Every Wednesday between July 30 to September 17, 6:30-7:30pm
AC Arts, Level 3, Rehearsal Studio, Kaurna Yarta
Free (no need to register tickets!)
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are partnering with AC Arts to present contemporary dance technique classes for First Nations dancers.
These classes are open to First Nations dancers only, interested in contemporary dance and for those who wish to maintain their dance technique.
Classes will be held at AC Arts every Wednesday between July 30 to September 17.
What to expect:
A mixture of South Australian-based facilitators will give a variety and mixture of different contemporary styles, including Indigenous infused movements depending on the dance facilitator.
For SALA Festival 2025, we are excited to present In Reflection: In Response, a new group exhibition curated by Stella Martino, featuring the work of five South Australian artists; Shani Engelbrecht (textiles), Tash Evele (textiles), Carman Skeehan (glass), Lotte Schwerdtfeger (ceramics) and Yana Lehey (sculpture). In Reflection: In Response has been developed through a collaborative, community-driven component led by Stella, who sites Ursula Le Guin’s essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction in the conceptual underpinning of the exhibition.
For each of the artists, this exhibition has been an opportunity to come together, share ideas, collaborate, form communal bonds and develop their work. We’re excited to see the artists’ process, both in their individual practices and in creating collaborative work, showcased together in the gallery.
In Reflection: In Response is a group exhibition with collaboration at its core. This exhibition explores how we collect memories, experiences, time and stories and how we share them with our community. The idea of the exhibition is an extension of previous research and projects I (the curator) have been part of; a shared hand-sewn quilt, a collective recipe book and creative non-fiction short stories exploring the same themes. There are lots of little things that connect every project I undertake, but the single connecting thread is Ursula Le Guin’s essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. Le Guin’s essay challenges the idea of stories that centre one individual and instead offers the viewpoint that stories are a collection of moments and experiences gathered over time. Le Guin uses the term ‘carrier bag’ as a figurative and literal image of how we collect things and put them in a vessel to save for a time when those things are shared amongst others. In this exhibition, you’ll find various forms of ‘carrier bags’ or vessels that have been created by each artist using their chosen medium. In each of the artists’ pieces are motifs and acknowledgements of one another. At the centre of this collaborative exhibition is a shared patchwork sampler created over three residency workshops hosted at The Mill. In these workshops, the artists were invited to use various fabrics and materials to hand-stitch, sew or embroider stories, memories and pieces of themselves that are important to them, their community and their practice. Each workshop was a chance for the artists and myself to spend time together, tell stories, ask questions, share skills, share food, share thoughts to create our collective ‘carrier bag’.
Stella Martino is an emerging curator and writer originally from Dharug/Sydney, now based in Tarndanya/Adelaide. Stella completed her Master of Arts (in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art) from Aalto University in Finland in 2023. Since then, Stella has undertaken a curatorial internship at The Mill under the mentorship of visual arts curator Adele Sliuzas. While studying in Finland, Stella co-curated and was a participating artist in the group exhibition Ghost Elephant Stitches in the Snow and co-created and developed the community arts and recipe book Recipes for Resilience and Care in the Climate Emergency. Stella is interested in queer ecologies and how the more-than-human interacts with their environments and in art. Her master's thesis aimed to understand how various forms of memory inform storytelling and their impact on our well-being. Through her research and previous projects, Stella also explores the benefits of community care practices within and beyond art spaces.
Dear diary, is a homage to the diary I received from my cousins during my first trip to Fiji in 2013. I was homesick and used it to comfort myself, writing that I would be okay and that I’d be home soon. Since then, I’ve returned to the diary at the end of each year to write a letter to my future self. While some years were missed, the ritual has continued for almost a decade. I reflect on the year, set goals, and often end with, “Good luck, future me!” The diary has become a vessel carrying my past selves and hopes for the future.
For this work, I recreated the diary cover using fabrics, sewing techniques and drawing to introduce softness and texture. I wove raffia along the edge to reference the handmade detailing of my original diary. I invited each artist in our group to write a letter to their future self and included my own past letters. I interpreted these letters into small fabric pieces, drawing from handwriting styles to create visual textures. A single thread connects all elements, symbolising a shared stream of consciousness linking our thoughts, hopes, and futures.
Shani Engelbrecht (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist of Indo-Fijian and Scottish-Irish heritage, creating and living on Kaurna Land, South Australia. She holds an Honours degree in Visual Arts (2022) and a Bachelor of Creative Arts (2021) from Flinders University. Her work predominantly explores her identity and sense of belonging in the space she grew up in. Race and identity are at the core of Engelbrecht’s practice as she interrogates the incidences of racism experienced by people of colour daily. By using performance, photography, video, drawing and painting, her work blends traditional and contemporary techniques to convey the duality of her upbringing and to reflect on the feelings of otherness. Engelbrecht has shown works in multiple exhibitions including Art That Walks OFF the Walls (Goodwood Theatre & Studios 2024), Hatched: National Graduate Show Exhibition (Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts 2023), not white/not brown (FELTspace 2023).
The Pools explore connection between artists, family, community, and the wider world. I have always felt a profound safety and sense of calm when standing in the sea. Wherever I am in the world, wherever my loved ones may be, we have the ocean between us.
Each rockpool in the installation acts as a miniature world, a reflection of the individual artists featured in the exhibition. Crafted with care and intention, these rockpools are filled with ocean treasures I collected alongside my family. When holidaying together recently, we collected shells, sponges, sea glass and more, embedding the work with personal memory, gratitude and the quiet power of shared experience.
I asked each artist in our collective to do their own reflection on special memories at the beach. The photos provided are stitched together and mixed media is used to add elements of interest.
By recreating these small tidal worlds, I wanted to honour both the individuality of each artist and the collective beauty of community.This installation is a reminder that, even in our own tiny ecosystems, we are part of something vast, unexplored and deeply interconnected.
Broken mirror fragments embedded within the pools invite literal and figurative reflection from the viewer. Finally, a single, continuous rope, weaves through the work, tethering us together as one. The rope itself was made by attaching discarded, found fragments together to create one connecting string.
Calamity Tash, local queer Craft Wizard, believes art is for everyone and is most passionate about inclusivity and accessibility to the creative arts. Over the last decade Tash has been skill sharing with communities across the globe. The spreading of craft joy will continue as Tash becomes an enthusiastic resident at The Mill. Tash’s signature sparkle and use of whimsical dolls have been her wearable art trademark. Calamity Tash joins us on a journey of self expression and discovery. Her private studio will see the creation of many a weird and wonderful thing.
I put it here so I wouldn’t forget
I’ve always kept small things—gifts, fragments, found objects—on a little rack at home. It’s where I put pieces of the world that feel like mine: tiny markers of memory, small gestures of joy. For this exhibition, I’ve made a version of that rack in glass. Each object is a response—to the time shared, the conversations, the stitching, the slowness of sitting beside others and making something by hand. A clover. A safety pin. A necklace. Teeth. A bag. Candles, pencils, thread.
These are replicas of real things, made in glass, they feel a little removed from the world, but still intimate—fragile, exact, sometimes strange. They hold the trace of someone’s story, or a moment passed between us.
Ursula Le Guin reminds us that stories aren’t always linear or heroic—they can be soft vessels, carriers of collective experience. That idea stayed with me as we stitched and talked and shared time.
This shelf is both archive and offering. A way of holding memory that isn’t fixed, but refracted—through glass, through time, through others. In the making, I’ve come to know, understand, and appreciate the group I’ve worked alongside—through their stories, their hands, their quiet generosity. It’s a collection of small things that don’t belong to just me, gathered with care and left open to interpretation.
Carman Skeehan is a glass artist and maker, living in Adelaide, South Australia. Having completed the Jam Factory associate program in 2023, Carman has hit a milestone in her work, elevating her artistic practice. Guided by the meticulous creative process, Carman centres her work on the art of storytelling through glass, exploring the intersection of narrative and materials. Skeehan draws inspiration from early oil paintings and still lifes, creating a unique likeness in glass materials. Her work is an exploration of these elements, seamlessly blending them to create unique and compelling pieces of art.
A human thing: useful, edible, or beautiful
A leaf, a gourd, a shell, a net, a bag, a sling a sack a bottle a pot a box a container, a Sea Sponge Vessel
My practice has often included collaborations with artists, working in tandem and responding to each other's work, presence and life; creating and complicating narratives and expanding our boundaries together. The residencies sessions to create a textile work were both daunting and exuberant, in facilitating connecting between a group of relative strangers. I followed this formula, inviting the participating artists to visit my studio and work one on one alongside me on a large scale ceramic vessel.
After hand-building a very large vase shape with thick walls; I guided each artist in technique, and together we cut away pieces from the vessel, creating a delicate lattice structure.
This ‘porous vessel’ references a net, basketry or fish trap, objects often traditionally crafted in group settings. It is a vessel to capture our experiences and time spent getting to know each other.
Whilst our hands were busy and eyes averted, conversation through joint work facilitated deeper connection.
To further this metaphor we created beads from offcuts of clay, stringing together our work and experience into a continuous thread of coral fragments.
My ceramic works repeatedly reference motifs of sea creatures such as corals and sponges. These colonial animals have become symbols of the fragility of nature, as the first flag of the environmental system collapses. However these foundation species, the architects of ecosystems have long endured climate fluctuations across deep geological time. Just as algae and animal cells cooperate to build a reef and it is only by collaborating that humanity can create the narrative of our future.
Lotte Schwerdtfeger is an artist and is currently a studio tenant at the JamFactory Ceramics Studio, Tarndanya/Adelaide. She is materially led across many mediums, being consistently drawn to ceramic processes. Lotte hand builds ceramics, coiling and pinching both functional, sculptural and installation works; combining tendrils of research which span anthropology, biology, symbolism and revelry in the small psychedelic moments of existence. Lotte is delighted by the alchemical and elemental processes of ceramics. She is always intrigued by the role of objects, quotidian and ritual, in defining and connecting human and nonhuman experiences. Lotte is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts; regularly working on commission, collaborative projects and gallery exhibitions. Where possible all materials are salvaged, reused and recycled, working towards a zero waste practice.
As Above, So Below
Chews Wisely
Throughout my varied practice, the project has dictated the medium. Thus I have picked up a middling aptitude for various techniques, collecting skills like baubles. The ones I handled and polished the longest are those I have wanted or enjoyed since childhood.
This trend continues into my contribution to In Reflection: In Response. In the techniques employed and the stories shared, there is an odd tension between nostalgia and hope. The nostalgic anecdotes swapped within the group prompted me to choose floral motifs in my embroidery: common European plants which carpeted the meadows of my childhood, but struggle in the cracks here.
I explored Irish lace in an attempt to connect with a heritage of which I retain only a bastardised surname. The scale of my work lent itself to constructing wisdom teeth in response to the surprisingly common conversations about teeth in our midst. As we were encouraged to read Ursula LeGuin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, I came to think of the mouth as a carrier bag of stories. Five teeth, five stories; wisdom optional.
Yana Lehey is an environmentally motivated visual artist based on Kaurna land. Her practice spans various mediums, covering drawing, painting, and sculpture, depending on what a project calls for. Most recently, she has applied a textile approach to petroleum-based waste materials like plastic and rubber on a large scale, creating oversized crocheted sculptural works. She developed the necessary techniques as an accessible means for every person to tackle the waste problem without the need for expensive technology and infrastructure. Yana’s interest in environmental art first started to gain traction in 2020, with her first solo exhibition Face Up, featuring monumentally scaled watercolour portraits of nine young climate activists from diverse cultural backgrounds with diverse approaches. The research behind this project formed the basis for Yana’s current practice.
You can find Erin’s exhibition in The Mill’s Gallery II, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery II is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill’s entrance has a small step into the building. We have a ramp available, please ring the doorbell and our friendly team will assist you.
During gallery hours, our entrance will be unlocked. If the door is closed, please ring the doorbell to alert our team.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
For SALA Festival 2025, we are excited to present Once Upon a Lemon Drop, a new solo exhibition by watercolour artist Erin Renfrey. Invoking a sense of childlike curiosity, Erin’s compositions encourage us to see the world through new eyes.
Familiar and friendly faces co-exist with unexpected, sinister and uncanny characters, and just like a Grimm fairytale, we are drawn into a conversation about social mores and societal expectations.
In Once Upon a Lemon Drop, I am presenting a collection of new, intriguing watercolour paintings. My work reveals an otherworldly journey through the lives of fantastical creatures as they search for communion with each other and the universe. Hieronymus Bosch, theatre, and vintage illustrations are just some of my sources of inspiration.
My process involves meticulously layering watercolour on paper and panel to create colourful and eye-catching imagery. Each work begins with daydreaming and doodling, which becomes conceptually realised through thrifted toys and handmade miniatures, functioning as a guide for form, light and shadow, and composition.
Erin is an emerging artist based on Kaurna Land. She commenced her Bachelor of Creative Arts at Flinders University and Adelaide College of the Arts in 2020 and graduated in 2023. In the same year she was selected for the Helpmann Graduate Exhibition, receiving the Hill Smith Art Advisory Award and Square Holes Award. She has since been a finalist in the Adelaide Parklands Art Prize and exhibited at BMGArt, Collective Haunt and St. Peters Town Hall.
Where: The Breakout at The Mill, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Cost: $10 (+ booking fee)
Note: Please arrive 15 minutes early to grab a drink. This event will be 1 hour (including a Q&A)
Getting to the showing
This showing and Q&A will be held in The Mill Breakout. Please come to the Exhibition Space at 154 Angas Street, the bar will be open to grab a drink before we take you through to The Breakout.
Please arrive at 5:45pm arrival for a 6pm sharp start.
This event will be 1 hour (including the Q&A).
Accessibility
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St to get to our front door, which will be open.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
If you have questions or would like to talk to one of The Mill team contact info@themilladelaide.com
Join us for a work-in-progress showing by choreographer Kaine Sultan-Babij, developed through The Mill’s First Nations Choreographic Lab in 2025.
This first stage development will explore movement based on cultural understandings and use of Aboriginal artefacts.
Over four days, Kaine will co-facilitate the lab with Caleena Sansbury, The Mill’s First Nations Dance Program Coordinator, working with dancers Keisha Barrow, Tiarna Power and Rikki Wilson.
The Mill’s First Nations Choreographic Lab is a program designed to create performance outcomes while supporting emerging and mid-career First Nations dancers in South Australia.
About the Facilitators:
Arrernte and Gurindji Contemporary Dance Artist, Kaine Sultan-Babij, is making a lasting impact on the world of dance and drag.
With a background that includes performing with Leigh Warren and Dancers, Bangarra Dance Theatre, and the Australian Dance Theatre, Kaine has skilfully blended Contemporary Dance and Contemporary Indigenous Dance. Based in Kaurna Country, Kaine stands as an Independent Dancer and Choreographer, contributing to the vibrant Australian performing arts scene.
Beyond Kaine's achievements in the dance world, the emergence of Estelle, a captivating Drag Performer and Persona, has added another layer to their artistic repertoire. Estelle quickly gained recognition, establishing herself as a standout performer in the Adelaide Drag Scene. Through electrifying performances, Estelle has earned a respected place in the realm of drag.
Together, Kaine and Estelle embody a powerful fusion of Tradition, creativity, and contemporary expression, making a lasting impression on the dance and drag communities in Australia.
Caleena Sansbury is a prominent First Nations artist whose diverse background and extensive experience have established her as a leading figure in the arts. Her heritage, encompassing Ngarrindjeri, Narungga, and Kaurna cultures, deeply influences her work and perspective.
A graduate of NAISDA Dance College, Caleena’s career spans various disciplines including performance, choreography, and program coordination. She has showcased her talents on both national and international stages, working with respected artists and companies.
Her notable collaborations include:
Vicki Van Hout on productions like Long Grass and Les Festivities Lubrufier.
Thomas E. S. Kelly on the performance work [MIS]CONCEIVE.
Karul Projects on the piece SSHIFT.
Caleena’s experience extends to children's theatre, where she has performed in shows produced by InSite Arts such as Saltbush and Our Corka Bubs, and with Polyglot Theatre in Tangled. Her work demonstrates a deep understanding of both dance and theatre, particularly in contexts involving young audiences.
In addition to her performance career, she has contributed to theatre as an actor in Legs On the Wall’s The Man With The Iron Neck and has showcased her organizational skills as a producer for the Melbourne Fringe in 2018. She has also toured South Australia with Taree Sansbury’s Mi:wi 2019, and performed in Jacob Boheme’s dance work Gurranda in 2024. Caleena continues to perform and practice dance in and throughout South Australia.
Currently, Caleena is a Program Coordinator at The Mill, an award-winning multi-disciplinary arts organisation. Her role at The Mill continues to reflect her commitment to fostering a vibrant and dynamic First Nations arts community.
Where: The Breakout at The Mill, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Cost: $10 (+ booking fee)
Note: Please arrive 15 minutes early to grab a drink. This event will be 1 hour (including a Q&A).
This showing and Q&A will be held in The Breakout. Please come to The Mill at 154 Angas Street, the bar will be open to grab a drink before we take you through to The Breakout.
Please arrive at 5:45pm for a 6pm sharp start.
This event will be 1 hour (including the Q&A).
Accessibility
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St to get to our front door, which will be open.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
If you have questions or would like to talk to one of The Mill team contact info@themilladelaide.com
Beneath the Mountain is an ambitious new interdisciplinary theatrical work that confronts the invisible and undervalued labor inherent in motherhood and domestic life.
Developed and produced by Deus Ex Femina, the production integrates spoken word, live music, theatre, and physical performance to explore the quiet violences of emotional labor and the slow erosion of autonomy within domestic settings. Inspired by Aesop’s fable The Mountain in Labour, the work interrogates the disparity between the lofty expectations of caregiving and the isolating, complex realities experienced by women; particularly within heterosexual relationships. It asks: what happens when women are expected to be everything to everyone, and what remains beneath the weight of it all?
The show’s narrative structure is built from a series of non-linear, thematically connected vignettes, culminating in a central arc that follows WIFE and HUSBAND; a newly married couple who, after falling pregnant, experience the gradual collapse of their relationship under the pressure of societal roles. WIFE, while navigating her pregnancy, is increasingly left to carry the household and emotional burden alone as HUSBAND becomes more disengaged, controlling, and emotionally absent.
During this development residency at The Mill, we will test the narrative structure, key moments, and thematic throughline. Audiences can expect an evocative and personal exploration of caregiving’s emotional and physical impact.
About the artists:
Katherine (she/they) is a queer, first-generation Italian theatre maker, actor, writer, and founder of Deus Ex Femina. A 2018 Honours graduate from Flinders Drama Centre, Katherine’s work spans acting, producing, dramaturgy, directing, and spoken word poetry.
In 2023, Katherine won the Australian Poetry Slam South Australian Heat and performed at the Grand Final at the Sydney Opera House. Their debut show All The Things I Couldn’t Say won the Adelaide Festival InSpace Award at the Adelaide Fringe. It was then chosen to premiere in theRUMPUS 2023 Season. Their show Dirty Energy won the Holden Street Theatre Award at the Adelaide Fringe. Both shows had sold out seasons.
Katherine and Deus Ex Femina hold a two-year residency at Goodwood Theatre & Studios (2025–2026) and were selected for The Mill’s Theatre Residency for Beneath the Mountain (2025). The other production within the residency, Scenes with Girls, was chosen for State Theatre Company South Australia’s 2025 Stateside program.
In 2022, Katherine was nominated and selected as a finalist for the 7 News Young Achiever Award. In 2024, she was again recognised for her contributions to the arts and community, becoming a finalist for the South Australian Italian Awards in the category of Young Achiever, as well as being nominated for the Frank Ford Young Achiever Award at the Ruby Awards. Also in 2024, she was selected to be a part of the Helpmann Academy Creative Innovators Co-Hort and won the State Theatre Company of South Australia award which provides mentorship throughout 2025.
Elizabeth is a graduate of the Flinders Drama Centre and lives and works as an actor on unceded Kaurna land. Her theatre credits include The Dictionary of Lost Words, Girl From The North Country (GWB and Damien Hewitt), Hibernation, The Gods of Strangers, Red Cross Letters, Volpone and Jesikah for the State Theatre Company South Australia, Baba Yaga, Grug and Grug and the Rainbow for Windmill Theatre Company, Yo Diddle Diddle and The Lighthouse for Patch Theatre Company, the Helpmann Award winning Emil and the Detectives for Slingsby, and Emily Steel’s The Garden with Theatre Republic.
Elizabeth made her directing debut in the inaugural season of RUMPUS at the end of 2019, with Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves, and continues grow as a director. She joined the main cast of Danger 5 as ‘Holly’ for the series return on SBS and has worked on many other locally made television productions, commercials and short films. Elizabeth is the voice of Olli in Sun Runners, a collaboration between Audioplay and Windmill Theatre Company.
Nate is an award-winning, multidisciplinary theatre facilitator, educator, performer, and researcher whose work spans genres, continents, and communities. Trained at the Victorian College of the Arts in Naarm and currently based in Tarntanya, he has created and performed across Australia, the Netherlands, and the USA.
Nate is currently completing Honours at Flinders University under Dr. Sarah Peters, researching an “inside-out” model for inclusive, participant-led devised theatre—centering artists’ intrinsic creative agency over imposed frameworks. As a queer, disabled artist of culturally and linguistically diverse background, Nate’s practice is grounded in accessibility and cultural equity. He has facilitated with SAYarts, Riverland Youth Theatre, Open Space Contemporary Arts, and ActNow Theatre, and mentors emerging artists from marginalised backgrounds.
Most recently, he has mentored young Narungga playwright Mali Harkin-Noack in developing her first full-length plays, including Tell Me Something, which will be featured in the Adelaide Festival Centre’s 2026 inSPACE program and Our Mob Festival. Nate has been funded by Carclew to create improvisation-based writing tools for learning-disabled young artists, and to develop and run their first theatre intensive school holiday program for young people. He is currently collaborating with Fleur Kilpatrick on Beginnings—a new work exploring donor conception and non-traditional families.
As one half of theatre-trash duo Muse of Fire, Nate’s creative ethos is irreverent, collaborative, and fiercely inclusive—reimagining theatre as a space where difference is celebrated, and access drives innovation.
Steven is a multi-talented live theatre technician and lighting designer. He has worked on numerous of productions such as NUISIA & KINDER by a ry production, The Ugly One by Famous Last Words, I Know The End by Alix Kuijpers, That's Amore by Kate Burgess and is the in-house technician for Goodwood Theatre & Studios. He has been apart of shows for indie, amateur and professional productions of all types. In his off-time he produces music, graphic designs, video edits and has used those skills towards productions.
You can find In Reflection: In Response in The Mill’s Gallery I, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery I is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
Join Stella Martino for a chat about In Reflection: In Response, presented during SALA Festival.
Stella will be chatting with artists Carman Skeehan, Shani Engelbrecht and Yana Lehey, talking about the inspiration behind the exhibition and their artistic process.
About the exhibition
In Reflection: In Response is a group exhibition curated by Stella Martino, featuring the work of five South Australian artists; Shani Engelbrecht (textiles), Tash Evele (textiles), Carman Skeehan (glass), Lotte Schwerdtfeger (ceramics) and Yana Lehey (sculpture). In Reflection: In Response has been developed through a collaborative, community-driven component led by Stella, who sites Ursula Le Guin’s essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction in the conceptual underpinning of the exhibition.
For each of the artists, this exhibition has been an opportunity to come together, share ideas, collaborate, form communal bonds and develop their work. We’re excited to see the artists’ process, both in their individual practices and in creating collaborative work, showcased together in the gallery.
Stella Martino is an emerging curator and writer originally from Dharug/Sydney, now based in Tarndanya/Adelaide. Stella completed her Master of Arts (in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art) from Aalto University in Finland in 2023. Since then, Stella has undertaken a curatorial internship at The Mill under the mentorship of visual arts curator Adele Sliuzas. While studying in Finland, Stella co-curated and was a participating artist in the group exhibition Ghost Elephant Stitches in the Snow and co-created and developed the community arts and recipe book Recipes for Resilience and Care in the Climate Emergency. Stella is interested in queer ecologies and how the more-than-human interacts with their environments and in art. Her master's thesis aimed to understand how various forms of memory inform storytelling and their impact on our well-being. Through her research and previous projects, Stella also explores the benefits of community care practices within and beyond art spaces.
I put it here so I wouldn’t forget
I’ve always kept small things—gifts, fragments, found objects—on a little rack at home. It’s where I put pieces of the world that feel like mine: tiny markers of memory, small gestures of joy. For this exhibition, I’ve made a version of that rack in glass. Each object is a response—to the time shared, the conversations, the stitching, the slowness of sitting beside others and making something by hand. A clover. A safety pin. A necklace. Teeth. A bag. Candles, pencils, thread.
These are replicas of real things, made in glass, they feel a little removed from the world, but still intimate—fragile, exact, sometimes strange. They hold the trace of someone’s story, or a moment passed between us.
Ursula Le Guin reminds us that stories aren’t always linear or heroic—they can be soft vessels, carriers of collective experience. That idea stayed with me as we stitched and talked and shared time.
This shelf is both archive and offering. A way of holding memory that isn’t fixed, but refracted—through glass, through time, through others. In the making, I’ve come to know, understand, and appreciate the group I’ve worked alongside—through their stories, their hands, their quiet generosity. It’s a collection of small things that don’t belong to just me, gathered with care and left open to interpretation.
Carman Skeehan is a glass artist and maker, living in Adelaide, South Australia. Having completed the Jam Factory associate program in 2023, Carman has hit a milestone in her work, elevating her artistic practice. Guided by the meticulous creative process, Carman centres her work on the art of storytelling through glass, exploring the intersection of narrative and materials. Skeehan draws inspiration from early oil paintings and still lifes, creating a unique likeness in glass materials. Her work is an exploration of these elements, seamlessly blending them to create unique and compelling pieces of art.
Dear diary, is a homage to the diary I received from my cousins during my first trip to Fiji in 2013. I was homesick and used it to comfort myself, writing that I would be okay and that I’d be home soon. Since then, I’ve returned to the diary at the end of each year to write a letter to my future self. While some years were missed, the ritual has continued for almost a decade. I reflect on the year, set goals, and often end with, “Good luck, future me!” The diary has become a vessel carrying my past selves and hopes for the future.
For this work, I recreated the diary cover using fabrics, sewing techniques and drawing to introduce softness and texture. I wove raffia along the edge to reference the handmade detailing of my original diary. I invited each artist in our group to write a letter to their future self and included my own past letters. I interpreted these letters into small fabric pieces, drawing from handwriting styles to create visual textures. A single thread connects all elements, symbolising a shared stream of consciousness linking our thoughts, hopes, and futures.
Shani Engelbrecht (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist of Indo-Fijian and Scottish-Irish heritage, creating and living on Kaurna Land, South Australia. She holds an Honours degree in Visual Arts (2022) and a Bachelor of Creative Arts (2021) from Flinders University. Her work predominantly explores her identity and sense of belonging in the space she grew up in. Race and identity are at the core of Engelbrecht’s practice as she interrogates the incidences of racism experienced by people of colour daily. By using performance, photography, video, drawing and painting, her work blends traditional and contemporary techniques to convey the duality of her upbringing and to reflect on the feelings of otherness. Engelbrecht has shown works in multiple exhibitions including Art That Walks OFF the Walls (Goodwood Theatre & Studios 2024), Hatched: National Graduate Show Exhibition (Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts 2023), not white/not brown (FELTspace 2023).
As Above, So Below
Chews Wisely
Throughout my varied practice, the project has dictated the medium. Thus I have picked up a middling aptitude for various techniques, collecting skills like baubles. The ones I handled and polished the longest are those I have wanted or enjoyed since childhood.
This trend continues into my contribution to In Reflection: In Response. In the techniques employed and the stories shared, there is an odd tension between nostalgia and hope. The nostalgic anecdotes swapped within the group prompted me to choose floral motifs in my embroidery: common European plants which carpeted the meadows of my childhood, but struggle in the cracks here.
I explored Irish lace in an attempt to connect with a heritage of which I retain only a bastardised surname. The scale of my work lent itself to constructing wisdom teeth in response to the surprisingly common conversations about teeth in our midst. As we were encouraged to read Ursula LeGuin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, I came to think of the mouth as a carrier bag of stories. Five teeth, five stories; wisdom optional.
Yana Lehey is an environmentally motivated visual artist based on Kaurna land. Her practice spans various mediums, covering drawing, painting, and sculpture, depending on what a project calls for. Most recently, she has applied a textile approach to petroleum-based waste materials like plastic and rubber on a large scale, creating oversized crocheted sculptural works. She developed the necessary techniques as an accessible means for every person to tackle the waste problem without the need for expensive technology and infrastructure. Yana’s interest in environmental art first started to gain traction in 2020, with her first solo exhibition Face Up, featuring monumentally scaled watercolour portraits of nine young climate activists from diverse cultural backgrounds with diverse approaches. The research behind this project formed the basis for Yana’s current practice.
Note: Please arrive 15 minutes early to grab a drink. These events will be 1 hour (including a Q&A for the 6pm showing).
This showing and Q&A will be held in The Mill Breakout. Please come to the Exhibition Space at 154 Angas Street, the bar will be open to grab a drink before we take you through to The Breakout.
Please arrive at 5:45pm arrival for a 6pm sharp start.
This event will be 1 hour (including the Q&A).
Accessibility
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St to get to our front door, which will be open.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
If you have questions or would like to talk to one of The Mill team contact info@themilladelaide.com
Kaine Sultan-Babij weaves contemporary Indigenous dance with the bold artistry of drag, creating a performance that is full of life, movement, and storytelling.
The show journeys through themes of identity, culture, and self-expression, exploring how character and movement can speak as powerfully as words.
With playful twists, striking visuals, and moments of heartfelt emotion, it’s a performance that celebrates creativity, connection, and the joy of embracing who we are.
This is a second-stage development, as part of our First Nations Dance Residency program 2024-2025.
About the artist:
Kaine Sultan-Babij is an Arrernte and Gurindji Contemporary Dance Artist, renowned for their work in dance, choreography, and drag performance. Based in Kaurna Country, Kaine stands as an Independent Dancer and Choreographer, contributing to the vibrant Australian performing arts scene.
Alongside their achievements in dance, the emergence of Estelle, a captivating Drag Performer and Persona, has added another layer to Kaine's artistic repertoire. Through electrifying performances, Estelle has earned a respected place in the Adelaide drag scene, embodying a powerful fusion of Tradition, creativity, and contemporary expression.
With a background that includes performing with Leigh Warren and Dancers, Bangarra Dance Theatre, and the Australian Dance Theatre, Kaine has skilfully blended Contemporary Dance and Contemporary Indigenous Dance. Based in Kaurna Country, Kaine stands as an Independent Dancer and Choreographer, contributing to the vibrant Australian performing arts scene.
Together, Kaine and Estelle embody a powerful fusion of Tradition, creativity, and contemporary expression, making a lasting impression on the dance and drag communities in Australia.
You can find the Waltja munu ngura exhibition in The Mill’s Galleries, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
The Mill’s Galleries are open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are excited to present Walytja munu Ngura, a new exhibition of Art and Films from the Anangu Schools Lands Partnership, Department for Education, South Australia.
Exhibition nyangangka (ini panya Walytja munu Ngura), art munu film kuulangka palyantja tjutala nintini, panya yiya kutjupa, yiya kutjupa nganana palyantja tjuta nintilpai Fregon Arts Festival-ta. Ka waaka nyanganpa student, walytjapiti, munu kiminiti tjutangku visiting artist tjutangka tjungungku palyantja tjuta ngaranyi ka tjukurpa kutjupa tjuta video-ngka ngaranyi. Ka video tjutangka tjukurpa wiru tjuta ngaranyi palyanku nyinanytjatjara munu kiminitingka wirura nyinanytjatjara. Wangka kutjarangkaya video-ngka tjukurpa wangkapai; Pitjantjatjara munu English.
There are 10 Anangu schools in remote South Australia: 8 are located on the red dirt of the APY (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) Lands, with Oak Valley located on the red dirt of the Maralinga Tjarutja Lands, and Yalata on the coastal sands of the far west where Anangu Educators work shoulder to shoulder with non-Anangu educators in classrooms and learning on Country.
Walytja munu Ngura (Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara for Family and Place) is an exhibition of art and films from the schools of the Anangu Lands which are presented annually at the Fregon Arts Festival. The works are created by students, family, and community, in collaboration with visiting artists, and include videos of stories that explore concepts of wellbeing and citizenship, narrated in Pitjantjatjara and English.
Where: The Mill, 154 Angas Street, Kaurna Yarta, Adelaide
Cost per workshop:$190 (+ booking fee)
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
Join artist Bob Window for a screen printing workshop where you’ll learn to print on fabric!
This beginner-level workshop will explore Bob’s signature styles with shapes, layers and stunning colours.
What to expect:
In this 3-hour session you will learn the basics of screen printing and learn two different techniques for creating amazing prints! Master screen printer Bob Window will share his expertise and guide participants through the process of printing using pre-exposed screens, followed by printing with blank screens and butchers paper.
Bob will provide participants with 1m of fabric, but you are welcome to bring along additional fabric, t-shirts or totes - natural fibres only.
This can be a messy process, so please wear covered shoes and studio clothes or an apron.
At the end of the day, you will get to take home your amazing screen-printed artworks!
Robert Viner Jones (AKA Bob Window) is a contemporary printer/painter based in Adelaide (Kaurna Country). Robert’s works offer bold, uncompromising graphics - stark and confident in their nature. Trained in Sydney, obsessed with design and colour, Robert’s works draw heavily on fearlessness of mid 20th century design plus an unbridled willingness to simply paint and print things that make him smile.
You can find Under 30’s Eat Free in The Mill’s Gallery I, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery I is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are excited to present Under 30’s Eat Free, a new solo exhibition by studio artist Lucky Smith.
Combining pop-art flatness with anthropomorphic characters, Lucky explores contemporary anxieties in a way that is both jovial and deadly serious. Bold and bright, and slightly disconcerting, we see his subjects navigating everyday scenarios in unusual ways - a day at the beach turns into a most strange place to adopt a kitten, while a Rapa Nui (Easter Island) moai statue spills the tea on a date at a Parisienne bistro. Lucky has also begun exploring the addition of textured oil paint within his otherwise modernly flat scenes, bringing a new quality within the paintings.
The body of works are uncanny and relatable, shedding light on the ‘coming of age’ we experience as we enter our 30s.
The impending turn of thirty is an age of paralytic decision-making, the frazzled and hurried pursuit of escaping dreams, and an overwhelming sensation one is not where they need to be as they are compared to their contemporaries and generations before them.
Under 30s Eat Free is a visual representation of my comparative and anxious feelings towards turning 30 in the present day.
This introspection began through reading about Peter Freuchen, an early twentieth century Danish explorer who before thirty had raised a family of three in the midst of mapping the borders and climate of the arctic circle, and literally fought off wolves that encroached on his weather recording outpost - a three day sled from the expeditions’ operations command centre.
He spent five years in the arctic. Upon returning home to Denmark Frechuen journaled, “I felt like a stranger when I encountered my old friends. I was proud of my strength and ability to live for long periods without food, but these things meant nothing to them.”
As the biological urge to start a family and forego the insecurity of contract work weighs, I began a transition from the fast paced and tortuous nature of the film industry to the seemingly more sensible corporate 9 to 5. I feel the aforementioned quote summarises my experience in making this transition quite well.
My most recent experience in the film industry consisted of 14 hour days, six day weeks, an eight week stretch without a lunch break, six weeks of social isolation, Non Disclosure Agreements loaded with very real threat of legal action, and crippling heat all done for the largest serial commissioned in Australia, by the biggest streaming platform of our age. However, within short succession I was informed by BUPA I have the option to stay on my parents’ private health insurance until the age of 32, and I was told by my new workplace if I wish to come in early to get work done I first need to earn the company’s trust via a year long probation before being granted access to the security alarm code.
In this exhibition nine images in oil and acrylic on canvas, empathetically visualise many contemporary lifestyle and workplace problems shared by Generation Z and their fringes. Such concerns include whether to choose a career of passion or financial comfort, the requirements to enter a job with a wealth of knowledge beyond one’s years, whether to choose a soul mate or children, and the confiscation of autonomy, which all seemingly prolong childhood into one’s late-thirties.
This series of works is my life and career retrospective built on strong fluctuating binary feelings of guilt, shame, regret, anger, and self-loathing which necessitates expressive colour, scale, and visuals that demands the viewer’s attention, like a pub banner announcing free meals for us kids. The imagery is confusing and abrasive, uncanny, dreamlike, familiar and yet… off, perpetuated by a fluctuating use of palette knives and brushes, and the contrast of thickly layered oils on an acrylic background.
The creation of these artworks journal my epiphany into what I believe adulthood is; that old adage, if you want to be treated like an adult you have to behave like an adult.
Lucky Smith is a passionate expressionist painter from rural South Australia, now living and working in Adelaide. Lucky specialises in large scale portraiture of pop culture personalities and surrealist scenes using oil & acrylics. An avid painter from the age of six, his organically developed style has blossomed into grand and colourful artworks that fill a wall, brighten a room, and invite a crowd into vibrant conversation.
Lucky is an imaginative storyteller, learning foundations from John Collee’s AFTRS Screenwriting seminar, and travelling to New York in 2022 to study story structure under screen and writing lecturer Robert McKee. Lucky uses these storytelling principles to construct scenes in his artwork which empathetically explore complex interpersonal exchanges and idiosyncratic social situations, with recurring motifs such as anthropomorphised animals and retro pop culture.
Lucky has worked in graphic design and the film industry for over a decade, working on such
significant projects as The Tourist (2020, STAN), La Brea (2020, NBC), & Territory (2024, NETFLIX).
Lucky’s artwork is displayed in numerous public and private collections domestically and internationally. His solo exhibition ‘Your Spectrum is Showing’ was held at Linhay Gallery in Auburn SA in 2022. Lucky has a studio at The Mill - Adelaide, and will be exhibiting as part of The Mill’s Visual Art program in 2025.
You can find Patterned Disproportion in The Mill’s Gallery II, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery II is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are excited to present Patterned Disproportion, a new solo exhibition by Clare Valley based artist Meg Mader.
In this exhibition Meg uses her signature vibrant painting style, taking viewers on an imaginative journey through playful, disproportionate and extraordinary scenes. Checkerboard floors and ornate wallpaper come together to give a glimpse into the lives of music-playing ornaments, mischievous gnomes and a most sophisticated doll house. We’re invited to fill in the narrative, whose beautiful house is this? Is this maggie performing a Billie Holiday tribute? Indeed, could the ornaments and pets in our own homes also have such glamorous secret lives?
In bringing to life the ordinary and everyday, Meg also imbues her characters with agency, a portrait of a dog is playfully titled ‘Fetch me Equality’, mirroring the sentiment of her portrait titled ‘Determination Inspiration Imagination’. The work is equally entertaining and playful as it is personal and political.
As an illustrative artist, I’m captivated by the vibrancy of acrylic ink and gouache, using them to bring life and colour to objects, animals, and scenes. Recently, my work has delved into the role of patterns, which evoke a sense of time and place within each composition. For this exhibition, I have created a series of paintings using objects, patterns and colour to capture an imagined moment in time. Alongside these are still-life scenes drawn from a mix of found, gifted, and personal objects—each carrying its own story—arranged in settings with playful, disproportionate scales.
The altered scales introduce a sense of surrealism, inviting viewers to see everyday objects in new and unexpected ways. Patterns within each disproportionate room add depth and rhythm, framing each scene within a distinct narrative context.
The exhibition is an entertaining, immersive journey inviting viewers to experience a new life for ordinary objects, reimagined in a timeless, dynamic space. This exhibition encourages a closer look at the ordinary, a rethinking of scale, and an interactive encounter with past and present woven together.
Meg Mader works predominantly with acrylic inks, gouache, and pen to create vibrant illustrations of animals, still life, and pop culture mash-ups. She has participated in many group exhibitions. Noteworthy are her duo exhibitions with collaborator Stu Nankivell, where she ventures into augmented reality, adding another layer to her works. In her solo exhibitions, Meg explores themes and narratives of her choice including literary mashups and still life, allowing for unrestrained expression.
Her artistic style has earned her a Highly Commended and the Incentive Award at the Clare Valley Portrait Prize along with winning the Balco Art Prize's Best Work on Paper. A pivotal moment arrived when Meg was chosen for the Nebula Program by Country Arts SA, offering her the chance to deepen her practice and build connections with fellow regional artists. Meg's art often takes the form of commissioned pieces, frequently commemorating beloved pets and cherished memories.
Since 2017, Meg has expanded her artistic practice by organising art events and workshops across South Australia and a series of large events at Puddleduck Vineyard in Tasmania. Her involvement in a local arts committee and establishment of a weekly art group are other ways to enjoy arts within the community.
You can find The Myth of the Lonely Artist in The Mill’s Gallery Foyer, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
The Mill’s galleries are open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are excited to present The Myth of the Lonely Artist, a new Foyer exhibition featuring 2025 Writer in Residence Marina Deller. The digital exhibition explores the stereotypes forced onto writers and artists, focusing on the bright spots of companionship which form part of an art practice or day-to-day life.
I have long been fascinated by stereotypes. This fascination began after deciding I wanted to be a writer when I ‘grew up’. I was interested in the way stories were built, and especially in the idea that characters could have ‘tropes’ like plots could. As a queer teenager, I faced a different kind of stereotyping. It encouraged me to consider what kinds of stereotypes are rife in not only stories but the world they depict, and how – when unexamined, when taken as truth – these can veil or derail true and complex personhood.
Writers are often painted as poor, obsessive to the point of destruction, and lonely. Though the first two I can attest to, the last never sat quite right with me. I asked myself, ‘In examining the world through artistic forms are artists doomed to feel lonely?’
Undertaking the Writer in Residence program at The Mill has been a transformative experience and has helped me explore this question. Early 2024 I was at a kind of post-PhD crossroad professionally and creatively. I craved a space to reconnect with my practice beyond academia. At The Mill, I fell in love with the capacity for a collection of creative humans to inspire, challenge, and support one another. Even the smallest moments – hellos in the hallways and chats over coffee – lit my days. I also found myself inspired by the multi- and inter- disciplinary nature of many of the artists’ works. As well as writing, I wanted to paint and draw (even if badly) and found myself reaching for my camera often. Being at The Mill in this period of change, I felt keenly that the world had a lot to offer me. I also began to observe where and how I was being kept company in my practice and taking note of it, which led to this hybrid project.
So, is there such a thing as a lonely artist? I’m sure there is, somewhere, just as I am now certain I have never been one. My hope for this work is that it allows you to focus on the small, bright spots of companionship which form part of an art practice or simply day-to-day life.
Marina Deller is writer, academic, and critic, working and creating on Kaurna Land. Marina has a PhD in Creative Writing (Life Writing) from Flinders University, where they are an award-winning teacher of Writing and Literature.
In their creative practice Marina examines art, culture, (queer) identity, family, love, and loss. They write essays, short stories, poetry, and hybrid works incorporating objects, art, and photography.
Their writing appears in such outlets as The Conversation, Westerly, Voiceworks, Archer, Babyteeth Journal, and InDaily and has been painted on the city streets as part of Raining Poetry in Adelaide. Their short story “Nostos” was shortlisted for the Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction 2021, and their essay “Dresses, heavy with water” was highly commended in the AAWP/Westerly Magazine Life Writing Prize 2022.
Marina is also a recent recipient of the Island View Writers’ House Emerging Writer Residency and an active member of the Life Narrative Lab where they curate and run reading events which platform emerging life writers.
This exhibition has been created as a personal project through The Mill’s Writer in Residence program.
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
Join Lucky Smith, Meg Mader and The Mill's Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas for a chat about Under 30s Eat Free and Patterned Disproportion, showing in Galleries I and II.
About the exhibitions
Under 30s Eat Free combines pop-art flatness with anthropomorphic characters, exploring contemporary anxieties in a way that is both jovial and deadly serious. Bold and bright, and slightly disconcerting, we see Lucky’s subjects navigating everyday scenarios in unusual ways - a day at the beach turns into a most strange place to adopt a kitten, while a Rapa Nui (Easter Island) moai statue spills the tea on a date at a Parisienne bistro. Lucky has also begun exploring the addition of textured oil paint within his otherwise modernly flat scenes, bringing a new quality within the paintings. The body of works are uncanny and relatable, shedding light on the ‘coming of age’ we experience as we enter our 30s.
Patterned Disproportion uses Meg’s signature vibrant painting style, taking viewers on an imaginative journey through playful, disproportionate and extraordinary scenes. Checkerboard floors and ornate wallpaper come together to give a glimpse into the lives of music-playing ornaments, mischievous gnomes and a most sophisticated doll house. We’re invited to fill in the narrative, whose beautiful house is this? Is this maggie performing a Billie Holiday tribute? Indeed, could the ornaments and pets in our own homes also have such glamorous secret lives?
About the artists
Lucky Smith is a passionate expressionist painter from rural South Australia, now living and working in Adelaide. Lucky specialises in large scale portraiture of pop culture personalities and surrealist scenes using oil & acrylics. An avid painter from the age of six, his organically developed style has blossomed into grand and colourful artworks that fill a wall, brighten a room, and invite a crowd into vibrant conversation.
Lucky is an imaginative storyteller, learning foundations from John Collee’s AFTRS Screenwriting seminar, and travelling to New York in 2022 to study story structure under screen and writing lecturer Robert McKee. Lucky uses these storytelling principles to construct scenes in his artwork which empathetically explore complex interpersonal exchanges and idiosyncratic social situations, with recurring motifs such as anthropomorphised animals and retro pop culture.
Lucky has worked in graphic design and the film industry for over a decade, working on such
significant projects as The Tourist (2020, STAN), La Brea (2020, NBC), & Territory (2024, NETFLIX).
Lucky’s artwork is displayed in numerous public and private collections domestically and internationally. His solo exhibition ‘Your Spectrum is Showing’ was held at Linhay Gallery in Auburn SA in 2022. Lucky has a studio at The Mill - Adelaide, and will be exhibiting as part of The Mill’s Visual Art program in 2025.
Meg Mader works predominantly with acrylic inks, gouache, and pen to create vibrant illustrations of animals, still life, and pop culture mash-ups. She has participated in many group exhibitions. Noteworthy are her duo exhibitions with collaborator Stu Nankivell, where she ventures into augmented reality, adding another layer to her works. In her solo exhibitions, Meg explores themes and narratives of her choice including literary mashups and still life, allowing for unrestrained expression.
Her artistic style has earned her a Highly Commended and the Incentive Award at the Clare Valley Portrait Prize along with winning the Balco Art Prize's Best Work on Paper. A pivotal moment arrived when Meg was chosen for the Nebula Program by Country Arts SA, offering her the chance to deepen her practice and build connections with fellow regional artists. Meg's art often takes the form of commissioned pieces, frequently commemorating beloved pets and cherished memories.
Since 2017, Meg has expanded her artistic practice by organising art events and workshops across South Australia and a series of large events at Puddleduck Vineyard in Tasmania. Her involvement in a local arts committee and establishment of a weekly art group are other ways to enjoy arts within the community.
You can find PROJECT/FORWARD: 2049 in The Mill’s foyer, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are excited to present a special screening of PROJECT/FORWARD: 2049, joining 20+ countries as part of a micro moving image festival initiated by Micro Galleries!
PROJECT/FORWARD: 2049 transforms everyday spaces into extraordinary galleries through digital art projections that envision better futures for our world. For one night only, international artworks will illuminate The Mill’s foyer, creating a temporary wonderland where people from all walks of life can gather, observe, debate, and dream together.
A 60-minute loop of digital artworks from artists spanning four continents will be displayed in The Mill’s foyer from 10am, and will be viewable through the window on Gunson Street from dusk until 6:30pm.
How to attend:
Show up anytime between 10am and 6:30pm. Feel free to stay for the entire 60min loop, or drop by for a few minutes—it's entirely up to you!
This event is part of Micro Galleries' PROJECT/FORWARD: 2049, happening May 30-31, 2025, in 20+ countries worldwide.
Project/Forward is a global micro moving image festival by Micro Galleries that democratises access to new media art by bringing it directly to communities in unexpected public spaces.
Previous festivals have featured 117 artists and reached audiences exceeding 500,000 people across 22 countries.
In a time where our digital world is moving at warp speed, with tech billionaires getting all the spoils, countless communities are still waiting for an invitation to the digital art party. That's where Project/Forward crashes the scene—beautifully disrupting this digital divide by transforming ordinary public spaces into extraordinary galleries of possibility.
Because the future shouldn't be a luxury product—it should be a public experience. And, we should all be part of it.
Where: The Breakout at The Mill, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Cost: $10 (+ booking fee)
Note: Please arrive 15 minutes early to grab a drink. This event will be 1 hour (including a Q&A).
This showing and Q&A will be held in The Breakout. Please come to The Mill at 154 Angas Street, the bar will be open to grab a drink before we take you through to The Breakout.
Please arrive at 5:45pm for a 6pm sharp start.
This event will be 1 hour (including the Q&A).
Accessibility
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St to get to our front door, which will be open.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
If you have questions or would like to talk to one of The Mill team contact info@themilladelaide.com
FAFF is a protest to a world out of control, offering an escape from the endless global crises, overwhelming responsibilities, and gnawing screen addictions - by putting on a bonnet and escaping into the fantasy world of Jane Austen to ask: “How can I experience joy, when the world is dying?”
FAFF explores how we respond to crises - both personally and collectively - and explores the role of joy in that.
A new dance theatre comedy work by Erin Fowler, developed and performed in this second-stage development with Zoe Dunwoodie, Fallow (Tom Borgas & Amber Cronin), Sam McMahon, Ella Molloy, Hew Parham, Will Spartalis, Carol Wellman-Kelly and Jazzy Williamson-Grey.
Audiences can expect exploration of scenes, concepts and design, along with conversations around the creative process, key themes, and the questions that drive the work.
The showing will be followed by a short Q&A with Erin, hosted by The Mill CEO/Artistic Director Katrina Lazaroff. Audiences will have the opportunity to ask questions about the development and provide feedback about the performance.
About the artists:
Erin is an award-winning dance and physical theatre maker, performer, musician, and educator based on Kaurna Yerta.
She creates and presents deeply feminine, audience-driven, socially minded work and blends together an eclectic mix of contemporary dance, feminine movement, clowning, cabaret and martial arts.
Erin’s choreographic credits include Erin’s choreographic and performance credits include her two award winning solo works; EGG (2021, Weekly Best Dance Award, Best Dance Hollywood Fringe 2021, NZ Tour Ready Award Adelaide Fringe 2022, Best Theatre Nominee, Sydney Fringe 2022), 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).
As a performer she has worked on Victoria Falconer’s, The Sight at Dark Mofo, and The Vali Myers Project: And Then We Go at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and with BalletLab, Patch Theatre Company and independent artists Lina Limosani, Monte Massi, Ben Brooker & Teddy Dunn (Act Now Theatre) and Larissa McGowan.
She was also the movement director for Rebecca Meston’s 2024 Adelaide Festival Centre presentation of HITS and is the Director and Choreographer for Joanne Hartstone’s The Smart Girls Guide to Breaking Up in the 2025 Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
Hew Parham is a clown and theatre performer and director. Hew has extensively trained and mentored in the in the Pochinko Clowning through Mask Method with John Turner at The Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance.
Hew has also trained with British Physical Comedy troupe Spymonkey in London, England and Italian clown Giovanni Fusetti. Hew has developed and been commissioned to create several solo shows including Symphony of the Bicycle which toured nationally in 2024 in partnership with Brink and STC, as well 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, as well as The Riddalin Brothers with Callan Fleming and A Not So Trivial Pursuit (Adelaide Fringe).
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: The Weill File (Adelaide Cabaret Festival); The Swell Mob (Flabberghast Theatre/Adelaide Cabaret Festival); 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).
Will is a globe-trotting Production Manager, Circus Producer, Theatre & Film Composer, Sound Designer, Set Builder, Aerial Rigger, and Nightclub Manager.
Following two decades of experience in Production with Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival Centre, State Opera, State Theatre Company, and a viral smash-hit with his collaborative film project Italian Spiderman, Will relocated to NYC to assume the role of Head of Production at iconic Brooklyn Nightclub and multidisciplinary art space, House of Yes.
His compositions and sound design work have appeared in numerous State Theatre Company works (Volpone, Gorgon, & Jesikah) as well as for independent theatre and dance productions, including Hew Parham’s Symphony of the Bicycle and Erin Fowler’s EGG. He has also recently completed a commission to compose the score for a South Australian made feature film, Diabolic.
Fallow is a critical spatial practice that focuses on site-sensitive, immersive presentations in public space through sculpture, installation, performance and education.
A merging of the practices of Amber Cronin and Tom Borgas, its field is the ecological space of arts research and practice– a thinking-through-doing that seeks to reframe an experience of reciprocity and connection as a definitive way of being in the world.
Zoe is a performing artist and emerging maker currently living and working on Kaurna Yerta. She graduated from the New Zealand School of Dance in 2011 with a Diploma in Dance Performance, and was shortlisted for the Tanja Liedkte Fellowship for 2024.
Zoë worked full-time and as a guest dancer for Australian Dance Theatre from 2012 – 2020, under the directorship of Garry Stewart, and toured his works nationally and internationally. Zoë has worked with local and international choreographers including Daniel Jaber, Ina Christel Johannessen, Lee Brummer, and children’s theatre companies Patch Theatre Company, Windmill Theatre Co and Windmill Pictures.
She is currently developing her own works including dance theatre work Llama and children’s puppet show Planet Stella co-created with fellow maker Tim Overton.
Ella is a highly skilled and dynamic mover with an extensive technical background. Originally from Sydney, she trained intensively at Classique Dance before furthering her education at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, where she was mentored by leading industry professionals.
Ella holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts in contemporary dance from Adelaide College of the Arts, where she worked with leading choreographers such as Sue Healy, Daniel Jaber, Leigh Warren, and Lee Brummer. Her rigorous training has shaped her into a versatile and expressive performer, refining both her technical and artistic capabilities.
Throughout her studies, Ella has worked closely with renowned industry artists, contributing to the development of new works and expanding her choreographic and performance repertoire.
In 2025, she performed in numerous works at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and Adelaide Festival with Stephanie Lake Dance Company, further cementing her presence in the contemporary dance scene.
Sam is an accomplished MC and entertainer, actor, clown, clown doctor and theatre performer. He is regularly engaged as an MC and entertainer for festivals including the Adelaide Fringe, Cabaret Festival and Adelaide as well as other corporate and cultural events. His performance credits include working with Slingsby Theatre Company for the creation and tour of The Tragic Life of Cheeseboy.
Jazzy is a contemporary dancer based in Adelaide/Kaurna land. She graduated with a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Dance), from Adelaide College of the Arts in 2022, after performing works by Kialea-Nadine Williams, Peter Sheedy, Tobiah Booth-Remmers, Lee Brummer, Garry Stewart, Alison Currie, Daniel Riley, and Daniel Jaber.
Following her graduation, she was selected as the 2023 recipient of the ilDance Professional Development program with The Mill and worked with Zoe Dunwoodie on her creative development of Llama. She was also selected as a dancer in the 2024 Choreolab program. Jazzy is interested in interdisciplinary collaboration and is empowered by the creative freedom of improvisation and choreographic composition. She is passionate about exploring themes of the human condition, philosophy, and psychology in future choreographic works.
Matt is an award-winning Australia actor working extensively in South Australia, China and The US. Film highlights inc. Monolith (2022, Dir. Matt Vesley) Top End Wedding (2019, Dir. Wayne Blair), Awoken (2020, Dir. Daniel Philips) and One Eyed Girl (2015, Dir. Nick Matthews, Projector Films).
Matt is an accomplished theatre actor with highlights including Creditors, Switzerland, Romeo and Juliet, Rumpelstiltskin (Windmill co-production), The Red Cross Letters, Volpone; or The Fox, Between Two Waves (Umbrella production), Babyteeth, Pornography and The Give And Take for The State Theatre Company of South Australia.
Matt has toured with Windmill Theatre extensively through Australia, the US and China. Matt is a theatre maker, collaborating with Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Oz Asia Festival, Theatre Republic, Slingsby, Sandpit, AJZ Productions and made new work as a member of award winning theatre company five.point.one. Matt is also an accomplished voice-over artist.
With a zest for life and a passion for dance, theatre, puppetry and musicals, Carol brings 35 years of professional experience to her professional practice which includes dance performance, teaching, choreographing, directing, facilitating and management and has taken her to many parts of the globe.
Most recently, Carol has been a freelance Dance/Theatre artist working across genres with a wide variety of participants and roles including: mentor and artistic advisor for Independent choreographers and dancers, guest lecturer and assessor for University Dance and Drama departments in Australia and NZ and Board member for Restless Dance Theatre, Ausdance SA and Ausdance National as well as State and Federal funding bodies.
Carol is dedicated to creating access to the arts for all and is a trained Audio Describer for people with Visual Impairment.
This residency has support from
This project has been developed in association with the Adelaide Festival Centre’s inSPACE Development Program.
You can find Object Permanence in The Mill’s Gallery I, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery I is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are excited to present Object Permanence, a new exhibition by Bri Hammond developed through our Photographer in Residence program, presented with support from the Ana and Christopher Koch Foundation.
For Object Permanence Bri has developed a personal project examining the relationship between objects and memory, connecting generations of her family through unlikely treasures. Bri’s signature bright colours and playful aesthetic elicit common memories of childhood. Collections of doll hair brushes, shells collected on the beach by her grandparents, and pieces of board games are common place and yet exquisitely familiar, capable of transporting us back to our own birthday parties and beach trips. While easily disregarded, Bri’s attention to these objects sheds light on their relationships to our bodies, every object held by tiny hands. At the same time, Bri speaks about the joys and the struggles of parenthood, and the overload of information, parenting hacks, theories of childhood development and pasta necklaces that come along with modern parenting.
Object Permanence is presented with support from the Ana and Christopher Koch Foundation.
Object Permanence is a still-life photographic series exploring the connection between parenting and childhood, using objects accumulated over generations. The term ‘object permanence’ is used to describe a child’s ability to understand that objects continue to exist, even though they can no longer be seen or heard. Through the work, I am questioning why families hold onto certain things, and how objects and photography can serve as tools for memory.
With vibrant colours and graphic compositions, the photos seem at first glance to exude a happy, everything-is-fine mood. But a closer look reveals grubby fingerprints all over a deflated balloon, or ripped hair stuck to an odd collection of tiny brushes. A dead bee, presented to me by my son, is melted into the wax of a birthday candle. A vase I’ve owned for decades, smashed during an unsupervised moment, is mended with playdough and houses a pipe-cleaner flower – a gift from childcare.
The hero piece displays hundreds of small items; gathered, photographed and printed on adhesive wallpaper. From precious gemstones foraged by my grandparents, to small game pieces and feathers found on the street, the composition examines what we place value on, especially when parenting and consumerism now feel so entwined.
I became a mum in 2022. While grappling with this transition, I came across a theory that has stuck in my mind. Psychotherapist Philippa Perry said in The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read, ‘Whatever age your child is, they are liable to remind you, on a bodily level, of the emotions you went through when you were at a similar stage.’ This prompted me to look back on my own childhood and adolescence, the good and the bad. I’m hoping parents will feel a sense of solidarity with the work, and that others will recognise their own childhood within the frames.
Bri Hammond is a photographer living on Kaurna country in Adelaide, previously residing on Wurundjeri land in Melbourne, until recently. Her work displays a mix of authentic emotions and odd moments, usually expressed with poppy colours and graphic compositions. She loves championing the peculiarities of life and highlighting the idiosyncrasies of people and places. Originally a graphic designer, she began her career with a year-long residency at Fabrica, Benetton’s Creative Research Centre in Treviso, Italy in 2011. Bri now creates images for a wide range of clients, publications and organisations across Australia with a unique visual approach.
Bri’s debut solo exhibition ‘Nuoto da sola (I swim alone)’ was shown at Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne, 2019. In 2022, her first photobook ‘Endline - Deathcare during Melbourne’s Covid Crisis’, won the photobook prize at Melbourne’s Centre of Contemporary Photography. Bri has completed a Bachelor of Visual Communication (Design) at UniSA, and a Bachelor of Arts (Photography) at RMIT.
This exhibition has support from
The Mill’s Photographer in Residence program, presented with support from the Ana and Christopher Koch Foundation.
You can find Oriana Julie’s exhibitionin The Mill’s Gallery II, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery II is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are excited to present Head in The Clouds, a new exhibition by Oriana Julie developed through our Visual Arts Studio Residency presented with support from donors Geoff Martin and Sorayya Mahmood Martin.
Head in The Clouds is an exploration of creative play, embracing spontaneous method making in order to form a hybrid, affective sanctuary. Oriana uses foraged objects - discarded furniture, vintage glassware, beads, synthetic fibers, and organic matter - turning everyday items into objects of divine contemplation. She speaks about the idea of sublime escapism, where she has created a shared affective experience for audiences. Here, art and art-making exist outside of language and are instead experienced through feeling. Slow and meditative processes are positioned as a form of care and the body is grounded through the state of creative flow.
Situated on Kaurna Land in Adelaide, Oriana pioneers a visual language rooted in Afro-surrealism, leveraging imagination to embrace empowering diasporic narratives. She blends bold visual and performance artistry to spark dialogue on time, identity, and culture, transforming personal narratives into spaces of sublime escape informed by personal mythos. Her work is characterized by a fusion of African American and Italian heritage, shaped by her upbringing on an Air Force base in Woomera and the lush landscapes of the Adelaide Hills. These diverse influences create a unique exploration of cultural identity.
Oriana’s creative process is deeply connected to the sensory experiences of the body. Utilizing various mediums such as oil paint, beads, and resins, she creates immersive environments that translate embodied sensations into material expression. Inspired by Rococo, Surrealist, and Neoclassical aesthetics, her work blends symbols and motifs into a harmonious chaos.Through her innovative approach, Oriana contributes significantly to the academic and artistic discourse on Afro-surrealism and its relevance in contemporary art culture
In 2022, Oriana graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Art from Adelaide Central School of Art, earning an invitation to pursue Honours. Over the past few years, she has secured various commissions and residencies. In 2021, she participated in the Nexus Arts Studio residency, held her first solo exhibition, and engaged in a mentorship with Faye Blanche of the Unbound Collective, which enriched her artistic perspective and earned her a nomination for the Don Dunstan Foundation Award. In 2024, she was awarded the Mill Visual Arts Residency, with a solo show planned for 2025, and participated in the Post Ofiice Project’s Studio residency. She was also invited to partake in the Post Office Projects Performance Program, supported by the Creative Industries Grant from the City of PAE and the Kick Start Graduate Grant from Adelaide Central School of Art.
Oriana continues to push the boundaries of Afro-surrealism, contributing to its discourse and evolution within the contemporary art world. Her work not only reflects her unique cultural heritage and personal experiences but also serves as a powerful commentary on the complexities of identity and the human condition.
Informed by my childhood experience of always "having my head in the clouds" and being "off with the fairies," this body of work seeks to reframe this personal narrative into a space of sublime escape through spontaneous method-making, depicting a personal mythos. These moments of sublime escape explore the function of fantasy as an intrinsic tool for imagination, deeply connected to embodied feelings. In this realm of sublime escapism, I grant myself permission to delve into the depths of my being and emotions. The works can be viewed as an internal dialogue, manifesting in tactile forms.
The exhibition unfolds as an internal conversation, guided by personal mythos and translated into the tactile and material expression of embodied sensation. The sensory processes of the body are integrated into the art-making, forming an intrinsically connected environment through various mediums. In this space, distinctions between worlds and categories dissolve. Soft hues articulate a union between the characters and the spaces they inhabit. During these moments of sublime escape, the characters find solace in transcending societal constraints, becoming unapologetically empowered.
This exhibition has support from
The Visual Arts Residency is presented with support from donors Geoff Martin and Sorayya Mahmood Martin
You can find Fragments in The Mill’s Foyer, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
The Mill is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are excited to present Fragments, a new Showcase exhibition featuring studio artist and jeweller Erin Daniell.
The exhibition features wearable sculptures inspired by the natural South Australian landscape, in particular the Fleurieu Peninsula.
‘Fragments’ is a small collection of wearable sculptures that are inspired by the eroded coastline of the Fleurieu Peninsula. Each metal form has been hand sculpted in wax to mimic the striations and undulations of sedimentary rock and weathered flora found along the coast. Broken and irregular, these pieces are like broken shells and flotsam and jetsam that washes up along the sand. The intuitive process of moulding is what creates the organic texture found on the surface of the pieces and the uncontrollable nature of the wax material is what informs the final result.
In contrast the expectation mass production set by fast fashion, the making process of this work is slow and mindful. Craft and preservation workmanship is a central part of the artistic practice, and each piece is one of a kind. Driving the work is a love of beauty and the human connection to objects, as they act as reminders of places, people or history.
Erin Daniell is a jewellery designer and visual artist based in Tarntanya/Adelaide. She completed a bachelor’s degree in Creative Arts at Flinders University in 2021, and she was selected for the Peter Walker/Helpmann Advancement award in 2020. In 2022, Daniell participated in the JamFactory Associate Training Program in the Jewellery and Metal Studio.
Daniell's design philosophy reflects an exploration of growth and beauty, taking inspiration from natural forms. She builds organic shapes to create small scale sculptures and jewellery collections. Employing her own take on ancient cire perdue techniques, she manipulates liquid wax by pulling and twisting to create fragile forms that are each as unique as a fingerprint. This process infuses her designs with natural textures that carry an elemental aesthetic, reminiscent of mollusc spiral growth patterns and coastal erosion striations.
Daniell has exhibited in galleries such as Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, CRAFT ACT, Canberra and Zu Design, Adelaide and she was selected as finalist in the Parklands Prize in 2023. Her works are currently stocked in KIN Gallery, Canberra and JamFactory, Adelaide. She has received grants from Helpmann Academy and Australia Council for the Arts and has undertaken an Artist in Residence program in the Mornington Peninsula.
You can find Between Dream and Reality in The Mill’s Gallery II, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery II is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are excited to present Between Dream and Reality, a new exhibition in Gallery II featuring studio artists Gough Pitawat and August Porter.
The exhibition features landscape paintings by these two emerging artists, whose individual styles create dreamlike, hazy and abstract interpretations of the natural world. We're thrilled to be able to profile these two artists alongside each other, with their distinct practices that compliment each other.
Artist Statement
I am an impressionistic landscape artist. My work focuses on creating artworks that influence the audience’s feelings through forms, movements, and colours, transporting them to the places I depict not just visually, but as if they were experiencing them firsthand.
To me, a landscape is not just the sky, the trees, or the mountains. The subject matter is only a part of the landscape. My works encompass the entire environment, aiming to make the audience feel the wind blowing, the warmth of the sun, or the chill of a breeze in the air.
Through experimentation, I developed a unique oil painting technique and mixture that leaves brush marks on the canvas to enhance the sense of movement. This technique captures the motion of clouds drifting across the sky and bushes swaying in the wind. I want my works to feel alive.
By using colours to mimic the atmosphere, I evoke sensations such as the feeling of green grass on a hot and humid day, the comfort of being in a particular place, the discomfort of a storm, or the emptiness in your chest when gazing at the evening sky.
The land holds feelings and memories, causing past events to flash back every time you visit a place. To me, landscapes represent inspiration, hope, and sentimental.
Biography
Gough Pitawat was born in a small village in Thailand in 1989 and relocated to Australia in 2014. Although he had a passion for art, considering it initially as a hobby, he began to pursue it more seriously in 2017.
Over the course of five years, Gough has engaged in intensive training and practice, focusing primarily on classical and realist approaches. However, he felt that this focus alone was not enough, so he decided to enrol in art school in 2022.
Gough chose to major in Photography to gain a deeper understanding of the elements that influence the emotional impact of photographs and the techniques used in image composition. His objective was to integrate this knowledge of composition, conceptualization, and development into his own artistic practice.
During the academic year, his work was recognized as one of 'The Australian Top 40 Emerging Photographers of 2022' by Capture magazine, marking a significant step forward in his career within the art world. Unfortunately, due to financial hardships, Gough has been unable to continue his studies. Therefore, has sought alternative opportunities, eventually finding a place at The Mill, where he is now continuing to cultivate his artistic practice and advance his skills.
When not painting in studio at The Mill, you’ll find artist August Porter getting her hands dirty in the garden. As an abstract and semi-abstract painter and landscape designer, she draws inspiration from her home’s surrounding bushland. After years of observing the environment and being a passionate gardener, August truly understands nature’s rhythm. Her deep connection to the natural world allows her to paint the peaceful and dynamic life force.
Self-taught, with years of painting as a hobby, August took the leap to full-time artist in 2020-and has not looked back. As an intuitive painter, she evokes the elusive and intangible, reflecting what can only be felt or sensed as an indescribable beauty of the landscape.
August’s work explores beyond the surface of what we see and embodies the land’s spirit. She creates depth through layers, and fluid strokes result in dynamic movements within the paintings.
Rarely static, each piece depicts the fleeting yet eternal, continuous cycle of life. She’s currently exploring these themes on a larger scale and is excited to see what emerges.
You can find Glister in the Sun in The Mill’s Gallery II, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery II is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
We are excited to present Glister in the Sun, a new group exhibition featuring Emiko Artemis, Michael Carney, Chelsea Farquhar and Belinda Wilson, curated by Adele Sliuzas.
The exhibition explores the role of the artist within the creation of folklore through visual art, written text and photography. Their work shows that folklore is still alive today, popping up in the stories we tell, songs we sing, and the way we remember and share these traditions. This captivating exhibition encourages viewers to reflect on their connection to tradition, exploring how customs shape personal identity and create a sense of belonging.
Glister in the Sun is a new exhibition of works by South Australian artists exploring dialogue with time, history and cultural lore. Featuring new works by Emiko Artemis, Michael Carney, Chelsea Farquhar and Belinda Wilson. The exhibition considers the role of the artist within the creation of folklore; that artistry, style, creation and alteration influence the construction of cultural ideology. The artists represented all explore deep relationships with time through archival research, material flux, exchange, and representation of cultural stories.
Let me go on
Like I glister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you're the one.
Glister in the Sun is an exhibition about the way that ‘art’ and ‘life’ are deeply entwined. Curating an exhibition is kind of like telling a story, pulling together gestures, colours and moods to create a feeling within the gallery space. This story speaks about rituals and journeys, and about the way that art can affect the body of the maker, wearer, viewer, listener. I wanted to bring together artists whose work shows the ways that folklore and folkloric traditions continue within contemporary contexts and exist beyond the written archive- folklore thrives in oral stories, songs, and artifacts, performance, movement and memory. While the cultural study of folklore has taken a western approach to categorising and delineating, I also want to acknowledge that folklores exist outside of the colonial lens- they are oral, flexible and spiritual in ways that resist.
Excerpt from Curator Essay by Adele Sliuzas, full text available above
Artist Statement
The images presented for the group show, Glister in the Sun, are centered around the ongoing theme of Haunting that I have been exploring for the last two years. First enacted during a residency in Oatlands, Tasmania, i have continued to use the metaphor of haunting to grapple with ideas around histories that will not sleep until they are resolved. As someone who has personal histories needing resolution, and someone who is also a child of migrants from Sweden who were escaping their own grief and trauma, I have a close understanding of the way history rises up through time to reassert itself in the present until it is addressed. The images were created at Kulkyne/Mildura, on the lands of the Latji Latji peoples. They were created near an historic pumphouse on the river and they ask, what happens to history when it is not addressed? What happens to the people of the past whose stories are not heard? History, as we know, is written by the victors but history never stops speaking. There is always a time to look back and tell the stories of the past. The people of the past are still there, waiting to speak.
Biography
Emiko Artemis graduated with a PhD in 2012 and was awarded the University medal for their honors year. They were a Hatched Graduate exhibitor at PICA in their undergraduate year. They have also completed a master of Design at The University of South Australia. Since graduating Emiko has been a finalist in art prizes and won awards such as category winner in the Manning Valley art prize .Before relocating to South Australia, Emiko was president of IAVA in NSW and was showcased in Wollongong regional gallery’s Local Current show.
In 2020 they were selected as a grantee to attend Meeting Place, Arts Access Australia’s annual arts gathering. In 2021 they were artist in residence at Saubier House. Emiko was awarded first prize in the Waverly Woollahra Printmaking Digital Prize. Their work has appeared in publications including CODE magazine and Open Doors Collective. They have been profiled by the Illawarra times and interviewed by Radio Adelaide and Regional Arts Australia about their practice. Alongside their Visual arts practice, Emiko has also run a number of successful community arts projects and has presented work in seminars and online platforms as well as in traditional exhibition format. Recently, Emiko was asked to create temporary sculpture to be exhibited outside of the prestige Adelaide arts venue, The MOD (the Museum of Design) and has successfully completed an innovative sculpture ready for installation.Emiko has also been selected for a scholarship funded arts residence and exhibition at The RoyalSouth Australian Arts Society in 2022/23, presented their talk” Queering the World “ at BetterTogether 2023 and has been awarded funding through Country Arts SA to attend an arts residency atOatlands, Tasmania in 2023. Emiko presented their research and performance work At the Performance of the Real conference in Dunedin New Zealand, with funding through Country Arts South Australia. Emiko’s performance practice has been recognized through invitations to present their performance work at both Burrinja Arts Center in Melbourne in 2023 and Neoetric, part of the Adelaide Festival in South Australia in 2024 as well as HillsceneLive2024. Emiko’s professionalism in their practice has also been recognized through invitations to assess grant applications with Creative Australia and to represent regional South Australia during Regional Arts Australia’s symposium, Artlands 2023. Emiko currently works from their studio space at Fleurieu Arthouse in Maclaren Vale, South Australia.
Artist Statement
My paintings explore storytelling at its most fractured and fluid, engaging with vignettes and storyboard techniques that deliberately distort and elude traditional narrative structures. Much like folklore, which evolves and shifts over time, my work presents fragmented stories open to the viewer's interpretation, encouraging them to piece together their own meaning from the imagery.
In Echoe, dual landscapes offer two perspectives, allowing the canvas to be rotated for a compositionally similar, skewed perspective. The horizon lines and illuminated central hillside are compositionally identical in both landscapes, yet the elements making up this composition have shifted and changed. This speaks to how stories over time shift and adapt, much like folklore evolving through oral traditions.
A Quiet Pursuit, featuring two large figures walking with a melancholic yet purposeful energy, embodies a similar ambiguity. The figures, veiled in white light, suggest a dreamlike quality, obscuring their narrative and allowing for emotional flux. This vagueness encourages the viewer to bring their own energy and interpretation to the work, becoming an active participant in the narrative process.
The interplay of these works reflects the fluid relationship between myth, memory, and the present, inviting personal connections that ripple through both time and story
Biography
Michael Carney is an interdisciplinary artist found most often working with paint, clay, digital and virtual reality mediums.
His practice began in 2009 as a painting undergraduate at the University of South Australia where he was introduced to ceramics as his minor. By 2016 he had completed a Masters by Research (Visual Arts) where both ceramics and painting became the predominant processes in his exhibition practice.
Both ceramics and paintings blend contemporary and antiquated aesthetics to present work that plays with notions of time in flux. Works that are rendered or figurative are often shattered with a gestural flourish forcing the viewer to continue to explore the pictorial plane for a familiar foothold. His work stops short of overt explanation, whilst ontological themes and philosophies are presented, he prefers to activate the viewer’s own contemplation within the broader theme.
Chelseais an emerging artist who utilises her artistic practice as a place of observation and contemplation. She is process driven and explorative in her use of mediums from sculpture, performance, and video. Play, testing and examination, are important elements of her practice for blacksmithing, led lighting and costuming. Time is an important contextual element to her work: time it takes to explore materials; make and sculptural works being a marker of time.
Collaboration with visual artists, musicians and other creatives has pushed her practice to evolve and expand upon the visual language of memories. The fluidity of mediums and flexibility of collaboration has allowed Chelsea to deeply explore her sculptural practice and push concepts of process and product.
Farquhar graduated with First Class Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2020. She was awarded a West Space Window award and exhibited 2021; in 2018 received a Carclew Fellowship assisting her to complete a Scottish Sculpture Workshop and a New York residency. This year Chelsea will be developing her practice further with a residency at Watch This Space gallery in Alice Springs NT.
Belinda Wilson is a Ngarrindjeri woman, and a painter, weaver and sculptor. She was born on Raukkan mission in 1956, she grew up there until she was four years old. Her father and mother moved to Kingston for work on the waterworks. They stayed in Kingston for a year and then her father got permanent work on the railways in Kalangadoo. She lived there with her three brothers and her sister until she was 16 and then left SA to go to Victoria with her partner.
Belinda started painting right there in Kalangadoo, she started drawing at home and then in school. She was always creative and loved to make using things from nature. Her family would go out hunting for kangaroo, swan eggs. Belinda has a daughter and a son who are also very creative. Belinda lives with her daughter on the south coast and collects materials from nature to create her weaving and to make jewellery as well as using recycled and found materials.
Her paintings are inspired by nature. There is connection through her work to nature through repetition. Everything is connected, she explores these themes, there is layers and hidden meaning that speaks to people differently.
