Dance Launchpad 2022

Photo: Chris Herzfeld.

Dance Launchpad 2022

When: Friday, May 20, 7pm; Saturday, May 21, 3pm and 7pm

Duration: 45 minutes

Where: The Odeon Theatre, 57a Queen St, Norwood

Cost: $18 (+ booking fee)

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Presented by The Mill, supported by Venue Partner ADT, Dance Launchpad is a professional development program designed to support emerging dancers to build experience in the professional industry.

The program nurtures the ecology of dance in SA by commissioning established SA choreographers to make new work, and share their industry knowledge with emerging SA dance artists.

Dance Launchpad 2022 is a contemporary dance double bill by choreographers Amanda Phillips and Tobiah Booth-Remmers performed by four emerging dancers Jess Minas, Isobel Stolinski, Amelia Walmsley and Amelia Watson, presented at ADT’s Odeon Theatre in May 2022.

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Work 1:

Loom is a new dance work about the forces that drive us, directed by Amanda Phillips.

Loom is layered with both the impact of an irrepressible pull and desire, and the dread and knowing that follows or predicts our destination. On this pathway, it’s the shadows we can’t shake or the belief systems that are ingrained, or the disease/s we face or live with – that are ever present. We all have something looming or deep set inside us, which is part of us. The work aims to explore this terrain - the interplay of paying attention to the things that define us, or control us, or conversely to release and find a freedom in being: carried by these forces. How are we controlled? Is it a choice? Does what is looming, define us?

Loom is about what walks with us, follows us, hangs over us and what we carry within.

Composer: Alexander Waite Mitchell

• About the choreographer

  Amanda Phillips s a multi award-winning Australian Director, Choreographer, Digital Media Artist, Filmmaker, Educator and Creative Producer across stage, screen and events. Her “mastermind” ground-breaking work is hailed as “the new deal arts-wise at its mesmerising best”. Amanda holds a Masters of Dance (Laban Centre, London) and has worked prolifically in the UK, Europe and Asia. She is a Churchill Fellow and Centennial Medallist, and has received numerous accolades across her body of work including a Ruby Award for Innovation. In the past decade, she has created over 30 projects across dance, theatre, film, installation, public art and performance art.

  Amanda works in partnership with composer, music producer and media artist Alexander Waite Mitchell in researching and realising hybrid projects through the application of 3D-stereo, immersive cinema, sensors, real-time systems and emergent technologies. Since 2003, their creations include: MASS – Moving Audience Street Sculpture, Future Memory, 3xperimentia: Live Cut in 3D, Otanical and conceiving X for Dance Hub SA.

  Amanda is the Artistic Director of Dance Hub SA – Adelaide’s home of independent dance.

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Work 2:

Semblance will revolve around ideas of seething, subtlety and singularity, directed by Tobiah Booth-Remmers. These will be the starting points that the dancers will jump off from, diving into movement research that seeks strong imagery and poignant moments within these ideas.

In general, Tobiah is interested in work that explores humanity and relationships to each other and ourselves. He likes to use a combination of movement, imagery and moments to create a world or atmosphere that an audience can fall into and inhabit for a time. Semblance will continue this line of research and creativity.

Videographer: Peter Drew

Lighting designer: Aaron Herczeg

• About the choreographer

  Tobiah Booth-Remmers is a freelance dance creator, performer, teacher and facilitator from Adelaide, Australia. He has worked with Garry Stewart, Graeme Murphy, Branch Nebula, Brink Productions, Larissa McGowan, Lina Limosani, Gabrielle Nankivell and Paulo Castro among many others. Tobiah has performed in major arts festivals including the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Brisbane Festival, WOMAD, Dance Massive, Dublin Dance Festival and has performed at the Barbican Centre in London.

  As a dance maker Tobiah has choreographed numerous commissioned and self-produced works, including large immersive, site specific and more traditional format performances. Tobiah has lectured and taught dance to students at Adelaide College of the Arts, LINK, WAAPA, QUT, Transit Dance and at SDC Pre-Professional Year. Tobiah also regularly works overseas and has received residencies and made work in Bulgaria, Brussels, Sweden and Greece. He has taught workshops on his own creative and movement practice in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, France, Israel and Mexico.

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About the artists:

• Isobel Stolinski

  Isobel is an emerging freelance contemporary dance artist from Adelaide, South Australia. Since completing her formal training at Adelaide College of the Arts (2020), Bachelor of Creative Arts (dance), Isobel has embarked on her professional development journey, transitioning into the industry. In recent years, Isobel has collaborated with a wide-ranging mix of Australian and International artists.

  Whilst in training, she has most notably worked with Gabrielle Nankivell, Peter Sheedy, Paulo Castro, Niv Marinberg (Israel), Joanne Stone, Carlie Angel and many others. Isobel has performed in arts festivals such as WOMadelaide (aus, 2019), The Adelaide Fringe (2020) and Paul Gazzola’s ‘SUE Festival’ (Series of Unexpected Events, 2019). Isobel has also gained industry experience whilst on secondment with Dancenorth (2020), Chunkymove (2021) and Australian Dance Theatre (2020).

  As a maker, she has self-directed short performance works, both live and on screen. Isobel now spends her time exploring new information and opportunities across Australia, looking to inform her growing practice as an emerging artist

• Amelia Watson

  Amelia Watson is a contemporary dance artist based on Kaurna Land in Adelaide, Australia. Since graduating from Adelaide College of Arts in 2020 they have worked across various performance disciplines including contemporary dance, puppetry, theatre and dance theatre. Amelia has worked as a collaborator and dancer with artists and groups such as Windmill Theatre Company and HVK Productions on Bluey’s Big Play, Windmill Pictures on Beep and Mort, Daniel Jaber and Lina Limosani for Projekt Moxie’s Declivity, Lina Limosani for Dekolta Vs Auzinger, Motus Collective for Open House, Carclew as an assistant teacher for Stage Sparks and with DanceHub for the November iteration of X. Amelia has worked on short projects with local Adelaide artists Alison Currie, Tanya Voges, Carlie Angel and Jen Lush.

  Amelia is a passionate emerging artist and strives to lead a practice that is inclusive, curious, collaborative and vulnerable.

• Jess Minas

  Jess Minas is an upcoming Adelaide based artist working in dance, theatre, puppetry, and film. Whilst studying Jess worked with Niv Marinberg, Jo Stone and Paulo Castro, Peter Sheedy, Kialea-Nadine Williams, Rosemary Myers, Lewis Major and Tobiah Booth-Remmers. In 2019 she was photographed by Chris Herzfeld in a dance-based photoshoot directed by Erin Fowler, as well as a promotional photoshoot led by Australian Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director, Garry Stewart. Jess danced in Anifex’s award winning stop motion animation titled The Better Angels (2019). Since graduating Jess began working as a puppeteer for Windmill Theatre Company and HVK Productions on their 10-month national tour of Blueys Big Play, directed by Rosemary Myers. Jess recently worked as Movement Director on Lachlan Barnett’s ActNow Theatre MakeSpace Residency (2021) whilst also puppeteering on Windmill Pictures production of Beep and Mort, supported by the ABC. Most recently Jess worked as a dancer/ collaborator on Projekt Moxie, directed by Lina Limosani and Daniel Jaber. 

  Jess has created works for live performance and digital medium, Salute (2020) as part of Rip Drag and Ruminate in the Adelaide Fringe Festival, winning Best Dance Show at the weekly Adelaide Fringe Awards (2020), as well as creating two movement-based short films Etiquette and Snail Mail, in collaboration with Australian Dance Theatre and MusicSA. 

• Amelia Walmsley

  Amelia is an independent dancer and artist based in Adelaide. She holds a Bachelor degree (2018) in contemporary dance, and has spent time freelancing in performing, teaching and visual arts contexts. Over the last few years Amelia has worked and performed both overseas and around most of Australia, in dance shows, circus shows, and cross disciplinary works, working with both other local independent choreographers and groups, and wider scale companies. She has collaborated closely with groups such as Lewis Major Projects, Motus Collective and MAD|DAN Productions; and with solo choreographers: Jessie McKinley, Tobiah Booth-Remmers, and Sophie Theodoros. Amelia has choreographed and performed in many of Adelaide’s festivals and parades: Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, OzAsia Festival, the Fringe Parade and Moon Lantern Parade. Although predominantly trained classical ballet and contemporary dance, Amelia is well versed in the disciplines of yoga (Ashtanga), circus acrobatics, improvisation, jazz, pilates, progessing ballet technique (PBT), and tumbling, and has dabbled in other areas of dance and physical movement such as circus, aerial arts, pole dancing, Javanese dance, Kandyan dance and fencing.

Photo: Chris Herzfeld.

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This project has support from

Breakout Residencies 2022: Announcing the successful recipients

Brink Residency: Samuel Lau

Photo: Jamie Hornsby.

Walk of the Ancestors is a project that explores how Eastern philosophy and values, such as filial piety and ancestor veneration have manifested and directed my life as a second-generation Chinese-Australian. 

I was driven to explore this as much of my journey as an emerging artist has been navigating and reconciling my place as an artist of colour, specifically, as an Asian-Australian. I have spent much of 2021 investigating what it means juggling a hyphenated identity in present day Australia with my group of collaborators - Cyrus Kung, Dan Phan, Steph Teh, Alice Yang and Jazmine Deng.

Family and filial piety have become a central theme for us in our investigations. However, though I feel I have somewhat reconciled a place in the present with my immediate family, I have had little opportunity to do so with extended and older generations of my family. This is in part due to all my extended family living overseas and also I have come to an age where all my Grandparents have passed. For me personally, filial piety has such power over me that - although never explicit - there is a great yearning in me to explore, reconcile and, perhaps in some respect, 'redeem' a relationship with my grandparents/ancestors that I never had. This is also fuelled by the fact that my Grandmother on my Father's side had ran out on my Dad's family when he was 2 years old. There are only inklings of what she had done, what kind of life she had before she returned to my Dad again on her deathbed in 2010. Perhaps in investigating this, I can both reconcile in myself my family's generational story and also my Grandmother's lost life. Because of the scarce nature and sources of my Grandmother's life after she ran away, I envision a blending of fiction and non-fictional storytelling of her life. This in part for storytelling purposes but also for me, its a way to honour her life; though it may be fictional, it is how I can remember her by.

About the artist:

Sam Lau is an Adelaide-based Actor and Musician. With cultural roots in Hong-Kong, Sam is a second-generation Chinese-Australian. A 2019 graduate of the Adelaide College of Arts Acting Program, he has since worked in a variety of mediums such as ABC’s TV series Aftertaste, Anifex studio’s animation film The Better Angels and Too Dumb Blonde’s productions of Does it Please You? which was the recipient of the 2021 Holden Street Theatre Award. 

Sam is a frequent collaborator with ActNow Theatre, and has also worked with companies and organisations such as OzAsia (SA), London Artists Projects (UK), CARCLEW (SA), Perform!Education (VIC), Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (NSW), and Echelon Productions (VIC). 

Sam is also an accomplished musician, classically trained in piano and trombone. Combining his musicianship with the theatre, he often acts and performs music in productions such as playing trombone in the musical Darlinghurst Nights directed by Michael Hill, piano in ROAD directed by Chris Drummond and has composed & performed original music in Daily Rice’s production of Between Our Stories.

Sam often explores themes of diaspora in his writing and works, such as through his 2021 MakeSpace Artist Residency where he dove into the cultural identity of being in-between cultures; investigating his lifelong navigation of liminal spaces both culturally and spiritually.

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Spotlight / Brand X Residency: Olenka Toroshenko

Photo: Lauren Connelly.

Most of us are transplants. Uprooted from one country and resettled, making home in another's. Do you remember where you came from? What happens when culture, language and ancestry are left behind? A lot of lumber, but few roots. What now?

Seed. Water. Root. Grow. Harvest. Eat. Die. Decompose. Repeat.

Told from the perspective of a Ukrainian Canadian living in Australia, this ritual performance - i am root - wonders into how one might question, create and nourish culture in a globalised, colonised world. Olenka enlists her mother tongue (Ukrainian) and the mediums of song, dance, clown, folk traditions and recipes, story, poetry and prayer to enliven the depths of the unspoken, mysterious places where spirit lives...if we're willing to cultivate it.

About the artist:

Olenka Toroshenko is a Ukrainian Canadian artist, writer and producer whose life is in service to a saner, meaningful existence. She is a multidisciplinary performer whose mediums include spoken word poetry, dance, clowning, song, storytelling and ritual performance art. 

She is a Katonah yoga teacher, student of The Orphan Wisdom School and lover of coniferous forests. She has worked in news broadcasting and politics which helped shape her understanding of the current cultural paradigm. She was the co-producer of “wild”, “Shakti Showcase” and “Shakti Rising” multi-artist/disciplinary productions and has toured 4 different continents as a singer, poet and dancer.

She enjoys producing video projects, Burning Man theme camps, and multidisciplinary shows. She is inspired by collaborating with other artists.

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Free-range Residency: Daniel Jaber

Photo: Sam Roberts.

Set in a small, decadent, ornate, unobtainable world of excessive wealth and gluttony. Inside the master suite of a penthouse over looking some fabulously lit metropolis of dreams and histories. An Egyptian-sheet smeared bed, which lay under a large French window of this surreal space creates a playground for Putrid Piggy to take place. Part penthouse apartment, part S&M play room, part bunker, the space evokes a voyeuristic insight into an elegant and sophisticated world of sordid desires. The windows become an evolving display of video and photography that dismantles the fourth wall and the audience transitions from shy onlooker to viscerally responsive participant.

About the artist:

Daniel Jaber was born in Nairne, in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. He is of Lebanese and Maori cultural heritage. Daniel’s dance training began in Adelaide with Christine Underdown (Dancecraft Studios) and Barbara Komazec (Barbie Jayne Dance Centre). He further pursued his training through the Queensland University of Technology, Queensland Ballet Company Professional Year and the Adelaide College of the Arts before joining Australian Dance Theatre as a trainee dancer, under the direction of Garry Stewart, at the age of 17. 

As a company member of ADT (2004-2021), Jaber has toured the world extensively and participated in the creation of new works as well as touring repertoire. 

Jaber has created work for ADT, Expressions Dance Company (now Australasian Dance Collective), Houston Ballet 2, Qantas Australian Tourism Awards, Dance Moms, Dubai Festival, Architanz Tokyo and was the Creative Director of LW Dance Hub (now Dance Hub SA) in 2015. He has choreographed new works on many tertiary institutions, universities and colleges throughout Australasia and the US, including QUT, Adelaide College of the Arts, California State University (LA & Fullerton), Transit Dance and the New Zealand School of Dance.

Exhibition: Tarsha Cameron and Tailor Oriana-Julie Winston, One

Photo: Alice Healy.

May 2 - July 1, 2022

Opening hours: Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm

Finissage & performance: Friday July 1, 5:30pm

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

Cost: Free, limited tickets

• 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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Continuing our focus on Visual Arts collaborations in 2022, The Mill is excited to present One, a new exhibition by emerging multidisciplinary artists Tarsha Cameron and Tailor Oriana-Julie Winston. With an interest in developing relational connections and shared stories, Tarsha and Tailor will be developing a unique, evolving installation in the gallery. During the first ‘soft opening’ week audiences are invited to visit and witness the work in progress, share their responses and also contribute. With sculptural, installation, sound, photography, video, painting and textiles, One is an exploration of collaboration and connectivity.

• Artist Statement

  The threads of connection

  Stay

  Forever present

  In our genes

  Across space and time

  And

  In our bodies; flesh and ethereal 

  Life is an entangled whole

  Connectivity surrounds us. It is more than just between you and I, but also between the moon and the stars, the trees and the sea; all living beings living in symbiosis with one another. Close your eyes and notice for a moment. Breathe. Feel it in the air. Feel it in you.

  One attempts to creatively explore and materialise the more complex and subtle forms of collaboration that occur in everyday life, yet remain hidden to our visual and auditory perception. We are in constant developmental flux with ourselves, nature, our immediate and distant surroundings; reciprocally invoking the law of cause-and-effect that expands across time, space and place.

  The process leads us into a philosophical investigation where everything co-exists, akin to an ecosystem with many differing identities that inform, inspire, and rely on the other. It is a continuous collaborative exploration as we respond to and negotiate nature, each other,  and our close and more remote environmental, historical and ancestral storylines. 

  Situated on Kaurna Yarta, One culminates as a work that is both fluid and organic, still, yet full of life . A reflection of the interconnectedness of existence.

• About the artists

  Tailor Oriana-Julie Winston is an emerging interdisciplinary South Australian artist. Born on Kaurna Land to African/American and Italian parents, Tailor explores the experiences of the human condition from the perspective of a biracial woman. Using visual art, performance, and spoken word she seeks to use these platforms and a tool to open conversations exploring decolonisation, environmentalism, and spiritual identity. She invites the audience to journey within and openly engage with participatory elements of her works and explore interconnectedness through our stories and voices.

  Tarsha Cameron is an interdisciplinary performance art, theatre, and installation creator. Drawing, sound, video, performance, and sculpture media is used to explore the social construct, and the beauty that is within us, and in nature. Tarsha seeks to elicit empathy, understanding, compassion, and reflection to support movement towards positive personal and social change.

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This exhibition has support from

Exhibition: The Mill Showcase

Photo: Supplied.

February 15 - April 14 2022

Mads Cooke, Andrew Dearman, Evie Hassiotis and Abby Potter AKA House of Campbell

Finissage

When: Friday, April 8, 5:30pm-6:30pm

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

Cost: Free

• Accessibility

  Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility information page.

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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 Seventh edition of The Mill Showcase features work by Mads Cooke, Evie Hassiotis and Abby Potter AKA House of Campbell.

About the artists:

• House of Campbell

  House of Campbell was launched in 2019 by South Australian designer Abby Potter. Heavily influenced by the arts, Abby creates designs that celebrate and complement modern women, allowing them to make a statement and move effortlessly. Abby is committed to sustainable designs and pioneering techniques that allow all women to tell their story. With a background in bridal and costume design as well as production, Abby brings significant experience across design, craftsmanship and styling. Abby has presented locally, including Australian Fashion Week 2021, as well as internationally, most notably her first collection which debuted at New York Fashion Week in 2019.

  House of Campbell celebrates modern femininity. Featuring timeless and sustainable designs, House of Campbell blends couture and traditional tailoring techniques with ready to wear pieces to create something bold, intricate and unforgettable. With a focus on hidden details, our designs are created and draped in-house. These pieces make a statement and are made to last, making them a treasured addition to wardrobes today and into the future. House of Campbell’s Reverie collection features local Australian dyeing houses and is crafted by South Australian seamstresses. Our designs inspire, provoke and embolden. Rather than dictate who they should be, House of Campbell removes the rules and encourages women to be whoever they want to be. 

  Abby has been working at The Mill since 2020.

• Mads Cooke

  Mads Cooke is an Adelaide based Painter & Illustrator. Raised in the Adelaide Hills, Mads views the natural environment as a primary inspiration for her. Her work is composed of multiple layers of paint and lines to create a depth of foliage.

  Free forming shapes and colours create a soothing experience, reminding her of home and childhood memories. Drawing upon the environment, Mads’s work is commonly inspired by native flora, observed textures, colours & patterns. Natural and neutral colour hues play their part in the subtly of Mads’s work, where she creates a calming and dreamlike perspective of nature. Her practice is introspective work, and aspires the viewer to likewise engage in the meditative mood of these works.

  This body of work was created towards the end of last year, experimenting with both acrylics and ink pens in my observation of nature. The distinct use of flowing lines across these works are comparable to the candidly forming lines in the natural environment. The repetition of lines – reflective of the echoing patterns in nature.

  The lines sit both subtly in the background, or create soft organic shapes own their own. These lines are alike to ripples in water, age rings of trees, or the venation of plants. Individual lines representing little alone, collaboratively building a network, likewise of the natural world.

  I have recently been inspired by the detail of plants and flowers found in vintage botanical/ scientific illustrations. In my paintings I enjoy creating a similar style to these, in which the flora is depicted very flat and straight on, paying close attention on the finer details.

  Mads has been working at The Mill since 2021.

• Andrew Dearman

  Andrew Dearman’s practice has varied over the years, moving from sculpture to painting to photography and back again.

  More recently I’m working on a hybrid art/academic research method that I find meaningful as a form of making. The construction of a conference paper is both a physical and conceptual process of gathering material, of shaping and polishing it into a particular form, which is then performed in front of strangers on the other side of the planet.

  The current work involves the use of the found vernacular photograph within contemporary art. It considers such use problematic and in need of deeper theoretical consideration from positions beyond the discourse of visual art. The fields that seem to be of most use are memory studies, sociology and anthropology.

  Andrew is an Alumni Artist.

• Evie Hassiotis

  For the last three years Evie Hassiotis has produced a variety of mixed media artwork while being a resident artist at the Mill. During this time she has held a SALA exhibition called Xenitia (exile) exploring her journey from Greece in the early 1960’s. She has also been attending mainly portrait workshops at ACSA and attending life drawing sessions on a regular basis at Gallery one. She loves to run small workshops in her studio for adults and children where participants can learn the basic skills of using various materials and also tap into creative expression.

  In my practice I am excited to see how art can transform a person and a place. I love art that challenges me and asks questions about the philosophy of life.

  In these latest art works I have experimented with the circular design, which has been a tool to let go of old patterns of behaviour about pleasing others. Working fast allows me to tap into my right brain and allow free flow and spontaneity.

  Evie has been working at The Mill since 2019.

Emerging Producer Xchange: Announcing the successful 2022 recipient

We're excited to announce Louie Dempsey as the 2022 Associate of the Emerging Producer Xchange.

The Emerging Producer Xchange is a flagship mentorship program by Metro Arts with the support of The Ian Potter Foundation and Arts SA. Between January – November, Louie will support the delivery of The Mill’s annual artistic programs, supporting artists in the creation, presentation and touring of new work.

• About the producer

  Louie Dempsey is an emerging producer based in Kaurna Yarta/Adelaide. She currently works at the Starlight Children’s Foundation, entertaining and facilitating positive distractions for children in hospitals and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Community Clinics on Kaurna Land in South Australia.

  With a background of dance and performing arts, she has experience developing and presenting workshops for youth at UrbanMyth, OnStage and independently to have a safe space to explore art while also creating connections. At Starlight she has curated art workshops and displays that highlight the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, as well as working on accessibility training programs for Captain Starlights that highlight inclusive art and sensory play.

  Currently studying Global Community Health, she is interested in encouraging the growth of accessibility and diversity in multidisciplinary arts.

  Louie was The Mill’s 2020 Fringe Venue Manager. 

Photo: Daniel Marks.

Exhibition: Adrianne Semmens & Jennifer Eadie, Unravel

Photo: Supplied by the artists.

February 15 - April 14, 2022

Opening hours: Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm

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

Cost: Free

Livestream Performance

When: Tuesday, April 12, 6pm online via The Mill's Youtube channel

Cost: Free, bookings essential

• 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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The Mill welcomes South Australian based artist and writer Jennifer Eadie and dance practitioner, Adrianne Semmens to present their collaborative project Unravel. Bringing together their distinct practices, Jennifer and Adrianne have developed a sensitive and reciprocal working relationship. The work is multidisciplinary and lends itself to re-configuration and re-generation, with this instance unfolding within the context of The Mill’s Exhibition Space. Poetry, movement, fabric and plant materials stand in relation to each other, exploring what it is to see, feel and consider self and place.

• Artist Statement

  If place is understood as something lived/ how do we speak of

  it/ without causing a fracture?

  There is vulnerability when we

  say: I too am part of that place/

  too many colours/ it is not

  something that can be held/ always unravelling.

  The body of work in this exhibition explores relationship to place.  Embedded in the work is our acknowledgment of Country, always aware that our practice and processes are created on and with Kaurna Yarta.  

   What if authentic relationship to place is an act of opening that fractures a stable sense of identity? What tensions that arise when we, with mixed heritage, attempt to articulate a sense of connection or belonging to land that is not our ancestral country.   

  Any attempt to enact this connection or belonging demands an acceptance that we will be constantly giving, losing, reorientating ourselves in order to negotiate - make meaningful, make respectful - this relationship with country that is not ours. 

  UNRAVEL responds to these questions indirectly, as a means of acknowledging the difficulty and complexity of not being able to articulate a resolute response to the themes, despite being so important to us.

  The exhibition is grounded by natural elements and textiles as a gesture, hands outwards, continuing lineage to country. 

• About the artists

  Unravel is a collaboration between South Australian based artist and writer Jennifer Eadie and dance practitioner, Adrianne Semmens. Jennifer and Adrianne were recently awarded a Delving into Dance/Critical Path Commission (2020), and undertook a collaborative Breakout Residency at The Mill (2020/21).

  Jennifer Eadie is a writer, academic and artist living on Kaurna Yarta in South Australia. She grew up on Taribelang Bunda Country and has European-mongrel heritage. Her creative practice is interdisciplinary and place-based. Her collaborative work with Adrianne Semmens explores the relationship between identity and place. Her individual practice is motivated by the capacity of post-invasion Australia to censor the multiple histories, agencies and stories that are embedded in place. Via text,  installation and performance, her work aims to respond to and undermine this censorship. Jennifer's work has been shared with TEXT Journal, CORDITE, criticalpath, Educational Philosophy and Theory, The Mill and Kudos Gallery: jennifereadie.cargo.site | @vito_the_saint_of_lost_dogs

  Adrianne Semmens is a dance practitioner and descendant of the Barkindji People of NSW. Explorations of identity and place continue to be recurring themes within her practice, evident within her own work and ongoing collaboration with Jennifer Eadie. Choreographic highlights include Immerse, commissioned by Australian Dance Theatre whilst Adrianne was the company’s 2021 Associate Artist, and Thread (2020). Adrianne works closely with Tjarutja Dance Theatre Collective led by Gina Rings and has enjoyed performing in Inma, Our Corka Bubs and the 2021 Tarnanthi Festival opening event. Adrianne continues to be engaged in many education and community projects, such as co-founding the First Nations Choreographic Lab in 2021 and previous role with The Australian Ballet as a Dance Presenter for their Education Ensemble:  adriannesemmens.com | @adrianne.l.semmens

Photo: Daniel Marks.

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This exhibition has support from

Virtual Gallery: CHARTS Community Housing Arts Awards South Australia

In January 2022, The Mill was thrilled to open our 2022 Visual Arts program with the CHARTS Awards exhibition, a celebration of the inaugural Community Housing Arts Awards, South Australia. Created to celebrate and showcase the creative diversity, and depth of talent within tenants of community and social housing, the exhibition features painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and writing.

Hover over installation images below to find out more about the artworks, and watch the recording of the livestreamed opening event, with commentary from Access2Place housing officer Luke Wilcox and Art Gallery of South Australia’s Contemporary Art Curator Leigh Robb.

(Images below: Sam Roberts)

Image: Elaine Roberts, Elvis in the arty.

CHARTS is a joint project between seven different Community Housing Providers. It was established in 2020 to celebrate and showcase the art being made by tenants of community and social housing. CHARTS aims to provide opportunities for artists living in community housing to exhibit their work, build their skills and establish networks. It seeks to encourage them to keep making and to legitimise their practice, or be the point from which they launch their own art career. The works in this exhibition are all the finalists, as chosen by our independent panel of practicing artists who judged the CHARTS awards for us.

Adelaide Fringe: The Breakout 2022 program

The Breakout is a versatile black box theatre. Expect everything from theatre to circus, comedy, live music & more. This year, we will be playing host to shows from across Australia. Take a look through our program list below or browse our shows via Adelaide Fringe

Proof of vaccination is required to enter The Mill until March 21, 2022. Read our Covid-19 policy.

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

The Breakout at The Mill

Adelaide Fringe Online Workshop: Telling your own story through clowning with Hew Parham

Photo: Trantino Priori

Details

When: Wednesday, March 16, 2022, 10am-12pm 

Where: Live streamed on Zoom for you to participate in from your home

Cost: $15 (+ booking fees)

Any cancellations due to Covid-19, tickets will be refunded

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About the workshop:

This workshop will explore the medium of clowning and autobiographical theatre, how to use ideas inspired by your life but use the clown, metaphors and games in order to present these events in a playful and safe way. The workshop will explore the foundations of clown with exercises and play, the participants will be lead through intuitive and stream of consciousness writing exercises to find moments from their lives, we will then workshop playful and inventive ways we could present these events.

Experience level:

Any creative artists, especially focusing on those interested in clowning, theatre, but dance and other approaches very welcome.

• About the workshop facilitator

  Hew Parham is a graduate of Flinders University Drama Centre. In 2007 Hew was the recipient of the Neil Curnow Award where he trained at The Hunter Gates Academy of physical theatre in Edmonton Canada and in the Pochinko Clowning Method at The Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance (MCCP) in Ontario, Canada. Hew has also trained with British Physical Comedy troupe Spymonkey in London, England and Italian clown Giovanni Fusetti. 

  Hew has developed several solo shows with his comedic characters such as: Giovanni which played at the New York Clown Theatre Festival, The Wonderland Festival in Brisbane and The Adelaide Fringe Festival; Odyssey Schmodyssey which played at the Sangeunay Arts Festival, Quebec Canada; Rudi’s The Rinse Cycle which played at The Adelaide Cabaret Festival. He also performed in the Kurt Weill dedication performance The Weill File. In 2019 Hew once again performed in The Cabaret Festival with British company Flabberghast Theatre in their show The Swell Mob. He has also created the hyperactive twins The Riddalin Brothers with Callan Fleming which performed at The Adelaide Fringe Festival. 

  Hew has travelled extensively with Melbourne based company Bunk Puppets to tour their show Sticks Stones Broken Bones to countries such as Norway, Germany and China. Other credits includes: Me and My Shadow (Patch Theatre Company); Boo (Windmill Theatre Company); Superheroes (Stone/Castro); Blister by Sarah Peters (Holden Street Theatres); and If you can learn to fake authenticity you have it made by Rebecca Meston, (Feltspace). 

  He has also directed a number of shows including Egg (Erin Fowler, Adelaide Fringe) Chameleon (Frank Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Rumpus); Moof’s Adventures (Backporch Theatre, Adelaide Fringe); Dead Gorgeous (Madness of Two, Adelaide Fringe Festival) and Light Minded (AC Arts). 

  hewparhamcom.wordpress.com 

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Hew Parham will be presenting A Not So Trivial Pursuit for The Mill's 2022 Adelaide Fringe program.

Virtual Gallery: Hussain Alismail, In search of a good laugh

In June 2021, The Mill welcomed Hussain Alismail to undertake a residency as part of our Sponsored Studio program. The outcome of this residency was a new exhibition, In search of a good laugh, presented in our Showcase gallery in November-December 2021. The Mill’s Sponsored Studio is a new initiative supported by Drs Geoff and Sorayya Martin, and an anonymous philanthropist beginning in 2021.

(Images below: Daniel Marks)

Image: Hussain Alismail, courtesy of the artist.

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.

-Hussain Alismail

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.

Image: Blend In, 2021, photographic digital prints on fine art paper, dimensions variable, image courtesy of the artist.

‘In search of a good laugh’ at The Mill’s annual Donor Circle event (Photos: Dylan Minchenberg).

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The Mill’s Sponsored Studio program is presented in cooperation with Mahmood Martin Foundation

Adelaide Festival Masterclass: Performance Making with a Personal Narrative with Emma Beech

Photo: Paul Malek.

Details

When: Thursday, March 10, 2022, 11:30am-1:30pm

Where: The Mill Breakout, 154 Angas St (enter via Gunson St), Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide)

Cost: $30 (+ booking fees)

Any cancellations due to Covid-19, tickets will be refunded

Please note participants will need to be fully vaccinated to attend. Please have your vaccination certificate ready to check in to the masterclass. you will not be permitted entry without it.

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The Mill in partnership with Adelaide Festival present a masterclass with Emma Beech (SA).

Performance Making with a Personal Narrative – a workshop that will explore the selection, performance techniques and the ethics of writing and performing with a personal narrative.  

About the masterclass:

This workshop will best suit theatre artists, performance artists, interdisciplinary artists, visual artists, writers and poets, but will be open to anyone with a developing or well honed professional artistic practice.  There will be time for questions.  Bring a story from your life, big or small, and be prepared to explore it. 

Experience level:

This masterclass is for theatre artists, performance artists, interdisciplinary artists, visual artists, writers and poets.

• About the facilitator

  Emma Beech graduated from Flinders Drama Centre in 2000 and has worked in theatre and screen establishing a practice developing theatre shows from conversations with strangers, talking about subjects from the sad to the sublime. Emma was a resident artist with immersive theatre company Carte Blanche in Denmark from 2006 to 2004, set-up by visual arts and theatre practitioner, Sara Jenson. There, Emma co-developed and performed in six of Carte Blanche’s new works.

  Emma has worked with The Last Tuesday Society, Real TV, Patch, Monkey Baa, Playwriting Australia, Arts House, Open Space Contemporary Arts, State Theatre Company South Australia, The Rabble, and has an on-going relationship with Vitalstatistix who developed and produced Saskia Falls. She has participated in several Adhocracy festivals, and her 2016 work with the company, Life is Short and Long, an investigation into the GFC in Barcelona, Spain & Wirrabara, South Australia, was a significant production for Vitals.  In 2017, Emma was Vitalstatistix’s resident artist, and in 2018 she had a residency with State Theatre Company South Australia before performing in their 2019 season of Jasper Jones.

  Emma is a proud founding member of the Australian Bureau of Worthiness, with Tessa Leong and James Dodd, a residency model that creates theatre from interviews conducted with people on the street, asking ‘What makes your day worth it?’ The ABW has now met nine towns, the last being I Met Gumeracha in 2018. 

Exhibition: CHARTS Community Housing Arts Awards South Australia

Artwork: Annette Cassano, Self portrait, me and art.

January 11 - 28, 2022

Opening event: January 14, 6-7pm

Where: Livestream

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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The Mill is thrilled to open our 2022 Visual Arts program with the CHARTS prize exhibition, a celebration of the inaugural Community Housing Arts Awards, South Australia. Created to celebrate and showcase the creative diversity, and depth of talent within tenants of community and social housing, the exhibition features painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and writing.

The CHARTS exhibition will feature a curated selection of work by finalists, on display to the public in The Mill’s two galleries. The prize received 170 submissions across eight Community Housing Providers, with artworks from established, mid-career and emerging artists, and those who have never picked up a paintbrush, pencil or camera in their life! The CHART awards night was held at Adelaide Town Hall on 11 November 2021, with each winner receiving a cash prize of $500 made possible by the generous donation from CHARTS major sponsors Harvey Norman Commercial and Electrolux.

Artists include Lily Abbott, Alissa, Rex Stuart Anderson, Leagh Bassham, Karen Beale, Sabrina Belfiore, Naomi Blake, Maxine Cannon, Annette Cassano, Annette Chand, Susan Cocks, Belinda Cole, Craig Finnis, Annie Fox, Lloyd Jackson, Caitlin Lenartowicz, Amanda MacLeod, Robert Martin, Chevon McKenzie, Amber Jayne Mills, Rosemary Milton, Anna Mohammadkarimi, Peter Pasfield, Jhalakman Rai, Elaine Roberts, Joy Sadauskas, Yonah Singira, Drew Sinton, Frankie Starling, Coral Strempel, Zachary Studley and Leonard Yarnold.

• Curatorial Statement

  CHARTS is a joint project between seven different Community Housing Providers. It was established in 2020 to celebrate and showcase the art being made by tenants of community and social housing. CHARTS aims to provide opportunities for artists living in community housing to exhibit their work, build their skills and establish networks. It seeks to encourage them to keep making and to legitimise their practice, or be the point from which they launch their own art career. The works in this exhibition are all the finalists, as chosen by our independent panel of practicing artists who judged the CHARTS awards for us.

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This exhibition has support from

Adelaide Festival Masterclass: Choreography with Stephanie Lake

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Photo: Paul Malek

Masterclass

When: Friday, March 18, 2022, 2pm-3.30pm (venue will be open for warm up 15 minutes early, please arrive for time to sign in)

Where: Dance Hub SA, Level 1, Lion Arts Centre, Cnr Morphett St & North Tce, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide)

Cost: $30 (+ booking fees)

Please note participants will need to be fully vaccinated to attend. Please have your vaccination certificate ready to check in to the masterclass. you will not be permitted entry without it.

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Choreography with Stephanie Lake - a workshop about dance creation and collaboration.

About the masterclass:

This masterclass will include a physical warm-up and a series of tasks, improvisations and choreographic stimulations that will introduce participants to the ways in which Stephanie develops her works in collaboration with dancers. The masterclass will include learning a short excerpt from Manifesto, creation, observation, games and sharing.

Experience level:

Professional level dancers, choreographers, performers and advanced level high school dance students.

• About the masterclass leader

  Stephanie Lake Company is a multi-award winning contemporary dance company based in Melbourne. Known for a gutsy, original choreographic style and striking visual aesthetic, Stephanie Lake Company’s recent works include Colossus, Skeleton Tree, Replica and Pile of Bones.

  Working in collaboration with Australia’s leading dancers and designers, the company has been presented in major festivals and venues around Australia and has toured internationally to France, Germany, Hong Kong, Denmark, Singapore and the UK. Stephanie Lake has won two Australian Dance Awards for Most Outstanding Choreography (Pile of Bones and AORTA), the Helpmann Award for Outstanding Choreography (A Small Prometheus) and the Green Room Award for Best Choreography (Mix Tape). She is a recipient of the Australia Council Fellowship for Dance and a past recipient of the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship and the Peggy Van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship.

  The company collaborates across theatre, film, music video, opera and visual art and has created several large-scale projects for over fifteen hundred participants. 

Photo: Paul Malek

Virtual Gallery: City Mobilities 2021

City Mobilities was a three-day intensive that explored ideas about the way we access and move in public spaces, supported by City of Adelaide. This was a follow-up workshop, building on the first workshops in 2020 and 2021.

Over the three days, participants worked with lead artists Tom Borgas (The Mill resident artist) and Paul Gazzola (OSCA Artistic Director) to explore how they could rethink and reconfigure the city’s infrastructure into other forms and functionalities.

This was an opportunity for participants to expand and develop their initial ideas into something more developed and considered, explore new ideas and further establish collaborative connections with like-minded peers and colleagues.

“This was an excellent workshop. I found the process that we were guided through led to everyone presenting interesting ideas a activities. This has definitely informed how I will approach generating ideas in my own arts practice going forward.”

Photos: Morgan Sette

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This program has support from

Writer in Residence 2022: Renee Miller

The Mill is thrilled to announce Renee Miller as the recipient of the City Mag 2022 Writer in Residence January-June residency.

The Writer in Residence program, in partnership with CityMag, supports emerging writers from a variety of disciplines. The program creates a broader audience for writing through leadership, mentorship and publication.

• About the writer

  Renee Miller is an emerging queer writer and a lifelong resident of Adelaide. Her focus is on creative writing, but she is passionate about all forms of art and writing. 

  To grow her writing practice, she studied a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Creative Writing, sub-majoring in Cultural Studies at UniSA.

  She went on to complete her honours, combining the knowledge from both of her fields of prior study. She has contributed Writing from Below and UniSA’s Piping Shrike collection.

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Read the articles

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The Writer in Residence program is presented in partnership with CityMag

MMF Sponsored Studio 2022: Viray Thach

The Mill is thrilled to announce Viray Thach as the recipient of the Sponsored Studio for the January-June 2022 residency. The Mill’s Sponsored Studio is a new initiative supported by the Mahmood Martin Foundation. In 2022 two selected artists will join our community, with each receiving 6-months of studio space and an exhibition outcome as part of The Mill Showcase.

• About the artist

  Viray Thach is an emerging digital illustrator and educator. Her style, inspired by pop art, art deco and art nouveau, also sees deep-rooted influences from traditional Kbach ornamental designs that pay homage to her Cambodian roots. Viray’s iPad is the digital sketchbook where all the magic happens. Here, she marries the old and the new, using cybernation to recreate time-honoured textures and techniques into tactile designs that evoke a warm, homely compassion.

  Formally educated in graphic design, business management and education, Viray is not only dedicated to her role as an illustrator, but as an educator and mentor, cultivating young minds and passing her multi-creative knowledge on to creative visionaries of the next generation. She remains business-minded and efficient while still delivering work full of the heart and soul.

  At the root of it, Viray uses her art to tell a story – whether that is through character-rich portraits, lively illustrations, or bringing her mind’s eye to life through magnificent murals.

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Outcomes

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The Mill’s Sponsored Studio program is presented in cooperation with Mahmood Martin Foundation

Writer in Residence 2022: Piri Eddy

The Mill is thrilled to announce Piri Eddy as the recipient of the City Mag 2022 Writer in Residence July-December residency.

The Writer in Residence program, in partnership with CityMag, supports emerging writers from a variety of disciplines. The program creates a broader audience for writing through leadership, mentorship and publication.

A grant from Arts SA supports Piri’s engagement with The Mill.

• About the writer

  Piri Eddy is an award-winning playwright, writer, screenwriter, and producer living and working on Kaurna country.

  His work has been produced for Radio National and published in such places as Westerly Magazine, Island, and Australian Book Review. Piri won the 2020 Jill Blewett Playwrights Award for his one-act play Forgiveness, which premiered at RUMPUS in 2021. 

  Find out more: pirithewriter.com

  Twitter: @piri_eddy

Photographer: Johanis Lyons-Reid

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Read the articles

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The Writer in Residence program is presented in partnership with CityMag

Breakout Showing: FLESHSOUP, 'TERRAIN_001'

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Photographer: Alexander Waite Mitchell

Public showing

When: Friday, December 3, 3:45pm for a 4pm start

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

Cost: Free

Duration: 1 hour

Accessibility: Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, there is a ramp into The Breakout and no internal steps. There is also a disability toilet. View our accessibility information page.

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This new immersive experience looks into transhumanism and post-human sociology, the work dives into a world where we explore how to create performance art in a sci-fi landscape.

For us, this is an exploration into creating an atmospheric world for the audience to be transported into. The conceptual ideologies are merely a vessel for us to explore new methodologies of creating when looking at pushing the boundaries of what ‘dance’ can be.

The full-length work will be presented in Queens Theatre in June 2022, this showing at The Mill will be a sketch, a draft and an exploration into what is possible when creating a cerebral experience through movement and atmosphere. 


Thanks to City of Adelaide Quick Response Grant Funding for supporting this residency.

About the artist:

Directing this production is FLESHSOUP, composed of Andrew Barnes and Lily May Potger. We created FLESHSOUP in early 2021 to initiate a community platform for young freelancers in Adelaide to create, share and seek alternative avenues of performing, beyond traditional funding routes. Culminating our experience from training and working in the mainstream and underground dance scenes of London and the freelance industries of both Perth and Adelaide, we have refined our practice and executions as a team. These experiences have brought us to push for more and bring Adelaide an aspect of the wider arts community that is embedded in excellence, youth, experimentalism, and community.

Open Studio Day

Wednesday, December 1, details to come

EOI’s to attend: info@themilladelaide.com

Workshop: City Mobilities

City Mobilities is an intensive temporary public art workshop exploring ideas about the way we access, move, and engage in public spaces. City Mobilities is an ongoing initiative between The Mill and OSCA, supported by the City of Adelaide Strategic Partnership program.

In December 2021, lead artists Paul Gazzola and Tom Borgas will facilitate a follow-up City Mobilities workshop, building on the first workshops in 2020 and 2021. It will be an opportunity for participants to expand and develop their initial ideas into something more developed and considered, explore new ones, and further establish collaborative connections with liked-minded peers and colleagues. 

It will take the format of a 3-day workshop at The Mill’s Breakout plus a public showing of outcomes in and around The Mill vicinity. The public showing is an opportunity to gather some broader feedback but also to see how we may develop a range of works for a future event. 

Key dates:

When: December 6 to 9, 2021, 10am - 4pm daily

Public Showing: December 9, 11am to 3pm, If you would like to register your interest for the public showing please email Marketing & Communications Manager Chloe Metcalfe

Where: The Mill Breakout, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide)

Breakout Residencies: Paper Mouth Theatre showing, 'YOU’RE ALL INVITED TO MY SON SAMUEL’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY PARTY'

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Showing and Q&A

When: Friday, November 19, 3.45pm sharp for a 4pm start

Where: The Mill, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (enter via The Exhibition Space)

Cost: Free

Duration: 1 hour

• Accessibility

  Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, there is a ramp into The Breakout and no internal steps. There is also a disability toilet. View our accessibility information page.

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The Mill’s Centre Stage Residency will progress a new work presented by Paper Mouth Theatre to its next stage of development, including a work-in-progress public showing and culminating in a season at The Mill as part of Adelaide Fringe 2022.

Anchored within the suburban sphere of an outer-space-themed-fourth-birthday-party, this work transcends a cycle of time, spanning the Big Bang to the end of an entropying universe.

Narrated by Samuel’s Mother and Father, this work positions the audience as the unseen (but ever-present) birthday boy, SAMUEL.

Amidst melting ice cream cakes, decimated piñatas, a dying planet, and a rocket ship to Mars, SAMUEL is forced to reckon with the ever-present question: “who do I hold accountable?”

This program is presented with support from Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund.

Due to venue capacity restrictions, we ask you only book a ticket if you are able to attend. All attendees must be aware of our hygiene policy before attending our venue.

• About the artist

  Caitlin Ellen Moore (she/they) will be creatively producing YOU’RE ALL INVITED TO MY SON SAMUEL’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY PARTY alongside writer and lead performer Mary Angley (she/they), and performer, composer and projection designer Dan Thorpe (he/him).

Videography: Sunny Side Uploads

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The Mill’s Centre Stage Residency is presented with support from the Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund