Sonya Mellor, Lemniscate 1, Image: FINN MELLOR.
December 2, 2022-January 27, 2023
Finissage event: Friday, January 27, 5:30pm
Opening event: Friday, December 2, 6-8pm
Midsummer meditation: Tuesday, December 20, 6pm
Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
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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You can find Riot on an Empty Street in The Mill’s Gallery I, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery I is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.
For our final exhibition of the 2022, The Mill presents Deep Listening by artist Sonya Mellor. Through sculpture, installation, movement, sound and performance art, Sonya Mellor will be activating The Mill’s Exhibition Space, inviting audiences to experience a vibrant, dynamic, living exhibition. Sonya builds on concepts that she explored while participating in The Mill’s City Mobilities Public Art Masterclasses in 2020 and 2021, bringing ideas of public space into the gallery space.
The exhibition’s title makes reference to writing by Quanamooka artist Megan Cope, who encourages the viewer to consider the relationship between sound, vibrations, our bodies and the land, inviting “...’deep listening’, in order to align mind and body with the earth”. Sonya’s approach to the act of deep listening is concerned with attention and respect, acknowledging her role as a non-Indigenous person on stolen land. ‘Through my passions of nature and community, I would like to engage the community/public, through arts activation, into deep listening’ she states. The works are created using a diverse range of materials, and artistic practices; Using reclaimed, repurposed, discarded and found on the ground objects, the discarded parts of natural objects, poetry, sound and movement. The exhibition will also include an ephemeral floor installation consisting of natural objects found on daily walks explorations during the exhibition time, an acknowledgement of ‘deep listening’ to the land where we live, work and play.
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My practice is about finding a unique visual, sound and movement language for ‘deep listening’. I am inspired by nature and what the community/public has to offer, contribute and share. This exhibition will translate community poems into movement, language and sound works. Creating a practice of embodiment, the exhibition is about finding my own way of ‘deep listening’. It navigates my connection to the Earth and Nature, here in South Australia, from a non Indigenous persons perspective, whilst holding a deep appreciation and respect for Indigenous connection to the land, sea and sky.
Life is about movement, moving forwards, under, around and through. By utilizing the action of ‘deep listening’, we can access these movements more readily, with a sense of grace, calm, peace and a sprinkle of humour. In these times of busy, busy, rush, rush...by ’listening deeply’ and weaving gossamer threads of nature, connection and community.
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Sonya Mellor is a South Australian, multi–disciplinary Sculptural, Installation and Performance Artist. She also is known to dabble in photography, drawing and painting. Having grown up in South Australian nature, this has been a great influence throughout her arts practice.
Growing up as an only child of German immigrants, with no other family around, she has always spent time creating community wherever she goes. This has created an eclectic group of friends and acquaintances from all walks of life. And has given her confidence in creating and facilitating community workshops, as she is always keen to meet new and interesting people. To listen to their stories and adventures and create art and music with them.
Sonya started her professional life as a musician, band leader, music teacher, dancer, and artistic director of various music and dance companies, and having always wanted to study visual arts from an early age, now that her children are older, in 2019 the time had finally come! She is currently a BVA student at ACSA (Adelaide Central School of Art) A feeling of finally having found her people, as she continues to follow this thread to see where it may lead.
The Mill is supported by the Government of South Australia, through Arts South Australia.