The Adelaide Review - May Issue

THE Adelaide

REVIEW Issue 411 May 2014

adelaidereview.com.au

NEIGHBOuRHOOD WATCH Playwright Lally Katz talks the new State Theatre production, which features English star of stage and screen, Miriam Margolyes

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Spring Gully

March in May

Orana

Spring Gully’s Managing Director Kevin Webb talks about the events of 12 months ago and the company’s plans for growth

The controversial March in March protest returns this month under the March in May banner

Paul Wood reviews Jock Zonfrillo’s much-publicised new restaurant, Orana

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One glOriOus weekend this winter...

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WELCOME

TheAdelaideReview

ISSUE 411

AdelaideReview

editor David Knight davidknight@adelaidereview.com.au Digital Manager Jess Bayly jessbayly@adelaidereview.com.au

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ART DIRECTOR Sabas Renteria sabas@adelaidereview.com.au ADMINISTRATION Kate Mickan katemickan@adelaidereview.com.au PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION production@adelaidereview.com.au

Colour Feature

NATIONAL SALES AND MARKETING MANAGER Tamrah Petruzzelli tamrah@adelaidereview.com.au ADVERTISING EXECUTIVES Tiffany Venning Michelle Pavelic advertising@adelaidereview.com.au

MANAGING DIRECTOR Manuel Ortigosa

Our annual look at the year’s colour and design trends

INSIDE Features 05 Politics 10 Business 13 Columnists 17

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GPO Box 651, Adelaide SA 5001.

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This publication is printed on 100% Australian made Norstar, containing 20% recycled fibre. All wood fibre used in this paper originates from sustainably managed forest resources or waste resources.

THE ADELAIDE

review

Fashion 22 Feature 18

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46

Food. Wine. Coffee 43

La Traviata

Game of Phones

FORM 55

The State Opera returns in 2014 with Verdi’s classic La Traviata

Chef Duncan Welgemoed on whether smart phones and restaurants are a match made in heaven or hell

Books 23 Visual Arts 36

COVER: Miriam Margolyes. Photo: James Hartley.

Contributors. Leanne Amodeo, Annabelle Baker, Selena Battersby, D.M. Bradley, John Bridgland, Alan Brissenden, Michael Browne, Derek Crozier, John Dexter, Helen Dinmore, Alexander Downer, Steven Fleming, Stephen Forbes, Andrea Frost, Charles Gent, Roger Hainsworth, Andrew Hunter, Stephanie Johnston, Jane Llewellyn, John Neylon, Amelia Pinna, Nigel Randall, Christopher Sanders, John Spoehr, Shirley Stott Despoja, David Sornig, Graham Strahle, Ilona Wallace, Duncan Welgemoed, Paul Wood.

Photographer: Jonathan van der Knaap.

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FEATURE

OFF TOPIC: DOUGLAS GAUTIER Off Topic and on the record as South Australian identities talk about whatever they want... except their day job. Adelaide Festival Centre CEO and Artistic Director Douglas Gautier lived in Hong Kong for 25 years and became immersed in Asia’s art scene before returning to Adelaide in 2006.

BY DAVID KNIGHT

Gautier’s interest in the art from Asia was piqued while studying drama at Flinders University.

“At one stage there was a Japanese guy who was teaching direction up there [Flinders] whose name was Yutaka Wada, who was an interesting guy. He ultimately became Peter Brook’s assistant in Paris and he’d been at the Moscow State Arts Theatre as a Training Director for six years. He was very interested in Japanese work, obviously because he was Japanese, and he was here chasing a girlfriend but ended up at Flinders University as a drama teacher, essentially teaching a Stanislavski Method. But what was much more interesting to me, I think, was the kind of Japanese sensibility and aesthetic especially when it came to literature and performing arts. I was very interested in that and I think it was one of the big legacies, other than Australian History, that I took away from university.

“I ended up at BBC in London and when somebody was there recruiting for a music and arts producer to go to Hong Kong for a six-month attachment, I was very keen to do that. I didn’t know where it would lead and I ended up staying

Douglas Gautier

25 years. During my time in London with the BBC, I had met a number of other enthusiasts who were very interested in Asian music and so I started to see things in London that I’d never seen before in terms of Chinese opera, Gamelan bands and other things that I hadn’t seen here so much, but my interest had been piqued.

“Hong Kong was just extraordinary because I was sent out to look after this music and arts channel, which was radio initially and it was all in English. They were primarily broadcasting western classical music of which there is a great interest in China. But on the request program, people who couldn’t speak English would call up and hum the first few bars of Beethoven’s 5th or something similar.”

Gautier suggested to make the channel bilingual and print the program in English and Cantonese.

“Suddenly there was a huge interest from across the border in Guangdong Province and within a short period I was invited to meet colleagues who were running the arts radio station in Guangzhou. We’re talking about a time with blue tunics and bicycles and it was

just an extraordinary time for me in terms of realising the depth of cultural interest in China.

If you think right back to the 19th century there was an interest in western classical music in China. There were lots of Russian teachers, so the conservatories were full of Russian teachers who taught the Chinese how to play piano, how to sing opera, how to play in orchestras, all of that.

Those people were still there and some of them had been purged during the cultural revolution but they were beginning to come back.

“I became fascinated by this and alongside that appetite for western music was, of course, these extraordinary traditions in Beijing opera, Cantonese opera and a literary opera called Kunju opera and, of course, the delicate and wonderful qualities of Chinese Chamber Music. After six months out there I just knew I couldn’t leave because it was just so fascinating to me. About two years in a fellow producer and I made this series on Asian contemporary music – not pop music but music that kind of blended western classical music, fine music and traditional Asian music. We looked in places like the Philippines, Korea, Japan, China and it was just fascinating

to see what was going on and how people in Asia had said, ‘Okay, here’s the western technique and here’s the wonderful things that they’ve done with orchestras and compositions and so forth, that’s good to know and we’ll master that but let’s use our traditions’. I think a very good example of somebody like that is Tan Dun, the Oscar winner, who we work with quite regularly through OzAsia, but there are many other composers as well. So we did this series and we won the first prize for cultural programs across Asia that year and it’s something that really stuck with me.”

Gautier couldn’t leave Hong Kong after six months.

“I felt that not only was western classical music fully embraced by young people in Hong Kong, obviously, and in China, Korea, Japan, but that there was so much to learn in terms of the home cultures of Asia because they were going through an extraordinary period.”

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FEATURE

A NEW SPRING One year ago, a heartbreaking announcement turned into the local good-news story of 2013 when unprecedented public support for the embattled Spring Gully turned the company’s fortunes around.

BY DAVID KNIGHT

An emotional Kevin Webb (Spring Gully’s Managing Director) appeared in front of news cameras in April last year to explain that Spring Gully was going into voluntary administration as the South Australian food company had debts of more than $3 million after an abrupt 60 percent drop in sales. After this announcement, the public, retailers and media supported the 68-year-old family business in unparalleled fashion, with Spring Gully stock selling out across the land (sales trebled while in voluntary administration).

Then there were the Facebook pages and media support, which included many stories in The Advertiser, while Belinda Heggen dedicated an entire show on FIVEaa to the iconic local brand. Webb says he hasn’t had a lot of time to reflect on the events of 12 months ago, as they’ve been “busy bringing the company out of voluntary administration”.

“We’ve been humbled by what happened.

We really have just been driving the business to make sure we do everything right for our creditors and the business itself,” Webb explains.

Spring Gully, famous for its range of gherkins, pickled onions and sauces, as well

as its Gardener and Leabrook Farms products, moved out of voluntary administration on July 1, 2013. It began to pay back creditors last year, including just under a million dollars on October 31 and roughly $400,000 on January 31, 2014. Total payment will take between two and three years.

Webb believes a number of events led to the wave of public support behind Spring Gully.

“We couldn’t have had our issue at a better time, because that week Holden had announced it had problems. Manufacturing in Australia was reportedly suffering around the country.

Businesses were disappearing and brands were disappearing and it was a moment in time where the public, of South Australia in particular, said, ‘Enough’s enough. I can spend my two or three dollars and I can do my bit.’

But people were spending a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars.

“That was combined with the human side of our family and the way we opened ourselves completely to the media. We had no baggage as a business or a family; no one could dig anything up on us. Also, when Austin Taylor [auditor] and his people went

Kevin Webb

through our business – they went through our bank statements for three or four years, through every transaction to make sure we hadn’t stripped the company of money. None of that was there. The realism of what I was portraying [in front of the cameras] wasn’t an act. From what I’ve been told, that genuine article came through from my behaviour, being myself. This is who I am. This is who we are. I got advice that night [April 10, 2013] not to shut the cameras out if they showed interest – because we didn’t know if they’d be interested in us. We thought we might be buried on page 22 or something – ‘another brand gone’ that sort of thing. As you know that didn’t happen. Our advisor, Peter Haynes from Corporate Conversations, said, ‘Don’t shut them out. If they’re interested, just be yourself and tell it as it is.’”

Webb says the first few weeks after the event

were “incredible”, as the support was not only driven by consumers but retailers such as Aldi.

“We were waiting month-by-month for the pantry to be full, because how many gherkins can you buy? We laugh now but it was important to us at the time. But they never did stop. They must have eaten them.

“Each month we were looking at the numbers, ‘Has it hit yet?’ It never hit. It settled. It’s not at the level it was in the first few weeks – that was mania – but we’ve been in double-digit growth since the event now, and that’s removing the event itself. It just reminded people that Spring Gully is part of their life and they’ve continued to keep it as part of their life.”

A positive to be taken from last year’s event is that the industry, as well as the public, now realise the importance of local manufacturing.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 7

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OPINION “Retailers are now supporting South Australian businesses in their aisles,” Webb explains. “It highlighted the fact that South Australia needs to look after its own manufacturing as best it can. We can’t all make that decision but at least we know about it and you can make that purchasing decision in the store. The retail industry, whether it’s Foodland, Coles or Woolworths, now have signs or tags that read, ‘Support South Australian business’.”

On the sudden drop in sales a year ago, Webb says that no one can pinpoint the exact reason for the rapid fall, as it happened across their products, not just Spring Gully.

“We just had this lull. On top of that were the low margins and the high cost of doing business out here, and a product mix-change at our production facility. They were the four key things prior to us making our announcement.

So, what have we done about that? We have worked very hard on making the business profitable and getting the margins back up. Part of that was negotiating with our customers, and the employment of a new operations manager who brings a world of experience from the wine industry. His whole task is to make us more efficient, to keep the Spring Gully culture going and to lift our gross margins. If a business is profitable, it shouldn’t get itself into problems.

We had lost that ability prior to that event.”

Webb says the business will have a larger focus on the Spring Gully range (it is a contract supplier for other brands including Dick Smith) in the future, while being more innovative to introduce “modern and relevant products” to its stable. Spring Gully will also be rebranded in September with a new label.

Cycling for Space

BY STEVEN FLEMING

P

laying host to a European conference on bicycle transport seems as likely a role for an Australian city as hosting a Winter Olympics. The European leaders coming to Adelaide’s Velo-City in May are accustomed to seeing people of every age riding slowly on the safe side of parked cars, not “vehicular cyclists” competing with moving cars in the carriageway. Europeans are also used to cyclists in heels with their hair flowing, not cyclists in day-glow showing more of their rear-ends than they show of their heads. Sure, there are sportive cyclists in Europe as well.

However, these aren’t the ones who make up the numbers—who give cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen more bicycle travellers than drivers or users of public transport.

Depending on where you sit on the progressive/conservative scale, you will either be beaming to have heard that Australia is lagging, or wishing I would give you another side of the story. For the latter among you, here are some pearls. At any given moment hundreds of kilometres of safe cycle tracks in cities like Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam, are neutralised by cars, buses or lorries illegally parked there. And how safe are cycle tracks anyway, with motor scooters doing sixty along them? There are punch-ups over bike racks at train stations each morning. Meanwhile, billions have been spent on indoor car parking but only pennies on similarly secure space to park bikes. That means two things: One, that

many Europeans aren’t riding because their bikes have been stolen, and; two, that those who do ride are riding on clunkers so squeaky they would rather just ride to a station than their destination.

While I’m picking on faults, I’ll add that I find it perverse how many cyclists in Europe wear inconveniences like these as badges of honour. Herein lies the universal dilemma that holds bike transport back. Cyclists want to be David, and have drivers play the part of Goliath. They want to be underdogs yet take the moral high ground. Thus if you want to outrage a room full of bicycling advocates, don’t draw attention to gross inequities like the car and bike transport budgets. In Australia, tell them you want them to have their own infrastructure to protect them from cars. In Europe, just tell them that their bike tracks could have canopies to protect them from rain.

Tell cyclists that bicycle transport should be so cosy that even the most lily-livered car-driving fop makes the switch and starts riding, then watch them erupt! That’s not a pity for those cycling now, given current conditions. It’s a pity for those who want conditions to change before they start riding. That could be the whole population.

The Effective Speed of bike transport in a city cleared of cars and their traffic lights is 16kph. A simple formula can be used to determine the Effective Speed (ES) of car

Looking back, Webb says the family-run business feels privileged that the community got behind them.

“As a MD and as a family member I’ll never forget that. We don’t know how to repay that other than to maintain Spring Gully’s future.

It’s difficult at the moment with the honey shortage but our focus is on making sure Spring Gully’s here for generations. We think the way to thank the people of South Australia and Australia who got behind us is by making this company successful and growing it.”

» springgullyfoods.com.au

ART PRIZE 2014

travel: time driving (T) plus time worked paying to drive (P), divided by distance (D). That is: ES=(T+P)÷D. Paul Tranter has shown it’s less than 10kph in most cities. So the question is this: why has this slow and menacing machine, called a car, been allowed to impinge upon cycling, when the latter would make all our lives more speedy and safe?

One answer is that the car provides a covered route for its occupants, wherever they point it.

So in effect we are paying all the hidden costs of car travel — greenhouse emissions, road deaths, sedentary diseases, pollution, traffic jams, etc. — because we’re too cheap to build shelter for cycling as a public resource.

One way to escape the mad cycle of building new cities with parking and roads, which guarantee they’ll be car-centred forever, would be to build a pioneer town with no car access at all. It would have covered bikeways instead, plus apartment buildings and shops that are designed for riding inside. Design investigations I have led with my students at The University of Tasmania suggest a better quality of life could be had in a bike-focussed city than a city for cars. For example, a mother could ride with her baby asleep in a cargo bike, all the way from the nappy aisle to the cot room, and not even risk getting wet.

In my last book, Cycle Space, I argued that the obvious places to build for the bike in this way are former industrial redevelopment sites.

Most are intersected by former rail routes and once working waterfronts, which are already being made into bike routes. What developers would save by not building parking, they could spend upgrading and lengthening bike routes — giving them roofs! The book I am working on now develops a toolbox of building types and land-sculpting techniques to make cities as natural for cycling as suburbia is natural for driving a car.

In the past year, I’ve presented designs for bike cities in Singapore, Rotterdam, New York, Sydney, Canberra and Amsterdam. How well these designs are received depends, in each case, on how many in my audience would rather be Davids, and how many want this mode to be giant.

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Exhibition Dates 2 May – 30 May 2014 www.salisbury.sa.gov.au/watershedartprize

8 The Adelaide Review May 2014

Feature

The Ides of March As the Abbott government approaches the delivery of its first budget, there is considerable discontent among much of the Australian electorate. Nationwide protests were held under the banner March in March this year, and more are planned for May.

by John Dexter

Where did these protests originate and what do they intend to achieve? Is March in March a self-congratulatory ode from Australia’s leftwing, or does it have the makings of something larger that could have genuine influence on the electorate and government policy?

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March in March protests took place in 33 locations around Australia on March 15 and 16. What had initially been planned as a single protest in Canberra ballooned into a national event. More than 100,000 people protested a suite of Coalition government policies, and occasionally, the Prime Minister himself. On the list of opposed policies were the TransPacific Partnership, repealing Labor’s carbon and mining taxes, the Abbot Point coal port, the changing of penalty rates, expected cuts to public services like education, the ABC and more.

The response to the March in March has been mixed. Some critics have called the protest too broad in scope, and even abusive, while supporters and participants of the marches believe the media has misrepresented their goals.

The length and breadth of the protestors’ agenda drew particular ire from mainstream media. Fairfax columnist Mark Kenny said that many of the policies that the March in March movement opposes have not been enacted or fully formed yet, and plans to repeal the carbon and mining taxes are vindicated by the government’s election on that platform.

Comparing the protests to those made against the Gillard government’s policy, Kenny noted, “this time it was Abbott who was pilloried in abusive placards and righteous speeches, as the green left railed against Abbott’s odious platform”.

News Limited columnist Andrew Bolt called the protestors “barbarians” for signs that depicted Prime Minister Abbott as a fascist, called for his resignation, and even his death.

In response to this, Kat Lee, one of the organisers of the Adelaide protest, told The Adelaide Review that the majority of people attending these marches were not out just to

attack Abbott, but genuinely wanted to protest government policy. On the subject of the media’s representation of the marches, Lee says, “one bad, sleazy sign is what they’ll focus on”. Asked whether those signs undermine the movement’s intentions, Lee replies, “through the media it can”.

“We tried hard not to make it an attack on Abbott here in Adelaide,” she explains. “In some cities it did become an Abbott attack. I didn’t agree with it, but that was how they got people out.”

When it comes to the span of the protest, Lee says that it “does cover a broad aspect of issues, but that’s because a broad amount of issues are being attacked” by the present government.

Lee goes on to explain that a primary goal of the protests is to “educate the public on these issues”, as prolonged discussion on policy is lacking in mainstream media and that “single issue protests get lost” in the battery of news and information that the country weathers daily.

Some have noted that the Adelaide protest was marred by the agendas of distinct groups.

A set of evangelical Christian protestors “were trying to antagonise groups within the protest, but they were pushed to the back”.

“We won’t allow a particular ideology to take over,” Lee says. “This is for the people, by the people. Anyone who disagrees with the government can join us, on any issue.”

Professor Clement Macintyre of the University of Adelaide, a specialist in Australian politics, believes that these protests will have little effect on government policy, and “act to reinforce existing positions and allow people of a like mind to gather and vent their frustrations”.

That is unless the protests are sustained over a long period of time.

Citing the protests of the Vietnam War in the 60s, Macintyre says, “the size and frequency of the Vietnam moratorium marches did have an effect on policy... but that happened over a period of three or four years.”

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FEATURE Similar to Kenny and Bolt’s commentary, Macintyre also believes that the gruff sentiment of many protestors will not win converts to the cause, as the protests against Julia Gillard’s government failed to do.

between the movement and the media, Professor Macintyre says, “Mainstream media are by and large more sympathetic to the government’s policy than they are to those protesting against it”.

“There is evidence to suggest that traditional forms of media will focus on those stories that suit the message that they are most sympathetic to,” he says.

“If we go back to some of the anti-Gillard protests, they were useful to the critics of Gillard to see a sense of frustration that was felt by other people... I think it’s a sign of the level of frustration that some people feel. It certainly doesn’t win over the neutrals. If anything it will alienate people.”

Lee says that the best coverage March in March received was online in alternative news sources like New Matilda, social media and blogs. At the time of writing this article, while March in March sees little attention in mainstream media, the discussion on the twitter handle, #marchinmarch, is still chugging along.

Twitter users commend their own efforts in the nationwide marches, posting images from the marches and discussing fresh rounds of protest. There is also a strong theme of resentment toward the mainstream media in these conversations. Users re-tweet links to a Canberra Times article reporting on a survey that found March in March protestors are “better educated than the general population”, and satirise what they see as the media’s tabloid focus on the negative signs.

One tweet from user Wendy Bacon, who describes herself as a journalist and activist, reads, “Reviewing #MarchinMarch banners & found this offensive pic”, linking to an image of banners criticising corporations for “trashing the planet”, demanding investment in sustainable industries and memorialising slain Iranian refugee, Reza Berati.

Another tweet from Neil Naessens is indicative of the mood: “News Ltd papers belittled the #MarchinMarch events, but social media gave us real-time coverage of the reality in the streets.”

Like so many other progressive political movements around the world, social media is the March movement’s natural home. All of the protests have so far been coordinated through Facebook, and the idea to march against Coalition policy itself was born through people conversing on Twitter. What started as a planned protest in one city exploded into 33 locations thanks to the dynamic communicative capacity that social media provides.

Amid the swirling discussion online, a new round of protest has been set in stone for May. The March in May will take place in Adelaide, Perth and Sydney. Lee says that while there is broad support across the community for continued marches, these three will take place to maximise peoples’ availability in the respective cities. After all, Adelaide’s March in March became a static protest, as it would have been too difficult to disrupt and negotiate city streets during festival season, says Lee, and expects the turnout to double this time around.

Protestors will meet in Victoria Square on Sunday, May 18 and march to the steps of Parliament House, where a suite of speakers will address the crowd.

Asked whether anything will change in the way the protests will run, Lee states, “No. It’s the same idea and this time it will be bigger.”

Reflecting on the social nature of this type of organisation, and the chasm that has emerged

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10 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

POLITICS

MODERN TIMES Leadership in Politics

BY ANDREW HUNTER

T

he election of Francois Mitterrand in 1981 was heralded as a triumph of a new style of politics – a politics that aspired to change lives. By 1995, after two terms as President of France, Mitterrand had come to believe that the contemporary context no longer encouraged visionary leadership.

According to Mitterrand, the era of great political figures that aspired to change lives and transform societies had ended. He famously asserted to his biographer, GeorgesMarc Benamou, that he would be the last of the great presidents. Soon, “there will only be financiers and accountants”.

Joe Hockey

The growing tendency to rhetorically separate economic policy from social outcomes is one of the great tragedies of modern politics.

A healthy economy has little meaning if it does not enhance citizens’ wellbeing and security. Economic policy is social policy. It

is the means through which the vulnerable are protected and it has the power to liberate the marginalised. Properly calibrated, it provides the foundation from which all people can enjoy rich, balanced lives.

Economic policy is also an expression of political values shaped by particular cultural contexts. Chris Patten, a conservative member of parliament who served as Governor of Hong Kong and later on the European Commission, once noted that, “Europe’s jobless figures would be unacceptable in America; America’s inequality figures would be politically intolerable in much of Europe”.

Is the current debate on economic policy a reflection on Australian values? Both sides of politics in Australia agree that a high level of employment is necessary to provide the greatest level of opportunity to the Australian people. Unemployment is, rightfully, our most important economic indicator. The importance of actual equality (as opposed to the agreed objective of equality of opportunity) should provide an important point of difference upon which politics as a contest of values depends.

Egalitarianism, so central to our national

self-identity, will lose its relevance to modern Australia unless we actively cultivate equality of ‘wealth, power and opportunity’. Creating an economic indicator that measures inequality may help re-align economic policies with shared social benefits. Values are dynamic and can be shaped by political, social and economic discourse.

The accepted economic orthodoxy of the past two decades has changed the heart and soul of Australians. Our attitude to the most vulnerable members of society – asylum seekers, the unemployed, single parents – has hardened considerably. Prosperity need not come at the cost of wisdom, decency and consideration for our fellow citizens, but it would now require leadership of great vision and aptitude to restore the bridge in our consciousness that once connected economics and society.

Have modern leaders become little more than glorified accountants, as Mitterrand

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Politics predicted? Margaret Thatcher, a contemporary of Mitterrand, understood that economic policy could drive cultural change. In an interview for The Sunday Times in 1981, Thatcher proclaimed that “economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul”. Economic policy is simultaneously slave and master of the things that we value.

Conservatives have rhetorically coupled economic austerity and small government with values such as individual responsibility and accountability with considerable success. Sound fiscal management is an important role of government but we must demand more from our leaders – political leadership has for too long been seen to be solely an exercise in economic management.

In Australia, the Abbott Government has developed a narrative which successfully couples austere economic management with strong political leadership. It has also clearly articulated the values that underpinned its economic policy. The ‘Age of Entitlement’ is over, Joe Hockey often repeats. We have entered the ‘Age of Responsibility’.

Economics is the method by which soaring wealth disparity must be addressed. It is the instrument through which the mass of the people is given the opportunity to enjoy greater happiness and secure, full lives. We must define the outcomes that will best serve the mass of the Australian people and design economic policy to meet these objectives.

This objective cannot be achieved without great leadership – one which restores the technocrats and accountants to their important supporting roles.

»»Andrew Hunter is Chair of the Australian Fabians fabians.org.au

monopoly rents. The result is clear. The consumers pay more than they have to for goods and services, while the monopolists become grotesquely rich.

the aid debate

That’s a characteristic of poor societies.

There is a tiny business elite protected by the government which itself is protected from consumers by a democratic deficit. That democratic deficit may be rigged elections or in extremis there may be no elections at all (although that is unusual these days).

BY Alexander Downer

F

or years it’s been the fashion in the West not just to provide foreign aid but to increase it year by year.

That’s hardly surprising. No one likes poverty and the more the rich world can do to alleviate poverty the better. That’s just common sense. The assumption of the aid lobby and most governments is that the more that is spent on aid the faster the incidence of poverty will decline.

In recent years, plenty of academic studies have started to question this assumption. A couple of years ago, two American economists, Daren Acemoglu and James Robinson, published a defining book called Why Nations Fail.

It analyses a pretty fundamental question for anyone interested in the aid program and the alleviation of poverty; why is it that some countries are rich, some are poor but getting richer and some are just stuck in the rut of poverty?

The authors are not opposed to foreign aid. Don’t think that. They do, though, give a guide to what we in the rich world can do to help the developing world – and what we shouldn’t do.

They focus on the correlation between strong institutions and prosperity. I share their views. It’s the institutions which define the capacity of a modern economy to work efficiently.

The greatest failing of most poor countries is the distribution of economic power. In most successful economies, economic power is widely disbursed. Monopolies are prohibited so producers have to compete with each other for the favours of consumers. The consumer, not the

The elites are super rich – they have houses in London and Paris, apartments in New York and yachts in the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country struggles in grinding poverty.

producer, is king. But producers – we might call them investors – have their property largely protected by law. If an investor puts his money into a shopping mall he can be confident an oligarch who is a close friend of the president won’t be able to get his hands on it. Unless he buys it for fair market value and the owner is happy to sell.

This does relate to the political system.

Most developed economies are sophisticated democracies where the consumers who make up the bulk of the voters ultimately decide the fate of governments and therefore, indirectly, the structure of the economy.

The producers try to get close to the government and persuade it to cut a few convenient deals for them or even grant taxpayer-funded subsidies. But ultimately, it’s the consumers who rule the roost.

This is in stark contrast to many, if not all, poor countries. In those countries, there is a distinct lack of market competition both internally and often from imports. This is good for the lucky few who own licences.

They can charge high prices without fear of competitors undercutting them. These days, this is called gouging. It used to be called

Now all this is a simplification of what really happens but it’s a very good starting point.

Which brings us back to foreign aid. If the institutional structure of a country is more or less right then aid can be a real force multiplier. It can help strengthen the institutions, assist with the cost of training teachers, fight diseases like malaria and HIV that are not only cruel and cause human misery but reduce the productive capacity of the country.

But if the institutional structure of a country is wrong, then aid might even make the situation worse. The aid is paid at a cost to taxpayers in the rich country. And the ultimate beneficiaries can be the elites and kleptocrats who run the poor country. In some cases the aid might be well intentioned – it might be used to build a hospital for example. But money is fungible. The local government can save the cost of building a hospital and instead spend its money on, well, more nefarious projects.

So the aid debate should extend well beyond quantums of money. The developed world has a vested interest in eliminating global poverty and decent people want to see it happen. But we need a more informed and thoughtful discussion about how to do it – not just a screaming match about money.

CHARLES STURT IS...

LOOKING FOR CREATIVE PEOPLE. City of Charles Sturt in partnership with Carclew is pleased to call for Expressions of Interest for two sponsored residencies at Carclew’s Fifth Quarter.

Located in the developing Bowden arts precinct, Fifth Quarter can help you connect the dots for a thriving arts career.

Are you: • •

An artist who wants to earn a sustainable living?

26 and under and living in the city of Charles Sturt.

To find out more information and details of how to apply please visit carclew.com.au Submissions close 19 May 2014.

12 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

FEATURE Harnessing Adelaide’s Collective Imagination

it encourages a false sense of complacency.

Our generational family businesses can find it difficult to globalise and operate at scale. We are collegiate rather than collaborative. Our isolation turns us into a portal through which migrants leave faster than they arrive. Our imported festival culture diverts scarce resources away from nurturing homegrown talent. We blame government for a lack of leadership when we should be providing it ourselves. There is an awareness of a need to adapt to change but no sense of urgency to do so. We have a history of innovative thinking and responding to our challenging circumstances, but we need to somehow reactivate that innovative DNA.

Creativity, connectivity and the cultural dimension – former Thinker-in-Residence Charles Landry recently returned to Adelaide to take its creative pulse.

BY STEPHANIE JOHNSTON

W

hen Landry first floated the concept of the ‘creative city’ in the early 1990s, he had no idea it would catch on rather like a global movement. “All I was concerned about was the way the world was changing dramatically,” he explains. “I was asking how do you create the conditions to think, plan and act with imagination, and how do you look at your resources more widely, in terms of your potential.“ According to Landry, the arts world, over time, grabbed the notion and said, “You must be talking about us”. He does, however, acknowledge that the cultural sector can play a larger-than-life role in contributing to the wider creative economy, which encompasses intellectual and industrial creativity, as well as social innovation.

But there is also a danger that broad definitions of the ‘creative city’ can become meaningless, hollowed-out and empty. Landry therefore wants his ‘Creative City Index’ used as a tool for empowerment, rather than as a simplistic score card. The central question is not whether one city is more creative or less creative than the others. It is instead, “Are you doing as well as one would expect you to do, given your context and constraints… That is,

are you punching above your weight?”

While the overall tone of Landry’s latest report card on Adelaide reflects a more optimistic ‘can do’ city than the one he found here during his residency in 2003, it also reads ‘could do better’ on several fronts. Undertaken on behalf of the State Government, Adelaide City Council and the City of Playford, the audit involved local urban strategists Margaret Caust and Richard Brecknock in gathering 400 survey responses, as well as holding workshops, focus groups and a series of strategic conversations with over 100 people from the public and private sectors.

In doing so, Adelaide finds itself part of a growing comparative global data set of creative cities that are highlighting and sharing global good practice. Bilbao, Cardiff, Ghent, Helsinki and Taipei are among 18 cities that provide a spectrum on which various ‘domains’ within a ‘creative eco-system’ can be explored, assessed and compared. These domains span a city’s ability to: (i) identify and nurture creativity through education and the development of talent;

(ii) enable and support creativity through the political and public framework, and through strategic leadership and vision; (iii) exploit and harness creativity through entrepreneurship, innovation, communication and collaboration between different sectors; and (iv) live and express creativity in distinct and diverse ways.

The fourth domain encompasses the relatively intangible concepts of ‘liveability’, ‘wellbeing’ and ‘distinctiveness’. Not surprisingly Adelaide rates above average on those fronts. We ‘could do better’ at innovation and collaboration between the ‘quadruple helix’ of the public and private sectors, research institutions and members of the community (where we are behind the highest scoring cities of Helsinki, Ghent and Bilbao).

And we score below average when it comes to nurturing creativity, entrepreneurship and strategic leadership.

The observations and commentary in Landry’s report illuminate its qualitative data. Adelaide’s high level of liveability becomes a threat when

According to Landry, urban development is these days more about psychology than land-use planning. How a city feels about itself, its attitudes and characteristics shape its prospects. In reflecting on itself, Adelaide has collectively begun to go through a shift. It is starting to appreciate that a city can create its own opportunities. The new ‘can do’ atmosphere among young entrepreneurs will increasingly determine our overall vitality and chances of becoming compelling, viable and competitive.

“Adelaide, like all major cities world-wide, is in the midst of significant transition,” Landry observes. With traditional manufacturing hollowing out, new forms of wealth creation are emerging. “Adelaide needs to understand the deeper trends and dynamics now shaping cities and how it can make these work in its favour, given its geographic and historic context,” he adds.

“Greater Adelaide needs a mechanism for integrated thinking so that the wider city can plan and act with imagination. Changing mindsets is not a quick fix and so this must go beyond the electoral cycle,” he concludes.

One can’t help but call to mind just such a mechanism, which unfortunately failed to outlive its electoral cycle. Perhaps we should consider inviting back another former Thinkerin-Residence (Professor Laura Lee), to reactivate the Integrated Design Commission, and get us back on the creative track.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 13

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

BUSINESS

The Longevity Economy Could ageing revitalise our manufacturing sector?

BY JOHN SPOEHR

L

ets not mince words – Australian manufacturing is in recession with many more jobs to be lost in our most vulnerable regions as the automotive industry shuts down over the next three years. Nothing less than transformation of the industry is necessary to ensure its sustainability and viability over decades to come. At the same time downward pressure must be exerted on the Australian dollar to make our goods more competitive in global markets.

Manufacturing is a foundational industry in modern economies. It is where great value can be added to commodities, deep knowledge and skills are acquired and transferred to other sectors. Export of commodities and services alone is not a formula for economic success in the 21st century. We must also design, engineer and build knowledge- and skill-intensive goods by aspiring to be a world leader in advanced manufacturing. That great body of design, engineering and manufacturing skills accumulated over the last 50 years must now be dedicated to this task for the benefit of tens of thousands of Australian manufacturing workers and their families.

Estimates of the potential social and economic losses flowing from closure of the automotive industry are sobering.

Recent modeling of closure impacts by

the National Industry for Economic and Industry Research for my Centre at the University of Adelaide provides some insights. Around 200,000 jobs are at stake nationally and 24,000 in South Australia.

These numbers are large because we are set to lose not just three major companies but much of the automotive supply chain and the demand that it generates for goods and services throughout the economy – an estimated $29 billion hit to GDP. Efforts to moderate this would have to be on a very large scale, which is increasingly unlikely.

The Federal Government contribution to any closure recovery assistance package will probably be less than $100 million. It really needs to be 10 times that.

If the size of the assistance package is modest then it is vital that it be targeted well.

There will be no shortage of proposals. At the high end, South Australia must keep pace with the development and application of so called disruptive platform technologies like 3D printing, nano-technology and robotics.

Potential applications of these abound in the defence, health and aged-care sectors. South Australia is well placed to be a leader given some creative thinking about how we might link technological developments in each of these areas. In other words, we would do well to invest in accelerating the application of platform technologies in areas where there is demonstrated demand and policy settings that generate demand. A case in point is the economics of population ageing.

Too often we talk about population ageing as a drain on the economy. Rarely is it seen as a source of growing demand for sophisticated high value goods and services sustaining new industries and jobs – a longevity economy. The transformative potential of this needs to be much better understood in Australia and the dominant discourse on ageing as an economic liability challenged, as it is in many parts of Europe where opportunities associated with the longevity economy are being embraced.

For too long population ageing has been characterised as a ticking fiscal time bomb,

one that can only be defused by increasing the age of retirement or introducing Medicare co-payments. But what about the economic value associated with the longevity economy?

A preoccupation with the costs of an ageing population obscures economic benefits – the multitude of industry development and job opportunities that can flow from developing and applying innovative solutions to meeting the diverse needs of an ageing population.

Smart businesses are already positioning to service domestic and international markets for customised medical devices and assistive technologies. Many more could do this

Around 200,000 jobs are at stake nationally and 24,000 in South Australia. These numbers are large because we are set to lose not just three major companies but much of the automotive supply chain and the demand that it generates for goods and services throughout the economy – an estimated $29 billion hit to GDP.”

over years to come if we create the right conditions for industry, universities, health and aged-care providers to collaborate in the design and application of so called assistive technologies – a myriad of aids, devices and applications that help to improve quality of life as we age.

The assistive technology industry is a

multi-billion dollar one. While we don’t have precise data on the sector, we do know that the medical technology market is worth around US$300 billion per annum according to the Medical Technology Association of Australia. The combined medical and assistive technology sectors are rapidly growing and characterised by the need for high levels of customisation to meet individual needs in hospital, residential care and private home settings. Home-based aged care technologies have great promise.

Imagine smart houses with fall detectors, dehydration avoidance reminders, health status monitoring and remote support.

Combinations of these and numerous other technologies and support services are appearing in houses and institutions already.

Efforts to support the development of a robust assistive technology industry are already underway in South Australia through projects like ‘Assisting Growth’ – collaboration between the Department of Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy, the Stretton Centre, industry and the aged-care sector.

It is early days but the initiative has been greatly advanced through a partnership with Fraunhofer, a leading German-based research and development organisation – an association that will certainly help to accelerate efforts to realise opportunities that can flow from the longevity economy.

» Associate Professor John Spoehr is involved in the ‘Assisting Growth’ partnership through his involvement in the Stretton Centre linked to the Australian Workplace Innovation and Social Research Centre at The University of Adelaide.

14 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

OPINION Weeds are flowers too

BY STEPHEN FORBES

Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh observes, “Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them”. However weeds are more often derided. George Francis, the first director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, championed, “The acclimatisation of Harmless, Useful, Interesting and Ornamental Animals and Plants into South Australia” – such descriptions apparently barring the weeds that might be defined as the opposite: malicious, useless, dull and plain.

The colonists’ importation of agricultural systems allowed the arrival of the desiderata together with their attendant weeds. Even some of the apparently harmless, useful, interesting and ornamental plants, turned out in their make-up, to be deceitful in their new setting and ran wild. Some free riders exploited the system of free trade. The whole of colonisation might be viewed a vast act of acclimatisation. The act of acclimatising new plants and animals completed the process of colonisation while the attendant free riders completed the act of colonisation – the inevitable unintended consequences that accompany (the best of) intention.

Japanese poet Shimpei Kusano’s contemplation of weeds complements Eeyore’s: “I do not scorn weeds. As a matter of fact, there are some instances where they are necessary for the garden. The question of propriety is decided by the dialogue between man and weed.” (Or in the case of Eeyore, donkey and weed.)

Caroline Rothwell’s Urpflanze street plants, the current exhibition in the apt setting of the Santos Museum of Economic Botany (a Museum established in significant

The singular title of the exhibition takes Goethe’s idea of the archetypal Urpflanze described in letters to Charlotte von Stein and in Italian Journeys – the logic and ‘inner necessity and truth’ for all plants – as a theme. Goethe observed, “What pleases me most at present is plant-life. Everything is forcing itself upon me, I no longer have to think about it, everything comes to meet me, and the whole gigantic kingdom becomes so simple that I can see at once the answer to the most difficult problems. If only I could communicate the insight and joy to someone, but it is not possible. And it is no dream or fancy: I am beginning to grow aware of the essential form with which, as it were, Nature always plays, and from which she produces her great variety.” In Goethe’s later, seminal 1790 Metamorphosis of Plants he’d realised that the archetypal plant was really Leaf, and the generative forces of plant morphology were variations of the base Leaf form. Goethe’s Urpflanze, now realised in molecular biology and genetic engineering rather than poetics again evoke enquiry of the inevitable unintended consequences that accompany (the best of) intention – a Utopian or a dystopian future?

Rothwell’s work here includes weeds collected, documented and reconstituted as polyglot herbarium specimens, including those collected by war artist Ben Quilty at Tarin Kot in Afghanistan in 2011 – these woven into their environment represented

Photo Saul Steed

GREENSPACE

measure to facilitate acclimatisation) also takes weeds as a meditation – here to explore the relationship between plants, people and cultures against the settings of colonisation, industrialisation and globalisation. The exhibition is a partnership between the artist, the Gardens and the Art Gallery of South Australia and it extends the 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart beyond the Gallery where Rothwell’s Climatic is being exhibited until May 11. The Museum’s curator, Tony Kanellos, and the Gallery’s managing curator for the Biennial, Lisa Slade, ably introduce the work in their catalogue essays.

by Australian military camouflage cloth.

The exhibition also includes large cut PVC ‘paintings’ of Newton’s tree II (viewed

by Newton’s bust atop a museum cabinet), Lexicon poppy (crop) and Lexicon (office plant). The material itself is the result of sunlight trapped by plants and fossilised for aeons before being reconstituted as PVC. The interplay between these PVC plants and the plant products in the Museum’s displays, as well as the setting of the Santos Museum of Economic Botany, provide a dialogue for our relationship with, and respect for, the oeconomy of Nature.

In the end, the miracle achieved by plants in transforming sunlight into life describes our past, present and future. Ultimately our future is dependent on the role of plants in food, climate and water security. Food security is, by definition, a meditation on plant growth. Climate security is described by carbon as a surrogate for energy and depends on the fine balance between contemporary and future plant growth, and our own capacity

to manage our appetite for fossil plant carbon.

Water security, while less directly connected to photosynthesis, is intimately connected to plants – water quality defined through transpiration and a myriad of biochemical processes in wetlands, while on land most water participates in the water cycle by being drawn through a plant powered by sunlight.

The exploration of our futures in terms of our relationship with plants seems to be the most important question we have, together with our relationships with each other and the Divine.

Stephen Forbes, Director, Botanic Gardens of Adelaide

» Caroline Rothwell’s Urpflanze street plants is showing in the Santos Museum of Economy Botany, Adelaide Botanic Garden in collaboration with the Art Gallery of South Australia as part of the 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart and is open daily from 10am to 4pm until Sunday, September 14.

visual artists & venues REGISTRATIONS FOR EXHIBITIONS OPEN NOW UNTIL 19 May South Australian Living Artists Festival

1-24 August 2014

salafestival.com

16 The Adelaide Review May 2014

finance Are You Giving Customers What They Want?

BY Michael Browne

B

ased on what you read and hear it would be reasonable to expect that customers rate experience, best price, largest range and 24/7 access as the most important aspects when they interact with your business.

Quite simply that is not the case – the number one expectation customers have is trust.

According to a recent PwC Global Online Survey, close to nine out of 10 consumers said their primary reason for shopping with a company was because they trust the brand. For those wary of shopping online, 43 percent said it was concerns about the security of their personal data which put them off. Even for those who don’t shop online, their personal information is still tracked, analysed, stored and shared with other businesses in a range of everyday actions such as in-store shopping,

paying bills or making a call on their mobile.

Irrespective of how or where personal data is collected, the question of security still remains.

Whose role is it to protect it? What measures should a business take to ensure privacy? What happens if there is a breach?

All of these questions take on a greater importance in light of some very high profile privacy breaches – such as Target in the United States where the personal information of 70 million customers, including credit card numbers, was leaked following a cyber attack during the 2013 holiday season. To help prevent breaches and better protect Australians and those who have data stored in Australia, new privacy regulations were introduced on March 12, 2014.

These are the biggest changes to privacy laws in 25 years. The new privacy regulations are based on 13 principles that legislate how government and businesses, public and private, with an annual turnover of more than $3 million a year need to collect, use, store and share personal data. The principles are not just about about protecting customer data from prying eyes but also ensuring that data is not abused. Importantly, a read of the fine print shows they also apply to smaller businesses as well.

Failure to comply with the new principles can lead to substantial fines. These will be imposed

by the Australian Privacy Commissioner, who also has the right to investigate any one-off or recurring offences.

improved privacy standards are raising the bar for what consumers will expect; breaking their trust will have disastrous ramifications.

Whether your business is impacted or not, the new privacy principles set robust guidelines that you would be wise to follow if you want to give your customers the trust they so value.

Still before the Senate, new legislation which will require mandatory reporting of breaches.

If passed in the current form, the proposed new laws, introduced into Parliament in March, would require an organisation or agency to notify privacy breaches to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), if there is a “real risk of serious harm” to affected individuals.

The commissioner would have the power to force offenders to publish public notices or to notify affected individuals.

To get started, you first have to know what is classed as personal information. Under the new legislation, personal information has been extended to account for any information collected anonymously, and that will have the ability to identify individuals. That includes phone numbers, address, names and ages. Businesses must also be able to notify individuals when information has been stored, how that information is used and where it is stored.

Consumers also have more control over their ability to opt-out of certain communications. Not only do businesses need to include an opt-out mechanism, but they must also offer a centre where users are able to opt-out of other communications.

Changes to responsibility in the event of a breach have also shifted to the business in question when that breach is located overseas. These obligations must be taken seriously if organisations hope to compete and succeed in this new world. While the possibilities of using data to personalise experiences and create adaptive marketing solutions are endless, care must be taken.These

Australia is behind the eight ball on introducing mandatory reporting. The overseas track record of this legislation shows that sharing breach information helps to reduce and even prevents repeat or new breaches. Whilst business may think keeping this information confidential reduces perceived vulnerability it may infact be quite the opposite. Businesses working collaboratively by sharing the information may make business in general a harder target and therefore more trustworthy overall in the eyes of the customer.

Michael Browne is a Partner at PwC pwc.com.au

The Adelaide Review May 2014 17

adelaidereview.com.au

columnist

Third Age It’s all about time

BY Shirley Stott Despoja

I

t’s May. Already. You can see what we old people are up against, can’t you? I still have my Christmas lights up in the living room.

It is ridiculous how time flies. When I think of the longeurs of my childhood and marriage, and compare it with how days whizz past now that I am old, I think something is seriously wrong.

I would like some first-class research into this.

To conservatives time is not so important.

They have chosen to catch up slowly. I could give you a lifetime of examples. Radicals are always as anxious about the rapid passage of time as by the need for reforms. Old age brings us together in a rebellion against time. We want to stop the ruddy clocks. It’s not reform or the old ways we seek so much as reprieve.

No wonder some of us rejoice when the clocks are seasonally put back. We are snatching a bit more life until next summer. Oh festina lente.

Well, this is not going to get the baby a new bonnet, as my father used to say. The year is almost half gone and I must accept it. My

favorite mystery writer Hazel Holt has but one device for moving her characters on from one place or conversation to the next. She has them say: “Goodness, is that the time?”

This is my mantra now, except that I don’t move on much. It is interesting that Lewis Carroll wrote that he intended his White Rabbit – obsessively checking his watch in Alice – to be elderly. I am truly transfixed by the thought that yesterday was New Year and today is May. Goodness, is that the month?

Not that the young don’t have their little time quirks, as shown in some of their metaphors.

I read this hilarious comment on old age in a newspaper recently: “The ticking time bomb of an ageing population has begun its slow motion detonation throughout the Budget.”

(Interesting metrically, too.)

I do fancy the idea of being part of a Budget time bomb. Tick, ticking away until dimwit politicians wake up, pale and scared. I feel like putting my head around a Hockey/Sinodinos Budget pow-wow room, and saying, “Boo!.”

How quaint the young are when talking about old age. “Hey folks, grandma’s ticking…” When I am ignored in queues now I go “tick, tick, tick…” I have found it attracts attention to me and my insolent occupation of space and sometimes gets me to the head of the queue.

Presumably before I detonate. Slowly.

The same writer said, “Nobody likes getting old”. I am afraid she might find that the old prefer getting old to being young and crass.

And anyway, we are in a position to judge, and the young writer plainly is not.

*****

Attacks on the ABC are ridiculous. It doesn’t have enough captioning, but apart from that it is amazing what it does with its few quid grudgingly tossed its way. It is not for everyone.

Pop music, funeral fund ads and shock jocks are not for everybody either, but so long as they don’t monopolise the airwaves, I won’t be asking for them to be removed. Yes, we are a minority, but we may be a minority that knows what comes after ABC (oh, that upset you, didn’t it?). And which cares about language and quality drama, news and lively but serious discussion in which many points of view are represented. And music: ancient, romantic, classical and modern. I hear quite a bit of quality light music on the ABC. People who know and love good music don’t much care about labels. But I don’t hear much “classical music” on the commercial stations.

And SBS is a truly wonderful TV broadcaster.

Australia has every reason to be proud of it, not to starve it of funds. (Did you see the

wonderful programme on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon last month?)

I suppose some people might think I have damned it with the praise of an old person. But there are a lot of us old persons about. Didn’t you read what the writer quoted above said: we’re a ticking time bomb, a “population”?

Leave us our publicly funded broadcasters or

@mollyfisher4

18 The Adelaide Review May 2014

Education Education Feature

STUDENT WELLBEING A PRIORITY AT SCOTCH COLLEGE Scotch College has identified a direct relationship between the wellbeing of students and the value they get from learning, which is driving a modern way of teaching at the prestigious Adelaide school.

Scotch College Principal Tim Oughton says the school is placing an increasing emphasis on building students’ resilience, particularly for middle school students before they embark on their senior years.

“At Scotch, student wellbeing is paramount,” said Mr Oughton.

Nurturing Talent at the Centre for Creative Photography In today’s digital- and image-oriented world, photography is a key life skill. Photographers are in demand, and people in seemingly unrelated industries will gain much with camera work.

Photography teaches not only camera controls but visual literacy, digital media and problem solving. The team at the Centre for Creative Photography (CCP) nourish students to express themselves artistically.

Gavin Blake founded the CCP in 1997. He had run photography curricula for over 20 years in Adelaide and the United States after falling in love with the medium.

The CCP intended to foster a passion for excellence in photography with a comprehensive program. Just as important was offering flexibility to students: “Over the years I saw many students struggle with full-time study because of circumstances.

Some couldn’t complete their studies, or had to make compromises in their lives,” says Gavin.

“People need the chance to study at their own pace.”

This ethos for flexibility means that

Elliott Clarke

Those who aim to become working photographers are taught the skills they need to work commercially. Specialisation is crucial, and catered for.

These instructors guide students to develop their own photographic style. There is no ‘CCP style’, with lionised teachers who are to be emulated.

We see photographs daily in every possible setting. They can become commodified, losing their meaning. But photographs can also be fine art objects.

Students may also take individual subjects or choose a study plan that suits their aspirations.

The CCP runs workshops between terms for those who are time-poor.

The CCP’s progressive courses and philosophies are based on the Atelier system, encouraging rule-breaking. Photography should not be formulaic though an understanding of technique is essential. Gavin elaborates:

A painstakingly crafted darkroom or digital print can be visually absorbed like a painting.

We can read the story it tells, or the emotions it stirs, like prose or poetry. You are invited to discover this wonder at the CCP.

The CCP is still a small, specialised institute.

But it has grown to be the largest photographic department in Adelaide. It has strong industry ties and its lecturers are working professionals.

“A person’s work should communicate what they wish to say, not always what traditions expect. Still, one must have a deep understanding of their craft to do so.”

»»ccp.sa.edu.au 8354 0839

study is available part-time or full-time for the Certificate IV and Diploma. Students can commence in any of the four terms.

Education is for all levels; from introductory to advanced.

The Adelaide Review May 2014 19

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Advertising feature positive solutions.

broader aim of developing students as happy, successful and well-rounded young people.

“Limited student numbers mean each member of the community has a voice and a feeling of place, and, above all, is not seen as just a number but valued for their individual skills, talents and personality.”

Mr Oughton says research indicates a strong correlation between wellbeing, motivation and academic success.

“We are preparing students for the world and encourage them to embrace a positive approach in all that they do,” he said.

“Scotch aims to enhance student wellbeing and help facilitate the development of positive traits in students, and in turn facilitate positive experiences, whether that’s in the classroom, on the sporting field or in everyday life.

“Our low student to staff ratio of about 14 to one, the relatively small size of the college, and the autonomous structures of our Junior, Middle and Senior schools means we can establish very real relationships with our students and their families.

“Our House structures and mentoring program provide the basis of a school family for students. This enables caring supervision and individual attention, so we can best meet student needs, identify issues before they become problems and help find practical

“We endeavour to equip our students with the tools to confidently deal with the daily stresses and challenges of life so that they become more resilient and maintain wellbeing.”

As one of the top independent schools in the state, Scotch’s popularity is based on more than the first-class education it provides, but its

“We teach, guide and encourage students to become vibrant scholars who are able to learn independently, respect the rights of others, and who are willing to serve and be passionate about life,” said Mr Oughton.

“A diverse curriculum and highly qualified teachers and support staff help students learn to their greatest potential, while the College’s exceptional co-curricular program provides additional learning opportunities through sport, drama, debating, film-making, dance, music and visual arts.

“We take enormous satisfaction from the College’s outstanding reputation for academic excellence, but more importantly, we are extremely proud of how we help develop students as fine young people in preparation for their adult lives.”

»»For more information about Scotch College enrolments or school tours, contact the registrar on 8274 4209, email enrolments@scotch.sa.edu.au or visit scotch.sa.edu.au.

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time Thomas Merton

S T U DY A RT H I S TORY with THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE and the ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

2014 MID-YEAR POSTGRADUATE COURSES: Modern Australian Art, Curatorial and Museum Studies, MA Dissertation Online courses: Indigenous Art Installation view: Heartland: Contemporary Art from South Australia featuring Yhonnie Scarce The Cultivation of Whiteness.

Art History ADL Review Halfpg 158x250 horizontal.indd 1

For more information visit www.arthistory.adelaide.edu.au, phone 08 8313 5746 or email catherine.speck@adelaide.edu.au 28/04/2014 12:56 pm

20 The Adelaide Review May 2014

education

Making the Modern – Art History in Action by ​Lisa Slade Project Curator, Art Gallery of South Australia

and providing unprecedented access to 200 works of art traversing painting, drawing, textiles and printmaking. The course will be taught by Professor Catherine Speck, who has lectured and published extensively on the Modern period, and guest lectures will be presented by curators and scholars.

Black’s contribution will be one of the case studies presented in the Modern Australian Art course jointly delivered by The University of Adelaide and the Art Gallery of South Australia in semester two this year.

The Modern Australian Art course will also draw upon the Gallery’s rich holdings of decorative arts from the period, revealing that the most modern ideas were often first trialled in the home. The role of cultural exchange, specifically the influence of nonWestern, including Aboriginal, art on the development of Australian modernism, will also be a considered subject, thereby challenging the assumption that Australia, modernism was solely a translation of European ideas and techniques.

The exhibition, curated by Tracey LockWeir, will provide a vibrant backdrop to the course, inviting students into Black’s world

Other courses on offer in second semester 2014 include Curatorial and Museum Studies and Indigenous Art online.

Dorrit Black Australia, 1891-1951. The Bridge, 1930, Sydney, Oil on canvas laid on board.

Bequest of the artist 1951 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

For information, contact Professor Catherine Speck on 8313 5746, email catherine.speck@adelaide.edu.au or visit arthistory.adelaide.edu.au.

»»Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces will be held at the Art Gallery of South Australia from Saturday, June 14 until Sunday, September 7.

Admission is free artgallery.sa.gov.au

journey The Middle School years are a vital part of the transition from the warmth and security of the junior foundation years and the serious jump to years 10, 11 and 12. In these years we place great emphasis on building a student’s resilience and developing them as a member of a community of learners who thrive and strive to be the best they possibly can be.

At Scotch College, we believe in a direct relationship between student wellbeing and the value they get from learning. The Middle School years are a vital time to help them understand their emotions and use this to shape their actions. This leads to greater engagement as learners and a positive mind to success.

After Middle School their potential is only limited by their ambition and imagination.

Book a tour online or for enrolment enquiries please contact enrolments@scotch.sa.edu.au or telephone the Head of Enrolments, Jane Bourne on 8274 4209.

SCA0400

The exhibition Dorrit Black: Unseen Forces probes the role of this significant South Australian artist in the making of Australian modernism. Adelaide born, Black left Australia to be part of the excitement of Modern Europe, studying in London and Paris, and then returning to Australia to become a conduit for the contemporary art of the time. An advocate of Modernism, Black produced work that challenged the aesthetic and social conservatism of the time but is largely an ‘unseen force’ in the story of Australian modernism.

The Adelaide Review May 2014 21

adelaidereview.com.au

advertising feature

Arts Grad Chosen for Prestigious Photographic Prize at National Gallery Bachelor of Visual Arts (photography) graduate Molly Harris is one of 45 Australian artists chosen to be featured in the prestigious National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition.

Harris, who finished her degree at the end of last year, said she is excited that her work has been chosen for this competitive exhibition.

“I was blown away to be honest,” she said. “I really didn’t think I would actually get through.

“I’m really excited and humbled that my work was chosen. It’s nice to have validation that my work is exciting and interesting to other people, and this encourages me to pursue it.”

Harris’s work documents people with heroin addictions – something she finds interesting but understands that it can be quite confronting to other people.

“It’s nice to find work that I find interesting and that other people – like the judges of this competition – are also interested in.”

The National Photographic Portrait Prize is an annual event intended to promote the very

Molly Harris, Maria

best in contemporary photographic portraiture by both professional and aspiring Australian photographers. The Gallery is offering a prize of $25,000 for the most outstanding photographic portrait.

The exhibition opened on March 21 at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra before travelling to other galleries in Australia.

“This exhibition is the most prestigious photography portrait award in Australia, a huge number of people enter and it is an honour simply to be chosen for the exhibition,” said UniSA Studio Head of Photography and New Media, Mark Kimber.

“Molly is one of our finest and most hardworking students ever, and we are very proud of her accomplishment.”

Harris is now considering postgraduate study at UniSA this year.

»»unisa.edu.au

World Class Art School The success of a school’s graduates is the measure of the school itself. In higher education this is especially true, as the academic focus of a course is developed in direct relation to the industry to which its students aspire. Every lesson, exchange and experience needs to lay the foundations for students to achieve their career goals.

Adelaide Central School of Art is a leader among visual art Higher Education Providers in laying these foundations. The School emphasises intensive engagement with studio practice, challenging students to cultivate depth and range in their technical abilities. The School also prepares its students to become enquiring and original thinkers, able to use their practical skills to explore concepts with rigor and integrity.

Julia’s work investigates language, memory and place through a sophisticated engagement with materials and sculptural forms. She has shown work at FELTspace Gallery and the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia and in the last two years has participated in overseas residencies spending time at art institutions in Reykvavik and Berlin.

Chris completed her Bachelor of Visual Art (Honours) at the School in 2000. Her work is distinguished by gently menacing narratives and a sophisticated engagement with the process of painting. Chris was the recipient of the Anne & Gordon Samstag Visual Arts Scholarship in 2006, having exhibited extensively in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. She used this support to pursue her Masters of Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, and is now based permanently in the south of France where she paints full-time.

Artists Julia McInerney and Chris Aerfeldt are two examples of graduates from the School who are forging ahead in their careers. Their success is testament to the School’s high standards and its commitment to equipping aspiring artists with the necessary tools to develop dynamic professional pathways in the visual arts.

For Chris, her experience at the Adelaide Central School of Art “was a major turning point, enabling [her] to develop skills that weren’t being taught elsewhere”. She recalls her astonishment that students at the Chelsea College “were turning to [her] for advice, not just about painting but also about theory”. As Chris attests, “Adelaide Central School of Art is a world-class art school.”

Julia McInerney is an artist on the rise. Having graduated from the School with a Bachelor of Visual Art (Honours) in 2011, she has quickly set about developing her career as an artist.

»»acsa.sa.edu.au

22 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

FASHION

THESE CHARMING MEN A new co-op space in the West End is home to Copley & Watson, a specialist men’s store offering fine footwear and accessories.

BY SELENA BATTERSBY

A T T I T U D E

AUTUMN EDITION OUT NOW

expectations of what a retail experience could be like. Speaking on the store’s design, Marovic explains, “The primary inspirations were Indian and Nepalese colour palettes, but also 80s western approaches like the Hacienda in Manchester. The intention was to remove the corners of the room, creating a continuous but unpredictable flow that is simply playful and different.”

For Watson and Copley, the concept behind the store was about bringing unique and highly sought-after footwear designs and accessories to Adelaide. The pair have hand-selected labels that are lovingly made and designed to last.

This idea is taken through to the brands on display in store. One such brand is cult UK

AT T I T U D E M A G A Z I N E . C O M . A U

In the age of fast and disposable fashion, with stores like H&M and Zara opening new flagship stores across Australia, local lads Andy Watson and Rob Copley are bucking the trend and reminding us about the beauty of craftsmanship and design. With the philosophy that we should be filling our wardrobes with the unique and handcrafted, Copley & Watson seeks to change the way we consume fashion.

Sharing space with Magazine Gallery and Right Hand Distribution on Clubhouse Lane in Adelaide’s West End, Copley & Watson is the brainchild of the men behind the name.

The new space was designed by Matiya Marovic, who wanted to bring a sense of fun and life to the store and change people’s

footwear Grenson – whose shoemakers have been using the same methods since 1866 – meaning the shoes can be re-soled many times over, making them a lifetime investment. This is an important philosophy for Copley and Watson, with the duo offering a maintenance and restoration service for customers who purchase shoes and boots from the store.

“Quality leather footwear will look better with age from its natural patina, but leather is thirsty and needs moisture put back into it to keep it looking its best,” Watson explains.

On the importance of looking after our shoes, Copley says, “Regular maintenance is the key with footwear. In most cases a tired pair of shoes or boots just needs some love.”

Looking to the streets of Daikanyama, Japan for inspiration, Watson and Copley will be curating a number of designer labels in the store in coming months, these will join current brands like Oak Street Bookmakers, the famed US shoe and boot label that prides itself on preserving the heritage of fine shoemaking through thoughtfully designed and attentively crafted shoes, and Japanese sock label Anonymous Ism, which offers superior quality and contrasting designs selected to match perfectly with boots sold in store.

» Copley & Watson 83a Hindley Street facebook.com/copleywatsonfootwear

FASHION RENDEZVOUS

GILLES STREET MARKET Sunday, May 4 and Sunday, May 18, 10am to 4pm 91 Gilles Street, Adelaide gillesstreetmarket.com.au The Gilles Street Autumn Market returns in May, with two fabulous market extravaganzas! The market is bringing all the fashion to you on Sunday, May 4 and Sunday, May 18.

More than 85 stalls of fashion, vintage, accessories and great foodies. Is there a better way to spend your Sunday?

Hit up the Gilles Street Market on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for all the details.

The Adelaide Review May 2014 23

adelaidereview.com.au

books of the Statistical Section, the French equivalent of Britain’s later MI5. Alas, Mercier failed to realise the young colonel believed in the inconvenient principle ‘let truth prevail though the sky fall’.

Everything we witness in this novel is through Picquart’s eyes for it is told in the first person. Harris assures us that not a character in the book is invented, which means the research must have been Herculean. It was worth it.

An Officer and a Spy Robert Harris / Hutchinson

BY Roger Hainsworth

Robert Harris is extraordinary. Not just for the 10 million copies sold, the translations into 31 languages, but for the extraordinarily imaginative and challenging settings of his eight previous novels: from England years after a 1940 German victory (Fatherland), and the claustrophobic world of the Bletchley Park decoders (Enigma) to the world of Pompeii’s chief water engineer in 79 A.D. (Pompeii), all so original, all compulsively readable. With this ninth novel I may have uttered a faint groan when I discovered where he wanted to lead me.

Picquart, originally convinced of Dreyfus’ guilt although puzzled by his lack of motive, discovers the Army has another traitor in its ranks, a Major Esterhazy. Then he sees an example of Esterhazy’s handwriting and the scales fall from his eyes. When he naively reports his discoveries to his superiors he finds the hunter has become the hunted! Read on – things have only just begun!

Willy Vlautin / Faber The French call it L’Affaire Dreyfus or just L’Affaire. This literally translates as the Dreyfus case but this is more than just a legal case. It is one of the world’s greatest sagas of injustice, inhumanity, treachery, and heroic pursuit of the right and a great argument for keeping the generals out of politics.

It divided a nation, split families, mobilised intellectuals as never before, and disillusioned thousands of army officers with their superiors. For us it reinforces a valuable lesson: crimes committed to protect the state are still crimes.

The protagonist, the ‘officer’, is Colonel Georges Picquart. He was the investigator whose meddling led to Dreyfus’s release from Devil’s Island for a retrial, his second ludicrous guilty verdict, his pardon, and finally his reinstatement in the army. All this in spite of generals more concerned for their reputation (better to let an innocent man go mad on Devil’s Island than admit a mistake) and venomous right-wing politicians, most of whom loathed the Republic and all it stood for and anyway hated all Jews.

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On Such A Full Sea Hachette Australia / Chang-Rae Lee

BY Jillian Schedneck

BY Helen Dinmore

Three portraits of American life are offered in Willy Vlautin’s latest novel. The story opens with Leroy, a wounded Iraq war veteran, who suddenly reaches a moment of clarity and lucidity. Fearing his mind will return to its usual haze, he decides to commit suicide in his group home, but botches the job. He is found by Freddie, the group home nightshift worker, and taken to the hospital, where he is cared for by Pauline, a shift nurse.

Through alternating chapters, we are brought into each of these characters’ lives and unenviable circumstances.

Vlautin has written a valuable and absorbing story of three intersecting lives. They are part of the 99 percent who sacrifice, play by the rules, and for the most part follow what life has set out for them. The book is much more a portrait than suspenseful action, the ending alluding more to continuation than finality, and that’s a strength of this story. Vlautin never preaches about the inequities and impossible conditions these characters find themselves in, but only shows us in crystalline prose how they have come to this point, and how they go on.

The `spy’ is Captain Alfred Dreyfus, but mercifully we don’t share the horrors of that shamefully tormented, completely innocent victim.

Leading French generals in the 1890s appeared to assert a ‘divine right’ to be trusted – and unquestioned – for the sake of French security. In fact they were but poor shadows of such Napoleonic marshals as Ney, Massena and Soult. Picquart had played a minor role in Dreyfus’s arrest and had been invited to be the eyes and ears of General Mercier, the Minister of War, at Dreyfus’s trial. Mercier then appointed Picquart to replace the terminally ill head

The Free

Chang-Rae Lee’s fifth novel depicts a formally stratified future America in which the elite – known as Charters – live in gated communities surrounded by lawless open counties. Elsewhere, worker collectives tend high-tech agricultural ‘facilities’ built in re-colonised cities. Modest comforts and privileges, along with fear of the counties and awe of the closed Charter world, keep the residents of B-Mor – a fish-producing facility, formerly Baltimore – docile and grateful for what they have. The B-Mor community tells, in the first person plural, the story of Fan, one of their own who chooses to flee the facility. Her story takes on the status of a legend, or even a kind of folk tale, a disruption to their dream of security.

Fan is both nominally free and deeply vulnerable in the counties and the Charter villages. As some characters trade their safety, others their liberty and still others their humanity, this strange and provocative work explores how any quest to make our lives less precarious turns us into commodities, and considers the complex meaning of freedom in light of our desire for connection and the very real safety of the clan.

24 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

WIN WIN!

MONTEFIORE

FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN, ENTER YOUR DETAILS AT ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

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BELLE

324 Magill Road, Kensington Park Win a free dinner for two valued at up to $70. Enjoy true Italian-style pizza and pasta.

Selected cinemas from Thursday, May 8 An illegitimate mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral is raised by her aristocratic greatuncle. Directed by Amma Asante. Stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Matthew Goode and Emily Watson.

THE OXENBERRY FARM EXPERIENCE Oxenberry Farm Wines, Cafe and B&B Kangarilla Road, McLaren Vale Win a lunch and enjoy Oxenberry’s signature farmers’ platter and unique ‘Grapple’ cider, followed by two brilliantly blended Fair Trade organic roasted coffees and authentic Italian biscotti.

52 TUESDAYS Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas From Thursday, May 1 Sixteen-year-old Billie’s reluctant path to independence is accelerated when her mother reveals plans to gender transition and their time together becomes limited to Tuesday afternoons. Directed by Sophie Hyde. Stars Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Del Herbert-Jane and Mario Späte.

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH Dunstan Playhouse, Saturday, May 10, 8pm State Theatre Company presents a new play by writer Lally Katz, Neighbourhood Watch. BAFTA Award-winning star Miriam Margolyes joins State Theatre Company for the first time in this glorious new Australian comedy about hope, death and pets. From the unique imagination of Lally Katz springs a world of wonderfully neurotic, painfully recognisable characters.

SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas Tuesday, May 6 to Wednesday, May 21 Going strong in its 17th year, the Spanish Film Festival continues to present audiences with an unsurpassed opportunity to see the very best and most recent Spanish and Spanishspeaking Latin American films.

HEALING Selected cinemas from Thursday, May 8 At the tail end of a 16-year sentence, an inmate is sent to a low-security, pre-release prison with a special program that pairs men with injured game birds. Directed by Craig Monahan. Stars Hugo Weaving, Don Hany and Xavier Samuel.

THE ZERO THEOREM Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas from Thursday, May 15 A computer hacker whose goal is to discover the reason for human existence continually finds his work interrupted thanks to the Management; namely, they send a teenager and lusty love interest to distract him. Directed

by Terry Gilliam. Stars Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Thierry and David Thewlis.

THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN

Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas from Thursday, May 15 Infused with gorgeous bluegrass music and performances of rare power and magnetism, the film takes you on a rollercoaster ride that leaves you exhilarated and reeling. More than mere background music, bluegrass is integral to the story, linking the main themes of life, love, death, America and parenthood.

JAZZ AWARDS 2014 InterContinental Adelaide, Thursday, May 22, 7pm Celebrate as the Elder Conservatorium of Music and the Helpmann Academy present The Jazz Awards 2014. Featuring performances by the top jazz graduates from the Elder Conservatorium, together with four-time ARIA award-winning singer/songwriter Katie Noonan.

BETWEEN LIGHT – ZEPHYR QUARTET Queen’s Theatre, Thursday, May 22 Between Light draws together leading Australian jazz artists in the creation of new works for Zephyr Quartet, exploring notions of light and dark in their work and taking the Italian art term chiaroscuro as a genesis.

EDDI READER AND BAND Trinity Sessions, 318 Goodwood Road Sunday, June 22, 6pm Eddi Reader, one of the world’s finest vocalists, is delighted to be performing for the first time for the Trinity Sessions to launch her stunning new album Vagabond.

CALAMITY JANE – MARIE CLARK MUSICAL THEATRE Arts Theatre, 53 Angas Street Saturday, May 24, 8pm Deadwood City’s two most famous peace officers, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok, get involved in saving the neck of Henry Miller, the local saloon operator.

GREAT TUNES FROM THE CLASSIC MOVIES Capri Theatre, 141 Goodwood Road Sunday, May 25, 2pm Theatre Organ Society SA presents Scott Harrison together with the Dave Brookes Collective and guest vocalist Michelle Pearson. Enjoy Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, As Time Goes By from Casablanca, The Pink Panther Theme, the theme from Picnic at Hanging Rock, Love is in the Air from Strictly Ballroom and more.

THE AMERICAN BRASS QUINTET Adelaide Town Hall, Thursday, May 29, 7.30pm Making their first Australian appearance in over 40 years, the American Brass Quintet performs a program spanning the centuries from the grandeur of Renaissance Venice to the excitement of the 21st century.

This is a unique opportunity to hear all the elements that have made them the most acclaimed brass ensemble of our time.

MAESTRO SERIES 2-TITAN

Elder Hall, Sunday, June 15, 3pm For the first time in the two orchestras’ history, Adelaide Youth Orchestra and the Elder Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra combine to perform three inspiring and dramatic works; Koehne’s New Suite from his ballet 1914, Weber’s joyous Clarinet Concertino and Mahler’s grandiose and lyrical Symphony No 1.

BELLA ITALIA Adelaide Town Hall, Friday, June 20, 8pm The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and conductor Arvo Volmer go on an Italian-inspired musical journey with one of the world’s greatest violists, Maxim Rysanov. On the program is Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, based on Lord Byron’s poem Child Harolde, plus Mendelssohn’s sunsoaked Fourth Symphony – Italian.

How a Town Hall fight with open-air preachers ended up accidentally highlighting the everyday fabric of Adelaide’s inner-city street life – and prompted a pedal of protest on the eve of an international celebration of cycling.

BY SIR MONTEFIORE SCUTTLEBUTT

F

eeding the pigeons, sleeping it off in a parked car, tying a dog to a tree, helping oneself to rubbish bins to recycle, and chaining a bike to a city street pole are inner city Australian habits established over generations.

Adelaide’s Mediterranean climate encourages an active outdoor life. But it turns out that these activities are all against city by-laws. Few would have known this, but for a curious collision of recent events.

On the eve of Adelaide’s $550,000 Velocity Global cycling bash this month, attracting plane-loads of keen international pedal pushers, the last thing that city officials wanted in the lead-up was a behind-the-scenes fight about local street habits, especially the one about the legal traps affecting cyclists. There’s always been a city shortage of ‘proper’ bike racks. During major events, long-established tradition has seen hundreds of cycles of attendees chained to anything immoveable.

The story behind this story reflects the nature of politics and the law, whose machinery moves slowly but inexorably: a bureaucratic glacier that can capture random other items as it pushes forward. Annoyingly for our cycling devotee Lord Mayor, Stephen Yarwood, something totally unconnected with the joy of cycling very recently got dragged in by the glacier. It was an embarrassing paper protest at a very bad time – more on which later.

The story began with aggressive open-air city street preaching in 2010 that so annoyed shoppers and traders in Rundle Mall that Town Hall lawyers took the preachers to court – having failed to stop them via its by-laws. It lost.

Undeterred, in 2013 it appealed to the High Court about the efficacy of said by-laws and won. The case highlighted the need for an urgent Town Hall by-law review. This is now done, but it needs six months to tie up the loose ends once a state Legislative Review Committee has pondered its outcome. Part of this procedure is to consult with the

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 25

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

PERFORMING ARTS

Into the Light

BY AMELIA PINNA

A

keen interest in jazz and a shared appreciation for new music was the impetus behind the Zephyr Quartet’s imaginative new performance project, Between Light. Performing at Adelaide’s

historic Queen’s Theatre, the South Australian string quartet hopes to breathe new life into classical music performance, presenting five specially commissioned works by leading Australian jazz artists Andrea Keller, Tony Gould, Stephen Magnusson, Matt Keegan and Lyndon Gray. Stepping away from the traditional concert format, the members of the Zephyr Quartet – Belinda Gehlert (violin), Emily Tulloch (violin), Jason Thomas (viola) and Hilary Kleinig (cello) – will present the new works as a promenade performance, moving with the audience through the rooms of the Queen’s Theatre.

In collaboration with esteemed lighting designer Geoff Cobham, the performances

will take place in intimate and uniquely lit rooms, tailored to each musical score. The Italian art term chiaroscuro, meaning light and dark, is the central theme of the performance, and according to the Zephyr Quartet’s artistic director and cellist, Hilary Kleinig, each composer was given this theme as the genesis for their work.

“Personally I have been very interested in the idea of polarities in life: light and dark, life and death, love and hate, good and evil.

As an artist, I find it fascinating to explore the use of light and dark as a metaphorical theme as well as a physical theme,” Kleinig explains.

“We haven’t told the composers what to do stylistically. We really left it up to them and it’s been interesting to see how each of them responded differently to the theme. Some have responded quite literally and others quite abstractly; some have responded in a metaphorical, emotional sense and others in a kind of musical, physical sense.”

Zephyr Quartet

Despite sharing a common jazz background, Kleinig explains that each artist has created a remarkably unique musical composition, influenced by their varying ages and the instruments they play. “One of the things we most admire about musicians working in these areas is how they’ll often defy boundaries of style and definition,” she says.

very persons who assumed that it was their constitutional right to feed the birds, sleep it off in a parked car, help themselves to rubbish bins for recycling, or chain a bike to any city pole.

It turns out few knew about the by-laws and as the consultation glacier progressed, it dug up a howl of protest in March this year prompting some old Town Hall hands to recall the fatherly advice of their boyhoods – avoid poking sticks into ant nests because you might get bitten.

The consultation provoked 84 detailed, angry written responses covering 46 Town Hall pages of fine print, criticism that the by-laws threatened to tear apart the very fabric of everyday life as Adelaideans knew it. “Roads are shared spaces. Recycling goods from bins provides income for many,” wrote one objector. Another: “The no-sleeping-incars [by-law] is basically encouraging drink driving.” Another: “I was in Melbourne last week. Bikes parked on footpaths, skaters in amongst it, people feeding birds, homeless collecting recyclables… As a mid-late 30s person who still loves the vibrancy of this city (and has resisted the temptation to permanently leave for bigger cities) many of these proposals are retrograde and embarrassing.” The cycling topic attracted the strongest response, with 76 feisty, cantankerous submissions. For example: “As a cyclist I can say this [proposed by-law] is extremely impractical… It is no wonder we have an exodus of young talent when rules prohibiting any creativity or autonomy in the city limits without being council approved continue to be passed. Behind all the rhetoric of ‘vibrancy’ when

“We have one piece in the performance which is quite contemporary, using a lot of interesting string and compositional techniques, while another one is more traditional, based on folk songs. Another one is quite angular; I remember the composer saying it’s meant to sound like shards of light intersecting, and I can really hear that in the music.” Kleinig says the aim of the project is to create an immersive and holistic concert experience through the merging of different art forms, taking the audience on a literal, visual and sonic journey.

“I think combining different art forms is a really great way of cross-fertilising audiences. One enriches the other in a way that a single art form couldn’t,” she says.

“We very much want it to be an immersive experience in that the audience is actively participating in the performance; that they’re not passive about receiving the music. They have to move with us and experience the music and the lighting.”

» Between Light Queen’s Theatre Wednesday, May 21 to Sunday, May 25 zephyrquartet.com

will you realise that you cannot manufacture culture?” And finally: “The hype is about wanting Adelaide to be lively, diverse, edgy, really out there, but these laws appear to want to make us anything but.” Ouch.

To be fair, Town Hall was merely (as usual) acting as its lawyers’ pawn. On birds, dogs and rubbish recycling the explanations highlighted fears about potential of public health risk. On sleeping in a car, the lawyers reflected on other camping by-laws, linked to previous park lands abuses where some lived in parked cars.

On bikes, the administrators (through words approved by the lawyers) struck up a bold defence: “It is not council’s intention to ban [locking bikes to poles] but to have the ability to take action if and when a Bicycle is left in an inappropriate place which unfortunately happens from time to time. Cyclists can be assured that considerate use of infrastructure will not be affected. Where there is no chance of danger or damage, we would have no concerns.”

The by-law has been tweaked to reflect that.

Unfortunately, for the international set visiting our little city ostensibly now subject to a cycling revolution under a youthful Lord Mayor, the PR damage may already have been done. The irony is that many lawyers ride bikes to work – but their $2000 cycles are taken into the building because, left on the street, they would almost certainly be stolen. So no by-law interpretation challenge for them – the very people skilled enough to do it.

“It’s the Lion king on steroids.” Dominion Post, NZ

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26 The Adelaide Review May 2014

performing arts

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins Conductor Behzod Abduraimov Piano

THIS MONTH The Adelaide Review’s guide to May’s highlight PERFORMING ARTS events

DAZZLING RACHMANINOV Friday 23 & Saturday 24 May Adelaide Town Hall

“High-octane virtuosity”

Carmina Burana

David Bridie and Frank Yamma

Festival Theatre Friday, May 16 and Saturday, May 17 aso.com.au

Nexus Live Nexus Multicutural Arts Centre Friday, May 23 nexus.asn.au

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s new Associate Guest Conductor Nicholas Carter will lead the orchestra through Carl Orff’s epic Carmina Burana.

Friends and collaborators David Bridie (Not Drowning, Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake) and Frank Yamma team up as part of Nexus Live’s eclectic music program. Other artists bound for Nexus Live this May and June include Ngaiire, Jeff Lang and Adam Page.

BBC Music Magazine

Do not miss THIS Piano Concerto and THIS pianist! Behzod Abduraimov takes on one of the most challenging concertos in the piano repertoire: Rachmaninov’s Third.

Also featuring in this concert: the Australian Premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’ Overture to St Francis of Assisi and Walton’s First Symphony.

Excite your senses.

Book your tickets now.

131 246 bass.net.au

Admission: One Shilling

American Brass Quintet

Festival Theatre Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24 admissiononeshilling.com

Adelaide Town Hall Thursday, May 29 musicaviva.com.au

Patricia Routledge and Piers Lane team up for the musical and theatrical celebration of wartime music and Myra Hess in Admission: One Shilling. This will be Routledge’s (Keeping Up Appearances) first time on an Adelaide stage.

Hailed as the “high priests of brass” by Newsweek, the American Brass Quintet is one of the premier contemporary music ensembles and will tour Australia for the first time in four decades with two new additions to their line-up.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 27

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

PERFORMING ARTS

She’s a Rebel To call Darlene Love’s five-decade music career a roller coaster ride would be putting it mildly.

ELDER CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC PRESENT S

2014 SERIES OF INTIMATE CONCE RTS

BY DAVID KNIGHT

T

he Cabaret Festival-bound singer’s career has experienced more twists and turns than a Sunday drive through the Adelaide Hills but right now it is in the ascendency thanks to the recent Academy Award-winning documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, a new album she’s recording with the E-Street Band’s Steven Van Zandt and an upcoming TV movie based on her life starring Toni Braxton. The 72-year-old Love rose to prominence as part of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound recording group. She was the uncredited voice behind The Crystals’ hit He’s a Rebel before recording two classics under her own name for Spector: Today I Met the Boy I’m Going to Marry and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), arguably the 20th century’s greatest Christmas song. Aside from Spector, Love worked with many music legends including Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and The Beach Boys. But in the 70s her career hit a low. Love was working as a cleaner when she heard Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) on the radio. This inspired a comeback.

“Christmas is my favourite time of the year,” explains the singer who performs Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) every year as part of David Letterman’s Christmas special. “Everyone is into giving, everyone is happy and rejoicing. I thought it was amazing that I would hear that song and it turned my life around. I’ve just been going straight ahead ever since, even though it’s taken a long time.”

Award. Then we won with that movie and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, where do I go from here?’ Those three things are a joy for me.

And I just wait for the next thing. I never say never. Because you never know where your career’s going to take you.”

ELYSIUM ENSEMBLE: Divertimenti with Greg Dikmans Flute, Lucinda Moon Violin & Hilary Kleinig Cello Haydn’s 6 Divertimenti – chamber works of quality and charm.

Tickets: $25/$18 | General Admission Book online at www.elderhall.adelaide.edu.au

Steven Van Zandt encouraged Love to move to New York in the 80s and, along with Bruce Springsteen, has been a big supporter of her career. Van Zandt and Love started working on an album a couple of months ago.

E L D E R C O N S E RVAT O R I U M O F M U S I C

the AU D ITI O N

2014 MASTERCLASS S E R I E S

What will it take to get past the 1st round…

Join in the selection process and have your vote…

Enquiries and bookings call (08) 8313 5925 Online bookings www.elderhall.adelaide.edu.au

Evenings 2014 CONCERT SEASON

“When I performed at the White House years ago, I thought, ‘Wow, I’m singing for President Clinton. This is fantastic’. When I got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I thought, ‘This is it. This is great’.

Then we were nominated for the Academy

ORIUM OF MUSIC PRESENTED BY ELDER CONSERVAT

Saturday 31 May 6:30pm Elder Hall,

North Terrace

VIVA L’ITALIA!

stra Elder Conservatorium Chamber Orche Lachlan Bramble Director

» An Evening with Darlene Love Cabaret Festival Friday, June 20 adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/adelaidecabaret-festival

Right now her career is at its peak, thanks to the Academy Award-winning film about back-up singers, 20 Feet From Stardom, which heavily features Love.

“One thing about my career is that I never know where it’s going to take me. Even the year I was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [2011], that was a surprise for me. We were waiting for it to happen and it finally happened. I’m always very excited, even from day-to-day, about what’s happening to me and what’s happening with my career. I think you have to be prepared for anything to happen and I think that’s what’s going on right now.

presents

MASTERC LASS 2 ★ ELDER HALL NORTH TERRACE WEDNE SDAY 28 MAY ★ 11AM –1PM ★ $10

“Now that our careers are so crazy, he’s doing a movie right now in Norway and working with Bruce too, and with me and all my travelling, we’re trying to match our schedules. Even if we’re both in New York for three days, we try and get together. If we could just do one song a month that would be great,” she laughs.

“The biggest thing I’d like to do now is have a record, just have a record out. People need to hear, although people give me work, they still don’t get to me see perform how I want to perform – I want to perform for the masses. I have to have a record to do that.”

AT ELDER HALL

SUNDAY 11 MAY | 3.00PM

oni‘s Adagio, Blistering concertos from Corelli, ‘Albin and cinema the passion and drama of Italian operathe tastiest of new from Puccini and Nino Rota before John Lang.

Italian style by Adelaide composer David Saturday 7 June 6:30pm Elder Hall,

North Terrace

L’INVITATION AU VOYAGE

Rosamund Illing Soprano David Barnard Piano

nt $18 Adult $28, Concession $22, Stude Enquiries and bookings (08) 8313 5925 .edu.au Online booking www.elderhall.adelaide PROUDLY SUPPO RTED BY B A R O S S A VA L L E Y

The evening features Duparc’s exqui au Voyage, Lieder by Richard Strau site L’Invitation songs by Bizet, Sher win’s A Night ss as well as ingale Sang in Berkley Square and more….

adelaide.edu.au

IMAGES: ELDER CONSERVATORIUM CHAMBER ORCHESTRA; ROSAMUND ILLING; DAVID BARNARD.

28 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

PERFORMING ARTS

Reflections on a high-class prostitute

BY GRAHAM STRAHLE

Three years ago, Opera Australia created an indelible image of La Traviata when it set Verdi’s masterpiece on Sydney Harbour with fireworks and a gigantic nine-metre-tall chandelier suspended over the set to accompany its lavish party scenes. As she hurled her glass of champagne to the floor in a drunken fit, rarely before has Violetta, the opera’s central high-class prostitute, looked so flavoursomely decadent.

But this is hardly the image one imagines Verdi had in mind when he saw play La dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas and became passionate about turning it into an opera. A moving account of the beautiful and exceedingly clever Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis, who enchanted Paris’s high society until she died of tuberculosis at 23 in 1847, this play caught Verdi’s imagination with its tragic, almost Shakespearean struggle of opposing forces.

She has been called the ‘honest courtesan’, and

Liszt, another in her trail of lovers after Dumas, described her as the “most absolute incarnation of woman who has ever existed”. It is said that despite the unsavouriness of her profession, she remained unswervingly truthful all through her short life.

When we learn that Verdi originally called his opera Violetta – only later did he name it ‘the fallen woman’ (as La Traviata translates) – does it become apparent that he wanted to explore character, not frivolity. Maybe it takes a theatre director to see this, but Kate Cherry, who is directing the State Opera of SA’s new production of La Traviata, says she has always been fascinated by “complex characters who make their own decisions and take responsibility for the choices they make”. This makes Violetta Valéry, she says, as interesting as Blanche Du Bois in Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire and Konstantin in Chekhov’s The Seagull – both plays that Cherry is directing this year with Perth’s Black Swan State Theatre Company.

“She sells her possessions so they can pay the rent,” says Cherry. “La Traviata is not a story of how or why she becomes a ‘fallen woman’, but rather of the person she is. Violetta has to face her own mortality and the fact she’s unable to have children. Despite this she reaches a maturity of love that asks one to reflect on this woman whom society would normally shun.

But just because Violetta is a courtesan doesn’t mean she’s not a human being.”

La Traviata’s tension is indeed that one finds oneself sympathising with a figure who is despised as much as she is feted by people around her, and who, like a mirror, exposes their flaws of character.

“I would question who is the fallen one,” says Cherry. “Ultimately, I see it as about the person who is considered the least honourable being the most honourable. Violetta keeps her word; she loves others above herself. Rather than asking for help, she makes all the sacrifices.

Men see who they are through Violetta. So for Alfredo, she sacrificed her love and life so he can retain the respect of his father, who has asked her to leave after bringing shame on his family. In return, Alfredo completely humiliates her, and the father witnesses the cost of his request. Yet Violetta loves Alfredo so much that she decides his life will be better off without her in it – she thinks of him ahead of herself.”

all characters in the opera bar Violetta and her friend, Flora, will wear black costumes.

“Over the top spectacle is a perfectly valid interpretation, but our decision is to distil everything down to tell the story in a very human version of the opera. If there is too much colour, it quickly overwhelms. You lose clarity.”

It promises to be a production to make one think. Says Cherry: “Sometimes it takes time to see where the truth really exists. We’re in a fast-paced, post-truth world in which we’re all in such a hurry to make decisions. We need to take time to properly consider things. I think we’ve never needed opera more.”

Cherry’s production of La Traviata receives its premiere in Adelaide, after which it goes to New Zealand and Brisbane. Russian soprano Elvira Fatykhova takes the part of Violetta, Perth tenor Aldo Di Toro sings Alfredo, and Nicholas Carter conducts the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

» La Traviata Festival Theatre May 3, 6, 8 and 10 saopera.sa.gov.au

Contrasting with the opulence of La Traviata as typically staged – Franco Zeffirelli’s for the Metropolitan Opera, for example, were famously extravagant – Cherry says the look of her production will be “minimal”. Alone with just a fallen chandelier lying beside her, Violetta gazes into a ‘mirror box’ into which she glimpses her former party-filled life. “In this narcissistic world the mirror turns around to reveal the real Violetta inside,” Cherry explains.

She and designer Christina Smith decided that

Photo: Chris Managan

VERDI’S LA TRAVIATA

Cherry says her view of La Traviata is that it is a romance about a “woman who, in a pleasure-seeking world, learns for the first time to really love someone”. Violetta decides to abandon the high life to live with an adoring but cash-strapped countryman, Alfredo.

Trinity Sessions ADELAIDE’S INTIMATE CONCERT VENUE

“the only thing you hear is the music”

May 4 My Friend The Chocolate Cake, 3.30pm

Exclusive Adelaide concert with new live album “Best Cake in Show”

May 9 Terry Oldfield and Soraya, 8pm

World acclaimed composer - over 3 million record sales.

May 16 Darren Middleton, 8pm

Guitarist from Powderfinger touring his new album.

Jun 1 Trinity Winter Sessions - Winter Sun, 5pm

Local acts - Tara Carragher, Very Jane, Dr DeSoto with winter food.

Jun 22 Eddi Reader, 6pm

Last here at WOMAD 2012, see Eddi and band, up close and intimate - Perfect!!

318 Goodwood Road, Clarence Park | bookings www. dramatix.com.au/trinity | Contact Ph. 0401 122 256

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 29

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PERFORMING ARTS

A Delicate Situation

took seven months off, even questioning the whole world of dance, pulling out of all her overseas work. But she found herself once more “pushing myself out of my comfort zone,” she says.

If a high school careers adviser hadn’t said to her when she was 17, “Do what you really love” Lina Limosani could have been a gymnast. Instead, she became a dancer and choreographer with an international reputation.

BY ALAN BRISSENDEN

N

ow a slim, infectiously enthusiastic 40, she studied dance at Victoria’s Box Hill TAFE, loving the classical, hating the contemporary. Her ideas were about to change. In 1994 she went to England expecting to teach, but came across a foundation dance course at the then Swindon College which led to other UK university courses. Then it was back to Australia, the West Australian Academy of the Performing Arts, the Victorian College of the Arts, and in 2000 Australian Dance Theatre (ADT).

Garry Stewart had just taken over the company.

Wisely he continued earlier ADT artistic directors’ encouragement of choreography by company members, and Limosani, who had already created short works as a student, contributed several pieces, mostly lighthearted, to ADT’s ‘Ignition’ seasons. She gained confidence, “probably because I was working with fellow professionals,” she says.

“Once you start working with professionals at that level, the ball game changes and you develop much more as a choreographer”. She speaks of others who went on to become notable choreographers — Tanja Liedtke, Antony Hamilton and Larissa McGowan among them. As a group they were

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Music from across the globe including works by Vaughan Williams, Brahms, Copland, Leek & Janáček.

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“on the same pathway, inspired by each other, all on edge, taking risks”. Reviewing her own Blind Spot in 2003 I remarked on its “imaginative ideas and good structural development”; This Time (2004) was a “fun piece” with “timing right on the button”, and The Penny Drops (2006) was “carefully detailed” with “intricate, funny moves”.

She received the 2003 Adelaide Critics’ Circle Award for an Emerging Artist, an award that turned out to be prophetic.

Leaving ADT, she worked with several independent companies and universities, but A itchy Delicate feetSituation took her overseas again, helped by grants from the Australia Council and the Ian Potter Foundation. She danced with the David Hughes Company in Edinburgh and was especially influenced by the Scottish physical theatre director Al Seed, whose horrific (and much praised) interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Mask of the Red Death, choreographed

by Hughes, was considered “nasty in the nicest possible way” by The Guardian (you can see it on YouTube).

Working with Hughes and Seed changed Limosani’s thinking again, and when she gained

an AsiaLink grant in 2008, she spent three months in an artist residency at Rimbun Dahan some 40km from Kuala Lumpur, beginning work on a darker theme. This time, she used a Malaysian myth of the Pontianak (pron. pontiana, a vampire ghost of a woman believed to have died during childbirth), to relate the story of a woman coming to terms with death. When it was performed in Kuala Lumpur, some people did not want to see pontianaks on stage, particularly as one of the four dancers was pregnant (the baby was later born unharmed, and the mother survived). But the work, A Delicate Situation, had some success and was nominated for three awards.

Working in another country such as Holland or Malaysia means that she has to “react culturally in a different way”. This has fed into A Delicate Situation, which is now less about the Malaysian myth of the Pontianak than with Western attitudes to death, dying and what may be beyond. In 2012 she returned to Malaysia supported by an ArtsSA grant and taking with her Carol Wellman-Kelly who had become closely involved with the work, which had an in-progress showing in August of that year as part of the Adelaide Festival Centre’s ‘Inspace’ program. Two years later it represents a melding of the 2008 and 2012 versions. The Malaysian myth is more subdued, and the story is of a western woman coming to terms with the inevitability of death. There are now two, not four, characters, and technically Limosani feels she has found a balance between the dancers and the theatrical elements of the piece. She wants to “give her audiences room to ponder on their own experiences”.

» A Delicate Situation Space Theatre Thursday, May 22 to Saturday, May 24 adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Season 2 O 1 4

On the move again, Limosani went back to humour with The Tighter You Squeeze for ADT in 2009, and was soon off to Europe for more work with David Hughes and a choreographic residency, now a yearly event, with Fontys University’s Dance Academy in Tilburg, Holland.

There have been other residencies as well, in Portugal and Scotland, and selection as one of six for the Swiss International Choreographers’ Project in Zurich, and performances in Munich.

Then a close friend died of cancer. Limosani

The Elder Conservation of Music and the Helpmann Academy present:

The Jazz Awards 2014 Featuring performances by the top jazz graduates from the Elder Conservatorium, together with four-time ARIA award-winning singer/songwriter

Katie Noonan 7pm for 7:30pm, Thursday May 22 Intercontinental Adelaide, North Terrace Tickets: $80 Includes concert, three-course meal and wine For tickets phone (08) 8132 0777 or email nadia.dolman@helpmannacademy.com.au Bookings and payment essential by Friday May 9 Platinum Sponsor

An historic occassion AdYO’s 1st time partnering with the Elder Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra

Maestro Series 2

Titan

Saturday 14 June 2014 6.30pm Sunday 15 June 2014 3.00pm Elder Hall a d e l a i d e yo u t h o r c h e S t r a & e l d e r c o n S e r vat o r i u m Symphony orcheStra Keith crellin oam Samantha Webber

Conductor Clarinet

Graeme Koehne Weber mahler

Suite from 1914 (SA premiere) Clarinet Concertino Symphony No 1 Titan

BooK at elder hall 8313 5925 www.music.adelaide.edu.au/elderhall

www.adyo.com.au

30 The Adelaide Review May 2014

performing arts

The Odd Couple Getting in touch with playwright Lally Katz isn’t easy.

C

alling from The Adelaide Review office, my calls are initially refused with no explanation. A few frantic texts later and Katz picks up.

“I’m so sorry! I’m in Melbourne and I didn’t recognise that number. I could have sworn you were a telemarketer!”

Katz explains that she has been receiving call after call from telemarketers in recent weeks, and didn’t want to speak with another one. Already, the conversation feels theatrical.

Katz is in Melbourne with her visiting parents to watch a production of her play, Neighbourhood Watch, which will be performed by the State Theatre Company here in Adelaide in May. If your show is being performed in two locations by two production companies, it’s safe to safe it’s a popular piece, and Katz’ bubbly demeanour reflects that success.

Neighbourhood Watch is about two neighbours and how their lives come together. They are Ana, an 80-year-old Hungarian-Australian widow, and Charlotte, a scatterbrained aspiring actor.

Following the travails of their lives, those that Ana has weathered and that Catherine is undertaking, this is an odd-couple story. They form a bond over the perpetual irritation that the world inflicts upon them in the shape of acquaintances, boyfriends and housemates.

“It’s a story that I hope reaches younger and older generations,” Katz says, noting that the characters’ outlooks are generations apart, but are bridged over everyday events and similar experience.

Catherine is based on Katz’ own life while Ana is based on Katz’ old neighbour of the same name.

Yet the play is not autobiographical, at least for Catherine.

Photo: James Hartley

by John Dexter

Miriam Margolyes

“Catherine’s an actress, I’m a writer. One character, Catherine’s housemate, is based on my old housemate, but in the play they have this romantic connection, which was never there in real life. After my friends saw the show they said, ‘I didn’t know Ben was in love with you!’

He wasn’t but that was something we added to heighten the drama of the show.”

Ana’s character is closer to reality and the decision to keep her name speaks to this. Asking Katz why she was so interested in Ana to begin with she says, “What attracted me to Ana was that she is a combination of drama and comedy. The

first time I met her she was telling me about her father being blown to bits and also complaining about neighbours putting dirty nappies in her bin. There’s comedy and drama tied into her epic story, you know?”

Ana saw Neighbourhood Watch during its opening season in Sydney where it was nominated for the 2011 Helpmann Award for Best Theatre.

How did such a vigorous and forthright person feel about being portrayed so literally on stage?

“She thought about suing me for a week,” Katz says, “but then she decided she loved it.”

The Adelaide Review May 2014 31

adelaidereview.com.au

performing arts Asked whether she’s still in contact with Ana, Katz says yes, but that one cost of making this show has been a slight loss of trust on Ana’s part.

Evidently, she is somewhat sceptical of Katz’s tendency as a writer to transform life into art.

“She’s not speaking to me now. Not for a good reason, mind you. I think there are plenty of reasons for her not to speak to me, but the one she’s using at the moment isn’t that good.”

Esteemed Australian actor Robin Nevin is playing Ana in Melbourne, but Adelaide will have the iconic Miriam Margolyes filling the key role.

“She’s a great actor. She’s very funny and she’ll be a fantastic Ana,” Katz says.

Katz is comfortable that the show is being presented differently across the country. She explains that the script isn’t completely static either. Julian Meryck, the Helpmann Award winning director helming the State Theatre Company’s production, worked with Katz on Neighbourhood Watch in the past as a dramaturge, and saw potential for extra catharsis at the end of the show.

“He’s seen things being added and deleted from the script before, and asked me to add a little scene at the end, which was a great idea.”

Neighbourhood Watch is on Victoria and New

The Broken Circle Breakdown

by David Knight

As The Broken Circle Breakdown shows, life can be brutal no matter how lovely the people and surroundings. The Oscarnominated Belgian film from director Felix van Groeningen is a love story, tragic drama and a showcase of bluegrass and country music all in one. Didier (Johan Heldenbergh, who co-wrote the play the film is based on) is the leader of a bluegrass band who meets tattoo artist Elise (Veerle Baetens) in the early noughties. The couple fall in love and live a hipster dream’s lifestyle on Didier’s hobby farm, which the lover of Americana is renovating. Elise falls pregnant. Though it is not planned, Didier embraces the new challenge after initially hesitating and they have a beautiful daughter, Maybelle. This is a cool young family. You can’t help but fall in love with them.

This nonlinear film quickly cuts back and forth to scenes throughout Didier and Elise’s relationship, from when they first meet to raising Maybelle. It’s like watching snapshots of their life via William S Burroughs’ cut-up technique on film. The challenging times

South Wales’ high school syllabi at the moment as well. While the show is dynamic and the script has changed slightly over time, Katz worries that drama students could be thrown off by it.

“Things like character names have even changed since it was put on that list, so I hope they don’t get too confused by it!” Katz laughs.

What’s more, Neighbourhood Watch looks to have a future in film. Last year in July, Screen Australia announced it was supporting Katz and producer Marian Macgowan to form a screenplay adaptation of the show, with Gillian Armstrong attached to direct. Katz is not counting her chickens on this significant milestone though, noting the vagaries of the film studio system.

“It’s early days,” she says. “With film you never know! It could be another 20 years.”

Thankfully, Adelaide audiences will not have to wait that long to see Neighbourhood Watch in their backyard.

»»Neighbourhood Watch Dunstan Playhouse (Adelaide Festival Centre) Friday, May 2 to Saturday, May 24 statetheatrecompany.com.au

follow the joyous occasions and the film is interspersed with Didier’s band playing live, which Elise eventually joins. Life gets traumatic for the young family when Maybelle gets cancer.

With terrific performances by all the players, awesome country and bluegrass music and its non linear structure, The Broken Circle Breakdown isn’t a traditional tear-jerker of a cancer film, which is highlighted by Didier’s attacks on fundamentalist religion. Some critics have taken issue with this film’s political grandstanding. Didier may love Americana (especially the music) but he is a not a fan of the country’s politics, or more correctly the religious influence. Didier rants after seeing George W Bush on TV veto stem cell research, which could help his daughter.

On the religion Vs science debate, Didier is science all the way. This grandstanding is vital.

Like a good country song, The Broken Circle Breakdown will lift your spirits and break your heart.

»»The Broken Circle Breakdown opens on Thursday, May 15 Rated MA

Young & Beautiful

by David Knight

Sure to shock some for its frank showing of sex, and annoy others with its ambiguity, Francois Ozon’s (In the House, Swimming Pool) latest is an effortlessly beautiful-looking film, which explores a 17-year-old’s sexual awakening. The stunning Marine Vacth plays Isabelle, a late teen on holiday with her family. Eager to lose her virginity, she does so rather mechanically with a fellow holidaymaker.

It then cuts to a few months later, where at home in Paris, Isabelle is a prostitute working under the name Lea. There is no explanation for her motivation to become a prostitute. She just is. Using a website and a second mobile phone, Isabelle meets older clients in hotel rooms

(usually) while still at school. Her family and friends are unaware of her secret life.

Everything changes when a regular client Georges (her sweetest ‘John’) dies from a heart attack in a hotel room. Leaving Isabelle to flee the scene. This is not your regular hooker with a heart of gold story.

Isabelle is cold and can be horrible to those around her. Some may lament the fact that Ozon doesn’t explore Isabelle’s motivations to become a call-girl, and the seemingly extreme leap from virgin to prostitute, the ending and other choices Isabelle (wonderfully played by Vacth) makes but the haziness of Young & Beautiful is what makes it fascinating.

Isabelle is a puzzle you can’t quite piece together.

»»Young & Beautiful is in cinemas now Rated R

32 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

CINEMA The Healing Touch

BY NIGEL RANDALL

G

iven the 10-year gap between Peaches and his newest film Healing, it seemed obvious to ask Craig Monahan what he had been up to in that time. Besides moving to Adelaide for family reasons, the convivial filmmaker jokes that he spent a good part of that time “convincing myself I had a career”.

Following his return to Melbourne in 2008, Monahan got serious about developing an idea he had based on a story he read in The Age years prior.

“It’s a Melbourne-based story about the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary, based around the real program where they – Justice Victoria and the Correction Services – run these rehabilitation programs for wild birds in some of the minimum security prisons,” he tells me in a well-practiced manner. Monahan goes on to say that the “psychology” of what was happening in his personal life during the script’s development phase was a positive thing, in that “some of the people in the film are disaffected, mainly from their own making, so how do they change? That was one of the interesting things with it.” He’s also quick to point out that “you’ve got to look at it as an advantage or you’ll go mad”.

The drama for the director/co-writer/ producer therefore wasn’t in any typical prison movie tropes, or as he puts it “going down roads you’ve already seen”, but more in whether the characters, including those of the feathered variety, will make it or not and what their respective futures will hold. “I was really just interested in the people and how some of them, who don’t have a criminal mindset, have just made a really bad mistake. Prisons are full of people like that.”

Perry (Hugo Weaving in his third collaboration with Monahan) to lead up the trial program for the prison. Perry too has some familial pain to deal with and a fondness for injured raptors, making him something of a sympathetic ally to Victor. While the birds are initially met with some reluctance, soon they become something in which the inmates can emotionally invest.

The relationship that forms between Victor and Jasmine, a majestic wedge-tailed eagle under his care, comes to be the film’s core redemptive focus.

The rehabilitation and release of wild birds provides a clear symbolic connection to the similarly wounded prisoners, their freedom resting on the power of healing. Of them, our When I mention to Monahan that Healing interest is honed to quietly mysterious Mark is unlike most prison films I’ve seen because (Xavier Samuel), troubled halfwit Shane (Mark of its minimum security setting, he adds, Leonard Winter) and system-hardened Victor “when you go out to these places it’s actually (Don Hany). Each is burdened by their crimes and a different world… it’s an open place with no struggles with estranged family. With his Iranian fences, no dogs, no wire, you can kind of walk background and culturally ingrained respect away, literally.” for birds, Victor is chosen by caseworker Matt Adelaide review ad_Layout 1 17/04/14 3:40 PM Page 1

Not least for his time between projects, Monahan demonstrates considerable patience and a measured approach in allowing his actors ample time to develop their characters.

“Taking a long time can be an advantage, you can get really quite deeply inside it and there’s not a lot of possibilities you wouldn’t have thought of,” he says.

“It all changes once you get your actors because

a lot of them are very strong in their ideas and thoughts and bringing something to it – you’ve got to be flexible enough to keep that door open.”

Amongst the impressive principal cast of Healing (Winter, Samuel and Weaving all superb), Hany is a standout. He portrays the complex Victor with a perfect balance of power and sensitivity in a performance that Variety call “extraordinary”. The industry ‘bible’ describes the film as an “intelligent and satisfying drama”, something that Monahan is justifiably happy about.

“That was terrific and came at the right time with the film just beginning its journey.”

It’s a journey I wish both Monahan and his film well on.

» Healing opens on Thursday, May 8

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THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 33

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CINEMA

52 TUESDAYS

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

Before 52 Tuesdays, Adelaide filmmaking collective Closer Productions were best known for its acclaimed documentaries Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure and Life in Movement. The latter was co-directed by Sophie Hyde, who helms Closer’s first feature-length drama, 52 Tuesdays, which won awards at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals, and is an extraordinary achievement from Hyde, co-writer Matthew Cormack (with Hyde) and the mostly amateur cast. Much has been made of Tuesdays’ documentary-like production structure, which involved shooting on every Tuesday for a year.

While this may seem like a gimmick, it adds incredible realism to a story that is fundamentally about change.

Billie (a spellbinding Tilda Cobham-Hervey)

THE ZERO THEOREM

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

You expect to experience the weird and the wonderful with Terry Gilliam but his latest, the confusing The Zero Theorem, is just plain weird. Starring a bald Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained, Side Effects) as Qohen Leth, an entity cruncher for Mancom, he is charged by his company’s boss Management (Matt Damon) to work on a special assignment to work on a theory which proves life has no purpose, which he does in his ramshackled home while waiting for a phone call that explains the meaning of life.

The assignment compounds Leth’s descent into

is a 16-year-old who discovers her mother (Del Herbert-Jane) is to become a man, James. Billie is sent to live with her dad (Beau Travis Williams) while James undergoes this transformation, but Billie and James make a deal to meet every Tuesday from 4pm to 10pm. While this is happening, Billie is in the midst of a sexual awakening herself, experimenting with two new friends. While James’ transformation is what initially grabs you, his story takes a back seat to Billie’s growth from mildly irritating brat to complex adult.

Superbly handled by Hyde, 52 Tuesdays is never heavy-handed and features more humour than you’d expect. It’s a brave film and local triumph that deserves all accolades since premiering at the Adelaide Film Festival last year.

» 52 Tuesdays is in cinemas now Rated MA

madness and his only contact is with a fluorohaired virtual reality prostitute, a digital therapist and Management’s teenage son. Confusing? Yes. But you’d expect that from Gilliam. The problem here is that there is little humour. This, the latest in his unofficial sci-fi trilogy after his undisputed classic Brazil and the fascinating 12 Monkeys, doesn’t reach the heights of the aforementioned films. While there are some interesting scenes, especially when Leth occasionally walks out of his front door into the crazy Japanese video game world that is the near future, it’s all a bit tedious and uneventful.

» The Zero Theorem opens on Thursday, May 15 Rated M

34 The Adelaide Review May 2014

Cinema THE INVISIBLE WOMAN

BELLE

by D.M. Bradley

by D.M. Bradley

Drawn from the sketchy facts behind a famous portrait, English director Amma Asante’s handsome costume drama touches on themes also present in 12 Years A Slave (and other pics, including Amistad) while also, of course, commenting upon the here and now.

Set in the 1700s, Belle begins with Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) collecting his young, out-of-wedlock, mixed-race daughter from a Thames wharf and, insisting she will always be loved, leaving her at Kenwood House in Hampstead Village with his uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson), Lady Mansfield (Emily Watson), the Mansfields’ granddaughter Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) and Lady Mary Murray, a kindly aunt (a charming Penelope Wilton). After a passing-of-time montage, we find Dido Elizabeth Belle played beautifully as an adult by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. She’s still an embarrassment to the family, no matter how much they adore her: she never eats with guests when they’re entertaining; apologies are made for her often (although no one specifically mentions race, as that would be un-British); and she’s treated badly by Oliver Ashford (James Norton) and his nasty brother James

Ralph Fiennes’ second shot at the director/star gig after Coriolanus, this misleadingly-titled costume drama (drawn from Claire Tomalin’s book) looks lovely and features passionate playing.

(Tom Felton – who else?) when their golddigging mother (Miranda Richardson) comes looking for titled wives for her boys.

The supposedly naïve Dido, however, is more taken with the supposedly not-yet-gentlemanly John Davinier (Sam Reid), a fledgling politician who battles Lord Mansfield (AKA the Lord Chief Justice) over a case involving an insurance company contesting compensation for the drowning of slaves in transit, and it’s here that the script (by Misan Sangay and Asante) gets particularly tough – if more than a little speculative too. At any rate, the performances are so strong it scarcely matters. Wilkinson

is excellent, Watson and Wilton cut through the stuffiness, and Mbatha-Raw (another English player already known for everything from Tom Hanks’ Larry Crowne to Doctor Who) is positively glowing, and portrays Dido with lovely restraint. A sequence where she despairingly pulls and slaps at her own flesh, hating her colour, is one of the most powerful moments in any movie so far this year.

»»Belle is in cinemas from Thursday, May 8 Rated PG

Nelly (Felicity Jones) is unhappily married in the later 1800s when we meet her and watch as she flashes back on how she met Charles Dickens (Fiennes, at odds with the fatter, ruddier, uglier real author) as an 18-year-old when he made the acquaintance of her mother Frances (Kristin Scott Thomas) and sisters. At the time, Dickens was unhappily married (is there a pattern developing here?) to Catherine (Joanna Scanlan, very strong), the mother of his many kids, and the smart and rather gorgeous Nelly found herself falling for the great man as he too swooned, despite the dangers. When word gets out, Dickens tries to distance himself from the scandal, but it doesn’t work and soon he and Nelly escape prying eyes in conservative London, change their names and make new lives for themselves, a story airbrushed out of history as she becomes the so-called ‘invisible woman’ of the title (and not, of course, the Jessica Alba character from The Fantastic Four).

Truly ‘a tale of woe’, as Nelly herself says, there’s fine playing here by Fiennes and Jones (who looks ready to rip her bodice early on), but the whole thing is so terminally glum and hand-wringingly agonising that even the most forgiving Dickens groupies should find it doesn’t live up to its (great?) expectations.

»» The Invisible Woman is in cinemas now.

Rated M

Mature themes and coarse language

EXCLUSIVELY AT PALACE NOVA EASTEND CINEMAS FROM MAY 15

Strong sex scenes

Discover more about 52 Tuesdays at www.my52tuesdays.com or www.facebook.com/52tuesdays

Now Showing Exclusively at Palace Nova Eastend

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 35

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CINEMA LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

BY D.M. BRADLEY

The best-known films of writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda (the meditative I Wish and the traumatic Nobody Knows) are all about families, children and how harsh reality is softened by love, no matter what, and his latest is no different, even if, in synopsis, it might sound somewhat soapier.

Living is Easy With Eyes Closed

Spanish Films Forever

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

W

ith the multiple Goya Awardwinning film Living is Easy With Eyes Closed opening the 2014 festival, this year’s Spanish Film Festival is set to deliver the cream of the Spanish-speaking and Latin American film crop.

The 17th annual film festival will close with Witching and Bitching, but it is the sixGoya Award-winning Living is Easy With Eyes Closed that is the major draw card.

Named after The Beatles classic Strawberry Fields Forever (which John Lennon penned in Spain), the David Trueba (Soldiers of Salamina) written and directed film won best film, director and actor at the Goyas and tells the tale of a school teacher (Javier Cámara), who uses Beatles lyrics to teach his students English and who decides to meet his hero John Lennon when the Beatle visits

Spain to shoot a film.

Living is Easy With Eyes Closed is one of 30 films screening at the festival, which runs in Adelaide from May 6 to May 31, and also screens at six other cities across the country from April 29 to May 21.

Other films of note include Spain’s biggest local box office hit of 2013 Three Many Weddings, Ariel Winograd’s (My First Wedding) To Fool a Thief and the 11-Goya Award-nominated Family United.

Workaholic architect Ryoto Nonomiya (Masaharu Fukuyama) rarely sees his wife Midori (Machiko Ono) and little son Keita (Keita Ninomiya) but loves them both dearly. When Keita has a blood test prior to starting school and this reveals that the child isn’t theirs, the pair are shocked, and lawsuits and payouts are discussed while Ryoto and Midori meet and try to get to know storekeeper Yudai (Lily Franky) and his wife Yukari (Yoko Maki), a cheerful, working class pair whose eldest son, Ryusei (Shogen Hwang), is, of course, Ryoto and Midori’s lad. The funloving Yudai attempts to show Ryoto how much he loves the kids, while the women discover common ground and the children all happily take to each other immediately, but things threaten to get sour when the boys are ‘swapped’ over weekends, the court cases begin, snobby Ryoto finds it hard to keep his temper and he then unwisely hits upon an

idea that might tear everyone apart: why not have both the boys, Keita and Ryusei, live with him?

Or, in actual fact, live with Midori, as he’s never home due to his endless race to be a ‘go-getter’.

Beautifully played by the whole cast (including the charming child actors), this quiet, carefullywritten drama resists the temptation for heavy speeches and gruesome sentiment while also demonstrating that no one here is a villain or deserves to be left sorry and alone (something that runs through all of Koreeda’s films, which is probably the reason why they haven’t yet been remade in cheesy old America).

» Like Father, LIke Son is in cinemas now Rated PG

HHHH

“

ELEGANT

”

PALM SPRINGS

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2014

WINNER OF DIRECTORS TO WATCH

VA R I E T Y

“Powerful… An immensely moving drama.”

THE GUARDIAN

» Spanish Film Festival Palace Nova Eastend Tuesday, May 6 to Wednesday, May 21 spanishfilmfestival.com

BASED ON THE INSPIRING TRUE STORY OF DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE

She defied the conventions of society and helped shape history

EXCLUSIVELY AT

www.bellemovie.com.au

PALACE NOVA EASTEND

36 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

VISUAL ARTS

Ngintaka

the collaborative works from Tjala Arts) and others which have been sourced from a range of collections highlighting the history of painting the Ngintaka story. There is a strong audio-visual element from the soundscapes on North Terrace

by Curtis Taylor to the interactive floor animation

by Jimmy McGilchrist.

The Ngintaka exhibition at the South Australian Museum is a multi-dimensional visual experience, which shows the breadth and depth of the Aboriginal Art movement particularly from the art centres across the APY Lands.

“The audio-visual aspect is so important because it takes you into country, shows you people in the country dancing and performing this story.

The artwork, which is often in most galleries as standalone artwork, is not the way Anangu think.

When they are actually doing the paintings or the carvings they are thinking of country, they are thinking of the song, they think of the story,” explains James.

Margaret Richards, Fairy Stevens and Inawintji Williamson. Courtesy Ananguku Arts.

BY JANE LLEWELLYN

The exhibition is part of the Songlines project, which began in 2012 and is funded by the Australian Research Council. Anangu wanted to follow two major Songlines – the Ngintaka and the Seven Sisters. James says: “To my knowledge Ngintaka is one of the first times that Anangu or Aboriginal people have been able to tell their story in the multi-dimensions that you would experience if you were in country. So you would hear song, see dance performed, you would be told the story

and you would be shown country.”

The exhibition depicts the story of Wati Ngintaka, the Perentie Lizard, who sets out on a journey in search of the best grindstone to take back to his country. Being led by the fine grinding sound, Ngintaka sings about his journey along the way and the exhibition follows this Songline, which stretches across the APY lands. Tregenza describes it as a “great universal story about human nature and mapping the country”.

While the exhibition is set out in a linear fashion, with a map and translated story accompanying the artworks, making it easy for the audience to follow, each part is a story unto itself. “Artists who have the authority to paint the Ngintaka Songline are people who have been born at different points along the Songline and who have knowledge of the story and who may have been handed that authority by their parents or grandparents – by a senior member of the family,” Tregenza explains.

There are recent works on display that have been made especially for the exhibition (like

The multi-media aspect of the exhibition is also important in engaging a broader audience and to pass the story on to future generations. James explains: “This allows people in an exhibition context to experience those multi levels and see how they interweave – that the painting doesn’t just hang on the wall by itself. It is another two dimensional expression of a multi-dimensional philosophic and religious concept that is place based, knowledge that is place-based in country.”

Tregenza adds, “It’s a little bit like a glimpse of what it’s like to be in country with senior people.

I think that is a very rare privilege and if we have been able to bring some of that to the city for a wider audience then that would be a great achievement.”

» Ngintaka South Australian Museum Continues until Sunday, June 22 samuseum.sa.gov.au

Seen Heard Understood: Urban Indigenous Stories

Amy Pfitzner, Indigenous Ties - Untitled #1, Pigment Print or Giclée print Photo Rag paper, 2012

The curatorium that defined what could go into the exhibition was formed with a number of senior Anangu men and women. Tregenza and Diana

James, a Research Fellow at Australian National University and the Senior Research Associate and Project Coordinator of the Songlines project, worked with the curatorium.

Curator Coby Edgar Racquel Austin-Abdullah, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Margaret Farrugia, Amy Pfitzner, Amanda Radomi, Damien Shen and James Tylor

11 May – 22 June 2014 1 Thomas Street (cnr Main North Road), Nailsworth prospect.sa.gov.au

ROYAL SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY OF ARTS INC. Selection Royale II 27 April – 25 May 2014

An RSASA Fundraiser

Artworks donated by RSASA Members for a Ballot Draw on Sunday 25th May from 1.00pm – 100 works – 100 tickets for $100 each

RSASA Characters Of The Fleurieu 24 May – 22 June

At Stump Hill Gallery, McLaren Vale.

The Fisherman, oil on board, 1954 by Malcolm Carbins

E

lizabeth Tregenza, General Manager of Ananguku Arts, believes the exhibition provides a great opportunity to “experience the beauty of art from the artists and art centres from the APY Lands and to feel the spirit of reconciliation in which this exhibition was put together”. The exhibition was developed with senior people from the APY Lands. “I think as a result there is a remarkable gentleness about the atmosphere in the exhibition and you are drawn into it,” Tregenza says.

Youthscape 2014 22 June – 13 July 2014 Open to all young artists 15 - 26 years Over $5,000 in Prizes over all mediums Entries due 30th May 2014 Entry forms www.rsasarts.com.au

Where: RSASA Gallery, Level 1, Institute Bldg, Cnr North Tce & Kintore Ave, Adelaide.

Mon – Friday 10.30 – 4.00pm, Sat & Sun 1 – 4.00pm. Closed public holidays.

For more information: Bev Bills, Director, RSASA Office: 8232 0450 or 0415 616 900.

Royal South Australian Society of Arts Inc. Level 1 Institute Building, Cnr North Terrace & Kintore Ave Adelaide, Ph/Fax: 8232 0450 www.rsasarts.com.au rsasarts@bigpond.net.au Mon- Fri 10.30-4.30pm Sat & Sun 1- 4pm Pub Hol. Closed.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 37

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A-Z CONTEMPORARY ART

H

ARTSPEAK HYBRIDITY It’s the Beatles Come Together thing.

Maybe Buddhist ‘we’re all connected’ also.

Blame the worst of hybrid imagery in art on Photoshop and Star Wars. But the Surrealists must bear part of the blame. Of little interest to folk who grew up playing Tops and Tails card games. Seen it all.

UNHOMELY Apparently the contemporary human condition is a bit out of sorts.

Art trends have responded with explorations of Das Unheimliche (the uncanny) Freud beat most to something with the observation that some things can be familiar and alien at the same time. Like home.

Helpful hints on how to make your art say NOW. Plus ARTSPEAK Bonus Pack.

BY JOHN NEYLON

HIPPOPHOBIA An anxiety suffered by some art educators who have assessed too many ‘The Horse in Art’ essays.

Security Services, Rockdale, 2014. Photograph: John Neylon

HOME Let’s face it. Artists don’t get out all that often.

They spend a lot of time around home. So what better place to start? The problem is that home is so familiar. But you are only limited by your imagination.

Out of site Stop calling home ‘home’. Like ‘I’m at home over the weekend’. Try words like ‘site’ or ‘space’. So everything you make in the studio is technically ‘site-specific’.

If anyone is home you can technically say that it’s ‘occupied space’. The implications are endless. In an ‘occupied space’ any action, such as watching TV, vacuuming or sleeping, can be regarded as ‘performance’. The sites in which these performances occur are by implication ‘performative spaces’. And that’s just the beginning.

Daggy dwelling Make a model home from any scraps of card, plastic or carpet. Cut these materials into required units (roof, floor, windows and so on) using blunt knives and scissors. In this way the edges will be prominently distressed in a potentially metaphoric way (see my book Rip and Shred Your Way to Metaphoric Fame).

Tip: ensure when adhering everything together that the glue runs all over the place. Warning: tea candles have been known to start fires.

In camera The fun starts when you photograph your model. Get close in so that the lens takes on the personality of an outsized voyeur. Make sure you include some shots of someone’s face pressed against a window to spell out relative scale. Have confidence that the photographs will, through the magical principle of flattened pictorial space, translate the subject into an image that can be described as a ‘notional site’ or, even better, a ‘liminal zone resonant with memories’.

The house is burning The advantage of working with models is that you can value-add by destroying them – which opens up a whole new world of metaphoric spin. Not satisfied with models, the Australianborn artist Ian Strange has been working in America, teaming up with film crews and sometimes fire departments, to design, paint and burn ‘uncommon’ images onto buildings that represent the American suburb. For a benchmark ‘the model house is burning’ experience try Pia Borg’s animation Palimpsest.

Celebrity makeover Some homes get to become famous for all kinds of reasons. Aligning your home-thematic explorations with any such reason instantly guarantees that people will at least stop and look. How many famous houses do you know?

Here’s some examples to get you thinking: The Little House on the Prairie, a Home Among the Gum Trees, and Lleyton Hewitt’s House That He’s Been Trying To Sell For a Long Time.

Welcome to the house of fun Target houses where something really bad has taken place. Lizzie Borden’s house in Massachusetts (in which her mother and father were murdered in 1892) may now be a bed and

breakfast museum but that doesn’t mean the vibes have changed. Be inspired by Australian artist Samantha Small’s exploration of the Borden crime by constructing and photographing model interiors of the house. With the class of a true artist Small embedded ‘whodunit’ clues into the décor. The challenge is not to follow the herd.

There are plenty of bad places around beyond bank vaults in South Australian country towns.

Try your local bikie fortress for starters.

Render unto gender Postmodernist spin has almost spun so you’ll have to be quick if you want to try your hand at ‘unpacking the home from a gendered perspective’. If you do it in French it’s already sorted (la maison) so no point in that. Don’t waste time on verandahs being feminine or kitchens as a contested space. No one may care. Fact: about 40 percent of households in Sweden have only one resident. That must mean something.

Windows 2014 Never forget this. Windows are the eyes of the house. You can look in and look out. Great if your studio practice is built on the idea of porosity.

Edward Hopper knew this. The Australian artist Anne Wallace knows it. You should too.

Baroque Virtuoso

Model home For some reason, people are more likely to look at a model of a home than the real thing. Some may recall the satisfaction of making a balsa wood farmhouse for a year seven social studies project. In the adult world of art, this kind of

innocent pleasure has to be subverted in some way to avoid outbreaks of scoffing and sneering.

This can be avoided by exploiting any number of tropes as follows:

ThE MUSIc of ART 18 May – 7 June New works by Lorraine Lewitzka

DAVID SUMNER GALLERY 359 Greenhill Road Toorak Gardens Ph: 8332 7900

Tues to Fri 11-5 | Sat to Sun 2-5 www.david-sumner-gallery.com

stephen trebilcock seasons 8 - 24 May 2014 www.hillsmithgallery.com.au

38 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

VISUAL ARTS

Toshikatsu Endo, Japan, Allegory III, 1988, Saitama

burning and the use of elemental materials and processes such as earth, water, wood and fire are central to his practice. By such means the artist hopes to reconnect with primordial, prelinguistic levels of existence that are essential if humanity is to stay in control of its destiny.

The ritualised burning that transformed this canoe, he sees as a form of sacrifice, something that causes the imagination to consider other dimensions of possibilities.

JUMP CUTS

Contemporary takes on the Art Gallery of South Australia’s collections

BY JOHN NEYLON

How political can boats get? As if the national debate about ‘boat people’ (bad) but ‘plane people’ (sort of okay) hasn’t been enough, we now have to accommodate Russell Crowe’s film Noah battening down the hatches.

Malaysia, Indonesia, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain have banned the film’s screening because of Islamic laws that forbid the depiction of any prophet. Perhaps a simple voice-over (‘green alligators to the left, and long necked geese to the right’) might have avoided such a state of affairs. Meanwhile in America, various Christian groups have pulled the plug on the film’s perceived inaccuracies in Biblical flood

accounts. Don’t tell them about Gilgamesh or they’ll want to invade Mesopotamia.

Away from the volatile politics of cinematic boat-driven epics, the backwaters of the art world are awash with boats, vessels, ships, canoes and the like – all plying their trade as allegories for big picture stuff like life and death.

The very best of these, in an Australian context, must be Toshikatsu Endo’s Allegory 111 in the Art Gallery of South Australia’s collection. For brooding mystery and charged contradiction it is unsurpassed. The burnt exterior has a stressed, charcoal black texture. The interior is lined with tar and filled with water. While it’s a compelling object to look at, it holds its secrets fiercely. The best engagement strategy is to look at other works by the artist to get an appreciation of why

John Baird, Floral Jug, acrylic, shellac, oil and wallpaper on canvas, 152cm x 122cm

Group One

T’Arts Collective Gays Arcade (off Adelaide Arcade)

Exciting artist run contemporary gallery / shop in the heart of Adelaide.

Paintings by John Baird • Darren Doye Alfred Engel • Peter Groves Jerzy Michalski Artist: Bella Head

The ‘Ark Gallery’ revisited: Toshikatsu Endo’s Allegory 111 (1988) talks to David Kerr’s Barbed Wire Ark (2014).

The boat as symbol has captured the imagination of a number of local artists. Greg Johns’ Run Aground series of rearing hulls embedded with rocks represents for the artist Eurocentric mindsets in contradiction with (and being altered by) the Australian inland. Similar perspectives inform Antony Hamilton’s Myth and Mirage (1999), which is sited at Tibooburra NSW. This is an inverted, life-sized model of Charles Sturt’s whaleboat the explorer dragged inland in the 1840s in search of an inland sea.

John Turpie, working on South Australia’s West Coast, created a boat-sculpture, Everyone is a Boat Person (2002) and sited it on the cliff top at Elliston, looking expectantly inland. Most recently, another local artist, David Kerr sited his Barbed Wire Ark (2014) on an escarpment as his contribution to the Palmer Sculpture Biennial 2014. It is a wickedly subversive work, a mockheroic rip-off of the ‘up shit creek in a barbed wire canoe’ assessment of the situation. That the boat-like form, made from cut and bent steel star droppers, incorporates an architectural reference to the Art Gallery of South Australia’s classical façade on North Terrace, introduces an edgy, humorous note. Consciously, or otherwise, skirting Russell Crowe’s predicament, Kerr says, “The ark is a play across Noah’s boat and the ark of the covenant but I never wanted them to land in biblical allegories or readings, more in quasi religiosity of art world mores and customs… and through this to assert that culture does not have to be something that happens to you, but you can make it happen as well… if not the grand narrative at least what you think should go in the ark.” To which he adds a liking for the “little bit of strine that comes out when you say ‘arkgallery’”. Appropriately, the Palmer Sculpture Biennial catalogue entry for Kerr’s work notes that Barbed Wire Ark is ‘sited between a rock and hard ground’.

Sculpture by Francois Jaggi

Until 1 June 32 The Parade Norwood Mon-Fri 9-5.30 Sat 10-5 Sun 2-5 t. 8363 0806 www.artimagesgallery.com.au

Window Display at Tarts from 2nd June to 28th June Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm Phone 8232 0265

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Review: 19th Biennale of Sydney 2014 Hurricane chasing

BY JOHN NEYLON

A

rt biennials and biennales are heroic undertakings. The resources required to produce them go far beyond securing sponsors and funding. Add to this deep reserves of determination to do all it takes to make it happen. The Biennale of Sydney (BOS) 2014 had its very public disruption to plans when several artists boycotted the project. The system didn’t go down and the show went on. But in the middle of intense disputes about the rights and wrongs of this action it must have been very human of everyone heading up the project to ask the question ‘why are we doing this?’ This is a question that sort of gets answered whenever panels sit around microphones and reflect on what big art fests have to offer.

No one, in my experience, has ever said they are a waste of time. The chat is mostly a lot of show and tell about who’s doing what/where/when and how ‘problematic’ (read dazed and confused) the art world has become. Add to this extensive public programmes which bring artists, curators » and wider audiences face to face. By such means biennales/biennials perform splendid service as points of entry into the whirling maelstrom of contemporary art.

Like a ride in a weather balloon really.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 39

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

Thematic titles such as ‘You Imagine What You Desire’ are useful in driving overarching narratives but there is a point beyond which audiences will make up their own minds. It’s a bit like believing in a GPS sat nav until it tells you to drive off a wharf. Applying this to BOS 2014, I wondered if viewers were really getting with the thematic program as they moved from work-to-work and site-to-site.

They were certainly reading the interpretive panels, which is a positive sign of active engagement. The Biennale’s central narrative is about imagination as a portal to endless possibilities. But almost without exception, all works in the show are expressions of imaginations at work. In running with such a theme this project comes close to being themeless. This is certainly reflected in the very wide diversity of works which, despite the intention to corral them into site-designated groups (e.g. AGNSW as ‘earth/fire’), just went about doing what most art works do – be themselves.

Because of this parallel play dynamic I remain to be convinced that the proximate alignment of works in different locations automatically created ‘little narratives’ that contributed to the larger ‘You Imagine’ story’. On Cockatoo Island, it took a handful of exceptional works including; Eva Koch’s I AM THE RIVER (a super-sized video waterfall experience), Randi and Katrine’s The Village (cuddly-cute Swedish folk houses with spooky eyes) and Christine Streuli’s Wicked (a wildly eccentric, high-energy interior makeover of the Mess Hall on Cockatoo Island) to sustain the welcometo–weirdo-island hype.

But, to give credit, ‘little narratives’ kicked in occasionally and the Biennale began to sing. It happened for me at the MCA where a number of compelling works/viewing experiences coalesced to create a sense of significance; Douglas Gordon’s Phantom (Rufus Wainwright blowing smoke in the eyes in the darkest of deserted clubs), Roni Horn’s 10 Liquid Incidents (liquidity tablets for troubled giants) and Jim Lambie’s Screamadelica (psychotropic striped ‘Zobop’ installation). To this can be added David Claerbout’s The Quite Shore video which, in an understated manner, built a sense of place and narrative by using stills within a

tom borgas post digital fragments 8 - 24 May 2014 www.hillsmithgallery.com.au

Gordon Phantom (video still) 2011

VISUAL ARTS

viewing context of a highly reflective floor on which floated open-ended possibilities. The works at Artspace also worked in concert to stimulate the imagination to engage with ideas about nature in its most reassuring and threatening forms. At the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and to a lesser extent at MCA, and despite the caliber of the selected works this sense of dialogue between a curatorial intent to cause ‘re-imagination’ is muddied by proximity to other collection spaces and enterprises. Too many distractions and too hostage to being in an ‘art space’ with other collections that hang out there all the time.

Would it be possible for a future BOS to work differently? One: abandon the thematic and simply select work on the basis of not

only being extraordinary or game changing but also capable of setting up open-ended narratives. Apply the 3S principle: Select, Site and Show. Then let the inner and outer art communities join the dots and create their own stories. Two: ordain Cockatoo Island as the preeminent BOS venue and make each installation selected for this site really work to justify being there. It’s a remarkable site. It deserves remarkable art. Three: give Carriageworks over to filmic/video work, which goes beyond the routine big screen/ audience-in-the-dark formula to exploit more sculptural/ experimental options. I’m sure Melbourne’s Centre for Moving Images (ACMI) could come up with a few ideas if asked. Four: take the Biennale out of the Art Gallery entirely and give the MCA entirely

over to BOS works that require regulation gallery display conditions. Five: consider selecting fewer artists and represent some with more than a single work.

To return to the beginning, such decisions would be heroic undertakings. But, in response to this Biennale’s theme, worth imagining?

» 19th Biennale of Sydney 2014 You Imagine What You Desire Continues until Monday, June 9 biennaleofsydney.com.au

through the Mirror ball Lucy Bonnin - MeLAnie BRown DeiDRe BuT-HuSAiM - STeve cox yvonne eAST - ReBeccA HASTingS cHeLSeA LeHMAnn - BRigiD noone cHRiSTopHeR oRcHARD MARy-JeAn RicHARDSon - MuRRAy RuLe DeB SLeeMAn - MARk THoMpSon gRAeMe TownSenD - geRRy weDD

1 - 24 May 2014

444 South Road, Marleston, SA 5033 | T +61 08 8297 2440 | M 0421 311 680 | art @bmgart.com.au | www.bmgart.com.au

40 The Adelaide Review May 2014

Visual arts

The Exhibition Formerly Known As...

Profile: Tom Borgas

artists per se, perhaps they are in the sense that their work is difficult to label or categorise.

Categorisation is something video artist Celeste Aldahn is familiar with as she participates in outsider culture and creates work like Floral Gimp / Queer Decay. Aldahn explains: “There are multiple personalities in this world and there are a lot of personalities that society and culture tell us are wrong or inappropriate. And that we should be behaving in a certain way and we should like certain things and there are other things we should keep hidden from society.”

by Jane Llewellyn

D

rawn from an Amanda Marburg painting where she spells out ‘Aspy Kid’ in plasticine, the original title of this exhibition has unfortunately taken the focus away from the artwork, as audiences debate its intention. The eleventh hour decision to change the title to ‘the exhibition formerly known as ASPY KIDS’ has probably raised more questions than answers.

ASPY KIDS was originally an idea by the former director of the Australian Experimental Art Foundation (AEAF), and drew on concepts around outsider art. The program manager at AEAF, Fulvia Mantelli, took over as caretaker and worked with the artists to develop the exhibition idea further.

The focus for the exhibition became more about categorisation and while these artists aren’t outsider

exhibitions gallery shop

Tom Polo’s work from the series Continuous One Liners is more obviously about labels as he presents a bunch of phrases taken from everyday life. Seeing the phrases en masse in a gallery space means they can be easily glanced over, an overload of information. At the same time they have more impact, as the viewer takes a moment to ponder what it means when we say ‘Alright Already’ or ‘Winning not Whining’.

It’s difficult to go past What’s work Helen’s Leg due partly to its size (6.6m long) but also because it’s as if the giant leg is floating. At first glance the viewer wonders how it fits into this premise of ASPY KIDS/outsider art/categorisation. Delving into the work further you realise the leg is attached to a greater story, that separating it and labelling it as just a leg is impossible. Helen’s Leg takes on a personality of its own as What explains

An exhibition by the Adelaide Central School of Art Painting Group Ginetta Cocks, Rhonda Diakomichalis, Lyn Dresosti, Beverley Jerome, Margaret Piper, Renee Sage, Daphne Swindon, Caroline Taylor, Christine Webber, Jose White, Julie Wilson and Leona Woolcock

TWO EXHIBITIONS

Tampendi

2 – 30 May 2014

‘recognise’ in Kaurna

KnowHow

2014 - RHG celebrating 20 years

Lyn Dreosti, Red Hot Pokers

painting by Ian Willding

artwork in various media by Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders

artwork in various media by members of the Red House Group Inc

Robin Hungerford’s video piece from the series, Like a hole in the head, is equally intriguing but more for its horror than its beauty. The video shows a giant head made of papier-mache on top of the artist’s own shoulders which he starts to stab and pull apart with blood (red paint filled condoms) pouring out of it. Your initial reaction is to turn away but form some reason you are compelled to watch and it becomes quite absurd and humorous.

Mantelli says: “It’s sort of autobiographical about the frustrations of an artist trying to make sense of things, trying to work it out. I love that it’s such a direct video. Don’t we all feel like this at some stage?”

Other artists in the exhibition include David Capra (NSW), Sarah crowEST (Vic), Patrick Rees (SA/USA) and Mish Meijers + Tricky Walsh (Tas).

MondAy’S WoRld

9 May - 1 June 2014

how Helen’s Leg was invited to Adelaide for the exhibition and that he accepted on its behalf.

Opens: Friday 2 May 6 pm Launch Guest: Anna Platten, Well-loved, respected and influential figurative artist and art teacher

Free Artist Demonstrations throughout the exhibition: Saturday 3, 10 and 17 May 2 pm – 4 pm

Free entry - all welcome!

It’s unfortunate that the initial title, ASPY KIDS has meant the exhibition has suffered its own labelling and categorisation. Changing the title has helped to shift away from this slightly, but probably not enough for audiences to view it without preconceived ideas. Titles aside it’s an exhibition well worth seeing.

»»The exhibition formerly known as ASPY KIDS Australian Experimental Art Foundation Continues until Saturday, May 17 aeaf.org.au

Sculptor Tom Borgas is having an Instagram moment as he gears up for his exhibition Postdigital Fragments at Hill Smith Gallery. In the same way that Instagram frames the things we do, the exhibition will, in a sense, frame Borgas’ work.

by Jane Llewellyn

“

To me it feels a bit like it’s my Instagram in real life,” he explains.

It’s been a busy year for Borgas. His work 200 white cubes (striped) featured in a FELTspace exhibition earlier this year.

He created 100 brightly coloured boxes and scattered them amongst the rocks on the banks of the Port River for FELTmaps and he also occupied the project space at the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia with his work Riparian Artefacts.

The exhibition at Hill Smith Gallery is a step beyond the project-based work. “I am conscious that it is a gallery, that is a little bit different to all the stuff I have done. It’s something I have given a lot of thought to,” he explains.

Borgas’ background is actually in graphic

Mother Nature is a Lesbian Political Printmaking in South Australia 1970s-1980s 10 May - 13 July 2014

(clockwise from top left) plaster maze

by Jeremy G Paddick mixed media artwork

by Jo Mignone handwoven shawl (detail)

by Bev Bills

Gallery M, Marion Cultural Centre 287 Diagonal Rd, Oaklands Pk SA P:8377 2904 info@gallerym.net.au

www.gallerym.net.au

Pepper Street Arts Centre Exhibitions, Gift Shop, Art Classes, Coffee Shop.

558 Magill Road, Magill PH: 8364 6154 Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 12 noon - 5 pm An arts and cultural initiative funded by the City of Burnside

pepperstreetartscentre.com.au

Flinders University City Galler y State Librar y of S outh Australia N o r t h Te r r a c e , A d e l a i d e Tue - Fri 11 - 4pm, S at & S un 12 - 4pm www.flind ers. edu. au/ ar tmuseum

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 41

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VISUAL ARTS cardboard because it’s quick and cheap and he can pump out works quickly. “I find if I make one thing and spend a long time on it I become really precious about it. I prefer to make a lot of things where it becomes almost like a new, raw material.”

Borgas doesn’t necessarily think his work will last forever. In fact some of the cubes on display at Port Adelaide for FELTmaps were stolen or smashed up but he doesn’t mind. “In the other FELTspace show earlier in the year I had 200 green striped boxes and the whole idea was for people to get amongst it and do what they liked in there, so it sort of extends from that idea.”

In the exhibition at Hill Smith Gallery audiences can expect to see some of Borgas’ 2D drawings, which he says have always been there but just hidden in the sculpture. “It’s still based on the triangulation stuff. Rather than being just ink on paper, I like to make the drawings an object so I think that will be in how I frame them.”

Tom Borgas, Postdigital Rubble Gold

design and that is evident in his practice today. A recurring motif in his work is the triangular surface. “I guess the way a pixel is the digital element of a 2D image, in 3D it’s the triangle. That’s the smallest unit used to describe whatever surface, so that’s a motif I use quite a bit.”

For Borgas, technology provides an easy way

to talk about his work, offering an aesthetic framework not just a conceptual one. “I thought my entry point was through software and digital media and then I started to realise it is literally about analogue and digital and even bigger nature/culture.”

loops to maintain a momentum” – perhaps an influence of his time spent DJing around town. While he works quickly he can also be quite methodical and sets himself laborious tasks like the work 100 Rocks each a gram difference in weight.

Borgas works quite quickly and spontaneously and says that he “needs really short feedback

Borgas’ practice also informs the types of materials he uses. He works a lot with

» Tom Borgas: Postdigital Fragments Hill Smith Gallery Thursday, May 8 to Saturday, May 24 madebytomborgas.com

1 -15 June 2014 st

th

A collection of works by R.W. EightyEight

The simplicity, yet complexity of these breathtaking pen and ink presentations will surely inspire and amaze. Many people who have seen his work, believe that something exclusive and rare has arrived.

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y e Cit ery Gall Building, e, Adelaid , A . . S itute pm Av .S.A 4.30 tore st

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42 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

TRAVEL SCANDINAVIAN COOL In terms of greatest cities visited, Berlin was my Citizen Kane, never to be replaced as my number one destination. But just as Vertigo knocked Orson Welles’ classic from the top spot of the latest Sight & Sound poll, so too has Berlin been dismissed from the number one city on my conquered city list – thanks to a quick visit to Stockholm.

BY DAVID KNIGHT

A former work colleague was determined to live in Stockholm. I didn’t understand the attraction, and the amount of groundwork she was undertaking to get to the Swedish city. Then I visited. It all made sense. For an Adelaidean, Stockholm is an easy visit with similarities in attitude and outlook. It is relaxed. The people friendly. It is also a creative city, a hotbed of cutting edge design, food and style. Though Stockholm doesn’t have the bohemian edge of Berlin, it is still as cool as David Bowie during his Berlin period, especially South of Folkungagatan (SoFo).

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Like any self-respecting district of hipness, SoFo is a former blue-collar area. Now, it features design studios, pubs, cafes, high-end and vintage fashion. Like the rest of Stockholm, pretension is a pleasing subtraction from SoFo. With stores such as Grandpa (which features fashion, design and vintage wares), Nudie, Acne and Beyond Retro, you can easily burn a hole in your wallet while casually walking SoFo’s streets. Then there’s the design. One of Scandinavia’s leading designers Monica Forster (who works with Alessi) has her studio and storefront based on the streets of SoFo and it is a must-visit.

Then there’s the record shop Pet Sounds – apparently one of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite music stores. With an eclectic range of popular music (including an impressive Australian underground section) Pet Sounds is an ideal break from the fashion and design to search for a vinyl (or CD) gem.

A stone’s throw from SoFo is the historic Old Town (Gamla Stan), a brilliantly preserved medieval town where a casual walk is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Located in Gamla Stan is a restaurant that is a carnivore’s delight – Djuret (which means meat in Swedish). For steak and game lovers, you can’t go past Djuret.

For something a little different on the foodie tip, try the indoor market Ostermalms

This month’s prize is a year’s supply of Menz FruChocs, valued over $300!

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Saluhalls. For more than 120 years, Ostermalms Saluhalls has been Stockholm’s number one destination for gourmet food seekers. Featuring restaurants, cafes and boutique food stalls, this is the Scandinavian version of the Central Market and is the best place to find traditional Swedish (as well as international) food and ingredients.

Without a doubt, one of the most impressive buildings in Stockholm is its historic City Hall, arguably one of Europe’s finest buildings for council workers. This is the venue where the Nobel Prize banquet is held every December.

Stockholm City Hall can only be visited by a guided tour. Construction began in 1911 and was completed in 1923; it is designed in the National Romantic style, a form of art nouveau. Inside is the breathtaking Golden Hall, a room filled with decorative mosaics featuring 18 million tiles that glow golden. It is a sight to behold.

But then so is the entire city of Stockholm. It is a tourist’s dream, especially if you’re into food, design and culture. *The writer was a guest of Stockholm Visitors Board and Emirates

» emirates.com/au visitstockholm.com

HAVING RECENTLY LAUNCHED DIRECT FLIGHTS TO STOCKHOLM FROM DUBAI, EMIRATES’ SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF AIRCRAFT CATERING, ROBIN PADGETT, DISCUSSES THE LOCAL WINES AVAILABLE ON EMIRATES FLIGHTS. Even though the majority of wines on Emirates flights are from the Bordeaux area of France, can you tell us about some of the South Australian (and Australian) wines currently on all classes of Emirates flights to and from Australia including Petaluma’s Piccadilly Chardonnay 2010?

Our selection of South Australian wines include the likes of Penfolds’ 2003 Grange Hermitage in our Business and First Class cabins, as well as Peter Lehmann’s 2004 Stonewell Shiraz from the Barossa Valley – both outstanding representations of the region’s exceptional offering. Petaluma’s 2010 Piccadilly Chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills is a popular on-board choice in the whites, being peachy in flavour, which leads into a creamy palate of nectarines, ripe apples and grapefruit, a feast for the senses and the perfect match to our on-board cuisine.

Other Australian wines include Scotchman’s Hill 2004 Norfolk Pinot Noir and the 2004 Sutton Vineyard Chardonnay from the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, plus Yering’s No. 2 2006 from the Yarra Valley, which is beautifully fragrant with great opulence on the palate.

How did you come across the Petaluma Chardonnay and what made it stand out for you?

We visit the region regularly and we’ve always known the Adelaide Hills produce some of Australia’s most elegant cool climate wines. Petaluma’s 30-year-old vineyards and the intensity of their handpicked fruit is testament to that. Their 2010 Petaluma Piccadilly Chardonnay was a stand-out for us due to its mix of flavours and stylish acidity, which is a wonderful match to many of our on-board seafood and rich pasta dishes.

Emirates offers return airfares from Adelaide to Stockholm from $2,012 in Economy Class and $9,405 in Business Class via Dubai. Emirates flies from Australia to Dubai 84 times per week, with daily onward connections to Stockholm – one of 35 European destinations. For flight information and bookings contact Emirates on 1300 303 777 or go to emirates.com/au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 43

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FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Wine is Coming A Game of Thrones-themed wine tasting event will discover which wine rules them all.

BY DAVID KNIGHT

F

irst held in Melbourne last year, Game of Rhones will spread its wings to Brisbane and Adelaide over the coming month and a bit. The brainchild of Dan Sims (Bottle Shop Concepts), Game of Rhones is a lighthearted take on wine tasting, with winemakers and punters dressing up in costume from the wildly successful HBO fantasy show based on the Song of Ice and Fire series of books

by George RR Martin. The event, which includes tasting wine influenced from the Rhone region in France, follows Bottle Shop Concepts’ mantra: “We take the wank out of wine.”

Sims explains that it was a friend of his that came up with the title Game of Rhones.

“He’s not a wine person at all, which is great as I have to pitch my ideas to him and I figure if I can get him excited, I’m onto something,” Sims says. “But yes, I am a mad Game of Thrones fan and I was keen to do a Shriraz/Grenache

event but needed the right angle to make it fun.

ShirazPalooza doesn’t quite have a ring to it.”

Last year, Sims took PinotPalooza to Brisbane, which gave him the confidence to send Game of Rhones up there. As for Adelaide: “It’s a logical choice seeing some of the best known Shiraz based wines/wineries are at its doorstep.”

Sims said last year’s Game of Rhones event was “hilarious”.

“Having some of the winemakers dress up in costume was brilliant and it immediately made people feel at ease. We had medieval music playing as well as actors (in costume) walking about. We also had a torture room where we held blind tastings (blind folded that is) and we put liquids in their mouths. As I said, hilarious! As for being different, it’s a whole package. We want it to be fun and engaging. And yes, it is possible to go to a wine event and actually enjoy yourself.”

Then there’s the actual game, where guests get to vote for their favourite wine.

“We have some of our ‘staff’ walking around with iPads asking people to vote for their favourite wine on the day, as well as the best dressed producer.”

There will be 45 wineries part of Melbourne’s event and just under 30 for Adelaide. Torbreck’s Run Rig was last year’s winner.

“Thankfully they’re back to defend the title,” Sims says. “We’ll do the same voting system and have city favourites as well as an overall winner to make it interesting.”

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As for improving on last year’s inaugural event, Sims says they are looking at better food options for this year’s series, as well as sourcing local beer and cider.

“We’re working with local caterers/food trucks to work with us in terms of food. In short, yes, we’re keen to have some fun with food and link it as much as possible to Game of Thrones.”

» Game of Rhones Published Arts House Saturday, May 24 (1pm to 6pm) bottleshopconcepts.com/gameofrhones

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44 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

REVIEW: ORANA “After a week in Sydney, a week in North Queensland and a weekend in Melbourne, I’m going to finish my holiday with a couple of days in Adelaide. I’ve heard it’s pretty quiet there?”

BY PAUL WOOD

I realised I’d just been charged with a mission after hanging up the phone. If it takes changing the misconceptions of a visiting Brit one at a time, then so be it. Until recently, some of our overseas cousins hadn’t even heard of our city – despite the fact Adelaide is named after one of their queens – but as our food and wine renaissance continues, so grows our invigorated resolve.

With no time to get away, activities needed to remain local and at the top of my list was Jock Zonfrillo’s Orana – the restaurant the Scottish ex-pat launched last year after a few

years at the helm of Magill Estate.

We stopped downstairs for a quick aperitif at the Street ADL bar. Before our guest could finish the phrase, “I went to a bar like this in…” we whisked him out, via the darkened side alleyway and up the vine-entangled staircase, opening the lit doorway into the minimalist vestibule of Orana. Here is where I will draw some similarity to places I’ve dined before, but those places were 10,000 miles away on the banks of Stockholm’s islets. Sparsely decorated with arbitrary Scandinavian furniture and a row of bespoke wine-filled fridges along one

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wall, the style here is radical for Adelaide and certainly something new for Australia.

The word Orana translates to ‘welcome’ and is exactly how you will feel from the moment you enter until the moment you walk out. The service is exquisite. The staff are professionals who make it their life to make the dining experience more than just about the food (which is exquisite, incidentally).

This is dinner and a show, without the smoke and mirrors.

In a subtle flurry, dishes began arriving soon after we took our seats. The first round of ‘tastes’ included a crisp saltbush, kutjera and sour cream bite. Crunchy, woody, smooth and tangy at the same time – Orana’s contemporary take on the salt and vinegar crisp – it was served alongside a beef tendon with macadamia and quandong (more familiar names, but a newly discovered combination of flavours). Next came the goat’s cheese with a quarter of beetroot, smoked for 12 hours over a fire pit. For such a small and unassuming dish, this one packed a punch with pronounced flavour and a smoky sweetness that had taste buds around the table tingling. Then, tiny carved toothpicks with skewered slivers of dry-age South Devon beef, mountain pepper and lilly pilly, and a smoked Goolwa cockle.

The ‘Alkoopina’ tastes went on – 19 different morsels bursting with flavour, and all this before the main event. The last of these piquant delights came disguised as a palatecleansing sorbet, a guessing game of sorts – but you’ll need to test this one yourself, the tactics of war and all that gaff.

And now for the heroes: another nine to

be precise.

Peas, by reputation, are generally plate fillers; buttered or minted, or pureed at best, but here they stand tall and wild upon a pile of muntries, wild plum and cinnamon myrtle.

Too good to stop scooping from this perfect little dish, matched impeccably with an Italian Tiberio Pecorino – that’s a wine, not a cheese, just so we’re sure.

It was around about now that our traveller friend came up for air and exclaimed an excited “Oh!” as the next main was laid out on the table. It was his first taste of kangaroo since landing in the country and once devoured I warned him he’d never try better. The kangaroo was topped with a thick buttery sauce of mountain pepper with balanced spice and a slightly sweet undertone, scattered with the leaves of an ox eye daisy.

The succulent flesh of Kangaroo Island marron came next. Similar to yabbies, but three times the size, these small-clawed creatures are not as well known (or eaten) as they should be. The chef made the best use of the tail, limiting additions to finger lime and aniseed myrtle to give a slight hint of sapid tang to complement the mildly sweet taste.

Karkalla might be familiar to those who’ve spent time along the coastline, generally seen as a succulent weed but who knew it could taste so, well, succulent? Topping a fillet of black face Suffolk lamb with fermented ruby saltbush berries and a bite-sized side of haggis, this is certainly a lamb dish, but not as you know it.

With three ‘sweeter’ dishes to go, our march continued. Fields of young riberry leaves with

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FOOD.WINE.COFFEE unpasteurised goat’s cheese, and a sensually satisfying native currant with coconut cream were defeated only by the set buttermilk with strawberry and eucalyptus – each dessert washed down with their very own liquid complements.

They only do degustation dinners at Orana, and that’s all they need. With only 24 seats, intimacy is not a problem and the seamless service will make you feel like you’re the only guests in the room. Well, the only ones who matter, at least. Despite a reasonably hefty price tag, Orana doesn’t cut corners and they don’t want anyone to miss out. You’ll sit through at least 20 different tastes and dishes and you will almost certainly love it, especially when you let their chief drinks-guy (Josh Picken) match the wine.

And so we will soldier on with this culinary public relations challenge to reignite Adelaide as the go-to destination one re-initiated Brit at a time, with the help of a local Scotsman at the helm, no less.

» Orana 285 Rundle Street 8232 3444 restaurantorana.com

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46 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE SCANDELOUS!!” By WInEFiend 87 Or “WE PAID $50 FOR THREE COURSES!!!!!

RIPOFF!!!!!!!!” By Diner#Catselfie69 It sounds like an exaggeration; it’s not. It’s human nature and technology has left us hopelessly spoiled. We whine like disappointed emperors the moment a restaurant does anything other than pander to our every whim, why? Because now we have an audience. But I’m talking about someone else there, of course. Not you, precious readers and potential diners, not you – after all you are the ones who ultimately blah blah let me pat you on the head blah. Bless you, whoever you are.

You know a complaint is serious or a compliment extremely sincere when it’s handwritten. And even now, because these words too will appear on the internet, I know someone, somewhere, will be formulating a complaint in their head.

GAME OF PHONES

BY DUNCAN WELGEMOED

Ever since I can remember, humankind began fast forwarding through mobile devices like someone scrolling through a YouTube video to get to the best bits. We have grown accustomed to machines going from totally essential to completely obsolete, mobiles thrown into the abyss alongside puree swiping and 62-degree eggs. All we are doing is pretty much surrounding ourselves with technology that is designed to distract us.

This is bullshit... especially for a restaurateur.

The sole reason I got into cooking was so I could cook and connect. There is no better feeling than having someone enjoy an experience that you have put together, from the food and wine to the company. It’s a performance akin to theatre and no one wants to be distracted by a buzzing

phone or flashing lights when you have paid good money to be entertained right?

Wrong – we crave constant stimulation and the smart phone has become an integral part of the dining landscape.

The problem we now face in the restaurant industry is that more people are taking photos of the food, décor and wine, which take away from the overall ambience. On Saturday nights I could light up Waymouth Street on the power generated by iPhones in the dining room and still have enough electricity to take a cat selfie.

You know what the menu and wine match is before you have even walked in, as well as what to expect by from the kitchen, so there is no element of surprise left. I’m generalising. But there’s

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definitely a higher base-level of expectation.

It’s tricky for a chef. On one hand we know that the dish the front of house has placed in front of the diner is first looked upon through the lens of a smartphone, the description etched into a comment box and posted before anyone has had a chance to taste the dish. On the other hand it’s free advertising, our food broadcasted to a plethora of potential customers, counting the likes and shares, deciding on your next signature dish by the amount of shares the photo has – that’s when the cons become blurred.

Social media has become ‘word of mouth’ and the amount of people that comment online about their experiences is staggering.

Everyone has now become a critic and as soon as something is posted, it’s out there for the world to see. It can be used for good or evil and there is no responsibility or accountability especially when negative reviews are posted anonymously such as: “MY WINE WAS NOT POURED EXACTLY 60 SECONDS BEFORE OUR MAINS CAME OUT!!!

Next time look around the restaurant you are dining in, count how many people are gazing lovingly into their Instagram accounts and consider putting your phone on silent, starting a conversation with your partner and enjoy the experience... then feel free to Tweet about how awesome or crap it was. Within the industry we appreciate the support the online community gives us and take on the chin the constructive feedback, even if it’s not what we want to hear. However, just remember to respect the establishment, put down your phone and eat your food. * I use my phone more than any other human in Christendom.

» Duncan Welgemoed is the Executive Chef of Bistro Dom and The Happy Motel bistrodom.com.au thehappymotel.com

Majestic Roof gaRden hotel The multi award winning Majestic Roof Garden Hotel is perfectly located in Adelaide’s vibrant East End of the CBD. Each of the 120 rooms are unique and luxurious, with modern interior design, king-size beds, free Wi-Fi and opulent bathrooms.

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View from Majestic Roof Garden Hotel

Like all things we need balance, we need to be honest in our expectations, enjoying the meal for what it is, and stop comparing notes.

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Baristas not Hippies

BY DEREK CROZIER

W

e are finally starting to see the boutique coffee world pour into events and festivals around town through the likes of portable coffee vans. Combi Coffee is one of the creative pop-ups you can’t miss, not only due to it being a vintage 1972 kombi van but becuase it has a coffee machine built into the back. They use the locally roasted coffee from Kommon Grounds and offer different single origins and blends depending on what’s in season and the event they’re attending.

On this day, I found Combi Coffee at an outdoor event called Unley’s Double Shot Coffee Fiesta. When I saw the mustard color van from across the oval I naturally drifted towards it. Although it was very busy, the barista was still able to have a chat to me about coffee, which tells me they must love

what they’re doing. He suggested I try a Guatemala Antigua for my espresso, which he handed straight to me from the machine.

The first sip produced a bright and pleasant acidity with hints of soft spice but the aroma of coca came through towards the end.

The latte was made from a blend called Combi Coffee Blend, which was made up of beans from Brazil, Colombia and India. The crema was a perfect colour and sat around the latte art of a rosetta leaf. The taste of toasted walnuts was predominant at first but the chocolate berry flavours came through with the after taste. It was a pleasant cup of balanced characteristics.

Combi Coffee can be found at a range of different events around Adelaide ranging from small local markets to large music festivals such as WOMADelaide. They live up to the title of being a pop-up boutique by popping up in front of you at an event and serving you coffee at a boutique level of greatness.

» Combi Coffee is fund at various events around Adelaide

No Clowning Around

BY DEREK CROZIER

S

ome local coffee roasters are creating a carnival around town with their mobile boutique set up. I’ve seen the Carnevale Coffee Roasters van at multiple local events recently so I knew they’d be at Unley’s Double Shot Coffee Fiesta serving up their freshly roasted beans. Offering a unique cold brew (coffee brewed for a long

time with cold water) and two single origin beans, they definitely cater for the coffee connoisseur at any event.

through from the coffee.

I made my way to the counter to be met by a barista who was ready to serve. Without hesitation, I started with an espresso of a single origin bean from Nicaragua. The first sip produced a taste of raw honey but it had a floral aroma. Towards the end I could taste hints of ripe pear and hints of clove spice.

The Carnevale Coffee Roasters have a cellar door at 114 East Avenue Clarence Park, which is where they roast their beans. You can try it as fresh as it gets but their portable set up means that they can bring the same experience to you almost anywhere. They love to talk coffee and all its variables, so if you ever see their van at an event, make it the first stop before exploring anywhere else.

I went with the bean from Peru for my latte. It was presented with a symmetrical rosetta on top as the latte art and the first sip had an earthy taste, which was very clean and bright. The milk was textured beautifully and complemented the smoky notes coming

» The Carnevale Coffee Roasters van is at various events around Adelaide carnevalecoffeeroasters.com.au

TH T H E B I RT H P L AC E O F M c L A R E N VA L E

Celebra

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48 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Bread and Butter Pickle

Grass Vs Grain

Ingredients • 4 large cucumbers – thickly sliced • 2 brown onions – halved, thinly sliced • 2 teaspoons salt • 400ml apple cider vinegar • 230g caster sugar • 2 teaspoons celery seeds • 2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds • ½ teaspoon ground turmeric • 2 bay leaves

BY ANNABELLE BAKER

T

his all started when I endeavoured to find out what makes a great a piece of beef.

But I found myself running around South Australian cattle farms on information overload instead. I discovered great beef really depends on what you want – buttery and creamy tender meat or complex flavours with texture. For me, it is the latter but, like most, I wouldn’t say no to an intensely marbled piece of Wagyu. The flavour all starts with what the animal ate, how the animal lived and how it was slaughtered. Flavour most certainly does not come from the elaborate spice mixes and rubs, which seem to be flooding the supermarket shelves.

enhanced the ‘meaty’ taste. It wasn’t, however, traditionally tender, it needed some good oldfashioned chewing but this only extracted more of the flavour and made my steak all the more satisfying.

My journey started on a 400-acre Fleurieu Peninsula-based farm. The rolling hills were littered with free roaming cattle and lamb. But I wasn’t there to see them; I was really there to see the grass and what it did to the flavour of the beef after careful butchering on their residential processing facility. It didn’t disappoint; it was as if the fields of grass, and even the weeds, had

If you like melt-in-the-mouth tender beef, then grain-fed is most likely the one for you. A rich diet of grains, and random additions like almond hulls, make for a more rounded and creamy flavour profile. There is, however, a lack of complexity, one could even say it’s one-dimensional. Traditional techniques of finishing cattle solely on grain, seems to have lost some of its traction in the market. The

thought of taking cattle off the pastures around them and replacing their diet exclusively with grain is a hard concept to swallow when we are all trying to make more ethical and sustainable decisions.

After talking to a handful of farmers, it is clear that consumer demands for grass-fed beef is triggering a large amount of discussion and movement in farming practices. Both grass- and grain-fed beef have a place our meat industry but it is very clear that the debate is only just getting started. twitter.com/annabelleats

Method 1. Place the sliced cucumbers, onion and salt in a colander, resting over a large bowl. Mix thoroughly and leave for 20 to 30 minutes.

2. Bring the apple cider vinegar, sugar, spices and bay leaves to a boil and reduce to a simmer.

3. Lightly rinse the cucumbers and onions and add them to the simmering apple cider vinegar.

4. Turn the heat off and leave to steep for 10 minutes.

5. Spoon the pickles into sterilized jars (I use them straight from a hot dishwasher), seal and turn upside down for five minutes. Store sealed in a dark cool place for up to a year.

Sloppy Joe

sea and vines at Woodstock Wine Estate

delight

Dinner

Saturday 7th June

Back Vintage Dinner showcasing Woodstock’s finest wines matched with a delicious 5 course dinner meticulously prepared by our Executive Chef, Nigel Munzberg. Door open at 6pm. $120

relish

Tasting Experience

Sunday 8th June

Enjoy a selection of Woodstock wines and gourmet bites designed to excite your palate. $40 3 sessions available: 11am-1pm, 1:30pm-3:30pm, 4pm-6pm

Buy your ticket at

mclarenvaleseaandvines.com.au WOODSTOCK WINE ESTATE 215 DOUGLAS GULLY ROAD MCLAREN FLAT SA | (08) 8383 0156 WOODSTOCKWINE.COM.AU

Ingredients • 500g coarsely ground (grass- or grain-fed) beef mince • 1 red onion – diced • 2 tins whole tomatoes • ½ cup tomato sauce • 3 tablespoons brown sugar • 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce • 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard • Salt • 10 small brioche rolls Method 1. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat with a glug of oil.

Fry the diced onion until soft and translucent.

2. Add the beef mince and fry until browned and any liquid has evaporated.

3. Place tomatoes, tomato sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon and a large pinch of salt into a blender. Mix until smooth and add to the mince.

4. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer until it has a thick and rich consistency.

5. Adjust the seasoning and leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving (it is even better reheated the next day!)

Serve alongside brioche rolls with the crunchy bread and butter pickles.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 49

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Drinking Outside the Square…

BY MATT WALLACE

I

want to talk about taking a chance on a variety, brand or style you may not have had before. I’ve got a few in mind that retail between 15 and 30 bucks that are currently available and are pretty much guaranteed to please. One of them is even a Merlot, for real.

Gemtree Moonstone Savagnin 2013 Savagnin or Sav–an–yan if you prefer.

There’s not much Savagnin made in a crisp dry white style outside of Australia and that it is made here at all is a matter of accident or ‘cluster-pluck’ if you prefer. Savagnin works so well here when made crisp and dry that it could become a style which the world identifies as iconically Australian.

Savagnin vines brought into Australia were originally thought to be Albarino and the wines labeled as such until a visiting French Ampelographer identified otherwise. It caused a bit of a stink that did, with lots of finger pointing and crazy eyes. Either way ... ‘he said Albarino, she said Savagnin’ ... it’s a bloody good drink. The Gemtree is a superb, crisp dry white. Pear, melon and citrus on the pallet – like a mingling of the best bits of Pinot Gris and Riesling.

Well tasty and worth a lash with antipasto or seafood.

Coriole Fiano 2013 Coriole have made Shiraz for 42 years and it has been their flagship variety ever since.

Most of their vines are around 40 years of age. They are also pioneers or adherents of many Italian varietals in Australia including Fiano, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Barbera, Prosecco, Nero d’Avola and Sagrantino.

Fiano originates in Southern Italy and Coriole pioneered it in Australia. Theirs is a lovely, full flavoured, fragrant, crisp and dry white with plenty of personality. It’s like savvy blanc without the boob tube, offering excellent mouthfeel along with plenty of citrus and pith.

Handcrafted by Geoff Hardy Dolcetto 2012 It’s a soft, smooth and eminently gluggable beast this, with quite plush fruit in a light to medium-bodied framework.

On opening it looks like the kind of wine that needs to be smashed in one session but it is even better the following day, appearing bigger and smoother with better expression of fruit. The palate offers cracked pepper, confection, cherries, and anise and finished savoury and dry.

Perfect with antipasto and proper pizza.

Handcrafted by Geoff Hardy Teroldego 2012 Geoff Hardy has his fingers in a few pies, including this Hand Crafted one. Mostly it is a home for alternative varieties and he makes consistently excellent wines from them including Dolcetto, Teroldego, Fiano, Grüner Veltliner, Aglianico, Tannat, Lagrein, Graciano, Savagnin, Tempranillo and Primitivo. We can’t recommend them highly enough. The Handcrafted Teroldego is a medium bodied beauty offering rich and deep black fruits, mulberries, plum and savoury overtones. There are very few Aussie Teroldego producers at the mo. I reckon that will change.

Gemtree Phantom Preservative Free Petit Verdot 2012 Mike Brown, whose preferred vintage uniform is budgie smugglers, is not afraid of an experiment. This edition of Petit Verdot is not just preservative free, but organic, biodynamic and made without the addition of sulphur dioxide, yeast, acid or tannin. As a result it is much softer than their previous editions of their PV and more complex too.

We tasted this side by side against some of our favourite 2012 reds and this one definitely won the day. I’d pair this with a lump of fillet steak seasoned with just salt and pepper.

Leconfield Coonawarra Merlot 2012 Many of you, I know, think that Merlot is best pressed into the service of commissioning maiden voyages, cauterising pre-gangrenous wounds and less dramatically, sluicing the s-bend (straight from the bottle please!). This one though will restore your faith in unloved and arcane tannin infused bevvies… Leconfield Merlot 2012 offers violets, plum and chocolate in a full-bodied but inviting structure built with a strong core of acidity and plentiful fine tannins. This is not just a good Merlot it’s a bloody good red.

QUEST ON FRANKLIN CELEBRATES 1ST BIRTHDAY Serviced apartment accommodation provider, Quest on Franklin, celebrated its first birthday on 8th April with a cocktail party held on the fourteenth floor which showcased the magnificent executive suites and apartments.

Guests enjoyed an array of delectable canapés while they took in the extensive views of the Adelaide city skyline, and experienced a sneak peek of what’s on offer for Quest on Franklin’s guests.

The past 12 months has delivered many triumphs for the team at Quest on Franklin. The property opened its doors with full occupancy in April 2013, a huge achievement and a milestone that often does not occur at least until 3 months into operation. Furthermore, Sally Williams, Quest on Franklin’s Executive Housekeeper was awarded Quest Serviced Apartments Employee of the Year at the company’s annual Gala Awards Dinner held in Melbourne last November.

Quest on Franklin is an active part of the community by supporting charitable organisations such as Catherine House, a platform that helps homeless women get back on their feet and into the working community. They also supported university groups at the recent Santos Tour Down Under and hosted ‘A Pet’s Breakfast’ to raise funds for the Animal Welfare League SA. “Quest on Franklin is always incorporating innovative ideas of servicing our corporate clients better and being an active part of our community here in South Australia. We believe in building strong business relationships and delivering on exceptional service and a fantastic product which truly sets us apart from our competitors.” said Quest on Franklin’s Franchisee, Charlene Ackland.

The 4.5 star property on Franklin Street is Adelaide’s newest serviced apartment facility, offering the choice of studio, one, two & three bedroom apartments. Apartments feature spacious dining and lounge areas, full kitchen facilities, private laundry, desks with data points and wireless internet. All apartments offer high levels of natural light, large double glazed windows, high ceilings, and most apartments boasting balconies.

Centrally located, Quest on Franklin is a two minute walk to Victoria Square and provides a specialised extended stay service to meet the specific needs of its many long term business travellers, including individuals and teams working in Adelaide on projects, as well as those relocating from interstate or overseas.

Visit www.questonfranklin.com.au for further information.

» Matt Wallace likes most things wine, from dusting an ancient bottle of Blue Nun with a feather tickler to drinking expensive booze his mates have bought. He ‘researches’ wine for winedirect.com.au and is a wine judge for The Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines.

50 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

Hot 100 Wines

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN

Reds Put a Seal on the Wicks Success

BY CHARLES GENT

Burning fires

Bright &

Whites

Balanced

Reds

T

im Wicks is unlikely to forget how he makes his living – with his home slap bang in the middle of a hundred acres of Wicks Estate vineyards, his view on all sides comprises vines, vines and more vines, relieved by occasional stands of redgums.

There are constant reminders, too, when out and about, as the Wicks label – its stylised wax seal creating a fat drip of scarlet on white – is a highly visible presence in restaurants, pubs and bottle shops.

It’s surprising to learn that Tim and his business partner and brother, Simon, branched out from civil construction and property development to begin their venture into wine only 14 years ago, planting out their newly purchased Woodside property with Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz.

The idea of becoming vignerons was not pure whim – the brothers Wicks grew up amidst their family’s orchards and nursery business in the foothills around Highbury.

In the past few years, the reds from Wicks have begun to follow the lead of the whites, with the 2012 vintage a standout. In addition to its The Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines top 10 spot, the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon won gold (and best wine in class) at the Adelaide Hills wine show, as well as the Winewise Small Vignerons varietal trophy. Meanwhile, the Shiraz took gold at Perth and Adelaide. With few of the Wicks range retailing for more than $20, it’s a remarkable record.

The orchards were eventually turned over to the creep of urban sprawl, with part of the proceeds purchasing Wicks Estate.

Tim Wicks is happy to play up the Estate’s cool climate credentials. “The market seems to be getting more accepting of light-to-medium bodied styles,” he says.

“I guess we just wanted to stay involved with some form of agriculture,” Wicks says.

“We’re not making reds in the big blockbuster style; the wines are food-friendly, they have a lovely, soft tannin structure and drink well early. They’re really approachable wines.”

In addition to owning their own vines, building a winery was integral to their grand plan: “We wanted to be completely self-dependent and control our own destinies. We didn’t want to have to rely on the majors to buy our grapes and be dictated to by them, so we took the path of making our own label and selling wine under our name.”

It was Sauvignon Blanc that initially led the charge for Wicks Estate.

While happy to put his agricultural knowledge to work in the vineyard, Tim Wicks prudently stopped short of trying to make the wine himself. When the flash new winery was put in on the property in 2004, expert help was only a few hillsides away in the form of family friend Tim Knappstein.

Knappstein is a pioneer and virtuoso maker of Sauvignon Blanc in South Australia, and the elegant whites he made for Wicks quickly picked up prizes as well as a popular following, and they continue to defy the deluge from New Zealand. The winemaking at Wicks, especially among the reds, also enjoys the Barossa-based experience of Leigh Ratzmer, whose previous jobs include a stint at Torbreck.

While both brothers and their families still muck-in during vintage, their growing success has led them to enlist the services of another family wine company, Angoves, to handle distribution.

While they have made some efforts to export their wines, and they do sell into China and the Netherlands, their focus remains the local market. Tim Wicks is well aware that hard work lies ahead to avoid the tough times that have befallen many small-to-medium-sized wineries.

“We’ve managed to buck the trend, and while we don’t want to become the biggest winery in the Hills, we do want to continue our growth path.

“Offering high quality, good value wines is the way to do it.”

» wicksestate.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 51

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FOOD.WINE.COFFEE thoroughly committed to its environment, its sustainability and its premium produce and experiences.

“We have an extraordinary culture of passionate people who understand the varied soils, unique climate and coastal influence of this region, and so create incredible food, wine and craft beers that are truly representative of McLaren Vale.”

EXPERIENCE SEA AND VINES Waves of wine, food and entertainment will crash over the hills of McLaren Vale once more this June long weekend at the Sea and Vines Festival. A huge bevy of events are combining to make the Queen’s Birthday weekend a rather hedonistic affair.

BY JOHN DEXTER

Sea and Vines events are split into four categories: Sunday Experience, Monday Zest, Delight and Relish. Sunday’s events are ticketed for multiple entries into vineyards

running day-long courses of food, wine and entertainment. Monday Zest will see out the end of the festival with family friendly events in a host of participating wineries.

Sea and Vines is a festival with broad appeal; testament to the mix of contemporary style and old-school tradition that is McLaren Vale. A look over the festival program demonstrates that wineries are making a concerted effort to satisfy the young and old alike.

For example, Serafino Winery’s two-course dinner, with entertainment provided by Daryl Braithwaite of Sherbert fame, is sure to bring out the baby boomers. Meanwhile, Coriole will be cooking paella and serving Wagyu sliders to the bohemian sounds of the Bearded Gypsy Band, satisfying Generation Y’s eclectic tastes.

Delight and Relish events will happen all throughout the weekend, with each winery offering a unique experience tailored to their history and strengths.

The festival is also branching out into new experiences, with a bus tour between wineries hosted by rock star sommelier, Matt Skinner, and announcing secret events to their Twitter and Facebook followers. Of course, Sea and Vines will also maintain its connection to the local community with a variety of markets and art galleries on offer.

The common theme between all of these categories and events? Wine, food and fun are integral to every one of them.

Sea and Vines is designed to be a showcase of what McLaren Vale has to offer. McLaren Vale Grape Wine and Tourism CEO, Marc Allgrove says that the Vale “is not just a wine region”.

“It is home to a community that is

Likewise, the spectacle of some events will attract all comers. Chester Osborn from d’Arenberg insists that Sea and Vines is utterly unique, promising that d’Arenberg’s ‘Delight’ event will “have the state’s top belly dancer and a serpent dancer with an albino python – I don’t think you’d see that at any other wine festival!”

As Allgrove says, “Combine this with a scenic coastal drive, live music, art, markets and a many more great surprises along the way, and it’s not hard to see why we are the most visited wine region in South Australia.”

» Sea and Vines Friday, June 6 to Monday, June 9 mclarenvaleseaandvines.com.au

52 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

WINE

Explorers and Dreamers

BY ANDREA FROST

The world of wine exists thanks to the many viticultural adventurers, explorers, surveyors, innovators and dreamers, men and women courageous enough to grow where others feared to plant. Here’s a few wines made by, or in honour of, some great journeys and explorations of wine, people and place.

JOURNEY WINES SHIRAZ Heathcote RRP $40 journeywines.com.au Damian North’s journey is a bit like that of the Andalusian shepherd – Santiago – in Paulo Coelho’s allegorical novel, The Alchemist. A series of recurring dreams convince Santiago to go in search of his wealth. He travels to many lands and learns many lessons only to discover that his treasure was in his backyard all along. The rub, of course, is that Santiago could not have known that, had he stayed at home. Replace treasure with wine and this is pretty much what Damian North did. North first made wine in the Yarra Valley before following his passions to other countries. After years away, North returned to the Yarra Valley to make wines under his own label. This is an elegant medium-bodied wine, offering a complex yet charming nose with lovely spices, a hint of pepper and dark and brooding berry fruits. The palate is fine and balanced and just like The Alchemist, this wine has a very memorable ending.

MAWSON’S FAR EASTERN PARTY CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2010 Limestone Coast RRP $16 yalumba.com Antarctic geographer Sir Douglas Mawson has been highly commemorated. There are $100 notes, collectable coins and special issue stamps. There’s the knighthood and the Royal Geographical Society’s Antarctic medal.

Understandably, Mawson’s achievements in the Antarctic are praiseworthy. Between 1911 and 1914, the Hill Smith family – founders of Yalumba – sponsored Mawson’s Antarctic expeditions. In celebration of this relationship and Mawson’s landing at Commonwealth Bay, the family named their Wrattonbully vineyard after him and released a range of wines in his honour.

The ‘Far Eastern Party’ is an approachable and vibrant Cabernet Sauvignon and good value to boot. Vibrant aromas of berries and spice – blackberry, cassis, raspberries and tobacco – precede a plush and luscious palate of more of the same with gentle tannins to end.

CAMPBELLS BOBBIE BURNS SHIRAZ Rutherglen RRP $22 campbellswines.com.au “Dig, gentlemen dig, but not deeper than six inches for there is more gold in the first six inches then there is lower down.” So said Rutherglen’s first vigneron Lyndsay Brown to John Campbell. Campbell left St Andrews in Scotland to strike it rich in Australia’s gold rush. Fortunately, after dabbling in the gold rush, Campbell heeded Brown’s advice and planted vines on his Rutherglen property that he named after Scottish poet Robert ‘Bobbie’ Burns. A nod to home. This is the 43rd vintage of the Bobbie Burns Shiraz and it is quite something. Aromas of bright fruit, plums, mocha, spice and a lovely earthiness, Rutherglen in the sun. The palate is utterly enjoyable – more fruit, plums and spice with enlivening acid and well integrated oak. The poet would be happy.

RYMILL THE SURVERYOR Coonawarra RRP $80 rymill.com.au “Here was all this strange grandeur around us, and we were the first to see it since the world began” so said Penola-bred John Riddoch Rymill, reflecting on his discovery of the Antarctic Peninsula. Using a large team of sled dogs, a three mast sailing ship, a fox moth, and 16 of the hardiest men, Rymill surveyed the shape of Antarctica on his successful British Graham Land Expedition. This wine, commissioned by his grandson John Ritchie Rymill, is a tribute to Rymill’s exceptional effort. The Surveyor 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon is made from the best barriques of wine from the outstanding 2010 vintage. It is all that is fine and grand about Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon. Like the giant Rymill, this wine is intense, structured and powerful, offering a complex blend of blackberry, cassis, spice and mint all woven together in a seamless and harmonious wine. A fitting tribute and worthy toast to the people from the golden age of exploration.

THE ADELAIDE R EVIEW MAY 2014

FORM

MILAN 2014

Leanne Amodeo on the trends from the design industry’s most important event

Moooi New Collection Presentation at Via Savona 56. Photo by Nicole Marnati.

D E S I G N • P L A N N I N G • I N N OVAT I O N

54 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

FORM

INTO THE LIGHT The newest addition to Light Square has already got people talking and, once Palladium on Light, is built it will undoubtedly become one of Adelaide’s most covetable residential addresses.

BY LEANNE AMODEO

Of all the sites in Adelaide’s CBD, the one most unlikely to be chosen for a new high-end residential development would have to be Light Square. The modestly sized West End precinct has had a colourful – if somewhat troubled – past and is most often associated with late night brawls, drug deals gone wrong and once being the home of the city’s most notorious brothel. Times have changed, however, and even Light Square is cleaning up its act as developers begin to identify the potential for regeneration.

At the forefront of this urban renewal is Diadem Corporation and their new luxurious apartment complex Palladium on Light.

With construction beginning in May and due for completion mid to late 2015, this 19-level building will boast 50 one-, two- and four-bedroom apartments. City living is on the rise in Adelaide and Diadem Corporation is determined to set a new standard in multiresidential comfort and liveability with this project.

Assigned with the task of bringing the developer’s vision to fruition is Adelaidebased design and planning practice Intro.

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing, however, as Intro Director Nigel Howden explains,

“One of the big challenges we faced was the retention of the existing Heritagelisted building on the site. Although it adds significant character we did have to tightly manage its re-use through the planning process, so that all the different stakeholders that bought into the scheme were comfortable with what we were doing.”

Howden reconciled a potentially problematic outcome by deliberately maintaining a very clear distinction between the existing building and the modern development above it. This division between old and new becomes Palladium on Light’s most resounding design expression and what lends the project instant visual appeal.

The brick of the existing building and the glass of the addition’s facade makes for an unexpectedly varied material palette that is both confident and elegant.

through the apartments,” says Howden. “But it is a tight site and we had to think about how to model the floorplates to allow for even the most fundamental ESD features, like having a window in each bedroom, which a lot of schemes don’t have.”

the building, which would have been visible from the square. Once built, Palladium on Light will be very much in keeping with Light Square’s new image, injecting a great deal of style and charm into an area that is ripe for renewal.

This distinct aesthetic is also carried over into the interior where each apartment will be detailed with a selection of warm, neutrally toned finishes. Sustainability was a priority for both the developer and Howden and key environmentally sustainable design (ESD) features have been incorporated. “The balconies are vast to allow for ventilation

Technology has also been intelligently incorporated into Palladium on Light’s design and Howden cites the fully automated 40-car stacking system as one of the project’s most innovative features.

It neatly accommodates car parking for residents at the rear of the building rather than positioning the car park at the front of

» diadem.com.au intro.com.co palladiumapartments.com.au

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Milan 2014 The Milan Furniture Fair, held in early April, is one of the design industry’s most important events.

BY LEANNE AMODEO

T

his year’s Milan Furniture Fair played host to over 350,000 visitors, putting to rest recent murmurs that the annual event no longer holds any relevance.

Milan’s overinflated prices at fair time and Northern Italy’s gloomy April weather is easy to criticise, but it’s the designs – and the designers themselves – that manage to outshine all else. It’s little wonder the 53rd instalment of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile and Fuori Salone satellite events caused a stir on social media, all the while reinforcing the importance of a trade fair of this scope and size.

As in past years, the big name suppliers and manufacturers, such as Magis, Kartell and Moroso, were in attendance and they showcased new work by equally big name designers, including Jaime Hayon, Philippe Starck and Patricia Urquiola respectively. These well-respected collaborations were always going to be crowd pleasers, but they weren’t the only drawcards. Some of the most

exciting work on display was by Studio Job, who designed patterned wallpaper for Dutch brand NLXL. Located in the Tortona District, their installation of seven different wallpapers, which featured the design studio’s characteristically colourful, intricate style was, unsurprisingly, very well received.

Another exhibit that was well received was Moooi’s Unexpected Welcome display in Via Savona. The Dutch brand, co-founded by Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers, was going to find it hard to top their gloriously baroque installation from last year’s fair, but they did. Using largescale images of lavishly decorated and lushly coloured interiors by photographer Massimo Listri as backdrops, Wanders and Vissers created an immersive experience that perfectly showed off the current collection. Highlights include the Tudor buffet by Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk, Love sofa by Wanders, Taffeta chair by Alvin Tjitrowirjo and L’Afrique carpet by Studio

Moooi New Collection_ Presentation at Via Savona 56. Photo by Nicole Marnati

Job, all of which possess that distinctively playful, quirky Moooi aesthetic.

It’s not just the established designers and brands that turned heads. With the return of Ventura Lambrate, new names had the opportunity to show off their work. The district was introduced in 2010 as a venue for emerging designers and it has since been praised repeatedly for showcasing new talent in amongst fun pop-up cafes and bars. Since 2011, Sydney-based curator and designer Sarah K has exhibited The Other Hemisphere and this year’s instalment featured the work of 12 Australian and New Zealand practitioners. Each responded to the theme of ‘simplified’ and the resulting prototypes are elegant studies in pared-back design.

One of the fair’s key curated exhibitions was

Where Architects Live – a fine accompaniment to the furniture displays – which featured photographs of the homes of eight internationally renowned architects. Curator Francesca Molteni chose well and amongst her selection were Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and 2014 Pritzker Prize winner Shigeru Ban. It was the behind-the-scenes insight into their personal lives that made the exhibition such a treat, while also reinforcing the important role architecture has in the design industry. This year’s Milan Furniture Fair was certainly diverse in its offering and whether people responded with praise or criticism, they were talking – which is always a good thing.

» cosmit.it

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56 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

COLOUR FEATURE

COLOUR FEATURE

Warm and Neutral The art and science of colour is complex, with the intricacies of visual and emotional responses each playing a role in how colours are appreciated from one individual to the next.

As furniture designers, we have the important task of navigating a world of complex possibilities, to create objects and make colour choices that will help set the tone for our work and living environments for years to come. One of the influences we look to is international colour trends, drawing upon expertise from world leading colour experts as well as through our own experienced forecasts based on trends and fashions occurring around us.

Italian colour analyst Giulio Ridolfo was an integral part of creating the ColourLab 20142015 palette for Schiavello. Ridolfo’s approach is to begin with the freedom of a blank canvas, combining different elements and experimenting with materials, patterns and colours until something new is created. For ColourLab, Ridolfo created a series of landscapes through the collection and arrangement of inspirational objects. Within this organised chaos, a number of threads were teased out creating a cohesive yet diverse colour palette.

The reflective phase of colour and texture was tempered with a constant and balanced perception of our contemporary environments.

After a period of economic turmoil, we look for a warm, comforting and neutral palette, rather than the vibrant, contrasting colours of recent years.

ColourLab introduces select highlight colours that work in totality with neutral environments, and which are selected to offer restrained contrast to the neutrality of the rest of the palette.

The selection and use of colours is an ever evolving and subjective process – we don’t look for immediacy, we look to inspire a long term comfort in the environments we help to create.

This month we feature a selection of Adelaide’s best and newly released coloured products, textiles and furnishings. With colour, we look at how it can be used from palette to placement, as well as celebrating the application of the 2014 Pantone Colour of the Year Radiant Orchid in local design.

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Michelle Hyams, Schiavello Design Manager

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1. Blom, with its simple and fresh design language, is a comfortable, joyful range with a sculptural element.

This unique character is available in a variety of colour and cover options, making Blom suitable for numerous indoor and outdoor settings. Designed

by Claudio Bellini for Schiavello.

Available at Schiavello.com.au.

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2. Simply Glass in pink by Stelton – new spring release. Avaialble at aptoscruz.com.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014 57

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

COLOUR FEATURE

Fuchsia from Fashion to Furniture

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Current trends are reflecting our growing desire for balance and harmony. Rich colour, metallic and animal prints continue to feature, with bold multi-coloured lines and patterns in textiles and home wares.

Fashion trends are quickly translating into textiles, home wares and furniture.

In our increasingly ‘trend savvy’ society, we are seeing increasing confidence in the use of colour. With home renovation shows abound on TV, people are becoming more aware of how colour can play a significant role in transforming their homes.

Pantone’s 2014 Colour of the Year – Radiant Orchid, a captivating and enigmatic purple, is an invitation to innovation.

Although this colour has not been seen for a while, it is appealing to many, because of its broad tonal appeal.

Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Colour Institute comments: “Radiant Orchid encourages creativity, and originality which is increasingly valued in today’s society.

An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence, emanates joy, love and health.”

Look out for this charming new colour, which is sure to feature in all things from lipsticks to upholstered sofas.

Lisa Magnera, Design Consultant, Design Furniture

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3. Lucky Drop Designed and handmade by Llewelyn Ash RRP $88. Available at JamFactory’s Morphett Street, Seppeltsfield and Rundle Mall Plaza Shops and on-line jamfactory.com.au.

4. Thinner Timber. Fine and strong, crafted from American Oak using traditional methods of chair making. Incorporates sustainable plantation timbers and lightweight veneer composites. Designed by Chris Connell, for MAP by Schiavello. Available at Schiavello.com.au 5. Fink Jug and Beakers Designed by Robert Foster Jug RRP $335 Beakers RRP $72 for set of two. Available at

JamFactory’s Morphett Street, Seppeltsfield and Rundle Mall Plaza Shops and on-line jamfactory.com.au.

6. New product range from Design Furniture. Pricing and stockists are available from designfurniture.com.au 7. Kush. A playful collection of tailored, oversized floor cushions, Kush offers relaxed flexibility for work or relaxation in a more informal setting. Made up of a range of moveable backrest bolsters and loose cushions, Kush can be configured in a myriad of options to suit any informal space. Designed by Ivan Woods for Schiavello.

Available from Schiavello.com.au

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8. Scarf by GM2NY. Available from aptoscruz.com.au.

9. Royal Design Studio Stencil Crème RRP $20 for 2oz. Royal Design Studio Stencils ranging from RRP $15 - $100 brocante-in-the-barossa.com.

10. & 14. Chalk Paint ™ decorative paint by Annie Sloan, now available in full size tins 946 ml or sample pots of 118 ml. Available in 31 colours.

RRP $59.95 for the tins and $21 for the sample pots brocante-in-the-barossa.com.

11. Em Jug in pink by Stelton – new Spring release.

Available from aptoscruz.com.au.

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12. Wine Decanter Designed and handmade by Nick Mount RRP $330. Available at JamFactory’s Morphett Street, Seppeltsfield and Rundle Mall Plaza Shops and on-line jamfactory.com.au.

13. Paloma Striking by design, the Paloma chair embodies style and sophistication. This is a chair that announces itself in any setting, and then invites you to be enveloped in its comfort. Designed by Ivan Woods for Schiavello. Available from Schiavello.com.au.

58 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MAY 2014

FORM

MAKING PLACES With the Adelaide City Council’s Placemaking Strategy well underway, Copenhagen-based urban design expert Henriette Vamberg of Gehl Architects visits the city to contribute her knowledge on improving public life.

BY LEANNE AMODEO

Anyone still claiming nothing ever happens in Adelaide hasn’t visited the city recently.

Development in the CBD has increased exponentially over the past two years and the results have given rise to some of the country’s most noteworthy new buildings.

The Braggs University of Adelaide and SAHMRI are two of the obvious examples, but it’s not just large-scale projects that are responsible for enlivening the city centre.

Small restaurants, bars and cafes are also playing their part in Adelaide’s rejuvenation and establishments like Clever Little Tailor, Hello, Yes and Hey Jupiter are proving to be major drawcards.

The point, after all, is not only to get people visiting the city, but to also get them coming back. With inner-city living on the increase, the emphasis is on promoting liveability and facilitating people-centric planning to bring dynamic urban development to fruition. It’s something the Adelaide City Council is committed to achieving through a number of different initiatives, including their Placemaking Strategy. As part of the Council’s ‘One City Many Places’ Strategic Plan, it will be implemented over the next two years and looks to make Adelaide a more vibrant community-focused city.

According to Henriette Vamberg, partner

at Copenhagen-based Gehl Architects, world leaders in urban research and design, Adelaide has a lot of potential compared to the other Australian cities she has visited.

“It has an extraordinary setting,” she says.

“And although quite a lot has been developed within the last couple of years, including the Rundle Mall upgrade, the new Adelaide Oval and Riverbank footbridge and first phase completion of Victoria Square, the challenge now is to keep up.” The Council invited Vamberg to a Placemaking Strategy workshop in late March to throw some international thought and experience into the mix and heighten the focus on how to improve the quality of public life and public spaces in the CBD. So, what’s next?

One of Vamberg’s main areas of expertise is the study of pedestrian traffic and looking at how to create better opportunities for active mobility. It’s also one of the areas in which improvements need to take place if Adelaide’s urban development is to succeed.

As Vamberg explains it, “Adelaide has small thriving ‘islands’ in the city – like Gouger Street and Rundle Street – that are working quite well, but they’re not linked. Retail districts have also been set up, but there’s no board overlooking them. It’s about realising that everyone is part of something bigger and that everything has to work together

Brocante in the Barossa is a design studio bringing beautiful products and services to help you express your own unique style in your personal spaces. Proud to be a stockist of Annie Sloan products, including Chalk Paint ™ by Annie Sloan. Offering colour and painting advice, demonstrations, & how-to workshops. Interior styling, vintage prop hire, and custom painting services also available. Visit our Online Shop--we have great courier rates throughout SA and VIC.

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for it to be beneficial for individuals and businesses.”

During the Placemaking Strategy workshop Vamberg, Council members and various stakeholders walked the Topham, Bentham, Pitt and Waymouth Streets district route to see how some big picture thinking could be applied. It’s one of three ‘place pilots’ the Council is undertaking – the other two being North Adelaide’s Melbourne Street and Hindley Street/West End – to test placemaking approaches. The Topham et al pilot is particularly interesting as it highlights the need to activate the CBD’s laneways and side streets. How these connections can be made more legible and interesting for people to walk through is an ongoing debate.

Vamberg believes Adelaide can learn from Melbourne when it comes to getting urban development right. “It’s not just

about squares and parklands,” she says.

“In Melbourne, streets make up about 80 percent of public space, so it’s also about making the streets work well.” This means having more shops open for longer, providing a more conducive environment for smaller bars and restaurants and making the city livelier at night. People have to know something’s going on for them to want to spend time in the city and if each district is seen to be part of a cohesive vibrant network then people would be more inclined to stay, which makes for an attractive proposition.

» adelaidecitycouncil.com gehlarchitects.com

P40 by Tecno Through a long history of design, manufacturing, and culture, Tecno has played a significant role in the evolution of Italian design.

Now, a recent collaboration with Schiavello brings Tecno’s iconic products to our local design community.

Visit schiavello.com/tecno to learn more about the range, available now.

Australia New Zealand Singapore Contact Amity Bradbrook abradbrook@schiavello.com telephone 08 8112 2300 schiavello.com