarta, One culminates as a work that is both fluid and organic, still, yet full of life . A reflection of the interconnectedness of existence.
Tailor Oriana-Julie Winston is an emerging interdisciplinary South Australian artist. Born on Kaurna Land to African/American and Italian parents, Tailor explores the experiences of the human condition from the perspective of a biracial woman. Using visual art, performance, and spoken word she seeks to use these platforms and a tool to open conversations exploring decolonisation, environmentalism, and spiritual identity. She invites the audience to journey within and openly engage with participatory elements of her works and explore interconnectedness through our stories and voices.
Tarsha Cameron is an interdisciplinary performance art, theatre, and installation creator. Drawing, sound, video, performance, and sculpture media is used to explore the social construct, and the beauty that is within us, and in nature. Tarsha seeks to elicit empathy, understanding, compassion, and reflection to support movement towards positive personal and social change.
Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Cost: Free
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility information page.
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 Seventh edition of The Mill Showcase features work by Mads Cooke, Evie Hassiotis and Abby Potter AKA House of Campbell.
About the artists:
House of Campbell was launched in 2019 by South Australian designer Abby Potter. Heavily influenced by the arts, Abby creates designs that celebrate and complement modern women, allowing them to make a statement and move effortlessly. Abby is committed to sustainable designs and pioneering techniques that allow all women to tell their story. With a background in bridal and costume design as well as production, Abby brings significant experience across design, craftsmanship and styling. Abby has presented locally, including Australian Fashion Week 2021, as well as internationally, most notably her first collection which debuted at New York Fashion Week in 2019.
House of Campbell celebrates modern femininity. Featuring timeless and sustainable designs, House of Campbell blends couture and traditional tailoring techniques with ready to wear pieces to create something bold, intricate and unforgettable. With a focus on hidden details, our designs are created and draped in-house. These pieces make a statement and are made to last, making them a treasured addition to wardrobes today and into the future. House of Campbell’s Reverie collection features local Australian dyeing houses and is crafted by South Australian seamstresses. Our designs inspire, provoke and embolden. Rather than dictate who they should be, House of Campbell removes the rules and encourages women to be whoever they want to be.
Abby has been working at The Mill since 2020.
Mads Cooke is an Adelaide based Painter & Illustrator. Raised in the Adelaide Hills, Mads views the natural environment as a primary inspiration for her. Her work is composed of multiple layers of paint and lines to create a depth of foliage.
Free forming shapes and colours create a soothing experience, reminding her of home and childhood memories. Drawing upon the environment, Mads’s work is commonly inspired by native flora, observed textures, colours & patterns. Natural and neutral colour hues play their part in the subtly of Mads’s work, where she creates a calming and dreamlike perspective of nature. Her practice is introspective work, and aspires the viewer to likewise engage in the meditative mood of these works.
This body of work was created towards the end of last year, experimenting with both acrylics and ink pens in my observation of nature. The distinct use of flowing lines across these works are comparable to the candidly forming lines in the natural environment. The repetition of lines – reflective of the echoing patterns in nature.
The lines sit both subtly in the background, or create soft organic shapes own their own. These lines are alike to ripples in water, age rings of trees, or the venation of plants. Individual lines representing little alone, collaboratively building a network, likewise of the natural world.
I have recently been inspired by the detail of plants and flowers found in vintage botanical/ scientific illustrations. In my paintings I enjoy creating a similar style to these, in which the flora is depicted very flat and straight on, paying close attention on the finer details.
Mads has been working at The Mill since 2021.
Andrew Dearman’s practice has varied over the years, moving from sculpture to painting to photography and back again.
More recently I’m working on a hybrid art/academic research method that I find meaningful as a form of making. The construction of a conference paper is both a physical and conceptual process of gathering material, of shaping and polishing it into a particular form, which is then performed in front of strangers on the other side of the planet.
The current work involves the use of the found vernacular photograph within contemporary art. It considers such use problematic and in need of deeper theoretical consideration from positions beyond the discourse of visual art. The fields that seem to be of most use are memory studies, sociology and anthropology.
Andrew is an Alumni Artist.
For the last three years Evie Hassiotis has produced a variety of mixed media artwork while being a resident artist at the Mill. During this time she has held a SALA exhibition called Xenitia (exile) exploring her journey from Greece in the early 1960’s. She has also been attending mainly portrait workshops at ACSA and attending life drawing sessions on a regular basis at Gallery one. She loves to run small workshops in her studio for adults and children where participants can learn the basic skills of using various materials and also tap into creative expression.
In my practice I am excited to see how art can transform a person and a place. I love art that challenges me and asks questions about the philosophy of life.
In these latest art works I have experimented with the circular design, which has been a tool to let go of old patterns of behaviour about pleasing others. Working fast allows me to tap into my right brain and allow free flow and spontaneity.
When: Tuesday, April 12, 6pm online via The Mill's Youtube channel
Cost: Free, bookings essential
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 accessibility page.
The Mill welcomes South Australian based artist and writer Jennifer Eadie and dance practitioner, Adrianne Semmens to present their collaborative project Unravel. Bringing together their distinct practices, Jennifer and Adrianne have developed a sensitive and reciprocal working relationship. The work is multidisciplinary and lends itself to re-configuration and re-generation, with this instance unfolding within the context of The Mill’s Exhibition Space. Poetry, movement, fabric and plant materials stand in relation to each other, exploring what it is to see, feel and consider self and place.
If place is understood as something lived/ how do we speak of
it/ without causing a fracture?
There is vulnerability when we
say: I too am part of that place/
too many colours/ it is not
something that can be held/ always unravelling.
The body of work in this exhibition explores relationship to place. Embedded in the work is our acknowledgment of Country, always aware that our practice and processes are created on and with Kaurna Yarta.
What if authentic relationship to place is an act of opening that fractures a stable sense of identity? What tensions that arise when we, with mixed heritage, attempt to articulate a sense of connection or belonging to land that is not our ancestral country.
Any attempt to enact this connection or belonging demands an acceptance that we will be constantly giving, losing, reorientating ourselves in order to negotiate - make meaningful, make respectful - this relationship with country that is not ours.
UNRAVEL responds to these questions indirectly, as a means of acknowledging the difficulty and complexity of not being able to articulate a resolute response to the themes, despite being so important to us.
The exhibition is grounded by natural elements and textiles as a gesture, hands outwards, continuing lineage to country.
Unravel is a collaboration between South Australian based artist and writer Jennifer Eadie and dance practitioner, Adrianne Semmens. Jennifer and Adrianne were recently awarded a Delving into Dance/Critical Path Commission (2020), and undertook a collaborative Breakout Residency at The Mill (2020/21).
Jennifer Eadie is a writer, academic and artist living on Kaurna Yarta in South Australia. She grew up on Taribelang Bunda Country and has European-mongrel heritage. Her creative practice is interdisciplinary and place-based. Her collaborative work with Adrianne Semmens explores the relationship between identity and place. Her individual practice is motivated by the capacity of post-invasion Australia to censor the multiple histories, agencies and stories that are embedded in place. Via text, installation and performance, her work aims to respond to and undermine this censorship. Jennifer's work has been shared with TEXT Journal, CORDITE, criticalpath, Educational Philosophy and Theory, The Mill and Kudos Gallery: jennifereadie.cargo.site | @vito_the_saint_of_lost_dogs
Adrianne Semmens is a dance practitioner and descendant of the Barkindji People of NSW. Explorations of identity and place continue to be recurring themes within her practice, evident within her own work and ongoing collaboration with Jennifer Eadie. Choreographic highlights include Immerse, commissioned by Australian Dance Theatre whilst Adrianne was the company’s 2021 Associate Artist, and Thread (2020). Adrianne works closely with Tjarutja Dance Theatre Collective led by Gina Rings and has enjoyed performing in Inma, Our Corka Bubs and the 2021 Tarnanthi Festival opening event. Adrianne continues to be engaged in many education and community projects, such as co-founding the First Nations Choreographic Lab in 2021 and previous role with The Australian Ballet as a Dance Presenter for their Education Ensemble: adriannesemmens.com | @adrianne.l.semmens
The Breakout is a versatile black box theatre. Expect everything from theatre to circus, comedy, live music & more. This year, we will be playing host to shows from across Australia. Take a look through our program list below or browse our shows via Adelaide Fringe
Proof of vaccination is required to enter The Mill until March 21, 2022. Read our Covid-19 policy.
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
Where: Live streamed on Zoom for you to participate in from your home
Cost: $15 (+ booking fees)
Any cancellations due to Covid-19, tickets will be refunded
About the workshop:
This workshop will explore the medium of clowning and autobiographical theatre, how to use ideas inspired by your life but use the clown, metaphors and games in order to present these events in a playful and safe way. The workshop will explore the foundations of clown with exercises and play, the participants will be lead through intuitive and stream of consciousness writing exercises to find moments from their lives, we will then workshop playful and inventive ways we could present these events.
Experience level:
Any creative artists, especially focusing on those interested in clowning, theatre, but dance and other approaches very welcome.
Hew Parham is a graduate of Flinders University Drama Centre. In 2007 Hew was the recipient of the Neil Curnow Award where he trained at The Hunter Gates Academy of physical theatre in Edmonton Canada and in the Pochinko Clowning Method at The Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance (MCCP) in Ontario, Canada. Hew has also trained with British Physical Comedy troupe Spymonkey in London, England and Italian clown Giovanni Fusetti.
Hew has developed several solo shows with his comedic characters such as: Giovanni which played at the New York Clown Theatre Festival, The Wonderland Festival in Brisbane and The Adelaide Fringe Festival; Odyssey Schmodyssey which played at the Sangeunay Arts Festival, Quebec Canada; Rudi’s The Rinse Cycle which played at The Adelaide Cabaret Festival. He also performed in the Kurt Weill dedication performance The Weill File. In 2019 Hew once again performed in The Cabaret Festival with British company Flabberghast Theatre in their show The Swell Mob. He has also created the hyperactive twins The Riddalin Brothers with Callan Fleming which performed at The Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Hew has travelled extensively with Melbourne based company Bunk Puppets to tour their show Sticks Stones Broken Bones to countries such as Norway, Germany and China. Other credits includes: Me and My Shadow (Patch Theatre Company); Boo (Windmill Theatre Company); Superheroes (Stone/Castro); Blister by Sarah Peters (Holden Street Theatres); and If you can learn to fake authenticity you have it made by Rebecca Meston, (Feltspace).
He has also directed a number of shows including Egg (Erin Fowler, Adelaide Fringe) Chameleon (Frank Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Rumpus); Moof’s Adventures (Backporch Theatre, Adelaide Fringe); Dead Gorgeous (Madness of Two, Adelaide Fringe Festival) and Light Minded (AC Arts).
Where: The Mill Breakout, 154 Angas St (enter via Gunson St), Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide)
Cost: $30 (+ booking fees)
Any cancellations due to Covid-19, tickets will be refunded
Please note participants will need to be fully vaccinated to attend. Please have your vaccination certificate ready to check in to the masterclass. you will not be permitted entry without it.
The Mill in partnership with Adelaide Festival present a masterclass with Emma Beech (SA).
Performance Making with a Personal Narrative – a workshop that will explore the selection, performance techniques and the ethics of writing and performing with a personal narrative.
About the masterclass:
This workshop will best suit theatre artists, performance artists, interdisciplinary artists, visual artists, writers and poets, but will be open to anyone with a developing or well honed professional artistic practice. There will be time for questions. Bring a story from your life, big or small, and be prepared to explore it.
Experience level:
This masterclass is for theatre artists, performance artists, interdisciplinary artists, visual artists, writers and poets.
Emma Beech graduated from Flinders Drama Centre in 2000 and has worked in theatre and screen establishing a practice developing theatre shows from conversations with strangers, talking about subjects from the sad to the sublime. Emma was a resident artist with immersive theatre company Carte Blanche in Denmark from 2006 to 2004, set-up by visual arts and theatre practitioner, Sara Jenson. There, Emma co-developed and performed in six of Carte Blanche’s new works.
Emma has worked with The Last Tuesday Society, Real TV, Patch, Monkey Baa, Playwriting Australia, Arts House, Open Space Contemporary Arts, State Theatre Company South Australia, The Rabble, and has an on-going relationship with Vitalstatistix who developed and produced Saskia Falls. She has participated in several Adhocracy festivals, and her 2016 work with the company, Life is Short and Long, an investigation into the GFC in Barcelona, Spain & Wirrabara, South Australia, was a significant production for Vitals. In 2017, Emma was Vitalstatistix’s resident artist, and in 2018 she had a residency with State Theatre Company South Australia before performing in their 2019 season of Jasper Jones.
Emma is a proud founding member of the Australian Bureau of Worthiness, with Tessa Leong and James Dodd, a residency model that creates theatre from interviews conducted with people on the street, asking ‘What makes your day worth it?’ The ABW has now met nine towns, the last being I Met Gumeracha in 2018.
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 accessibility page.
The Mill is thrilled to open our 2022 Visual Arts program with the CHARTS prize exhibition, a celebration of the inaugural Community Housing Arts Awards, South Australia. Created to celebrate and showcase the creative diversity, and depth of talent within tenants of community and social housing, the exhibition features painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and writing.
The CHARTS exhibition will feature a curated selection of work by finalists, on display to the public in The Mill’s two galleries. The prize received 170 submissions across eight Community Housing Providers, with artworks from established, mid-career and emerging artists, and those who have never picked up a paintbrush, pencil or camera in their life! The CHART awards night was held at Adelaide Town Hall on 11 November 2021, with each winner receiving a cash prize of $500 made possible by the generous donation from CHARTS major sponsors Harvey Norman Commercial and Electrolux.
Artists include Lily Abbott, Alissa, Rex Stuart Anderson, Leagh Bassham, Karen Beale, Sabrina Belfiore, Naomi Blake, Maxine Cannon, Annette Cassano, Annette Chand, Susan Cocks, Belinda Cole, Craig Finnis, Annie Fox, Lloyd Jackson, Caitlin Lenartowicz, Amanda MacLeod, Robert Martin, Chevon McKenzie, Amber Jayne Mills, Rosemary Milton, Anna Mohammadkarimi, Peter Pasfield, Jhalakman Rai, Elaine Roberts, Joy Sadauskas, Yonah Singira, Drew Sinton, Frankie Starling, Coral Strempel, Zachary Studley and Leonard Yarnold.
CHARTS is a joint project between seven different Community Housing Providers. It was established in 2020 to celebrate and showcase the art being made by tenants of community and social housing. CHARTS aims to provide opportunities for artists living in community housing to exhibit their work, build their skills and establish networks. It seeks to encourage them to keep making and to legitimise their practice, or be the point from which they launch their own art career. The works in this exhibition are all the finalists, as chosen by our independent panel of practicing artists who judged the CHARTS awards for us.
When: Friday, March 18, 2022, 2pm-3.30pm (venue will be open for warm up 15 minutes early, please arrive for time to sign in)
Where: Dance Hub SA, Level 1, Lion Arts Centre, Cnr Morphett St & North Tce, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide)
Cost: $30 (+ booking fees)
Please note participants will need to be fully vaccinated to attend. Please have your vaccination certificate ready to check in to the masterclass. you will not be permitted entry without it.
Choreography with Stephanie Lake - a workshop about dance creation and collaboration.
About the masterclass:
This masterclass will include a physical warm-up and a series of tasks, improvisations and choreographic stimulations that will introduce participants to the ways in which Stephanie develops her works in collaboration with dancers. The masterclass will include learning a short excerpt from Manifesto, creation, observation, games and sharing.
Experience level:
Professional level dancers, choreographers, performers and advanced level high school dance students.
Stephanie Lake Company is a multi-award winning contemporary dance company based in Melbourne. Known for a gutsy, original choreographic style and striking visual aesthetic, Stephanie Lake Company’s recent works include Colossus, Skeleton Tree, Replica and Pile of Bones.
Working in collaboration with Australia’s leading dancers and designers, the company has been presented in major festivals and venues around Australia and has toured internationally to France, Germany, Hong Kong, Denmark, Singapore and the UK. Stephanie Lake has won two Australian Dance Awards for Most Outstanding Choreography (Pile of Bones and AORTA), the Helpmann Award for Outstanding Choreography (A Small Prometheus) and the Green Room Award for Best Choreography (Mix Tape). She is a recipient of the Australia Council Fellowship for Dance and a past recipient of the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship and the Peggy Van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship.
The company collaborates across theatre, film, music video, opera and visual art and has created several large-scale projects for over fifteen hundred participants.
The Mill is thrilled to announce Viray Thach as the recipient of the Sponsored Studio for the January-June 2022 residency. The Mill’s Sponsored Studio is a new initiative supported by the Mahmood Martin Foundation. In 2022 two selected artists will join our community, with each receiving 6-months of studio space and an exhibition outcome as part of The Mill Showcase.
Viray Thach is an emerging digital illustrator and educator. Her style, inspired by pop art, art deco and art nouveau, also sees deep-rooted influences from traditional Kbach ornamental designs that pay homage to her Cambodian roots. Viray’s iPad is the digital sketchbook where all the magic happens. Here, she marries the old and the new, using cybernation to recreate time-honoured textures and techniques into tactile designs that evoke a warm, homely compassion.
Formally educated in graphic design, business management and education, Viray is not only dedicated to her role as an illustrator, but as an educator and mentor, cultivating young minds and passing her multi-creative knowledge on to creative visionaries of the next generation. She remains business-minded and efficient while still delivering work full of the heart and soul.
At the root of it, Viray uses her art to tell a story – whether that is through character-rich portraits, lively illustrations, or bringing her mind’s eye to life through magnificent murals.
Where: The Mill Breakout, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Cost: Free
Duration: 1 hour
Accessibility: Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, there is a ramp into The Breakout and no internal steps. There is also a disability toilet. View our accessibility informationpage.
This new immersive experience looks into transhumanism and post-human sociology, the work dives into a world where we explore how to create performance art in a sci-fi landscape.
For us, this is an exploration into creating an atmospheric world for the audience to be transported into. The conceptual ideologies are merely a vessel for us to explore new methodologies of creating when looking at pushing the boundaries of what ‘dance’ can be.
The full-length work will be presented in Queens Theatre in June 2022, this showing at The Mill will be a sketch, a draft and an exploration into what is possible when creating a cerebral experience through movement and atmosphere.
Thanks to City of Adelaide Quick Response Grant Funding for supporting this residency.
About the artist:
Directing this production is FLESHSOUP, composed of Andrew Barnes and Lily May Potger. We created FLESHSOUP in early 2021 to initiate a community platform for young freelancers in Adelaide to create, share and seek alternative avenues of performing, beyond traditional funding routes. Culminating our experience from training and working in the mainstream and underground dance scenes of London and the freelance industries of both Perth and Adelaide, we have refined our practice and executions as a team. These experiences have brought us to push for more and bring Adelaide an aspect of the wider arts community that is embedded in excellence, youth, experimentalism, and community.
City Mobilities is an intensive temporary public art workshop exploring ideas about the way we access, move, and engage in public spaces. City Mobilities is an ongoing initiative between The Mill and OSCA, supported by the City of Adelaide Strategic Partnership program.
In December 2021, lead artists Paul Gazzola and Tom Borgas will facilitate a follow-up City Mobilities workshop, building on the first workshops in 2020 and 2021. It will be an opportunity for participants to expand and develop their initial ideas into something more developed and considered, explore new ones, and further establish collaborative connections with liked-minded peers and colleagues.
It will take the format of a 3-day workshop at The Mill’s Breakout plus a public showing of outcomes in and around The Mill vicinity. The public showing is an opportunity to gather some broader feedback but also to see how we may develop a range of works for a future event.
When: Friday, November 19, 3.45pm sharp for a 4pm start
Where: The Mill, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (enter via The Exhibition Space)
Cost: Free
Duration: 1 hour
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, there is a ramp into The Breakout and no internal steps. There is also a disability toilet. View our accessibility informationpage.
The Mill’s Centre Stage Residency will progress a new work presented by Paper Mouth Theatre to its next stage of development, including a work-in-progress public showing and culminating in a season at The Mill as part of Adelaide Fringe 2022.
Anchored within the suburban sphere of an outer-space-themed-fourth-birthday-party, this work transcends a cycle of time, spanning the Big Bang to the end of an entropying universe.
Narrated by Samuel’s Mother and Father, this work positions the audience as the unseen (but ever-present) birthday boy, SAMUEL.
Amidst melting ice cream cakes, decimated piñatas, a dying planet, and a rocket ship to Mars, SAMUEL is forced to reckon with the ever-present question: “who do I hold accountable?”
This program is presented with support from Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund.
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.
Caitlin Ellen Moore (she/they) will be creatively producing YOU’RE ALL INVITED TO MY SON SAMUEL’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY PARTY alongside writer and lead performer Mary Angley (she/they), and performer, composer and projection designer Dan Thorpe (he/him).
Videography: Sunny Side Uploads
The Mill’s Centre Stage Residency is presented with support from the Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund
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.
The Mill welcomes emerging artist Frances Cohen and their new exhibition The Many Faces of Frances, curated by emerging curator Christina Lauren.
Drawing on identity politics, and underpinned by theories of the self, Frances’ portraiture explores what it is to know and to understand the complexity of one’s self. Frances uses found images alongside photographic selfies layered with thick paint and gap filler to create a textural surface where features of the portraits are obscured, slipping and displaced. The works are uncanny, evocative and emotional, conveying a sense of uncertainty and heaviness while also appealing to the empathetic recognition of the viewer, eliciting the question who is this portrait of, could it be me?
Frances and curator Christina Lauren have worked together to present this exhibition which invites audiences to consider conceptual underpinnings alongside Frances’ use of material and process. Within this, they have generously opened a discussion around mental illness, and in particular Borderline Personality Disorder, which Frances speaks about from a personal perspective.
It’s hardly a ground-breaking revelation to say that all of us comprise a pastiche of everyone we’ve ever met. It is a well-known cliché that we are shaped by those around us, moulded through interactions with others that inform our worldview and our tastes. What is generally implied by this notion is that we have one overarching sense of who we are, with certain aspects of our personality being in flux as we move through life and have different experiences. I have always struggled to hold down my sense of self. I feel like I have been many different people to many different people; a different character tailored to each new audience member, worn like a mask. With that said, basic empathy also affords us the knowledge that each of us has their own mask; a face they present to the world that has been forged from a lifetime of hurt feelings and awkward encounters. I just seem to have accumulated a lot of them. Every character I’ve played has their own mask, forged through different lifetimes of impulsivity and self-destruction. Often it feels like I am wearing multiple at once; like I am staring out at the world around me from behind multiple numb layers of cracked plaster. Each of these paintings is a self-portrait. I am at the core of each one, hiding underneath the layers I find easier to heap upon myself, rather than deal with.
'The Many Faces of Frances' unearths a truly vulnerable series of self-portraits created Frances Cohen. The series explores Frances' warped sense of self-image, where each painting seeks to survey the idea of a constructed personality, and complex emotions. Frances' diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder often presents within the work as a construction of different personas, which she says 'alter my outward appearance to try and hide the gaps in my personality'.
Frances’ portraits resonate deeply with the viewer through a balance of familiarity and alienness. The viewer recognises themselves in the self-portraits through universal feelings of sadness, numbness, anger and a sense of being lost. Frances' ability to capture sadness, particularly within the eyes of each portrait, is a stand-out feature. Where most painters use the eyes to promote connection and recognition, Frances paints exclusively around them. This provides a novel view, almost reversing the mirror of the portrait and asking the viewer to look outwards rather than within. What image do they project? What mask do they paint on top, to hide their painful depth?
Portraiture has long provided a relationship between ones-self and the subject, allowing for reassurance of some of our most difficult feelings. In a time of great uncertainty, it is natural to search for what it means to be human and what it means to have human experiences. The Many Faces of Frances seeks to do just this, while also fighting against the stigma of mental health, in particular Borderline Personality Disorder, which remains one of the most misunderstood diagnoses. Frances’ portraits provide insight into the disorder, challenging preconceived perceptions, and giving audiences the opportunity to recognise how emotions felt by those with Borderline Personality Disorder are not so far from their own.
Frances Cohen is a painter living and working on Kaurna Yarta. She attended the University of South Australia, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Contemporary Art in 2020 and completed her honours year in 2021. She has previously exhibited work in Two Factor Authentication (2021), A Quarter Turn Around the Sun (2020), Friends (2019) and has contributed work to UniSA’s annual Art on Campus exhibition. She has also been published in Regurgitate (2021), Non-Compliant Quarterly (2019) and numerous editions of Verse magazine.
Christina Lauren is an emerging curator and currently the Carclew Resident curator, as part of their 2021 Sharehouse program. Graduating a Bachelor of Contemporary Art in 2019, Christina implements her experience and knowledge as a visual artist into her curatorial practices, as well as allowing her passion for arts theory to guide her. She is a multi-media artist, currently working mostly in oil paint, exploring notions of the human condition and mental health. Christina has worked previously as a curator through City of Adelaide’s Emerging Curator program supported by Carclew in 2019, as well as launching a collaborative arts music project with Bad Habits Events in 2019, ‘Blossom Art Space’. Christina began her residency at Carclew in 2020, and has continued through to 2021.
Christina has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including ‘Unwearable’ at Cloister Workrooms, Kaurna Land 2017, ‘Art on Campus’ in the West Oak Hotel, Kaurna Land 2018, 'Inevitable’ in Carclew House Foyer, Kaurna Land 2019, University of South Australia’s ‘Art on Campus’, Kaurna Land, 2019 and Mindshare SA’s ‘Mindshare 2021 Exhibition’, Adelaide City Library, 2021. Christina was awarded the 2021 SALA Contemporary Curator Award for her curatorial role in ‘Refractions’ at Carclew.
Image: Frances Cohen, Core Memory, 2020, mixed media on MDF, 46cm x 60cm Photo: courtesy of the artist
When: Friday, October 29, 5.45pm sharp for a 6pm start
Where:The Mill, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: Free
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility informationpage.
Autoeulogy is an original solo work by Adelaide-based theatre-maker Lucy Haas-Hennessy. An eerily prescient sci-fi tragicomedy about isolation at the end of the world, it was first staged at the Mill in early 2020 among the first ripples of the COVID-19 pandemic. One very long year later, the work will be redeveloped against the fascinating new cultural landscape that the pandemic is leaving in its wake, asking questions about what’s changed about the end of the world - and what hasn’t.
Autoeulogy has been supported by an Arts and Culture grant from City of Adelaide.
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.
Lucy Haas-Hennessy is an Adelaide-based actor, playwright, dramaturge and theatre-maker, and was the entire creative team behind the first production of Autoeulogy. Lucy’s work is interested in the contemporary significance of the ancient art of live performance - in what makes it continue to make its inimitable impact on audiences and hold its ground even in the high-tech digital age. She is a 2017 graduate of the Adelaide College of the Arts acting program, a 2019 Helpmann Fellow, and a 2021 intern with Brisbane-based theatre company Zen Zen Zo.
Lucy will be joined in this phase of development by Mary Angley (director and dramaturge), an emerging theatre-maker and a recent graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts’ Master of Directing program. In 2019, Mary created Paper Mouth Theatre as a forum for bringing together emerging creatives to work on experimental projects within a Queer, Feminist framework. Mary’s work has received support from The Helpmann Academy, Carclew, Splash Adelaide, Science Gallery, and La Mama.
Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Cost:$10 with a drink on arrival
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility informationpage.
The Mill welcomes Yankunytjatjara woman, multi-disciplinary artist Lilla Berry as our second Collaboration & Mentorship artist in resident (CaM-Res), supported by City of Adelaide. Lilla has created this work through development time in The Mill’s Breakout space, mentorship with The Mill’s artistic team and the opportunity to collaborate with photographer Morgan Sette. Lilla’s exhibition celebrates her relationships with her community, through practicing dance, footy, weaving and the act of coming together. She has also collaborated with strong women, including Pearl Berry, Iteka Ukarla, Carly Tarkari Dodd, Mali Isabel, Amber Ahang and Kirsty Williams.
The arts have always been embedded into my life. My family is made up of musicians and visual artists, and practicing art was something I just did when I was younger. Although using my body seemed to be one of the things I enjoyed most, whether that was dancing or acrobatics. As I got older and more influenced by others around me, the inherent idea that I was an artist shifted and changed. My practice moved towards a dance focus, as this was what I had the greatest opportunity to practice. However, as I’ve continued to develop as an arts worker, I’ve been able to tap into the other areas of my practice and continue to develop my skills across a range of mediums, and now have the confidence to articulate myself as a multi-disciplinary artist. Even if each discipline doesn’t get the same amount of my attention, they are equally as important and rewarding for me to practice.
I’m extremely excited for the opportunity to give these mediums more attention through my residency and exhibition. I will be working through painting, weaving, video and photography, as well movement, to explore the themes of the exhibition. My development as a curator will also be explored, as I not only curate my own works, but also those of other artists I will collaborate with.
STRNG WMN. will explore what it means to be strong Aboriginal women. Including culturally, physically and mentally. I have always been surrounded by strong women growing up. I was raised by a single mother, and as an athlete all of my team mates were strong women, being strong role models. And growing up watching other young Aboriginal woman dancing with Kurruru, I was so inspired by their strength in culture.
Through the facilitation of women’s circles, I will take the lived experiences of other women to inform movement to be captured on film, still images and installation. I want to capture the authentic voices of our community, and explore all the ways we as women find strength, as it comes in all different types of forms.
Lilla Berry is a Yankunytjatjara woman, multi-disciplinary artist, arts worker and producer. Lilla began her arts career at Carclew in 2014, and completed a secondment part time role with Country Arts South Australia as the Aboriginal Programs Associate Producer in 2018, and has contributed to a wide range of exciting programming.
In 2017, Lilla formed the Aboriginal cultural contemporary dance company Of Desert and Sea, alongside her fellow dance ensemble members. Of Desert and Sea explores themes relevant to the 5 Aboriginal women who make up the company. They have had
performances and workshops at places such WOMADelaide, Art Gallery of South Australia, Dance Rites at the Sydney Opera House, and their debut show Beautiful, presented in Tarnanthi, November 2019. Beautiful’s second season at Adelaide Fringe 2020 also received the Emerging Artist Award. In 2019 she received her first screen credit, producing Sansbury Sisters as part of the Deadly Family Portraits Initiative with South Australian Film Corp and ABC iView.
Lilla’s practice as an artist is multi-disciplinary, as she explores mediums including dance, weaving, painting, video and photography. Her artworks are representation of her own lived experiences, and those of her community.
Yankunytjatjara woman, multi-disciplinary artist Lilla Berry
