When: Tuesday, September 14 to Thursday, September 16, 2021, from 10am–4pm
Where: The Mill Breakout, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide) (enter via Gunson Street)
Cost: $60
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility informationpage.
City Mobilities is a three-day intensive 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.
The workshop is open to artists and non-artists interested in gaining new skills and knowledge in creating site-based art projects. Participants will work with the lead artists Tom Borgas (The Mill resident artist) and Paul Gazzola (OSCA Artistic Director) to explore how we can rethink and reconfigure the city’s infrastructure into other forms and functionalities.
What Participants Can Expect:
This 3 day workshop will explore a variety of visual, design and performance making methods to highlight, question and renegotiate the importance of individual participation in public space. Participants will be invited to research various city sites and public spaces and develop a series of conceptual and physical responses in a collaborative studio-based set up.
The workshop will:
Offer participants a fertile space to share, learn, create, and exchange ideas, skills, and processes
Open-up new ways of thinking, doing, and making in a collaborative and collegial gathering
Stimulate and support the skills development of SA artists seeking new approaches to working within the public domain
Details
What to wear: Participants are requested to dress adequately and bring a hat for the sun as we will be working outside at times.
What materials to bring:
Participants need to bring a sketch pad and pencil/pen
Where: The Mill’s Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Adelaide
Cost: $150 + booking fee
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility informationpage.
About the masterclass:
Jordan Reynolds welcomes guitar enthusiasts to join him for an intimate afternoon exploring the theory and craft of guitars. Talking through his artisan practice, Jordan will give participants insight into how guitars are constructed. He will also talk about care and maintenance, and the important things to consider when customising your own guitar.
What participants can expect:
Jordan will talk participants through the anatomy of guitars, with hands on examples of guitars built here at The Mill. In the second half he will lead the group through some basic guitar maintenance and speak about customising your set up. There will be lots of opportunities to ask questions, and partake in open discussion with the group.
This masterclass is hands on, and participants will get the opportunity to touch guitar parts, see inside and gain knowledge of tools. However, this is a talk-based masterclass. If you’re interested in a deeper level of practical and process based learning, please see our other masterclass with Jordan!
No skills required, all welcome.
Tea and light refreshments provided.
Jordan is the premier maker of musical instruments in Adelaide, specialising in extended range guitars and basses, handmade to order. He not only makes instruments, but has also serviced the Adelaide guitar scene for over a decade in repair, servicing and customising. Jordan has crafted a unique style bringing modern design and traditional techniques together to make one off instruments designed to last the test of time.
Having studied as a furniture maker whilst completing the first ever Guitar Making Apprenticeship in Australia, Jordan brings a different approach to Instrument construction to other Luthiers. Focusing on instruments that not only look the part, but also sound and feel premium, and most importantly designed to withstand the harsh Australian climate and conditions of working musicians
Valuing the local artisan scene, Jordan also works with other makers and artists every year to create one off instruments combining his own style and construction with other’s aesthetics and medium.
Jordan’s guitars have toured every continent of the world, and won features in multiple makers exhibitions and festivals. He has been a guest speaker at the International Guitar Festival and runs personalised classes on guitar making, with a big belief that education and transparency can only bring more creativity and push makers of all kinds to strive for perfection and innovation.
Each year The Mill presents a series of SALA Masterclasses with prominent South Australian artists. We invite practicing artists and creatives to participate, offering the opportunity to grow their practice through learning new skills, connecting with peers and developing insight into professional artists practice.
The Mill's Masterclass program runs throughout the year as a professional development program for artists, offering workshops with established international and national touring artists in both performance and visual arts. These diverse sessions draw South Australian artists into global conversations around aesthetic, performance and creative practice.
When:Saturday, August 21, 2021, 10am-12:30pm and 1:30-4pm
Where: The Mill’s Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Adelaide
Cost: $150 + booking fee
($125 +bf until Aug 19, use the promo code GLAZED)
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility informationpage.
About the masterclass:
Join artist Ari Menendez for a ceramic workshop where you will build your own oil burner.
Work with stoneware clay and learn hand building techniques to construct a fully functional oil burner.
Ari will guide participants through the processes which will include a combination of slab building and pinching techniques to construct the oil burner.
Once constructed, Ari will share some of her favourite decorating techniques, such as carving and mark making - so that participants can make their oil burner truely unique to them.
Ari will bisque, glaze and fire all pieces to a final temperature of 1280 degrees. All burners will be ready to be collected within 3 weeks of the workshop.
No experience required - all welcome!
What participants can expect:
Participants will take home their very own hand built, glazed and fired oil burner!
Materials used:
Stoneware clay
Sculpting tools
Ari Menendez began creating with clay in 2016 after a friend gifted her a workshop experience with a well established Adelaide Artist. This day proved to be a transformative experience and clay became the deep connection to the Australian continent that German native Ari, until then, did not realise she was missing. What followed was an ongoing journey of learning and growth through ceramics, always anchored in the profound appreciation of nature and the ancient wisdom of creating with earth.
Ari’s design philosophy is anchored in functional ceramics with a minimalist restrained aesthetic. Her ceramic practice, encompasses both, hand-building and wheel-throwing techniques, often exposing parts of raw clay in her finished wares. Ari has established a small studio space in her home in the Adelaide Hills and continues to dream of it becoming a place for others to experience the healing nature of creating with clay.
Each year The Mill presents a series of SALA Masterclasses with prominent South Australian artists. We invite practicing artists and creatives to participate, offering the opportunity to grow their practice through learning new skills, connecting with peers and developing insight into professional artists practice.
The Mill's Masterclass program runs throughout the year as a professional development program for artists, offering workshops with established international and national touring artists in both performance and visual arts. These diverse sessions draw South Australian artists into global conversations around aesthetic, performance and creative practice.
Where: The Mill’s Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Adelaide
Cost: $375 + booking fee
Places limited to four participants, don’t miss out!
Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility informationpage.
About the masterclass:
Have you dabbled in guitar making, but want to know a bit more? If you know the basics and you’re looking for some in depth knowledge Jordan Reynolds welcomes you to join him for an intimate day long masterclass exploring the craft of guitars.
What participants can expect:
Taking place in his studio at The Mill, Jordan will take participants through the 8 steps of guitar making with hand-on and skills based tutorials throughout the day. Participants will learn about the materials and tools used in the guitar making process, and will have the opportunity to shape the neck of a guitar.
Participants will take home a goody bag including a specialised guitar shaping tool.
This masterclass is hands on, and involves practical and skills based making. However, it is not a masterclass in building a finished guitar. Stay tuned for guitar building courses from Jordan in 2022.
Some basic knowledge required.
Tea and light refreshments provided.
Jordan is the premier maker of musical instruments in Adelaide, specialising in extended range guitars and basses, handmade to order. He not only makes instruments, but has also serviced the Adelaide guitar scene for over a decade in repair, servicing and customising. Jordan has crafted a unique style bringing modern design and traditional techniques together to make one off instruments designed to last the test of time.
Having studied as a furniture maker whilst completing the first ever Guitar Making Apprenticeship in Australia, Jordan brings a different approach to Instrument construction to other Luthiers. Focusing on instruments that not only look the part, but also sound and feel premium, and most importantly designed to withstand the harsh Australian climate and conditions of working musicians
Valuing the local artisan scene, Jordan also works with other makers and artists every year to create one off instruments combining his own style and construction with other’s aesthetics and medium.
Jordan’s guitars have toured every continent of the world, and won features in multiple makers exhibitions and festivals. He has been a guest speaker at the International Guitar Festival and runs personalised classes on guitar making, with a big belief that education and transparency can only bring more creativity and push makers of all kinds to strive for perfection and innovation.
Each year The Mill presents a series of SALA Masterclasses with prominent South Australian artists. We invite practicing artists and creatives to participate, offering the opportunity to grow their practice through learning new skills, connecting with peers and developing insight into professional artists practice.
The Mill's Masterclass program runs throughout the year as a professional development program for artists, offering workshops with established international and national touring artists in both performance and visual arts. These diverse sessions draw South Australian artists into global conversations around aesthetic, performance and creative practice.
Any cancellations due to Covid-19, tickets will be refunded
About the masterclass:
Participants will learn methods for generating choreography, piecing together a composition, and hear about the collaboration that led to Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere, as well as Alison and Yui's experiences of previous collaborations with other makers on different projects.
Experience level:
Dancers – moderate level of experience in any dance styles.
About the show:
Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere, OzAsia Festival 2021.
Humans (for now) live on one planet: a globalised world where the digital is used to link us with more opinions and information than ever before. Yet, simultaneously, that world seems to deepen the separation between people by time, space, cultural histories and languages.
Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere bridges the similarities and differences that connect us all. Australian and Japanese choreographers and dancers Alison Currie (whose recent work was commissioned by Australian Dance Theatre) and award-winning soloist Yui Kawaguchi join forces to compose a collision between the everyday and imagined possibilities.
Using sound, light and form to accentuate the comparing techniques between each dancer, Alison and Yui’s stunning choreography drifts in and out of sync to expose the significant, simple and absurd. An ephemeral performance about parallels and connection, Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere unveils how humans are defined not by what we know, but rather by what we are yet to discover.
When: August 4 & August 5: 12-2pm, August 6: 4-7pm, August 7: 12-2pm, 2021
Where: The Mill Breakout, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta enter via Gunson St
Cost: Free
Bureau d’Exchange presents a participatory performance work that reflects upon the meaning and value of objects and the unique stories embedded within them.
Please bring a personal item you feel ready to let go of, to exchange for an item of equal emotional value from the Bureau’s ever-evolving stock of ‘merchandise’.
Bureau ‘staff’ (award-winning artist Cynthia Schwertsik and performer Emma Beech) will guide you through the discreet process of valuing your item and adding its story to the Bureau’s poignant emporium of memories and desires.
Bookings are available for individuals or small groups (<5 people), there are two bookings available per 15 minute session.
PLEASE NOTE: Mask wearing is required throughout your attendance at The Mill unless you are an exempt person under the current SA Health guidelines.
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.
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.
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.
Valerie Berry is an actor, performance maker and emerging director. Throughout her practice, she has focused on collaborative and interdisciplinary processes.
‘Crafting change’ studio: Saturday, July 24, 1-5pm
The Mill welcomes The Centre of Democracy to present Stitch and Resist, an exhibition of contemporary craftivism. Bringing together 140 works by activists from all around the world, this project is an example of the agency of communities working with a shared goal. Each individual stitch comes together to create collective meaning that is multi layered, complex and gestalt. The artists exhibited as part of Stitch and Resist do not necessarily see themselves as artists, and perhaps didn’t think of themselves as activists either. The works are both political in their messaging, and in their creation, allowing individuals to create statements that are personally meaningful from within their own homes or as part of community group.
We hope that visitors will be inspired by what you see in the gallery, and encourage you to consider your own politics and values in relation to the works on display. We also invite you to join local craftivists for a special public program Crafting Change on Saturday July 24 where you can hear from Stitch and Resist artists, purchase a cross stitch kit, create a Stitch and Resist themed badge and listen to protest music with Dan Monceaux AKA DJ Sepia.
This exhibition is the culmination of a year long project of the same name, in which the Centre of Democracy engaged with community organisations and groups, as well as with the general public, to discuss, and create works addressing a range of contemporary issues.
Stitch & Resist showcases craftivist pieces that vary in terms of skill level and artistic merit. Their significance lies less in these values than in the political work they do, the contribution they make to social change. Pieces that appear in the exhibition have been created in English, Arabic, and indigenous languages, and many address diversity, inclusion and equality. As well as functioning as vehicles for addressing contemporary social issues, the works demonstrate the fact that everyone can be involved in craftivism. Over 140 works have been produced by a large number of individuals, community groups, and partner organisations from across South Australia, Australia, and internationally.
The Centre of Democracy is a collaboration between the History Trust of South Australia and the State Library of South Australia. It showcases the people, ideas and movements that have shaped, and continue to shape, democracy in South Australia. Featuring treasures from the state’s collections, the gallery contents challenge visitors to think again about people and power.
Nikki Sullivan is Manager of the Centre of Democracy, a collaboration between the History Trust of South Australia and the State Library of South Australia.
Britt Burton is the Public Programs Coordinator for the History Trust of South Australia and the Centre of Democracy.
When: Friday, July 9, 2021, 6:00pm (arrive 5:45pm)
Where: The Mill Breakout, 154 Angas Street
Duration:1 hour including post-show discussion
Cost: Free
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.
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.
Jess Clough-MacRae is a British/New Zealand Lecoq-trained performer, director, and movement director currently based in Adelaide. She founded award-winning Clownfish Theatre and has toured their award-winning show Attenborough and his Animals to sell out crowds in Adelaide, Perth and Edinburgh Fringe.
Where: The Exhibition Space, The Mill, 154 Angas Street
Cost: Free
Join us for the launch of Holly’s exhibition Reality Winner, the outcome of work produced during her sponsored studio residency at The Mill. Reality Winner opens alongside Stitch and Resist on Friday July 2, followed by an artist talk with Holly in conversation with The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas date now TBC in July.
Language falls asleep in dreams. Reality Winner is the name of an NSA contractor convicted under the Espionage Act for leaking a report about Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Salvador Dali was kicked out of the surrealist movement for being too surreal. Post-rational author and consultant Venkatesh Rao defines “surreal” as “underflowing with life”, as in, there isn’t enough life force to go around, but “underflowing” also has a specific meaning in computation when a value is smaller than a computer can compute. Venkatesh: "Dreams *are* an underflowing-with-life state since they occur in sleeping bodies capable of much higher flows when awake". This exhibition contains materials derived and reworked from exhibitions, performances and collaborations that I contributed to but that I could not attend "in real life" due to the pandemic and associated travel bans.
Holly Childs is a writer and artist. Her research involves filtering stories of computation through frames of ecology, earth, memory, poetry, and light. In 2020, she was an associate artist at Jacuzzi dance space, Amsterdam; and alongside Gediminas Žygus she released Hydrangea (Subtext), an album exploring narrative fracture and reality bubbles. She is the author of two books: No Limit (Hologram) and Danklands (Arcadia Missa), and is a former Gertrude Contemporary studio holder (Melbourne), an alumna of The New Normal (Media, Architecture and Design) programme at Strelka Institute, Moscow, and she holds a Masters in Film, Design and Politics from Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam. She has been in residence at Arcadia Missa (London), RM (Auckland), Firstdraft (Sydney), Rupert (Vilnius), and DAR (Druskininkai). She is currently writing her third book, What Causes Flowers Not to Bloom?; teaching in the Graphic Design department at Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam; and developing Cliffhanger, a text, installation, and choreographic collaboration with Angela Goh.
When:Friday, July 2, and Saturday, July 3, 2021, 7:30pm
Where: Australian Dance Theatre, The Odeon, 57a Queen St, Norwood
Cost: $30 + booking fees
Future History began as a research project to investigate the influence of personal history and artistic lineage on the way we work and the art we make. From this a strategy for collaborative devising was developed and the raw material for this new solo was born. An award-winning team including, Australian artists Luke Smiles, Martin del Amo, Kristina Chan and Joshua Thomson along with international artists Rasmus Ölme and Vania Vaneau have contributed to this collaboratively devised work.
Weaving notions personal and universal, Future History reflects the precarious nature of the human body and the natural world. The work manifests the cyclic quality of global uncertainty throughout time in response to threat – conflict, epidemic, escalating climate events – and illuminates the vulnerability and resilience implicit in life on earth.
Although conceived and developed long before the spectre of COVID-19 entered the scene, this project and the conversations it provokes feels decidedly urgent when facing our current predicament as artists and a society.
A new ritual.
Melancholic resolution. Unresolved continuance. Grieving something we haven't yet lost. Losing something we only just have a sense of. An endless oscillation between hope and despair, fear and courage, past and future, life and death.
Credits
Made by Gabrielle Nankivell in collaboration with Luke Smiles, Martin del Amo, Kristina Chan, Joshua Thomson, Rasmus Ölme and Vania Vaneau, with contributions by Harriet Oxley and Meg Wilson.
Supporters
The creative development of this work has been generously supported by:
The Government of South Australia Arts South Australia, Australian Dance Theatre’s International Centre for Choreography, The Mill’s Emerging Producer Xchange, Stockholm University of the Arts, Lieues Lyon and Legs on the Wall.
Presented by The Mill supported by venue partners ADT, and Dance Hub SA.
Dance Launchpad is a professional development program designed to support emerging contemporary dancers to build experience in the professional industry, by working with local South Australian choreographers. The program nurtures the ecology of dance in SA is supported by venue partners ADT and Dance Hub SA.
The program will commission two established choreographers, to share their wealth of industry knowledge with four emerging dance artists. Choreographers will be announced mid-end June 2021.
The outcome will be the creation of two choreographic works each performed by four selected dancers, presented in a double bill performance platform at ADT’s Odeon Theatre.
The choreography will be filmed by a professional videographer to create a ‘showreel’ for each dancer to showcase their skills nationally and internationally, promoting future employment.
The successful dancers will be selected through EOI process & Audition at Dance Hub SA in July 2021.
Dance Launchpad has been postponed until May 2022.
Dance Launchpad has been generously supported by Australian Dance Theatre.
Photo Credit: Chris Herzfeld Imagery
Audition details
When: Sunday July 18, 1pm - 4pm
Where: Dance Hub SA, Lion Arts Centre, Cnr Morphett St & North Tce, Kaurna Yerta
Dance Launchpad Rehearsal Dates:
Stage 1: 1 week rehearsals at ADT Odeon Theatre
Stage 2: 2 weeks rehearsals at ADT Odeon Theatre
Additional after hours rehearsals at Dance Hub SA outside rehearsal blocks (TBC)
Performance details
Dance Launchpad Performance Dates: May 20 and 21, 2022
Performance Venue: ADT Odeon Theatre.
Audition criteria
You must be an emerging South Australian contemporary dancer, trained in tertiary dance institution. (not limited to SA tertiary dance institutions)
You must be available for the rehearsal and performance periods outlined.
You must be aware this program is a professional development opportunity where dancers receive industry experience, profiling and a professional show reel. It is not a paid opportunity.
Please email your EOI including the following information to director@themilladelaide.com :
Your CV
Up to 200 words about why this professional development experience will be valuable for you at this time of your professional career.
EOI Due Date: Monday,July 12.
Notification: EOIs will be notified on receipt of their application.
The Mill Showcase is an exhibition series dedicated to artists who work in The Mill’s studio spaces on Angas Street, Adelaide. The exhibition includes artworks and products that have been produced under our roof by incredible artisans. This touring edition of The Mill Showcase brings a selection of our artists to McLaren Vale, so that we can share their practice with you!
This edition of The Mill Showcase features work by Blake Canham-Bennett, Steel Chronis, Amber Cronin, Andrew Eden, Matea Gluscevic, Evie Hassiotis, Yana Lehey, Kirsty Martinsen and Kate O’Callaghan, curated by Adele Sliuzas
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.
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.
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.
Where: The Mill Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yerta
Cost: $20 + booking fee
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
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.
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:
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.
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'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.
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.
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.
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.
This exhibition is a finalist in the City Of Onkaparinga Contemporary Curator Award
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Mill Showcase is a gallery spacededicated to artists who work in our studio spaces at our Angas Street location, exhibiting some of the artworks and products that have been produced under our roof. The Mill Showcase profiles our artists, so that you can put a face to the name and get to know some of our dedicated makers.
This fifth edition of The Mill Showcase features work by Sandy Kumnick, Kate O’Callaghan and design studio Small Room.
About the artists:
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 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 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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
