Virtual Gallery: Cinematic Experiments

Cinematic Experiments was a 10-day professional development project, presented by The Mill in partnership with artist Margie Medlin and Mercury CX, funded by Arts South Australia.

In response to creatives pushing further into exploring digital spaces, this intensive workshop challenged a mixed cohort of dance, performance, film and design artists to explore the development of interdisciplinary, hybrid and digital platforms. The stimulating, experiment-based structure built digital technologies skills for participating artists and ignited new ways of thinking and practicing. 

The partnership between The Mill and Mercury CX reflected the labs interdisciplinary aspirations.

Below you will find some of the images and videos captured during this project.

Breakout Residencies 2021: Announcing the successful recipients

Spotlight Residencies: Bureau d’Exchange

Bureau d’Exchange is an immersive and entertaining cross-disciplinary art work set in a shop like installation. Here, the performers are shopkeepers engaging with the public through interactive story telling.

Participants are presented with an odd assortment of items. Similar to the idea of the readymade, this work takes commonplace objects and elevates them to the status of valuable commodities. The audience is invited into the ‘shop’ to browse, followed by a thought-provoking and enjoyable experience of exchange. The valuing and exchanging of goods is guided through the emotional attachment and associated narratives to the objects, posing questions about economic structure and the relationship to possessions.

About the artists:

Cynthia Schwertsik’s art practice is diverse, including visual art and contemporary performance, with a focus on activating public space. She works preferably in collaborations to investigate the oxymorons found in the wake of contemporary life. Absurdity and humour are central to Cynthia’s cross-disciplinary art-solutions

Cynthia has exhibited and performed throughout Europe, South Africa and Australia, been recipient of grants and residencies from Austrian and Australian government bodies. She has completed commissions for Australian councils, including the City of Sydney, City of Unley, and City of Port Adelaide Enfield. 

Schwertsik holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Dance Diploma.

Emma Beech graduated from Flinders Drama Centre in 2000, and works across theatre and screen. She has established a practice developing theatre shows from meaningful conversations with strangers.

Emma has worked with The Last Tuesday Society, Real TV, Bron Batten, Patch, Monkey Baa, Playwriting Australia, Arts House, Open Space Contemporary Arts, STC, SA Museum, The Rabble and Vitalstatistix, 

Along with theatre director, Tessa Leong, and visual artist. James Dodd, Emma founded the Australian Bureau of Worthiness, a residency model that creates theatre from interviews conducted with people on the street. She spent a two-year residency with immersive theatre company Carte Blanche in Denmark.

Elyas Alavi’s practice is interdisciplinary bridging elements from poetry to visual arts, from archive to everyday events with the intention to address issues around displacement, trauma, memory, body and sexual identity.

Alavi graduated from a Master of Visual Arts at the University of South Australia in 2016 and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) in 2013, and has exhibited at Mohsen Gallery (Tehran), Firstdraft (Sydney), Robert Kananaj (Toronto), IFA (Kabul),  Chapter House Lane (Melbourne), UTS gallery (Sydney) as well as Ace Open, Felt Space, Nexus Arts, CACSA Project Space (all Adelaide). He is the recipient of a 2019 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship. 

Valerie Berry is an actor, performance maker and emerging director. Throughout her practice, she has focused on collaborative and interdisciplinary processes. She has worked with, CAAP for Sydney Festival and Asia Topa, 2020 (Double Delicious), Yana Taylor (Leading is Following is Leading, Liveworks Festival 2020), National Theatre of Parramatta (Swallow, 2016) and Directed (Let Me Know When You get Home, 2021), CuriousWorks (One of the mentors for the Beyond Refuge Program), Polyglot Theatre (Paper Planet: Sydney and Norway), Theatre Kantanka, Urban Theatre Projects, Belvoir, Branch Nebula, Performance Space, Sydney Theatre Company and Performing Lines (Tour Germany and Adelaide Festival, Ur/Faust; and National tour of The Folding Wife). 

In Adelaide, Valerie is an Associate Artist at ActNow Theatre and works as a facilitator, coordinator, lead artist and performer for their Theatre of the Global Majority program, and wrote and performed in The Decameron 2.0 project. She has worked with Cynthia Schwertsik (In My Name); Vitalstatistix (Game of I-Lands) Adhocracy 2020 and (Border Crossers) Adhocracy 2017; and with OSCA for the SUE Project.

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Spotlight Residencies: Thomas Fonua

MAMA is a new physical-theatre work which examines gender, identity and Patriarchy from a south pacific lens. Drawing from the origin stories of the Samoan Fafafine and Tongan Fakaleiti, MAMA is commentary from this generational perspective of the labour division which validated the act of pre-colonial gender fluidity in accordance to a patriarchal society. It also examines the differences in the rite of passage of a boy becoming a man from the past traditional landscape to a present western/urban environment.

About the artists:

Thomas Fonua is an artist of Pacific decent with an established career as a dancer, choreographer and emerging leader. Thomas has worked for companies such as Black Grace (NZ) , Australian Dance Theatre, Red Sky Performance(Canada) and has been touring internationally from the age of 16.

Thomas’ alterego Kween Kong, is the Reigning Dragnation Australia Winner. With a strong focus to inspire, challenge and nurture our community with his loved based leadership style.

Thomas is the recipient of The (NZ) Prime Minster’s Award for Arts and Creativity(2015), Out For Australia’s Emerging Leader(2019) and has recently been nominated for the Dora Award For Outstanding Choreography in Canada.

Fez Faanana is well known for creating accessible, ground-breaking, physically dynamic, risqué and contemporary performance that infuses his Pacific bloodline, political bite, gender juggling, visual spectacle and tongue-in-cheek.

Fez is also Shivannah. He-she is the host and MC, choreographer, creative director, performer, collaborator and co- creator along with an all-male circus burlesque gender bending cast. As an independent artist, collaborator and arts worker/educator, Fez has toured extensively throughout Australia and internationally through Canada, the Pacific, the UK and the USA. He has featured in various cabarets, co-productions and commissioned works including Melbourne Comedy Festival, Melbourne International Festival, Sydney Biennale, Sydney Festival, Harbor Front Centre Toronto, Big Sky Works & Galapagos Art Space New York, Performance Space Sydney, Duckie Royal Vauxhall London and the Sydney Opera House Studio. He has also independently produced and programmed work for Brisbane Festival & Adelaide Fringe Festival.

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Free-range Residencies: Jess Clough-MacRae

Trimates (working title) is inspired by the work of the pioneers of primatology, Drs Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas. Through a highly physical representation of the great apes, Trimates will explore the different ways that chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans communicate, whilst also telling the stories of the three women who studied them. Using text, movement and mime, this show will explore the parallel lives of the great apes and the pioneering scientists, in a bid to understand our complex relationship with the natural world. 

About the artist:

Jess Clough-MacRae is a British/New Zealand performer, director, and movement director currently based in Adelaide. She studied at the University of East Anglia, the Bristol Old Vic Made in Bristol Programme and the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq.

She founded award-winning Clownfish Theatre and has toured their show Attenborough and his Animals in Australia, the UK and Europe, with sell out runs in Adelaide, Perth and Edinburgh Fringe. Attenborough and his Animals won a weekly award for Best Theatre at Adelaide Fringe 2021. Jess is also a member of award-winning Cut Mustard Theatre and has recently performed with Tessa Bide Productions.

Jess was the assistant director on the Bristol Old Vic’s recent production of Cyrano and associate movement director on The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare’s Globe and Touching the Void at the Bristol Old Vic.

Jess is an experienced theatre practitioner and has run workshops for children, teens, and adults, in schools in the UK and Australia and for the Bristol Old Vic Young Company, the Theatre Royal Bath and Shakespeare’s Globe.

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Free-range Residencies: Lucy Haas-Hennessy

Autoeulogy is an original solo work by Adelaide-based theatre-maker Lucy Haas-Hennessy. An eerily prescient sci-fi tragicomedy about isolation at the end of the world, it was first staged at the Mill in early 2020 among the first ripples of the COVID-19 pandemic. One very long year later, the work will be redeveloped against the fascinating new cultural landscape that the pandemic is leaving in its wake, asking questions about what’s changed about the end of the world - and what hasn’t.

About the artist:

Lucy Haas-Hennessy is an Adelaide-based actor, playwright, dramaturge and theatre-maker, and was the entire creative team behind the first production of Autoeulogy. Lucy’s work is interested in the contemporary significance of the ancient art of live performance - in what makes it continue to make its inimitable impact on audiences and hold its ground even in the high-tech digital age. She is a 2017 graduate of the Adelaide College of the Arts acting program, a 2019 Helpmann Fellow, and a 2021 intern with Brisbane-based theatre company Zen Zen Zo. 

Lucy will be joined in this phase of development by Mary Angley (director and dramaturge), an emerging theatre-maker and a recent graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts’ Master of Directing program. In 2019, Mary created Paper Mouth Theatre as a forum for bringing together emerging creatives to work on experimental projects within a Queer, Feminist framework. Mary’s work has received support from The Helpmann Academy, Carclew, Splash Adelaide, Science Gallery, and La Mama.

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Free-range Residencies: Samuel Hall

The project is to develop a new immersive and interactive dance theatre production. The work will be performed in The Lab at Light Adelaide and will utilize the latest LED screen technology. The central dramaturgical premise of the work is a contemporary ritual that invites the audience to reconnect with themselves, place, and community in order to release that which holds them back, especially in relation to the experiences of the past year. 

About the artist:

Samuel graduated from the New Zealand School of Dance in 2016 with a Diploma in Dance Performance. In 2017, he created his first professional choreography ‘Subsequent Slavery’ for the NZ Fringe Festival before performing in Strut Dance Inc’s restaging of ‘One Flat Thing, Reproduced' by William Forsythe. He then went on to join Swedish dance company Norrdans for their 17/18 season as an Apprentice. In 2018, he joined the acclaimed production ‘Sleep No More Shanghai’ by immersive theatre company, Punchdrunk. In 2020, he returned home to South Australia where he began working as a freelance dancer. He worked for major Australian company’s Dancenorth and Australian Dance Theatre, before joining the cast of Lewis Major’s Adelaide Festival double bill, S/Words and Unfolding. Samuel has consistently sought choreographic opportunities throughout his performance career, creating works for Light Adelaide, Dance Hub SA, QL2 Youth Dance Company, Norrdans, and his own personal projects. 

Brink Productions Theatre Residency: Jo Zealand

Staged at Adelaide Fringe 2021, Jo Zealand presented the first stage development of ‘The Circle Show’, an interactive performance piece blending music, comedy, clowning, and dance. The work explores awareness of self; inviting the audience to connect with their true nature through creative play.

As the successful recipient of the 2021 Brink Productions Theatre residency, Jo will be working with Chris Drummond as an artistic provocateur who will give dramaturgical, design and conceptual support to develop and extend this new work. 

About the artist:

A performer for 25 years, Jo Zealand specialises in interactive theatre, comic character and physical theatre with a musical twist and has an Advanced Diploma in Professional Screenwriting from RMIT. Jo’s aim is to use performing arts to bring about connection, awareness and joy. Beginning her training as a founding member of Restless Dance Company and Slack Taxi, Jo has studied with master teachers across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Artistic Director of No Strings Attached 1999-2004, she lead the company on an overseas tour and was nominated for an Innovation Award.

Call Out: Critical Path and NORPA, Development Project for South Australian Dance Artist

The Mill in partnership with Critical Path (Sydney) is offering a position for one South Australian dance artist, to attend a series of two consecutive development projects in Lismore, NSW.

The successful recipient will be supported with $3,000 from The Mill to cover artist bursary, travel to and accomodation in Lismore, NSW. We encourage regional practitioners and those connected to the Northern Rivers area to apply.

Practice Articulation Workshop
July 17 to 19

Artists will explore and share where they find themselves in their practice now, their connections and responsibilities to community, and work to explore how they represent their work (in text, image and when speaking about it) along with what they communicate with others. Finally, they will look at how they can support each other to take their respective practices forward.Claire Hicks, the director of Critical Path will be facilitating the agreed framework for the program, with other guest artists, working together to roll out the activities together across the three days. 

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Practitioner Gathering - Northern Rivers
July 23 to 25

Day one: Practitioner Exchanges and Mentoring

The idea is not to network, not to sell or to buy, not to SPEED anything. A conversation amongst peers at various stages of their careers should ideally be of interest to both parties and whilst one may be seeking advice from the other, all participants should be open to share and learn. 

Day Two: Sector Gathering – FOCUS ON COLLABORATION

Using Open Space Technology (OST). Participants will self-organise to create their own agenda on the day, allowing a dynamic and immediate response to the issues at hand. The process allows free-flowing conversations about the things that really matter to the people in the room. Open Space Technology shifts culture towards a more responsible and pragmatic outlook. 

Day Three: Talking and Dancing

With the aim of sharing knowledge and encouraging dialogue, the final day or our series will focus on talks, both in conversations and panel discussions. With contributions from different parts of our broad dance, physical & visual theatre, circus and performance art sector our time together will end with a jam!

Call out deadline: Monday, May 17, 2021 by COB

Dance artists to submit their EOI via email, please include:

• Your CV

• A 200 word blurb about how this opportunity will benefit you at this stage in your career

• Whether you are a regional artist or connected to the Northern Rivers area

For any questions and inquiries contact The Mill Director Katrina Lazaroff

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About NORPA and Critical Path

Critical Path and NORPA have been working in partnership since 2018 to deliver practice development opportunities in the Northern Rivers for artists with an interest in choreography.

INFORM, a two-year program (2018-2020), created a space for opening up ideas and broadening skills at the intersection of dance and theatre making. The workshop-labs considered how dance and choreography can underpin an embodied approach to theatre and provided different methodologies for performance making.

Find out more about the partnership here

The partnership continues with the Choreographic Regional Hub – Northern Rivers in 2021.

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Expand 2021: Announcing the Cinematic Experiments participants

The Mill presents a much anticipated 10-day professional development project, Cinematic Experiments, in partnership with artist Margie Medlin and Mercury CX, funded by Arts SA.

In response to creatives pushing further into exploring digital spaces, this intensive workshop challenges a mixed cohort of dance, performance, film and design artists to explore the development of interdisciplinary, hybrid and digital platforms. The stimulating, experiment-based structure builds digital technologies skills for participating artists and ignites new ways of thinking and practicing. 

The partnership between The Mill and Mercury CX reflects the labs interdisciplinary aspirations.

About the artists:

• Stephanie Daughtry

  Concerned with built and natural spaces my practice considers human impact on our environment and vice versa.

  I create immersive multi-disciplinary experiences which guide audiences through imaginary worlds.

  Originally trained in the performing arts I have built a repertoire that encompasses installation, film, sound and participatory elements to strengthen the scope for innovative audience engagement. Inspired by experimental performance art practices that came to prominence in the 1960s, more recently I have been influenced by the immersive performances of companies such as Punchdrunk and Marshmallow Laser Feast. Similarly I am motivated by artists such as Olafur Eliasson who constructs built environments that cross over between performance and the visual arts through active audience participation. 

  stephdaughtry.com

• Sarah Neville

  Sarah Neville is an Australian choreographer who devises new media performance, instigates inter-disciplinary practices and invests in multi-platform processes and production outcomes.

  Sarah has created work for Adelaide Festival and Fringe, Ausdance Choreolab, Dance House, Australian Choreographic Centre, ADT’s Ignition season, Strut Dance, Link Dance Company (WAAPA). Sarah was a member of Australian/ Spanish physical theatre company Corazon De Vaca, founder of Heliograph Productions and Kite Dance Theatre and an Artistic Associate with Open Space. Sarah has a Masters in Dance from QUT and is currently a PhD Candidate, co-tutelle between Deakin University and Coventry University (UK), researching Dance Digitisation.

  In 2019 Sarah was an invited artist for a Public Art Commission at the European Centre of Culture’s exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Sarah is currently a recipient of Arts SA Fellowship, creating new work for Dance and Virtual Reality.

  sarahneville.com

• Catherine Fitzgerald

  A professional director with significant experience creating high quality and profitable main stage productions in South Australia. Catherine has earned critical acclaim by risk taking, innovating and creating unique and engaging theatrical performances, bringing executive experience in directing, producing, dramaturgy, playwriting, acting and teaching to the position.

  Catherine assesses and develops commissioned and non-commissioned scripts for the theatre. Committed to working with playwrights to develop new work, liaise with directors and actors in the development of that work and deliver professional workshops in performance, dramaturgy and playwriting. 

  She has worked successfully with many organisations and people from diverse backgrounds to deliver exciting meaningful events and projects, building inclusive and respectful relationships.

• Ray Harris

  Ray Harris is not a middle-aged man but an emerging Adelaide artist. Her work focuses on the psychological struggles and complexities of self-concept, focussing on prevailing everyday fantasies, created to cope with the complexities of repressed desires, feelings, anxieties and psychological pain accompanied by the facilitation of unawareness. Fascinated by mental spaces, she explores these issues through subjective interpretations of universal conditions in the dual creation of sculptural spaces and perfomative video embodying inner and outer experience.

  Ray has exhibited at the AEAF, SASA Gallery; CACSA and Hugo Michell Gallery. As well as Sawtooth (Launceston), Boxcopy (Brisbane), InFlight (Hobart) Next Wave (Melbourne) Supermarket Art Fair (Sweden) and Gil and Moti Homegallery, (Netherlands) Pirimid Sanat (Turkey). Her work is held in The Borusan Collection and Project 4L- Elgiz Museum Collection, Turkey and private collections in Australia.

  rayharrisartist.com/index

• Liam Somerville

  Liam Somerville is a Cinematographer and Video Artist living and working on Kaurna Land in South Australia.

  Liam founded Capital Waste Pictures in early 2012 after graduating from a UniSA Bachelor of Digital Media (Film & TV & 3D Animation) that same year. In the camera department Liam is confident behind a camera with over 10 years industry/freelance experience from DOP, camera operator, camera assist and lighting department.

  As a Video Artist Liam experiments using a wide range of tools from 3D software, game engines, generative coding, projection mapping, LED walls and analog video gear to create immersive visual experiences for web, installations and live performance.

  capitalwastepictures.com

• Dianne Reid

  Dianne Reid is a performer, choreographer, camera operator, video editor, writer and educator. She has created dance for a range of live and screen contexts. Hipsync is her dance video production company established in 2002. Dianne has created some 50 screendance works, many of which have screened internationally.

  Dianne trained in Adelaide in Communication Studies (Drama), then a BA Dance under David and Simi Roche (South Australian College of Advanced Education). In 2001 she completed a Master of Arts in Screendance at Deakin University. She was a founding member of Outlet Dance in Adelaide (1987–89) and a member of Danceworks from 1990–95 under the direction of Helen Herbertson and Beth Shelton. Between 1996-2004 Dianne was Associate Lecturer in contemporary dance, physical theatre and dance video at Deakin University (aka Rusden). In addition, she has been a guest teacher and/or choreographer for VCA, WAAPA, Chunky Move, Dancehouse and Australian Dance Theatre.

  hipsync.com.au

• Danielle Reynolds

  Danielle Reynolds is a multi-disciplinary artist who creates works that comprise interchangeable components of: large-scale painting, sculpture, moving image, sound and performance. Reynolds work is generated from a studio practice that engages with notions of ‘not knowing’ and failure as desirable states to work from and with. The resulting work commonly employs recurrent themes of humour, gesture, popular culture and futility.

  Reynolds completed Honours at Victoria College of Arts (First Class Honours) in 2016 following the completion of a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT University in 2015 and Chelsea College of Arts: The University of Arts London. Reynolds was selected for the 2017 Next Wave Kickstart program with Canine Choreography a work that was later included in 2018 Next Wave Festival.

  Reynolds has exhibited nationally and internationally in a number of group shows and worked as a guest artist for: Field Theory’s ICON at Federation Square (2018), Emile Zile and No Clients Fair exchange for National Gallery of Victoria’s Melbourne Art Book Fair (2019) and  Madison Bycroft's Antihero (live performance component) as part of Feedback Loops at ACCA (2019). 

• Inneke Taal

  Inneke Taal is an artist currently based in Adelaide, Australia and has also lived in Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore. Their practice is situated in the field of multi-media sculpture, looking at video, sound, installation and performative practices as a way of considering subtle embodied experiences and spatial relationships through movement.

  Inneke has a First Class Honours degree from Adelaide Central School of Art (ACSA), a Bachelor in Visual Art, ACSA, and a Bachelor in Linguistics and Drama, Deakin University. Inneke has a background working for performing arts organisations and remains interested in the performativity of site in her visual arts practice.

  inneketaal.com

• Tanya Voges

  Multidisciplinary Artist Tanya Voges creates choreography for theatre and gallery spaces which invite audiences to engage, participate, feel immersed and explore trace. Tanya works and resides on the unceded lands of the Peramangk peoples of the Adelaide Hills.

  She is part of the Artist Residence in Motherhood and has created an alternative mothers' group MAMAA- Mother Artists Making Art, Australia which has both an online community and studio sharing in Adelaide. Engaging with collaborators of various disciplines Tanya brings her experience in dance, drawing, community engagement and dance film making to make multimedia performance works, live dance pieces and dance for screen.

  tanya.voges.net

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About the film staff:

• Paul Gallasch

  A new voice in the Australian film landscape, Paul Gallasch is a filmmaker whose work has become known for its raw honesty, dark humour and emotional intimacy. He is a member of the Australian Directors Guild, Australian Screen Editors and a winner of the prestigious Australian Documentary Prize from the Sydney Film Festival (Killing Anna).

  In 2018 he finished his first feature film, the experimental documentary Love in the Time of Antidepressants, supported by Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation, which premiered to sold out screenings at the Adelaide Film Festival.

  He is currently producing and editing the verité documentary The Ark, directed by Madeline Gordon. Paul is a previous recipient of the SA Writers Development Grant and the Points North Institute Fellowship. 

  paulgallasch.com

• Rebecca Duncker

  After receiving a first class honours from Adelaide University in Environmental Biology, Rebecca decided she was more at home dabbling in science fiction rather than science.

  
  In 2017 Rebecca received the Cliff Ellis Emerging Cinematographer award at the South Australian ACS awards and has been working in the camera department across a wide range of projects spanning from short films and music videos to television and film.

  Showreel

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Exhibition: Thomas Readett, 'Complexities'

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Image: Thomas Readett, Complexities, photo: Renee Readett Creative

May 21- June 25, 2021

Artist talk: Friday June 18, 5:30-6:30pm

Workshop: Saturday June 26, 10am-12pm

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The Mill is excited to present Complexities, a solo exhibition by artist Thomas Readett. This new body of work uses self-portraiture as a medium for exploring the complexities of contemporary life. Thomas’ self-exploration and personal narratives become opportunities to reflect the wider world, through themes of love, loss, and grief.

Taking inspiration from the Rubik’s cube, Thomas sets the scene of a ‘thinking game’, asking viewers to consider a multi-layered reading of his works. Complexities and connections can be found throughout, with audiences able to bring personal interpretation to their journey through the exhibition environment. Rather than self-portraiture being self-focused, Readett speaks of empathetic connection and creative interpretation of the challenges of 21st century life.

Thomas’ graphic aesthetic is powerfully rendered in black and white, with careful attention to detail. He melds street art style with classical training to produce work that is technical and conceptual. In Complexities he pushes his practice into 3D sculptural space, playing with the pictorial plane and interrupting our usual modes of interpretation. The Rubik’s cube gives us an opportunity to see portraits in flux, opening up the medium (and meaning) to change. 

• Artist Statement

  Perception is a fundamental trait of the creative mind. It allows us to interpret ideas differently to others, bring fresh ideas but also brings a different set of mental and social processes. These processes mean that we have deep and empathetic connections to people and the world around us.

  Complexities explores how convoluted the creative mind can be. In this abstracted self-portrait body of work I reflect on the importance of self-expression and how overwhelming the world, life and relationships can be without it. In the world’s current climate all aspects of life have been more challenging than usual, using a form of self-expression has never been more important and, for me, it has become compulsory. 

  My love of video games and thinking games has driven the development of these works, using these games as a conduit to describe the complexities of connection and reflection. Using a small and technical object known as the Rubik's cube as the starting point, the original thinking game. My Rubik’s cube speaks to the pixel like painted snapshots on the walls and creates an environment to explore and contemplate life, connection, and love. 

• About the artist

  Thomas Readett is a Ngarrindjeri man and established artist from Adelaide, South Australia. He is currently working as Tarnanthi Education Officer at the Art Gallery of South Australia part-time alongside his art practice.  

  Thomas has been a drawer his entire life ever since he was a child, wanting to further his career as a professional artist he enrolled into Adelaide Central School of Art in 2011, and it was then he began painting. This is now his main practice among others. Thomas graduated his study at Adelaide Central School of Art completing his Associate Degree and Bachelor of Visual Arts Degree (BVA) in 2015. During his time at Adelaide Central School of Art he held group shows with fellow graduates and ended the degree with his final body of video work based around ideas of solitude and a personal journey through his identity. 

  
  Thomas has since exhibited solo exhibitions Beneath the Skin, Dark Light and latest body of work From Within, which was completed through the University SA and Country Health SA Artist in Residency program. He is a huge advocate for raising mental health awareness and most of his current concepts enforce this. Thomas has recently been working on large scale public art murals across South Australia both solo and collaboratively in events such as Wonderwalls, Big Picture Fest and other large-scale commissions.

Photo: Morgan Sette

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Engage: Announcing the 2020 Dancehouse Melbourne recipient

The Mill and Dancehouse Melbourne are thrilled to announce Andrew Barnes as this year's recipient of the Keir Choreographic Award Public Program, Hotbed and Asia Topa workshops.

• About the artist

  Andrew Barnes, hailing from Adelaide suburbia, completed his Bachelor of Arts at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in 2017 majoring in ballet. He went on to participate in LINK Dance Company under the directorship of Michael Whaites in 2018, where he decided to make the switch to the dark side (contemporary dance). After the year with LINK, Andrew worked with Lewis Major Productions in a development and research period.
  
  Andrew is a founding member of Syndicate Performance, an independent movement collective in Perth. They explore the human state, what makes us who we are and what makes us tick, jump, dance, and scream. In 2017 he choreographed and performed in a work developed for the Perth Fringe Festival and in 2019 performed at the Australian Dance Theatres' Rough Draft season in 2019 and also in Vital Statistix' program Adhocracy. At this point in time, Andrew is dancing with Motus Collective, an independent collective based in Adelaide.
  
  Andrew is currently creating works based around the sub-cultures and derivation of dance in the EDM culture. He is interested in the culture that surrounds the new age social dances of festivals, nightclubs and doofs. Ideas surrounding what makes people dance, why they dance the way they do and whether their dance styles are born from the music, the people or whether it is one cohesive unit.

  In the coming year, Andrew is looking forward to reigning in his artistic values and interests, whether it's creating dance works for stage and galleries or developing and sharing workshops for different festivals and people throughout Australia.

Photographer: Zoe Gay

Workshop: Playing with Poetry - Experiment and respond creatively to other art forms

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Workshop

When: Friday, April 30, 2021, 1pm to 3pm

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

Cost: $20 + booking fee

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Presented in The Mill’s gallery space, this workshop will explore how to experiment with poetry and use text to respond creatively to other art forms.

About the workshop:

This two hour poetry workshop is for all levels, from beginners to confident poets wanting to expand their creative toolset.

The workshop will lead participants through a variety of performative approaches to improvising poetry and resisting self-censoring your writing.

Jess will introduce you to the techniques of lyrical poetry, developing a poetic voice, and experimenting with themes and content. This session leads on from Jess’s previous workshops through The Mill, though previous writing experience is not necessary.

The workshop is designed to be approachable to people from varied creative practices, for writers and non-writers wanting to learn more about poetic techniques and kick start their creative process.

The Mill is an accessible space. Disability access is available via Angas Street, and a disability toilet is also available. More access information is available on our website. If you have any questions or additional accessibility requirements, please contact us at info@themilladelaide.com

• About the writer

  Jess Martin is a poet, critic, and interdisciplinary artist whose work is informed by their collaboration with artists across a variety of disciplines including dance, photography and sound art. Their recent work is investigating improvised ekphrastic poetry in performance contexts.

  Jess is interested in experimental performance, sharing experiences of queerness and disability, and making work in regional contexts. They have experience facilitating creative projects and workshops as a poet, performer and textile artist.

  As a reviewer, Jess’s work has appeared in Witness Performance, The Adelaide Review, and Fest Magazine among others. Jess was 2020 Writer in Residence at The Mill, and in 2018 was a Vitalstatistix Adhocracy festival residency artist.

  Jess’s recent projects include participating as an artist in National Young Writers’ Festival 2020 and collaborative scriptwriting for the joint State Theatre Company SA & ActNow Theatre project Decameron 2.0.

Exhibition: Biophilia: Call of the Wild

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August 16 - September 17, 2021

Opening event: Friday, August 20, 6-8pm

Biophilia Symposium: August 28

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For SALA festival 2021 The Mill presents Biophilia: Call of the Wild, a group exhibition and public program featuring designers exploring connection to nature within built environments

Biophilia: Call of the Wild is a group exhibition that explores our innate human desire to be connected with the living world. Biophilia, from Greek translates as ‘the love of living things’, which Exhibition Curator and maker/designer Robyn Wood has used as a conceptual starting point.  At its core is the principle to connect humans with nature and as a result improve wellbeing. In our urban setting we yearn to connect to the natural environment. 

Held in The Mill’s Exhibition space, Robyn has brought together South Australian designers Enoki, Caren Elliss, Jake Shaw, Peter Walker, Sally Wickes, whose works connect humans with nature. These designers demonstrate a variety of thinking and approaches from within their contemporary creative practices. They express their ideas through sculpture, furniture, interior installation and experiences. The exhibition includes  diverse materials, process and concepts, experiences evoking space and place (prospect, refuge, mystery and risk);  natural elements-water: greenery and natural light; use of materials, textures and patterns; and botanical shapes and forms.

A symposium will be held at The Mill alongside the exhibition and will feature a line up of Adelaide Creative thinkers, furniture designers, writers, architects, artists and environmentalists exploring a range of topics around Biophilic design. Exploring themes of art, contemporary design, the need for nature in our human environment, well being, sustainable practices and science that intersect with the topic of Biophilia.

Presented with partners The Design Institute of Australia, Adelaide Sustainable Building Network and with support from City of Adelaide,Gilchrist Connell, Bank SA Foundation, and Arts SA

About the artists:

• Caren Elliss

  In considering this project I have looked at the repeated forms that occur in nature. The gentle undulations of sand along the shoreline, the ridge formations in cockle shells and the lapping of waves against the shore.

  Describing herself as a designer/maker Caren Elliss is known for producing thoughtful, original furniture and lighting. Caren has a Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honors) and Master of Sustainable Design from University of South Australia. She undertook a four-month Industrial Design internship at AirDesign, Mexico and completed the Associate Program at JamFactory.

  Caren has worked with Koskela, Estilo Commercial and Woodmark, and from 2016 -2018 was a Studio Educator in Product Design and a Workshop Instructor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia.

• Enoki

  Traces by Enoki is a cocooning interactive sculpture that will transport the viewer on a short journey to a place of sensory immersion. The installation will include experiential offerings of sights, sounds, smells and textures from the 5 artists personal memories and associations with nature to evoke emotional connections with the participant. Traces is the collaborative work of Susanna Bilardo, Cindy Chay, Amber Lewis, Ash McCammon and Jacky Spencer.

  Enoki is a multidisciplinary design practice, we design our projects to work well now and in the future. We endeavour to enhance the experience of those that use, live with, or live in our projects. Every project, no matter how small, is explored, reworked and given complete attention, until a unique and inspiring design solution is achieved.

  We endeavour to share, experiment, learn and remain open to changing direction throughout the design process. We choose to include each other and our clients in our thinking. We take responsibility in touching the earth as lightly as possible. We embrace and incorporate sustainable practices in our projects.

• Jake Shaw

  Jake Shaw's 'Forager’s Chair' is made from 100% Tasmanian Reishi mushroom mycelium and the hardwood timber on which it natively grows. The work reads as a resolved piece of furniture, but in actuality does not significantly deviate from the process of the mushroom growing in the wild. By emulating the natural conditions and environment of the mycelium, the work strives to be demonstrative of harmony between maker and material.

  Jake graduated from the University of South Australia in 2019 with a Bachelor in Interior Architecture.With his background in interior design, Jake Shaw's work looks at the relationship between the built environment and human experience. Primarily composed of grown mushroom mycelium furniture and sculpture, his practice is led by explorations of new and sustainable materials, phenomenology, design as art, public art, and spatial experiences. His work seeks to challenge the idea that organic materials and textures are somehow unrefined in design and to pursue material subtlety with discipline and restraint.

• Peter Walker

  In the bush, a branch, a rock, a log, can spontaneously become a place to rest and impromptu furniture. Perching is a series of objects that combine naturally formed branches with machined timber to provide support for the body.

  Whether resting while standing, sitting or lying down, the body and Perching form a symbiotic relationship. This tactile experience elicits a connection with the natural world, encouraging reflection on the nature of wood and its origins.

  Peters practice encompasses a range of activities utilizing wood including sculpture, surfboards and furniture. Peter gained a BFA in 1986 and an MFA Degree from the School of Art, University of Tasmania, Australia in 1993. He ran his own studio for 14 years in Tasmania, moving to Adelaide to Head the Furniture Design Studio at the JamFactory Craft and Design Center in the late 90’s. Peter has worked as Design Consultant for Chiswell Furniture, Designer Makers Tasmania Cooperative 1985, Co-Director of the 1991 Hobart Design Triennial and a partner of Dezco Furniture LLC. He is currently Program Director, Master of Design, School of Art, Architecture & Design. Prior to this Peter was Associate Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design USA, 2001-2011.

  His work is represented in public and private collections, including the Australian Parliament House, Canberra and the RISD Museum, USA. Peter exhibits work regularly across Australia, Europe and USA.

• Robyn Wood

  The Kaurna name for Carriageway park (Park 17) is Tuthangga meaning “grass place”. Native grasses have miraculously survived in our Park lands and provide refuge for the rare grassland copper butterfly. This grass is the inspiration for this installation. The sun shines down on these precious strands of grass forming elongated shadows that stretch and move.

  Grassplace installation is a series of slender panels that both define space and create a delicate sculptural backdrop. The screen design is a repeat pattern of strands gently curved reflecting grass gently moving in the breeze. Designed to make use of resources close to home it is made from steam bent Australian timber with a variety of natural coloured stains applied. Grassplace provides both prospect and refuge. We are protected and comforted by a place to hide but can peak through the open strands to seek a view. We are connected to our unique natural landscape by bringing these forms inside.

  Robyn Wood is a South Australian designer working in a diverse range of disciplines from Furniture design, sculpture, installation and product. Maintaining a connection to nature in a contemporary context is important in her creative practise.

  Robyn studied and practiced as a teacher before following her passion for design and returning to study as a designer. She has a Bachelor of Design Interior Design from the University of South Australia. In 2014 she established her studio working on furniture and interior installations.

  She has worked on a wide range of international and local commercial and government interior projects, private furniture commissions, exhibition pieces and small production runs. Being hands on in her joinery work and experimenting with other media continue to be important in developing new work.

• Sally Wickes

  The ambience created by light filtered through foliage has a measurable influence on humans. Whether it revives awareness of our interconnection with the natural world or sense of shelter and sustenance, its impact is created as much through shadow as light.
  green.light draws on the visual experience of plants and light in concert.

  Sally Wickes is a sculptor, visual artist and industrial designer interested in exploring traditional, new and existing materials to create artworks.

  Sally holds a degree in Visual Art (Sculpture) and a Graduate Diploma in Design (Industrial Design). She has also created permanent public artworks for several councils; received Arts SA and Helpmann Academy grants to undertake marble carving tuition in Pietrasanta, Italy; and has been awarded several prizes for sculptural work including in the Waterhouse Art Prize.

  Visually, Sally's works are diverse as they are enriched by individual concepts and stories. She is inspired by nature and in turn hopes to inspire feelings of oneness and belonging, leading to acceptance of responsibilities that come with being part of a greater whole.

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This exhibition is a finalist in the City Of Onkaparinga Contemporary Curator Award

Exhibition: Ruby Chew and Ida Sophia, 'The Painter and the Performance Artist'

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Image: Ruby Chew and Ida Sophia, image courtesy of the artists

April 7 - May 14, 2021

Open studio/making period: April 7-30

Finissage event: Friday May 7, 5:30-8pm

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The Mill welcomes Ruby Chew, the painter and Ida Sophia, the performance artist for a bold new collaborative exhibition, which transforms The Exhibition Space into a site for exploration, interpretation and multidisciplinary practice.

‘What happens when a Painter (Ruby Chew) and a Performance Artist (Ida Sophia) assemble for a period of 4 weeks to make work based on the methodologies, materials and processes of the other’s?’

Ruby and Ida invite audiences into the gallery to watch as their work develops over the first four weeks of the exhibition. Working within a process driven structure outlined in a joint manifesto, both artists will be bringing their own understanding of artistic practice, and a willingness to extend into new zones. While present in the gallery over the first period of the exhibition, the artists will be responding to weekly provocations traded in sealed envelopes. The final two weeks will remain as a static exhibition for audiences to view the work produced during the first period.

• Artist Statement

  Our objective is to subvert the normal system of an exhibition; how it is prepared, presented and received. Through this we will develop new theoretical underpinnings for our practices, birthed through process. The process is the exhibition.

  We will respond to the materials, methods and processes from each other, and build from the foundation of our own practices. Envelopes containing instructions, provocations, methodological considerations and processes will be traded between us weekly. These directives will dictate the work that we make. We anticipate an exchange that is challenging and fruitful, producing work that pushes the edges of our practices into fresh territory.

  Adherence to a co-written manifesto, written specifically for this system intervention, provides us with artistic constrictions, intentions and declarations. This includes a list of materials; 5 from Ruby’s practice, 5 from Ida’s and each a meaningful object to work from.

  We invite you into this experimental exhibition where you can view work and engage in a participatory capacity. This is a purposefully fluid space, you will encounter all stages of artistic output. Consequently, the gallery will morph and transform weekly, we encourage you to return and witness the space as it evolves.

• About Ruby Chew

  Ruby Chew is a painter who employs process-based making techniques to create open dialogues with her viewers whilst exploring the fluidity of pictorial space. 
  Completing a BA Visual Arts Hons. at Adelaide Central School of Art (2010), along with further study at Central Saint Martins, London and the Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Ruby’s practice is deeply rooted in traditional painting techniques, which are the foundation of her practice. 

  Ruby is a Ruth Tuck Scholarship recipient (2015) and has exhibited, taught and held residency positions interstate and overseas. She has had numerous solo exhibitions, notably ‘Portraits’ at Magazine Gallery (2011), ’Spitting Image’ at Hill Smith Gallery (2012) and ‘The Difference Between Things’ at Floating Goose Studios (2021). 

  Her artworks are in public and private collections across Australia, Canada, Malaysia and London. She currently lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia.

• About Ida Sophia

  Ida Sophia’s live art participatory performance, sculpture, installation and sound practice investigates how to approach loss in modern, secular life. Looking to facilitate our need for ritual, contemplation and completion, her works intend to slow down the dilution of ceremony.

  2020 has seen Ida further develop her practice in durational performance through training with international artists Vest&Page, performances at The Venice International Performance Art Week Co-Creation Live Factory: Dissenting Bodies Marking Time. Her next durational performance will be at Floating Goose, spanning the month of June 2020. Ida Sophia has been mentored by a range of performance artists and curators, among them Joseph Morgan Schofield (Artist/co-ordinator of the Live Art Development Agency, UK), La Pocha Nostra (Artist Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Voin de Voin (Artist/Curator, Æther, Sofia) providing critical advice for her practise and development of participatory encounters.

  In 2019, Ida held her first international solo exhibition at Æther Art Space in Sofia, Bulgaria, following her participation in the World of CO Artist Residency (Sofia, 2018). Ida has participated in the ‘Cleaning The House’ workshop with the Marina Abramovic Institute and exhibited in multiple group shows locally and internationally since 2017.

Exhibition: The Mill Showcase

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The Mill Showcase: Small Room’s Lachlan and Raf (photo: Dylan Minchenberg)

March 29 – June 25, 2021

Opening event: Friday, May 7, 5:30-7:30pm

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

This fifth edition of The Mill Showcase features work by Sandy Kumnick, Kate O’Callaghan and design studio Small Room.

About the artists:

• Sandy Kumnick

  Sandy Kumnick is an experimental multidisciplinary environmental artist. Following Media Studies at Uni SA, Sandy’s Video Art productions were shown at Adelaide Festival Centre and Media Resource Centre. Since completing a Visual Art and Design degree at Adelaide College of the Arts in 2012, Sandy has exhibited paintings, drawings and sculptures at galleries in China, Adelaide, Goolwa, and undertaken an Artist Residency at Sauerbier House, Port Noarlunga.

  My work leads me as I create, with no intent of final outcome when choosing colours, making gestural marks or tossing dried kelp onto paper. It is humbling, meditative and enriching. I often incorporate found objects from the natural world as pure aesthetics and for thier significance, such as how Nature’s spiral pattern represents beginnings, resilience and eternity. I pay respect to the First Nation people and their connections with the natural materials used in my exhibits

• Kate O'Callaghan

  Kate O’Callaghan graduated with Honours from the National Art School in 2004 majoring in Ceramics, where she won the graduate prize for her unique vessel designs. Her writing about South Korean Ceramics has been published in The Journal of Australian Ceramics. Kate is the Founder and Director of Artful, a company focused on teaching the benefits of clay to people of all ages.  

  I am completely drawn to throwing clay on the wheel, along with teaching as many people who are as equally excited by the possibility inherent in working with clay.

• Small Room

  Small Room is the ongoing creative project of Lachlan Stewart, Angus Plunkett & Rafal Liszewski. Lachlan, Angus and Rafal have been working together since 2013. Graphic design was a gateway and framework for the creative practice they have developed. Small room has taken many forms since its conception and is currently exploring work through screen printing, illustration, painting, installation, photography, web and graphic design.

  We have created an installation which displays work from the past two years. This installation which houses our work is a glimpse into the creative environment Small Room like to operate in. Taking inspiration from many zones and internet holes we get caught in, linked with a hindsight view of our childhoods and working experiences. We use our creativity as a way to express and process the world. Informed by y2k tech aesthetics, metalheart/depthcore, consumer culture, minimalist furniture, international style design and brutalism.

Adelaide Festival Masterclass: Branch Nebula, ‘High Performance Packing Tape’

Photographer: Heidren Lohr

Masterclass

When: Friday, March 12, 2021, 3pm-5pm, arrive 15 minutes early to sign in and warm up

Venue: Dance Hub SA, Lion Arts Centre, level 1, corner Morphett St and North Terrace, Adelaide

Cost: $30 + booking fee

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The Mill in partnership with Adelaide Festival and venue partner Dance Hub SA, present a masterclass with Branch Nebula (NSW).

About the Masterclass:

The creative team working on High Performance Packing Tape have been exploring how objects and the body collide in risky situations. Doing the wrong thing. What happens when you change the priorities in terms of risk. The workshop participants are invited to prepare by bringing materials and objects that they would like to work with. Thinking about everyday items that can be sourced from shops, or off the street. Materials that when multiplied may have increased integrity. Or perhaps no integrity. Things you may wish to climb, or be used to change your shape. Its ok to bring more than what you think you will need for your exploration. As a workshop leader, Lee will share some techniques for controlled falling, stages of preparation for a risky manoeuvre, and escape routes. We will work with the props to create short pieces.

Participant level:

Emerging and professional artists: performers, dancers, physical people.

• About the masterclass leader

  Lee Wilson is one of the co-Artistic Directors of Branch Nebula. He is based in Sydney, and has toured extensively throughout his 30 year career as a performer and director. Lee trained at UWS Theatre Nepean and with the company Acrobat. Since co-founding Branch Nebula with Mirabelle Wouters 20 years ago, they have created many new works including the Helpmann Award winners Snake Sessions and Whelping Box. Branch Nebula’s aesthetic draws its dynamism from a passionate engagement with street culture. Refined art-making is everywhere, if you know how to look. We champion the exquisite skills of the skater as we do the fluid movement of the contemporary dancer, and we build our work with both.Branch Nebula is one of Australia’s most adventurous performance companies working at the nexus between theatre, dance, sport & street-styles. They work with non-conventional performers to collaboratively devise work that defies categorization. Lee’s credits with other artists include dramaturgy on Nick Power’s dance pieces Cypher, Between Tiny Cities and Two Crews. He has also worked with Roslyn Oades, Ahilan Ratnamohan, Shaun Parker, Shaun Gladwell, Urban Theatre Projects, Kate Champion, Acrobat and Post Arrivalists. Lee has led many workshops including Body of Ideas at Critical Path. 

Photo: Heidrun Lohr

The Move

A choreographic commission, The Move is a curated initiative of Dance Hub SA, The Mill and Ausdance SA, presented by Adelaide Festival Centre.

The project seeks professional South Australian Choreographers and their artistic teams to each create and present a fully realised 20-30 minute dance work for The Move to be staged at Adelaide Festival Centre’s Space Theatre as a combined production in April 2021.

Adelaide Festival Masterclass: Gravity & Other Myths

Masterclass

When: March 5, 2021, 10am to 12pm, (arrive 15 minutes early to sign in)

Where: Dance Hub SA, Lion Arts Centre, level 1, corner Morphett St and North Terrace, Adelaide

Cost: $30 + booking fees (Dance Hub SA Member Discount $25 plus fees)

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The Mill in partnership with Adelaide Festival and venue partner Dance Hub SA, present a masterclass with Gravity & Other Myths.

About the Masterclass:

This masterclass will be divided into two sections: 

Acrobatic Skill Training 

As an acrobatic based company, skill training is integral to our process. With guidance from some of Australia's leading acrobats, you will have the opportunity to trial GOM's favourite physical languages from creative floor based tumbling to towers and acrobatic swinging, this will be a little taste of the fundamental components of Australian contemporary circus. 

An Introduction into GOM's Creative Process

Drawing from many varied influences, GOM has built a strong toolkit for creating physical work from a conceptual or thematic launching point. From acrobatics through to dance and even theatre, our experienced artists will run you through a collection of creation exercises that we use to create our own work.

Participant level:

Emerging and professional artists: performers, dancers, actors, physical people.

• About the company

  Gravity and Other Myths (GOM) is an acrobatics and physical theatre company pushing the boundaries of new circus. Formed in Adelaide, Australia in 2009, GOM has rocketed to stellar acclaim with a series of disarmingly accomplished ensemble works. GOM utilises an honest approach to performance, to create work with a focus on human connection and acrobatic virtuosity.

  Our first work, A Simple Space, has achieved momentous international success, having performed more than 850 times across 34 countries and receiving multiple awards, most notably the IPAY Victor Award for People's Choice. Backbone, GOM’s subsequent work, premiered as part of the 2017 Adelaide Festival to critical acclaim and 3 Helpmann Award nominations, cementing the company’s position as a leader in contemporary circus. GOM’s latest work, Out Of Chaos…, premiered at the 2019 Adelaide Festival and went on to receive the 2019 Helpmann Award for Best Physical Theatre.

  Alongside our onstage work, GOM deeply values engaging with both our immediate and wider community through workshops and education. Our artists are all experienced coaches in both physical skill training and conceptual creation and are eager to share their skills and knowledge.

Photo: Darcy Grant

Exhibition: Jingwei Bu, 'Life Maps'

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Image: Jingwei Bu, Life Map 2, 2016, performance, pencil and paint on paper,

February 24 - April 2, 2021

Opening event and performance: Sunday, February 28, 1-3pm

Workshop: Thursday April 1, 2-4pm, $15

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The Mill is excited to present Life Maps, an exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Jingwei Bu. This series of drawings are both the artworks itself and a document of performative action. Jingwei speaks of her process as intuitive action, where she uses techniques of focus and meditation to translate emotion and memory onto the paper.

Formally, the works have a simple palate and are constructed of a handful of stylised gestures- repeated lines, shading, sequenced numbers and spirals. Each drawing is created in one sitting, which lasts several hours, drawing from the genre of time based performance. They are built through an intricate and layered mark making process, where Jingwei moves about the page purposefully. Meaning shifts as earlier marks are covered, or extended over. Abstraction allows Jingwei to express deeply personal and emotional experiences through movement in a way that allows audiences to engage their own curiosity, their own mental performance of map-making. The exhibition also includes a performance by Jingwei, extending her Life Maps into live action in the gallery space.  

• Artist Statement

  My Life Maps drawings are a performative movement of the hands. The marks, numbers and lines carry the intuitive motion performed on the paper. The endurance of the movement uses the paper as a stage and as a boundary for action. The results of the performances are either purely intuitive or an action for a reflection on a life event. The repetition of motion is like meditation and ritual. The repetition is never the same.

  The freedom of movement is paralleled by the process of creating space among lines, forms, and marks that resonate the actions of navigating distance and space among people. The longer the movement, the deeper I can go into the subconscious of emotion and memory accumulated in the life journey. To reach, to fix, to answer the questions locked.

  Each mark has its character to me, together they are telling complex stories. This exhibition shows the old Life Maps from the previous years and the recent ones since my mother’s passing two years ago. The making of new life maps has helped me get through the grieving and to gradually heal. 

• About the artist

  Jingwei Bu is an art student from Adelaide Central School of Art, graduating with her associate bachelor degree of art in 2020. Jingwei’s practice draws on Buddhist Chan/Zen teachings. She references both Western and Eastern cultural and artistic traditions in duration-based works on paper titled Life Maps. In creating them Jingwei utilises the principles of a mindfulness meditation, committing to a length of time engaging memory, experience and reflection to document her life’s journey using mark-making.
  
  She is passionate about sharing this creative process with others and credits the cathartic artmaking process as possessing positive and even therapeutic benefits, citing an emphasis on acceptance and the ability to transform negative thoughts and feelings through creativity.

Adelaide Festival Masterclass: Sydney Dance Company

Masterclass

When: March 12,  2021, 9.30am - 11.30am, arrive 15 minutes early to sign in and warm up

Where: Dance Hub SA, Lion Arts Centre, level 1, corner Morphett St and North Terrace, Kaurna Yerta

Level: Tertiary-professional level contemporary dance experience 

Cost: $30 + booking fees (Dance Hub SA Member Discount $25 plus fees)

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The Mill in Partnership with Adelaide Festival and venue partner Dance Hub SA, present a masterclass with Sydney Dance Company.

About the masterclass:

A visceral and thrilling exploration of the juxtaposition of beauty and devastation, Sydney Dance Company’s full-length work, Impermanence is Rafael Bonachela’s newest creation. This two-hour masterclass led by Company Dancer Jesse Scales will incorporate contemporary technique, an opportunity to learn repertoire from Impermanence, and exploration of the creative tasks that informed the choreographic process behind the work. Aimed at tertiary and professional-level dancers, this workshop provides insight into the contemporary dance processes used in the development of a work at Sydney Dance Company. 

• About the masterclass leader

  Born in Hobart, Jesse is from Adelaide where they trained with Terry Simpson and was awarded their RAD Solo Seal. They received full scholarships to study with Complexions Contemporary Ballet in New York and Nederlands Dans Theatre in The Hague and went on to major in classical ballet at the New Zealand School of Dance.

  Since joining Sydney Dance Company in 2012, Jesse performed a feature role in the Australian premiere of William Forsythe’s Quintett for which they were awarded the 2015 Green Room Award for ‘Best Female Dancer’ and a nomination for the 2015 Helpmann Award for ‘Best Female Dancer’. Jesse made their choreographic debut in Sydney Dance Company’s 2016 New Breed season. In 2017 Jesse was named ‘Most Outstanding Dancer’ in the Dance Australia Critics’ Choice Survey.

  Jesse choreographed a new work for New Breed 2020.

• About the company

  Dance changes you. More than simply witnessing something beautiful, or engaging with culture, to experience dance is to be positively altered. From performances at the Joyce Theatre in New York, to the Grand in Shanghai, the Stanislavsky in Moscow and the Sydney Opera House at home, Sydney Dance Company has proved that there are no passive observers in a contemporary dance audience.

Adelaide Fringe Masterclass: Karul Projects, Contemporary Indigenous Dance

Masterclass information

When: Friday, February 26, 2021, 12pm - 1:30pm

Venue: Dance Hub SA, Lion Arts Centre, level 1, corner Morphett St and North Terrace, Adelaide

Cost: $23

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The Mill in partnership with Adelaide Fringe and venue partner Dance Hub SA, present a contemporary dance masterclass with Thomas E.S. Kelly, a proud Bundjalung-Yugambeh, Wiradjuri, Ni-Vanuatu man, who co-created Karul Projects in 2017.

About the masterclass:

The masterclass, suitable for contemporary trained dancers, explores Contemporary Indigenous Dance Technique, a grounded physical form that will leave you sweaty, energised and connected.

• About the company

  Karul Projects is a company led by new First Nation voices telling new stories. Karul is situated in South East Qld and Northern NSW. Thomas creates work that explores high intensity physical works stemming from a cultural practice fused with contemporary, which incorporates voice and physical percussion. Creating work that ebbs and flows whilst mimicking nature. Remembering the past to better understand the present so we can move forward into the future.

Photo: Courtesy of Karul Projects

Virtual Gallery: Carolyn Corletto, ‘Random Acts of Obsession: The artist as the Collector’

The Mill’s 2021 Exhibition Space program opened with Random Acts of Obsession: The Artist as the Collector, a new body of work by multidisciplinary artist Carolyn Corletto. Working with found materials, paint, clay, thread and words, Carolyn has created a personal Wunderkammer.

Image: Courtesy of the artist.

Image: Courtesy of the artist.

Artist statement

I often find myself inhabiting the liminal space between passion and obsession, where collection becomes compulsion. Discarded objects begin to speak to me of a new accumulative value. Motives for collecting or over-collecting vary and combine differently for each collector. For me the selection of an object worthy of collection is rooted in memory and biography. The fixation becomes physical with the need to hunt, to store (sometimes display) and inevitably (for me) the need to make something. My art practice is an emotional response to my experience of the landscape and the materiality of the objects I collect as I move through it. I usually find myself focussing on the smallest objects, appreciating their unique properties and design. In my mind anything can become something else through the ministrations of conceptual meditation. Connections are made between found objects and material processes as they assert their status as saved, rehabilitated or collected.

In this exhibition I have created works that are inextricable from the process itself. Expanding on my finalist work in the Parklands Art Prize I have continued my daily walk through the Parklands and other green spaces, collecting tiny specimens of natural materials or domestic debris and making a one inch wheel thrown ceramic vessel for each object. As the vessels contain my daily thoughts I have found the clay responding differently each day into a myriad of iterations. During Covid restrictions when obsession with making was able to take hold undistracted or tempered by reason I came to appreciate the sense of control these occupations afforded in times of uncertainty, the curative effect before the compulsion returns.

This exhibition embodies a response to my wanderings, my research and the interior landscape of my personal obsessions, all the while mining childhood memories of lying on the grass gazing through the tracery of trees. With deliberate energy each work offers an acutely focussed encounter and collaboration with an environment balanced between vulnerability and resilience. By bringing materials out of their habitat and into the gallery, recontextualising with a mindful counter of tension and tenderness, I confirm that my eyes are open to the urgency of fragility.

Expand 2021: Cinematic Experiments

The Mill presents a much anticipated 10-day professional development project, Cinematic Experiments, in partnership with artist Margie Medlin and Mercury CX, funded by Arts SA.

In response to creatives pushing further into exploring digital spaces, this intensive workshop challenges a mixed cohort of dance, performance, film and design artists to explore the development of interdisciplinary, hybrid and digital platforms. The stimulating, experiment-based structure builds digital technologies skills for participating artists and ignites new ways of thinking and practicing. 

The partnership between The Mill and Mercury CX reflects the labs interdisciplinary aspirations.

Images: Margie Medlin, dancer Vicki Van Hout, Cinematic Experiments 2019

Participants can expect:

The project, spans two weeks working with Margie Medlin as lead artist, a film/camera production person and editing teacher/facilitator. The process will combine; 

Introduction to avant-garde cinema practices:

• Exploring aesthetics of the cinematic frame e.g. on-screen and off screen, depth of field, focus

• Practical sessions such as: working with the video camera (video or DSLR camera), light for the camera - practical lighting movement in the void (black box studio, cameras, tripods, lights, sound), video editing (introduction of premiere pro-editing software), layering testing ideas and exploring the potential of projection

Participants will work in small groups to create, share, and discuss cinematic experiments at The Mill’s studios and Mercury CX editing suites.

When: May 10 - May 21, 2021, 9.30am - 5.30pm (Monday to Friday)
Artist Fee: $2000 + $200 super contribution (artists paid for this workshop)

Applications open: February 24
Applications close: March 18, 12am midnight
Applicants notified: March 31

Adelaide Fringe: 2021 program

The Mill Breakout Space is a versatile black box theatre. Expect everything from theatre to circus, comedy, live music and more.

This year, we will be playing host to 90+ Adelaide Fringe shows from across Australia, the UK, and Europe. Take a look through our program list below or browse our shows via Adelaide Fringe

The Mill is an accessible space. Disability access is available via Angas St, and a disability toilet is also available. If you have any questions or additional accessibility requirements, please contact us at info@themilladelaide.com

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The Catchelorette

Cabaret
February 18 - 28

The over-produced drama and the production values of reality TV and movies sure have a lot to answer for.

Meet Carla; 34, single, Virgo, outgoing, straight forward, Cabaret Artist and she's looking for love... still.
From first love to happy ever after, every relationship seems to have 'a catch'! Sometimes the road to love is definitely not what you expect and a bit longer. Ok, a lot longer.

If you've ever been in love, out of love, looking for love, or happily ever single - this cabaret show is for you.

Winner of Best Cabaret Weekly Award, Adelaide Fringe 2020.

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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MAN-BO

Comedy / Physical theatre
February 18 - 28

Heroes never die...they just cry deep down inside.

Sam Dugmore (The Latebloomers Scotland! & The Bakers) is back as one of the greatest action heroes of all time, MAN-BO.

MAN-BO must un-earth his ruthless man skills to confront his greatest nemesis...himself. A deadly mission filled with calamity and raw emotion. One-man vs himself. A feel-bad comedy about heroism.

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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The Bakers

Comedy
February 20 - March 21

Three bakers, one bakery! Dough up the walls, flour in your eyes. Join The Latebloomers, award winning creators of 'Scotland!', for another dose of the ridiculous and the sublime.

Winner Best Comedy weekly award Adelaide Fringe 2019.

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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The Invisible Orchestra

Music / Electronic
February 21 - March 6

The newly formulated one man solo project of South Australian musician, Hunter Rogers, embarks on a narrative and auditory spectrum of song and journey. Drawing elements from multiple flavours of music performance from Rock to Baroque Pop; Synthwave to Music Theatre; Industrial to Prog. This showcase of work will be a crack in the ice.

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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Snake Oil

Comedy / Sketch comedy
February 23 - March 7

Do you suffer from an ache that ails you or a maddening malady? Do you feel like a chunk of rotting butcher's meat that's been ripped apart in the sweltering heat of the day by hungry dogs?

Then look no further than the miracle cure we have for you. Two brothers performing sketch comedy: it will make you laugh, make you cry, put a pep in your step and some fuel in your mule.

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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Master the Ferrari

Comedy
February 24 - 27

Please note this show was previously called 'There's a Bit in That' and was performed a few times in 2020.

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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Magic on the Edge - Success

Magic / Illusion
February 28 - March 7

Dad used to say, "anything worth having comes at a price". Are you willing to pay what it takes for 'Success'?

Success is not always a direct path, not everything works out like we planned. Maybe, we think we are just not good enough. Overcoming self-doubt and fighting those destructive thoughts may be the biggest battles we experience.

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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The Baroque

Comedy
March 3 - 17

The Baroque is running free in hedge mazes and dancing in champagne fountains. Bursting with silliness, Swedish clown Oliver Nilsson ('The Latebloomers' 'Scotland!' & 'The Bakers') will charm and titillate in this rollercoaster of stupidity, slapstick and the sublime. Curtains draw! Lights up! BEHOLD! This is The Baroque!

Directed by Britt Plummer ('Chameleon' by FRANK. Theatre).

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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The Smithergreens—Trajectory to greatness

Comedy
March 3 - 17

Johnnie and Janine Smithergreen (Stuart Day & Dianne Reid) are a middle-aged brother-sister singing act (not so) fresh from the sixties and seventies. They revisit a selection of groovy girl-boy duets that outdo the Osmonds, crush the Carpenters and reconcile Sonny and Cher. Delivered with their own unique mix of wholesome positivity and ageing hippy sarcasm, they will blow your idea of political correctness to Smithergreens!

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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A Slight Exaggeration

Theatre
March 4 - 19

She's been in the same room for a while now, and things are starting to get weird. Out of a smokescreen of dirty laundry and shaggy dogs, a mysterious voice challenges her to cut the bull. But can she work out how?

Does unravelling the truth mean unravelling herself in the process?
If the foundation of sanity is knowing fact from fiction, was it the outside world or her own brain that first started feeling a bit shaky?
When the hell is the sun going to come up?

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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Confessions of a Fake Fake-Psychic

Magic / Mentalism
March 9 - 21

A mind-bending and jaw-dropping journey through the human psyche. The demonstrations within 'Confessions' will look like genuine psychic ability. But they are not. And Tom is honest about that. The show will provide a glimpse into how it works and why so many people want to believe it's real.

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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Same Penis Forever

Cabaret
March 9 - 21

Join Rebel Lyons in her Adelaide Fringe debut as she muses on Matrimony, Monogamy and Masturbation. A Hen's Night party for those who aren't sure if they're ready to commit to an eternity of mediocre sex. This hysterical ride will leave you questioning the romanticism of romance and the absurdity of bridal culture in the present day.

Book tickets via FringeTIX

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See You Later Mum

Theatre / Music
March 18 - 20

A poignant yet funny play with original songs. The story spans 3 generations of women and begins in Northern England in 1965. Jennifer follows her sisters to Australia leaving her mother Dotty with an empty nest. Weaving in and out of time, Jennifer says the last goodbye to her own daughter many years later.

Christine Firkin wrote the book from snippets of family history. Her single woman show premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017. Audiences loved it for its strong writing and nuanced performances.

Book tickets via FringeTIX

Exhibition: Hussain Alismail, 'In search of a good laugh'

Photo: Courtesy of Hussain Alismail

November 8 - December 17, 2021

Opening event: November 26, 6-8pm

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

Cost: Free

• Accessibility

  Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St. The Mill has concrete flooring throughout and a disability toilet. View more in-depth information on our accessibility page.

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Join us for the launch of Hussain’s exhibition In search of a good laugh, the outcome of work produced during his sponsored studio residency at The Mill. In Search of a good laugh opens alongside The Many Faces of Frances on Friday, November 26. Hussain will also present an artist talk in conversation with The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas in November.

• Artist Statement

  As much as identity defines who we are, our culture and morals; it is always a challenge to prevent misconception, misrepresentation and misjudgment. This challenge and other issues like belonging, individualism, autonomy, gender tension make no identity idle. Through In search of a good laugh I explore the possibilities of identity within a Saudi/Middle Eastern and Australian context.

  Over the past few years, I have been working with the significant visual elements that represent Arab people, creating an abstract visual catalogue of identity. The artworks suggest the colourful shapes and patterns that speak truly about Arabic diversity and culture.

  The title of the exhibition is inspired by an interview I recently watched where visitors to an art exhibition were asked: ‘What you are looking for in this exhibition?’ One visitor answered ‘I don’t know! Maybe a good laugh!’ This answer struck me, and took me back to ten years ago when I worked as a cartoonist at KFUPM newspaper (a university publication in Saudi Arabia), where my art work attempted to generate laughter about the hardest issues faced by students. Since then, my work has shifted to become more abstracted and conceptual, however, I believe laughter is a worthwhile pursuit. This exhibition may not be overtly comedic, but I would like to invite audiences to consider the work through a lens where it can be both serious, conceptual and parodical.

• About the artist

  In constant flirting with meaning and medium; Saudi visual artist Hussain Alismail focuses on the pleated part of Saudi society in his work. Coming from the marginal community of Shia in the Eastern providence, he was constrained to examining a rich perspective of social interactions and discourses. Alismail draws inspiration from direct/indirect communications, experiences and history to tell stories about our culture.

  He holds BFA in drawing & painting from OCAD U with an emphasis on illustration and social science. He is currently in the final year of visual effects and entertainment design studies (VEED) at Flinders University. Alismail exhibits both nationally and internationally, most recently presenting work in his third solo show Frilly at Argo on the parade in Adelaide. In 2020, he was one of the recipients of Maan grant from Athr gallery and one of the participants of the inaugural Albalad residency by Saudi Arabia Ministry of Culture. He was awarded in many competitions including Alkassbi International Award II (2015) and MCY by Edge of Arabia (2011).

Photo: Courtesy of Hussain Alismail

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