The Adelaide Review - July Edition

THE Adelaide

REVIEW Issue 413 July 2014

adelaidereview.com.au

Eastern Promises The city’s east end is back on the food and wine radar with new destinations such as the Tasting Room and Mother Vine

38

Celebrity After Spotify

DANCE's New King

Maggie’s Mission

Artistry is under fire in the age of celebrity after streaming services, writes Anthony Elliott

Leigh Warren hands the reins of Leigh Warren & Dancers to its new chief, Daniel Jaber

Maggie Beer aims to improve the quality of food served to elderly Australians with the Maggie Beer Foundation

07

24

42

We select the softest leather, to make you feel at home.

Travelling in true comfort. It starts with the finest material, handcrafted with care.

It comes from experiencing an exclusive space, designed with your needs in mind.

Because we understand that thoughtful innovation always needs a human touch.

It’s just one of the lengths we go to, to make you feel at home.

GLORIOUS MUSIC FOR STRING QUARTET & GUITAR

Australian String Quartet

Slava grigoryan

Pepe Romero

Máximo Pujol Trio

FESTIVAL GALA FESTIVAL THEATRE 6:30PM

SATURDAY

19 JULY

TICKETS FROM $47

VISIT WEBSITE FOR FULL PROGRAM

ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL 17 – 20 JULY 2014

PROUDLY PRESENTED & PRODUCED BY

WELCOME

TheAdelaideReview

ISSUE 413

AdelaideReview

EDITOR David Knight davidknight@adelaidereview.com.au DIGITAL MANAGER Jess Bayly jessbayly@adelaidereview.com.au

49

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

LIAM MUGAVIN

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

The Adelaide-based designer is starting to receive national attention

INSIDE Features Opinion Finance

MANAGING DIRECTOR Manuel Ortigosa

Publisher The Adelaide Review Pty Ltd, Level 8, Franklin House 33 Franklin St Adelaide SA 5000.

GPO Box 651, Adelaide SA 5001.

P: (08) 7129 1060 F: (08) 8410 2822. adelaidereview.com.au

Third Age Circulation CAB. Audited average monthly, circulation: 28,648 (April 12 – March 13) 0815-5992 Print Post.

Approved PPNo. 531610/007

Books Performing Arts Visual Arts Travel

Disclaimer Opinions published in this paper are not necessarily those of the editor nor the publisher. All material subject to copyright.

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

Fashion

REVIEW

Food. Wine. Coffee FORM

05 07 10 14 16 19 20 28 35 FOOD FOR THOUGHT 36 Chef columnist Annabelle Baker writes about the history of afternoon tea 47

37

26 DAVID MICHOD Director David Michod discusses his latest film The Rover, a terrifying vision of the near future

COVER CREDIT: East End Cellars’ The Tasting Room. Photographer: Jonathan van der Knaap

CONTRIBUTORS. Leanne Amodeo, Selena Battersby, DM Bradley, John Bridgland, Alan Brissenden, Michael Browne, Jimmy Byzantine, Tish Custance, Anthony Elliott, Stephen Forbes, Charles Gent, Roger Hainsworth, Koren Helbig, Michael Hince, Andrew Hunter, Stephen Koukoulas, Jane Llewellyn, Kris Lloyd, Walter Marsh, John Neylon, Nigel Randall, John Spoehr, Shirley Stott Despoja, Paul Ransom, David Sornig, Graham Strahle, Ilona Wallace, Matt Wallace, Paul Wood. PHOTOGRAPHER: Jonathan van der Knaap

Matthew Hilton

new to

Aptos Cruz Galleries

orson desk

APTOS CRUZ GALLERIES 147 Mt Barker Road, Stirling South Australia 5152 / (08) 8370 9011 / info@aptoscruz.com / aptoscruz.com

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 5

FEATURE

Photo: Matt Turner

A self-described “angry medium pacer” Gunner showed flair as a cricketer, one of many sports the 2013 delicious Most Outstanding Providore recipient played as a youngster. Like many country kids, Gunner tried his hand at whatever game came his way including basketball, tennis, soccer, football, hockey and bowls. But cricket was his passion.

Richard Gunner

OFF TOPIC:

RICHARD GUNNER Off Topic and on the record as South Australian identities talk about whatever they want... except their day job. Sport is an important part of country living; it unites communities and provides the backbone for many social gatherings, as Richard Gunner, farmer, butcher and owner of Richard Gunner’s Fine Meats and Feast! Fine Foods, explains.

“I played for the school team and Meningie in the Murray Towns Association. We played as far north as Karoonda. There were a couple of teams at Murray Bridge as well, so there were some pretty big road trips to play your sport. I was a bowler. I used to bat down the order, so some of those weekends you’d drive all that way, and as a number 11 batsman, you’d sometimes do nothing for the whole day. You’d just sit around and chat, but that’s cricket.”

Gunner, who now lives in the Adelaide Hills, stopped playing after he injured his medial ligament 14 years ago, the year before he started his meat business.

“My only competitive sporting outlet is golf these days. I now have my youngsters who I battle in the backyard. I’ve got two boys, who are eight and 10, so they’re just up to the stage where I’m starting to get worried about when our paths of skills are going to cross.”

Is he still an angry medium pacer in the backyard?

BY DAVID KNIGHT

“

When I was living down on the farm, Tuesday was footy or cricket training, Wednesday was social basketball night, Thursday was training and then there was Saturday,” Gunner, who spent his late teenage years in Meningie, explains. “After an away game of footy you’d end up back at the club. While at a home game everyone was there to watch. It was where everyone mixed.

Meningie is an interesting place; there are not many country towns that have a mix like Meningie, because there’s a strong Aboriginal population down there; fishermen, dairy farmers, there are croppers and beef farmers.

It’s where the district hospital and school is, so you’ve got schoolteachers, doctors and nurses, a real mix of people and you all got together.

Sport is what brought everyone together.”

“I’m not quite as angry with a tennis ball,” he laughs.

Gunner’s best bowling figures are an impressive 8 wickets for 11 runs.

“That day the other team made 70-odd. I think I bowled 12 overs. I opened the bowling and from the other end the team got two for 60. I was quite angry that day. I got a hat trick once, which was a real highlight. I was never

much of a batsman; I scored a couple of half centuries, but that was about it. I never got close to making a hundred but to take a hat trick, that’s like scoring a double ton.

“I was invited to try out for the state under-16 team. I never got beyond that first call out. I was pretty excited to go to the Adelaide Oval’s indoor nets. There were some kids that were bloody amazing. I played a bit for West Torrens in under-age district cricket.”

Gunner says he wasn’t much of a footy player but it is the sport his youngest child plays competitively while his eldest has taken up tennis. For Gunner, participating in sport instills valuable life lessons.

“It’s great to win but it’s not everything. There are so many other things that are as rewarding if not more – the mateship and understanding the differences between people. There’s more to life than becoming solely focused on one tiny thing and being amazing at it. I admire people’s single-minded focus but I always wonder, ‘What are you missing to do that?’”

While Gunner admits there are challenges for country sport, the ongoing rivalries show how important sport is to rural communities.

“We allegedly hate so-and-so but when it comes down to it, we’d rather be with them because we sit down and drink with them after a game anyway, because we have that sport for our kids, our community and our area. We supposedly don’t like the town down the road but look at how often they merge and create ongoing successful clubs. It shows you what country footy and sport is about – the rivalry is real but it’s only for 120 minutes out on the field. When it comes down to it everybody understands there’s a broader purpose.”

feastfinefoods.com.au

Adelaide Festival Centre presents

MERYL TANKARD’S

THE

ORACLE Dunstan Playhouse

20 – 23 August 8pm

6 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

FEATURE

Mending Opera’s Racist Ways Last month The Guardian published an explosive article titled ‘Is Australian theatre racist?’ which quoted playwright Andrew Bovell as saying theatre in this country lacks racial diversity. It refuses to tell multicultural stories, refuses to make any progress with colour-blind casting, and has failed to deal with racist attitudes.

BY GRAHAM STRAHLE

T

he situation with opera might be even more shameful. Australia has produced exceedingly few Indigenous opera singers, for instance, and Aboriginal storytelling is right off the map as far as new opera.

Harold Blair was a celebrated Aboriginal operatic tenor in the early 1950s, and Maroochy Barambah captured attention in 1989 when she sang in the opera Black River by composer Andrew Schultz about black deaths in custody. However, it took a further 21 years before the first opera appeared by an Indigenous Australian – Deborah Cheetham’s Pecan Summer. Cheetham’s opera was also the first Australian opera cast for indigenous singers, but rather than being staged by one of our major opera companies, it was premiered in a high school arts centre in Mooroopna, Victoria. But an appropriate place it turned out to be, for this is the land where the idea of the opera originated. Pecan Summer tells the story of Cummeragunja walk-off in 1939, in which 150 residents left the Cummeragunja reserve in this country’s first mass strike by Aboriginal people.

Among the protesters were Cheetham’s grandparents, and she explains that the walk-off was in protest of many issues, but particularly how authorities were treating the Aboriginal people.

“In its external events therefore, [it] is a political opera,” she says. “You can’t divorce

yourself from past events and just sit there seeing people treated in such an appalling way.

It’s not written from a political point of view; instead it relates a personal point of view. It is three stories combined, of my grandmother, my mother, and myself. To make it political could only come about if Aboriginals wanted to be more like non-Aboriginal Australians.”

Cheetham is one of the Stolen Generation.

She was removed from her mother as an infant and raised by a white middle class Baptist family. It was only until 1985 that she came to meet her birth mother, Monica, and found out that tales of having been abandoned in a cardboard box by her were a lie.

“Pecan Summer is a story that almost every Aboriginal person in Australia has been touched by – of being removed from their Aboriginal identity,” says Cheetham. “Aboriginal people deserve to have their story told. At the same time, it is also a story for all Australians. There will be mothers who have lost their children, whether they are Aboriginal or from the Holocaust, or for any other reason. Everyone will have a story to bring. My story and theirs will meet for a time, and that’s where opera can form part of a deeper, cultural narrative. It can only do this, however, if we as a country are prepared to move on, if Australia can move into a new level of maturity.”

As a piece of cultural history, Pecan Summer may

Deborah Cheetham, Pecan Summer.

hold as much significance as Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess from 1935. This was the first opera to tell the story of Black America through its own eyes, and the first to employ an African-American cast. “The comparison is there to be drawn, not only as an opera but as an opera-going experience,” Cheetham observes. “The difference is that Porgy and Bess is a really bleak story. Pecan Summer, while it has heartrending moments, is a story of hope, about the reuniting of mother and daughter. I wanted to share my experience.”

of Cummeragunja, and Vonda Last, a well known figure in Adelaide’s Indigenous and children’s choirs. David Kram, formerly music director of State Opera of SA, conducts 25 orchestral musicians.

Cameron Menzies, returning from directing Don Giovanni in London, directs the production by Short Black Opera Company.

“It is an old-school opera, a large work,” Cheetham adds. “Any opera should be story telling. We’ve been singing our stories for tens of thousands of years and have almost an unending tradition of doing this. The way we have delivered our knowledge is via music, painting and dance. I don’t see any difference that we’re doing it here with opera. It comes back to how often do we look to Europe for cultural approval: when Australia fully achieves its age, it will no longer need to do that.”

Pecan Summer has been restaged in Melbourne and Perth, and its Adelaide production this July will be its fourth season. The opera has “grown in its strength and storytelling ability,” says Cheetham. “I have changed it in places, to give it more space and breadth in order for audiences to take it in. So with each production there’s been the opportunity to fine-tune it.” Many of the cast will be the same. Adelaide’s Rosamund Illing takes the role of the minister’s wife, Jonathon Welch (Choir of Hard Knocks) is the minister, and Cheetham herself sings the role of Ella, mother of Alice, who is a fictionalised victim of the Stolen Generation.

» Pecan Summer Her Majesty’s Theatre Thursday, July 3 to Saturday, July 5

Two Indigenous singers from South Australia will be in the cast: tenor Robert Taylor, one of the men

adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/shows/ pecan-summer

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN RESIDENTS’ SPECIAL

Kangaroo Island. More for less.

HALF PRICE

PASSENGER FARES* Adult $49, Child $25 return Book accommodation and receive a FREE discount voucher booklet!

If you’re a South Australian that’s never explored Kangaroo Island, then now is the time.

For bookings, accommodation and holiday ideas call 13 13 01 or visit sealink.com.au *Conditions apply. SA residents only, quote SAR5014 and your postcode. Travel from June 15 to September 15, 2014. Lic No TTA 64062, ABN 69 007 122 367

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 7

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

OPINION

Celebrity After Spotify

selling two CDs at one of his gigs.

Perhaps this might help to explain why so many emerging artists feel distressed. Perhaps it also explains why a number of established artists - from Brian Eno to Beyonce - are limiting their exposure on Spotify to sample tracks only.

What it does certainly explain is that artists no longer sell but stream their work. And they do so for far less money than ever before. The entire enterprise looks insanely self-defeating.

Artistry is under fire in the age of celebrity after digital streaming services such as Spotify.

In the age of celebrity after Spotify, artistry is under fire. Forget Warhol’s diagnosis of 15 minutes of fame. In our present popular culture of streaming - where the consumer can discard, delete and disconnect at the push of a button celebrity is recast as purely episodic.

BY ANTHONY ELLIOTT

C

elebrity is at once astonishingly mesmerising and mind-numbingly dull, crazily libertarian and depressingly conformist. Our culture of celebrity feigns the new, the contemporary, the up-to-date, as it recycles the past. Celebrities are constantly on the brink of obsolescence, of appearing out of date. Today Lorde, yesterday Lady Gaga, the day before Beyonce.

Celebrity is radically excessive. In a world teeming with images and information, celebrities trade in sheer novelty as a means of transcending the fame of others with whom they compete for public renown.

The conduit of celebrity arises from massive institutional changes throughout the West, involving a wholesale shift from industrial manufacture to a post-industrial economy orientated to the finance, service, hi-tech and communication sectors.

As the economy becomes cultural as never before – ever more dependent on media, image and public relations – so personal identity comes under the spotlight and open to revision. The new economy, in which the globalisation of media looms large, celebrates both technological culture and the power of new technologies to reshape the order of things. The current cultural obsession with the remaking and transformation of celebrities is reflective of this, and arguably nowhere more so than in what Andy Warhol termed the “15 minutes of fame” of the celebrated.

The historian Leo Braudy, in his pioneering book The Frenzy of Renown, argued that the era of Hollywood and its invention of glamorous stars served to personalise fame, with public renown arising from factors including personal uniqueness, artistic originality or individual creativity. Fame, in a sense, was tied to genius.

From Laurence Olivier’s dramatic talents to Rudolf Nureyev’s ballet grace, from Groucho Marx’s comic mastermind to John Lennon’s pop virtuosity: fame was primarily cast in terms of value, art, innovation and tradition.

Today, celebrity and fame no longer look

» Anthony Elliott is Director of the Hawke Research Institute at the University of South Australia. His book The Routledge Handbook of Celebrity Studies will be published in 2015.

The Hawke Research Institute presents an evening with UK musician Lloyd Cole in conversation with Elliott on Wednesday, July 2. unisa.edu.au/lloydcole

Lorde.

like this. A radical transformation is underway.

Thanks to technological advances and the spread of digital culture, the terrain of public renown has migrated from Hollywood-inspired definitions of fame to multi-media driven forms of celebrity. This has involved a very broad change from narrow, elite definitions of public renown to more open, inclusive understandings. This is a shift, in effect, from the Hollywood blockbuster to reality TV, and from pop music to Pop Idol.

Perhaps nowhere is this transformation more obvious than with the rise of digital music streaming. From Spotify to Pandora, streamed music online has been killing the purchase of downloads in the web marketplace. In a remarkably short space of time, Spotify has become the second largest source of digital music revenue for record labels across Europe, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. But note that’s record labels, and not artists, musicians or composers.

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke was onto this early last year when he pulled his solo releases from Spotify, arguing that digital streaming is destroying the livelihood of artists across the creative industries.

Oblivion might be a better description for the current fate of music culture. One recent estimate is that Spotify pays a majestic $0.007 per stream. UK indie artist, Sam Duckworth, wrote in The Guardian that 4685 streams on Spotify netted him only $32.57 - the equal of

SAVE OVER

3000

$

*

imagine 80 years of comfort with over $3000 savings Enjoy Stressless’ 80th Anniversary celebrations with savings over $3000 when you purchase a family sofa package, such as the Stressless® Windsor two seater high back, with matching Chelsea and Mayfair recliners from our select colour range.* * Choose from 8 selected colours of luxurious leather. Paloma Light Grey, Black, Chocolate or Sand & Batick Black, Brown, Burgundy or Cream. But hurry, this offer ends 27th July 2014.

NORWOOD 33 The Parade | Ph 08 8363 5144 | NOW OPEN 7 DAYS Visit pfitzner.com.au

8 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

FEATURE a significant role in this movement to high quality and distinctiveness.

Existing world listings for agricultural landscapes include Alto Douro in Portugal, the Val d’Orcia in southern Tuscany, Cinque Terre on Italy’s Ligurian Coast, the Cordilleras rice terraces in the Philippines, Jalisco’s tequila-producing region in Mexico, and the villages and surrounding landscape of Hungary’s Tokaj wine region.

A consortium of six South Australian councils is supporting the bid, along with the University of Adelaide, RDA Barossa and the McLaren Vale Grape Wine and Tourism Association.

“We see that a big part of our region’s future is valuing our agricultural landscapes,” says agricultural economist Randy Stringer, Professor in Global Food Studies at the University of Adelaide. For Stringer it all comes down to the question of – if you can get it, why wouldn’t you want it?

Photograph of Piccadilly Valley by Dragan Radocaj courtesy of James Sexton.

World Heritage Bid an Opportunity for Economic Gain The Mount Lofty Ranges world heritage bid could boost the economy, create jobs and invigorate the state’s tourism sector, according to UK-based UNESCO expert James Rebanks.

BY STEPHANIE JOHNSTON

T

he Managing Director and Head of Research at Rebanks Consulting, Rebanks is the author of a seminal study of all 981 world heritage sites and their ability to deliver socio-economic benefits. A Herdwick sheep breeder and self-confessed ‘super nerd’ on the potential benefits of a world heritage listing, Rebanks

was recently in Adelaide to deliver a series of lectures and seminars to the region’s food, wine and tourism sectors.

Presentations in McLaren Vale, the hills, the city and the Barossa highlighted the implications his world-wide research and experience with the UK’s Lake District bid

AMCHAM DELOITTE BUSINESS LUNCHEON MEET ACCC CHAIRMAN ROD SIMS THURSDAY 31 JULY Adelaide Festival Centre, 11:45 – 2pm Rod Sims Chairman, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

T: 8212 4688 E: sa@amcham.on.net

might have for Adelaide’s CBD (as gateway to the region), and to farms, vineyards and businesses in the Mount Lofty Ranges area.

According to Rebanks, a world heritage listing is now highly sought after, with only 12 agricultural landscapes listed around the world to date.

“UNESCO designation has, over time, evolved from a technical measure aimed exclusively at preservation into an acclaimed and widely respected brand that countries use to attract cultural tourists, and that tourists, in turn, rely on in selecting the destinations they will visit,” he explained.

But there is no free lunch. UNESCO listing is what you make of it: “The critical lesson that emerged from my analysis was that how the management organisations and stakeholders perceive World Heritage status matters – the impact of listing is not automatically created by the designation itself, but is unlocked by the motivations and actions of the participants and the establishment of open and integrated systems of governance.”

Rebanks’ research revealed that for a growing number of sites, gaining UNESCO status creates a situation whereby a region collectively asks itself the critical question, ‘Why is our place unique, special and globally important?’

“A handful of World Heritage sites have, as a result of answering that question, found themselves at the cutting edge of a movement around the world which seeks to focus the economic development of places on their uniqueness, their authenticity, their distinct sense of place, and the depth of their identity and culture,” he told workshop participants. “They use the added stimulus of UNESCO status to engage with the rest of the world from a position of confidence, selling distinct products and services at added value based upon their provenance.”

Rebanks points out that achieving these aspirations is not easy, nor achieved on the cheap. Successful places direct significant effort and investment into achieving those aims, but it appears that UNESCO status, and the catalyst and confidence it provides, can play

“Why wouldn’t we want our region to be recognised as part of an exceptional group of agricultural landscapes that include the Loire Valley, Cinque Terra, Alto Douro and Tequila?” he asks.

Stringer does understand that many of us are just plain incredulous of the whole notion. He acknowledges that a common reaction is to ask how can we possibly be part of such an elite group. That for most of us, the Mount Lofty Ranges landscape is merely our backyard. While it is easy for us to see the simple, tangible value of its produce – its wine, apples, cherries, eggs and cheeses – it is often difficult for us to see and recognise the diverse, less tangible values that reflect the utopian origins and wealth of the landscape itself. And it’s even more difficult for us to see the many ways those less tangible values contribute to our sense of place and the ‘liveability’ of our city.

Viewed on our maps, the city boundaries and agricultural landscape are two separate geographies.

In our daily lives, no such boundary exists. Stringer believes that we use and depend on our agricultural landscape the same way we use and depend on our city parks and beaches. “We take weekend drives through it, we trek through it, and we ride our bikes through it. We put our visiting rellies in the car to show off those vistas, vineyards, orchards and charming villages.” He explains that what we buy in the city influences what is produced in the countryside – shaping and reshaping how the landscape appears.

For Stringer, the question is simple: “Do we embrace our unique inheritance, promote it, and celebrate it for our parents, for our children and for the world? Or do we allow our landscape to predictably and monotonously evolve to look like every other place in the world?”

» *Stephanie Johnston is the Project Manager for the Mount Lofty Ranges Agrarian Landscape World Heritage Bid

The Adelaide Review July 2014 9

adelaidereview.com.au

POLITICS

Modern Times The (true) sporting spirit

BY Andrew Hunter

I

n China, it is often said that true friendship between nations has political, economic and cultural aspects. We are often guilty in Australia of a strong focus on economic and political interaction. An enduring bi-lateral relationship is more than a series of transactions. A creative middle power should not rely on arms and trade alone to influence regional and international affairs.

When Premier Zhou Enlai looked for a viable, subtle path through which China could rejoin the world in 1971, he understood the role that sport could play. Zhou’s strategy to bring the world to China, and China into the world, has been remembered as ‘ping pong diplomacy’. Opportunities for breakthrough diplomacy are rare, but the capacity of sport to drive greater intercultural understanding and bring people together is limitless.

Sport plays an important role in our national culture. Several nations, such as France, see their language as an instrument of cultural diplomacy. China uses the arts as its preferred

medium for soft diplomacy. For many Australians, sport is our art, our passion and our combat. But is it too combative to play a role in bringing people closer together?

In his essay published in 1945, ‘the Sporting Spirit’, George Orwell asserted that sport is “bound up with hatred jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.” If this were so, sport is not an instrument able to enhance understanding between different peoples.

Like art, sport can both imitate and inform life. Sport in Australia can bring out the best and the worst in our national character. It can explore the most brutish, arrogant corners of the Australian mind – but can also express our sense of camaraderie, equality and commitment to excellence.

In his essay, Orwell also expressed his belief that the “modern cult of sport … is bound up with the rise of nationalism”. In this moment, when nationalism is once again on the march across Europe and Asia, it is worth reflecting on how sport informs our worldview in these modern times. Orwell was referring to the 1936 Olympics.

As a spectator at the 2012 London Olympics, with its excessive displays of nationalistic fervour, it was difficult not to share Orwell’s conclusion that sport is “itself merely another effect of the causes that have produced nationalism”.

Orwell, however, specifically referred to “big-scale sport”. As a tool of intercultural exchange, sport is perhaps most effective at a sub-national level, grassroots level, through projects and exchanges that provide natural, easy opportunities for intercultural engagement. It has been successfully leveraged in the past to bring diverse peoples together.

Following the end of the Vietnam War, for example, diverse ethnic groups fled Cambodia and Laos to refugee camps in Thailand. In the camps, serious tensions borne out of historic enmities were tempered through a series of organised volleyball tournaments. People from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, divided by historic grievances and cultural differences, were drawn together through a shared passion.

swimming. These non-contact sports are also less likely to appeal to spectators who take “sadistic pleasure in violence”.

As an instrument of soft power, sport has a significant, unrealised potential. Other leaders have identified its possibilities and slowly we are beginning to see its value. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop recently noted that sport provides a “unique opportunity” to broaden and deepen Australia’s engagement with Asia.

In our increasingly interconnected world, it is an opportunity that sports and clubs across Australia should seriously investigate. If Minister Bishop is serious, the availability of grants and technical assistance would encourage local clubs to explore and realise the unique opportunities to which she referred.

Correctly calibrated, sport does not threaten to diminish the cultural or linguistic integrity of the smaller nation or less assertive cultures, unlike other forms of exchange such as trade, media, language and entertainment. Sport is a vehicle for intercultural exchange which can bring mutual benefit through a shared passion and a common, unspoken language.

Sport is an overlooked channel of intercultural exchange that should be explored, developed and celebrated. If used with the sincere intention of bringing diverse peoples together, it can also serve as a powerful and effective instrument of soft diplomacy.

For Australia to maximise its potential to drive intercultural exchange in our region, we should perhaps look to sports that have a greater popular resonance in Asia such as volleyball, table tennis, badminton, and

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

10 The Adelaide Review July 2014

FINANCE

Falling Real Wages

household incomes that result from the budget.

The Medicare co-payment, the indexation of petrol excise and the two percent income tax increase on high-income earners will all dampen disposable incomes as money is taken from potential consumption and directed towards government revenue.

This suggests that household spending growth is vulnerable to some headwinds in the months ahead. Already consumer confidence is down and there is a solid correlation between consumer optimism and spending. While Australians are very wealthy with recent house price and stock market gains, these two drivers of wealth have recently stalled with house prices down and the stock market growth so far in 2014 underwhelming. The list of negative factors is slowly, but surely, growing.

It is rare in Australia to see falls in real wages but in the last six months the annual rate of inflation has been higher than the rate at which wages are increasing.

About the only upside of low wages growth in the current flexible labour market is that the real cost of labour has fallen. When the economy does register stronger growth, employers will be inclined to increase their hiring due to these subdued labour costs.

The low wages growth bodes well for further employment on the critical caveat that the economy can get to and then sustain abovetrend economic growth.

by Stephen Koukoulas

T

his loss of purchasing power for households, plus a hopelessly mismanaged and poorly framed budget, is driving consumer confidence sharply lower, towards levels not seen since the Global Financial Crisis was threatening to plunge the world economy into an economic depression.

has been falling, suggesting a significant and increasing degree of slack in labour market conditions.

Falling real wages are a sign of slack in the labour market. In other words, real wages are weak or actually fall when there is a sufficiently large pool of unemployed workers for potential employers to trim wage levels to entice people into a job. This wage moderation then filters through to those in employment and the path to real wage weakness is entrenched at least until the economy grows more rapidly and demand for labour increases with it.

The fact that real wages are falling in response to these market pressures means that there is a high degree of flexibility in the setting of wages and the industrial relations structure more generally. Wages are adjusting, in real terms, to this period of softer economic growth and softening of growth in demand for labour.

This low wages growth is, in turn, helping to keep inflation in check.

While it would appear that Australia does not have a significant unemployment problem at the moment, several years of slightly below trend economic growth has seen the unemployment rate drift up from under five percent to now be around six percent. At the same time, the workforce participation rate

The Reserve Bank of Australia has identified this phenomenon. In the minutes to the May board meeting, the RBA noted, “The demand for labour remained subdued and was likely to remain so for some time. This had led to lower wage growth which in turn had seen inflation decline for non-tradable items whose prices

were more sensitive to labour costs.”

With low wages growth helping to dampen inflation pressures, the RBA has been able to keep monetary policy very stimulatory as it attempts to support the economy and lock in growth at an acceptable pace.

There is a problem if the wage level remains too low for too long. It holds back or even oppresses growth in consumer spending. The household sector needs steady real income growth if it is to maintain a solid growth rate in consumption spending. While borrowing and a run down in savings can temporarily underpin higher spending, more fundamentally sound and sustainable increases in spending rely heavily on household income growth.

Making matters more problematic at the moment are other negative influences on

From a macroeconomic perspective, it is best if there is moderate but sustained growth in real wages. This generally underpins a solid rate of consumption spending and facilitates hiring as the economy grows.

At the moment, falls in real wages are threatening to undermine economic growth, which could well be problematic if mining investment continues to fall, and the recent stalling in the housing expansion turns into a downturn. What looked to be a strong start for the economy in 2014 is now faltering. The

»»Stephen Koukoulas is Managing Director of Market Economics marketeconomics.com.au

The Adelaide Review July 2014 11

adelaidereview.com.au

FINANCE

The Big Squeeze The rhetoric and the reality

by John Spoehr

T

he federal fiscal squeeze on South Australia is more than political rhetoric from the newly elected State Labor Government. It is a diabolical problem facing all states with the Abbott Government breaking previous national partnership funding commitments in health and education. The impact is nontrivial. South Australia loses around $900m over the next four years and $5.5 billion over the decade. While this would be difficult to manage during favourable economic times, it is a nightmare when state revenue is sliding and unemployment is rising. It has understandably forced difficult decisions on the State Government.

Some argue that the budgetary difficulties facing Labor are of its own making and that the problem is largely attributable to not making hard decisions in the past. This is difficult to reconcile with the fact that we are still living with the legacy of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the wrecking ball on manufacturing that has been the high Australian dollar. The impact of the GFC is still playing out in South Australia with unemployment rising in response to the end of the Federal Stimulus Package, the sustained high dollar and a weaker commodity price outlook for our mineral resources. All of these flow into a decline in tax revenues to the South Australian Budget, a problem compounded by the Abbott Government’s deep cuts to health and education.

Pushing home responsibility for the state’s budgetary woes to the Federal Government, Treasurer Koutsantonis has been arguing that the State Budget was one he had to present rather

than one he wanted to present. How much room to move did the Weatherill Government have in framing the budget? Not much. To be fair, the Treasurer was presented with one of the most difficult budget formulation tasks of the last few decades. Not since the recessions of the 1980s and 1990s have circumstances been so difficult on the revenue side of the budget. The GFC forced a sharp decline in revenue, a problem that was compensated for over the short term through the Stimulus Package. Growth was sustained and the impacts of the GFC remained manageable, so long as the Federal Government remained willing to play the stimulus card when required. The Coalition has chosen to play the austerity card at a time when South Australia needs stimulus and revenue from the Federal Government.

One thing can never be repeated enough in the current environment – sustained growth in Australia, in the face of the GFC, was not generated by austerity policies but stimulus policies. It is no accident that Australia out performed nations throughout the OECD during the great recession, which wreaked havoc in the United States and Europe. Australia has one of the lowest public debt levels in the world and an enviable record of employment growth during a period when other nations have faced catastrophically high unemployment. This

Majestic Roof gaRden hotel Luxury. from Mini RooM.

In the heart of the city.$ 115

Mini PRice.

per night

could be our lot to, if austerity policies are able to take firm root in Australia. If they do, they will undermine what is left of the Australian post-war settlement – which, in simple terms, recognised that governments must intervene to ensure a fair go for all Australians, to counter unemployment, homelessness, poverty and hardship. More than this, it means governments must, on our behalf, play an active role in shaping social, economic and environmental outcomes for the common good.

This is the backdrop against which the State Budget needs to be viewed. A great values struggle is taking place in Australia, one that affects us all very directly through budgetary decisions. A harsh reality must be accepted when we judge the effectiveness of state budgets. The fact is that state governments have limited policy levers available to them to affect economic and employment growth rates. Importantly, this includes constrained revenue-raising capacities, which means that the Federal Government must take increasing responsibility for funding health, education, income support and infrastructure expenditure. The former Labor Federal Government was heading in this direction but the Coalition seems hell-bent on reversing this by cutting funding to the states with the expectation that they will call for a politically unpalatable

increase in the GST. This, of course, is all about cost and revenue shifting, part of the endless political game played in our frustrating system of government.

The next Federal Budget is unlikely to offer any relief from the federal fiscal squeeze on state governments. The pressure will intensify, generating great and enduring hostility between the states and the Abbott Government. Labor and Liberal state governments will unite to pressure the Federal Government to reverse its cuts to health and education spending. An increasingly frustrated and angry electorate will not tolerate political intransigence by the Federal Government. The Weatherill Government has cleverly highlighted this by making blindingly clear the impact of the Federal Budget on the State Budget.

»»Associate Professor John Spoehr is the Executive Director of the Australian Workplace Innovation and Social Research Centre at the University of Adelaide @John Spoehr

Located in the heart of cosmopolitan North Adelaide, all 46 compact rooms (14sqm) feature a king bed, free unlimited Wi-Fi, bar fridge, wall-mounted LCD TV and all the modern conveniences you would expect.

And each room has been transformed exclusively by a cutting edge South Australian artist.

146 Melbourne street | north adelaide Phone 8334 Street, 7766 | free call 1800 779 954 55 Frome Adelaide majestichotels.com.au

8100 4400 | majestichotels.com.au

12 The Adelaide Review July 2014

OPINION Third Age Old is bold

BY Shirley Stott Despoja

I

sent my federal MP a postcard with a copy of my quite angry Third Age column about the Budget. The card had a picture of an old woman in a protest march carrying a banner, which said: “Now you’ve pissed off Grandma.”

I suppose I am lucky that Australia Post is still delivering handwritten envelopes (how the changes in letter delivery are going to impact on old people! Did anyone bother to ask us?) and I will be luckier still if the card reached my MP before staffers put it in the ‘cranky old lady bin’. But watch out. Cranky senior bins must be overflowing as more of us old people express our thoughts to our political representatives (good reader, have you expressed yours?).

Social media are fine for outpourings of wrath but you need to make direct contact with your own MP and your senators to remind them that they will not stay where they are without the consent of the voters. Voters include a lot of grandmas.

We are not Miss Marple pussycats anymore.

We see power in numbers, power in seniority.

Power in memory and experience.

If my MP didn’t feel a pre-volcanic rumble when he read that grandma was pissed off, he should have. Grandmas matter. Pissing them off is more serious than upsetting shock jocks and a few hacks. (For the sake of this story, grandmas include grandpas. Remember how men resisted Women’s Lib changes to the language on the ground that ‘men include women’? Well, women can include men this time. Sorreee.)

I am an old grandma and pissing me off means pitting yourself against 70-plus years of experience, a proper historical memory, especially of how governments come to grief and how oppositions, too, often need a kick up the bum. We know how oppositions hold back a bit when they see themselves benefiting from unpopular changes the government is making but which they themselves might like eventually to embrace without the hassle of introducing them. See what I mean? We don’t miss much. Grandma’s watching.

I read some advice meant for young women recently that ‘meek is weak’. Well, old is bold. Grandmas have a lot of time to inform themselves. They have time to read things like, ‘Is Australia’s debt really as bad as X claims?’

taking in the graphs as well as the text. We are not beholden to bosses. Slogans and focus groups do not impress us. We are not distracted from the state of our nation by messy personal relations.

I can think of many men who were reinedin by the grandma figure in their life. Rupert Murdoch was one of them. I was warned in the 80s that the true nature of Rupert Murdoch would not be publicly unleashed until his mother, the wonderful Dame Elisabeth, left the planet. And ain’t that the truth? If she had lived longer, we might see more about manmade (includes women!) climate change in her son’s publications, written with less suspicion and more urgency.

Old people increasingly are winning in a way that really gets up the nose of younger people such as the English nursing home staff who didn’t stir their stumps to get Normandy Landings survivor, Bernard Jordan, 89, to the 70th commemorations in France. He must have been right pissed off. He took off by himself and left them looking silly– and why shouldn’t he? Old age is not a prison. It can be a liberation.

Old people don’t have a lot to lose.

While we are thinking about those same commemorations, consider Pee Wee Martin, aged 93, who made a parachute jump. He

wanted to do it, so what the hell, archy?

Beware those who don’t have much to lose, be they poor or old. The old especially, don’t feel a need to conform to expectations. We’re up for a riot. And we are angry about a lot of serious things.

Mind you, there are many shades of being pissed off. I am forever pissed off by TV violence, especially dismemberment, by repeated funeral ads in afternoon films, and cruelty to animal jokes on QI. But among the things seriously pissing grandmas off are dumping asylum seekers in camps (we remember the war, you see), policy made without consulting or even considering older members of the population, persecution of the young especially by limiting educational chances, and by letting our legacy be a damaged planet. We dislike cruelty, to people and animals, and have a lot of time to dwell on it and see how unnecessary it is.

Pissed off grandmas should not hesitate to induce in wrong doers that feeling of imminent incontinence that affects the young (and perhaps the enthusiastic motorist Senator Ricky Muir) when shown up and told off. No one wants to hear from grandma that they’ve stuffed up.

@mollyfisher4

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL CENTRE AND SHANDONG PROVINCIAL DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE PRESENT

QINGDAO SONG AND DANCE THEATRE A PASSIONATE AND MOVING DANCE DRAMA ABOUT COURAGE AND THE STRUGGLE FOR LOVE, LIFE AND DESTINY.

Opening night

3 SEPTEMBER Festival Theatre On Sale 8 July Book at Bass

“THIS PLAY TOUCHED MY HEART” Mo Yan – Nobel Prize winning author of the novel Red Sorghum

FULL PROGRAM OUT 8 JULY

The Adelaide Review July 2014 13

adelaidereview.com.au

OPINION

Paths to Philanthropy

by JOHN TUCKER

I

t’s around this time of year that many people’s minds turn to thoughts of charitable giving. Indeed, the subject was thrust firmly into the spotlight recently with the announcement in May that the bulk of Ramsay Health Care founder Paul Ramsay’s estate, said to be worth in excess of $3 billion, would go to charity.

Of course, not all of us can contemplate a philanthropic gesture quite so grand as this.

But no matter how modest our contribution, the motivation is the same – to see as much good done by our gift as possible. Similarly, all philanthropists share a desire to enhance their capacity to give.

So if this describes you, there are some key financial and taxation issues that you’ll need to consider.

The most fundamental of these is the status of the organisation to be the subject of your gift. If a donation is given to an organisation classified as a ‘deductible gift recipient’ (DGR), a tax deduction will be available to eligible donors. This consequently can help to make more available to enhance the gift or for future

giving. To check if an intended recipient is a DGR, visit: abn.business.gov.au

deduction would be the lesser of either the property’s market value or what you paid for it.

Another important consideration is the timing of your donation. People sometimes make bequests through their will to not-forprofit organisations. This too has the advantage of allowing a much larger donation than may otherwise be possible. But you should be aware that doing this will not allow you personally to claim a tax deduction for the bequeathed sum.

A donation must be made while you’re alive for you to obtain a tax deduction.

If you do decide to donate property, you will need to take into account any possible liability of yours for capital gains tax. For property donated while you’re alive, any capital gain (or loss) will be included in your tax-assessable income in accordance with the provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 governing the inclusion of such gains. However, the amount of your deduction can potentially eliminate the amount of any tax otherwise payable as a result of this inclusion if you get your timing right. The same considerations will apply to your estate if the donation is made through your Will.

One approach that may provide the best of both options is to establish a private ancillary fund. This is a not-for-profit trust you set up to receive your donations, and to make donations to DGRs. The private ancillary, which must have at least one independent person involved in its administration, must by law make a minimum contribution each year to its eligible DGRs (generally five percent of its net assets).

Establishing such a fund allows you to receive tax deductions for your donations at the time they are made. The fund has some flexibility in accumulating and allocating these donations, thus enabling them to potentially be better targeted for particular purposes.

A third key philanthropic consideration is donation type. Cash is only one of your potentially tax-deductible options. You could also donate publicly listed shares. If the shares are worth less than $5000, your tax deduction claim will be for the full value of those shares. Alternatively, you can donate property, although this will need to be property acceptable to the DGR. If you’ve had the donated property for more than one year, and its market value is more than $5000, the deductible amount will be determined by the Australian Taxation Office.

If you’ve had it for less than one year, the

Another option deserving of serious consideration if you’re keen to maximise the positive impact of your philanthropy is collaborative giving. You could, for example, donate to a public ancillary fund with DGR status set up by you to accept donations from the public and make donations to other DGRs. This fund must, however, be administered by a majority of persons independent of you.

Public ancillary funds often support specific charitable projects with focused objectives.

So finding one (or more) persons who also share your values, and becoming part of a larger philanthropical vision, could provide you with an added sense of community that’s impossible to put a value on.

Note: This is a very generalised and simplified summary. You should not treat it as advice or rely on it; instead obtain advice for your circumstances.

»»John Tucker is a Partner at Fox Tucker Lawyers

T H E BI RT H PL AC E OF Mc L A R E N VA L E

Open Fire, Haigh’s Hot Chocolates, Fortified Wines, Perfect Winter Warming Destination...

Let’s meet at Oxenberry Farm For the complete Winter Warming Experience, plus so much more, visit Oxenberry Farm today!

Monday to Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 10am-5pm OPEN MON – SAT 9AM – 5PM

26 KANGARILLA ROAD

PHONE: 08 8323 0188

EMAIL: INFO@OXENBERRY.COM

SUN & PUBLIC HOLS 10AM – 5PM

MCLAREN VALE SA 5171

FAX: 08 8323 9642

WEB: WWW.OXENBERRY.COM

14 The Adelaide Review July 2014

OPINION

Greenspace A Winter’s Tale & the Mythology of Plants

by Stephen Forbes

Our relationship with plants describes our lives – the miracle of light transforming to life through the agency of chlorophyll provides the chemical energy in our food that allows our hearts to beat. The centrality of this relationship is apparent in our historic cultural referencing of plants – a relationship now largely forgotten. The ancient narratives that describe our relationship with plants are important then in understanding what our relationship with plants has been, and perhaps, what it can and even should be.

Of course this isn’t to say that we resurrect ancient lore – it is to say that a respectful relationship with plants might require a new narrative as powerful and resonant as the ancient. Such a new narrative is especially challenging in a secular society that reduces narrative to framing. However, understanding of the nexus between plants, people and culture and the challenges of

Experience the magic of the all-new Honda Jazz.

Move house, go glamping or fit in everything to host your very own fashion show. That’s the magic of Magic Seats that flip and fold into 18 different combinations, letting you fit in just about anything. The all-new Jazz is arriving late July... so pre-book your test drive today.

For more info, visit honda.com.au/newjazz DAVE POTTER HONDA 141 Brighton Road, Glenelg 8294 3444 FORMULA HONDA 754 North East Road, Modbury 8265 9555 NORDIC HONDA 385 Glen Osmond Road, Glen Osmond 8229 2355

LYNAS VALLEY HONDA 30 Murray Street, Tanunda 8563 2045 CARLIN & GAZZARD HONDA 116-138 Commercial Street East, Mount Gambier 8723 8888

HOD0468/AR

T

he recently passed winter solstice marks the shortest day – the real beginning of winter, as well as the return of lengthening days. Even at the solstice, winter is hardly all-pervasive – signifiers of autumn persist and harbingers of spring appear. Whether we really notice these signals in cities where our livelihoods are (curiously) seen as independent of the seasonal cycle is likely moot. Where we do notice, our conversation focuses on our gardens and our observations of seasonal or unseasonal plant behaviour – and these signals are largely interpreted through science. A narrative describing another relationship that sees plants intimately involved in every element of our lives – transcending bland description, utility and even beauty – is remarkably no longer a part of our culture.

The Adelaide Review July 2014 15

adelaidereview.com.au

OPINION developing a new overarching narrative begins with excavation of the past.

The origins of Western culture in Greek and Roman mythology are reasonable places to begin our excavation. A wonderful starting point is Annette Giesecke’s The mythology of plants: botanical lore from ancient Greece and Rome just published by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Giesecke is a classical scholar and professor at the University of Delaware and has the advantages of extensive fieldwork in the ancient world, classical languages and a deep love of plants and gardens. The mythology of plants is beautifully crafted to allow access to the myths associated with plants that are generally mired in encyclopaedic collections or missing altogether from works anchored in heroes, fantastical voyages and beasts.

Giesecke has wisely moored her work to Ovid’s Metamorphosis, and utilised her own translations to ensure fidelity in the context of The mythology of plants. The illustrations from the ancient world, Renaissance and botanical art provide marvellous support for the text, or alternately you might choose to take a walk in Ovid’s botanical garden.

Here, in the midst of winter the pomegranate and the narcissus are fine vignettes to see a different relationship with plants redolent with respect and meaning.

The mythology of the pomegranate, whose luscious fruits continue to show their beauty and fecundity through winter (when I always intend to add a plant to our own garden), tells the story of Persephone, the daughter of Ceres, the goddess of grain and the harvest. While gathering violets and lilies in a woodland of perpetual spring close to Enna in Sicily, Persephone was abducted by Pluto and taken as his wife to the Underworld. Ceres search and entreaties to Jupiter finally resulted in agreement on Persephone’s return with the proviso, “that no food has crossed her lips there in the lower world, for thus it is decreed by the law of the Fates”. The Fates did not allow her return as Persephone had taken seven seeds from the pale rind of a ruby fruit – the pomegranate. A negotiated settlement saw Persephone spend equal time with her husband and her mother. Spring of course marks Ceres’ joy at Persephone’s return to the earthly realm following her winter of despair.

The mythology of the narcissus – generally identified as the poet’s daffodil, Narcissus poeticus – does connect to Persephone’s abduction in some traditions. However, the better known story is of Echo and Narcissus – of Narcissus’s beauty, and of his disdain for his suitors including the nymph Echo until enchanted by his own reflection in a woodland pool. “But when he tried to slake his thirst another thirst grew: as he drank

he was captivated by the handsome face he saw. Mistaking water for substance, he fed his desire with incorporeal hope … thus did Narcissus melt, wasted away through love and consumed by hidden fire.” At the end, “His body was nowhere. In its place they found a flower, white petals circling a saffron-yellow centre.”

Such narratives are significant in connecting people and plants. In our society, contemporary garden writing is powerful but hardly mainstream. Perhaps new narratives will build around food – Jamie Oliver’s campaigns and Michael Pollan’s writing provide some indication of currents pushing against the tide. However, the past still remains a rich resource – Adelaide’s Philip Clarke’s works on Australian Aboriginal people and plants and Annette Giesecke’s work on classical plant mythology provide important and accessible foundations.

»»Stephen Forbes, Director, Botanic Gardens of Adelaide @StephenJForbes »»Annette Giesecke, The mythology of plants: botanical lore from ancient Greece and Rome, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2014), 144 pp

16 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

FASHION

NOTHING BUT A WOOL THING Sue and Gemma Boyd, the mother and daughter duo behind ex-Rundle Street store Clothes Line Saga, are out of the basement and back with a new project – Woolio Knits.

BY SELENA BATTERSBY

Gemma explains her fascination with knitting and the creation of Woolio Knits. “Both of us were knitting a lot… and the conversation of Woolio evolved when we became more aware of how hard it is to come across cool, affordable and ethically-made clothing. Then there was

the question of, ‘Do you know where your clothes come from?’ The general answer was disappointingly, ‘No’. At this time I was knitting a beanie and we realised we could ethically keep everyone’s head warm while trying to keep it a lil’ bit G [gangster].”

The debut collection from Woolio Knits – fittingly-titled Wool.I.Am – is inspired by 90s hip hop, something that Gemma listens to as she knits.

“Every beanie is one-of-a-kind and has been given the subtitle of Individual and Distinctive. There are two different styles, East Side and West Side. East Side is influenced by Notorious B.I.G. while West Side is a little more Tupac Shakur. I wanted to make each piece big, bold and noticeable.”

Music is an important influence to the Woolio team, but it’s the conversations had while knitting that are the most important.

As Gemma explains, “We listen to each other mostly – we like to chat. When alone knitting, I crank the records up, listening to anything from Daniel Johnston to NWA. We also like a good podcast; Stop Podcasting Yourself is a favourite.”

Gemma looks to a few talented folk for knitting inspiration, including John Macarthur from Purl Harbour who has worked with labels Ksubi, sass&bide and Kirrily Johnson. “He makes stunning knitwear and has done so for years,” Gemma says. “Yokkoo Gibraan is from Atlanta, Georgia, and is pretty much a dream. She knits for 15 hours a day running a one-woman knitting show, with hand-crafted simple knits that you want to take home and name. And Mumma Bear, she has taught me everything I know.

“We scoured the internet looking for a bulky knit wool produced here in Australia and happily found a small traditional wool mill in country NSW that produces a 20 ply. We had the pleasure of visiting the mill recently and loved the old-style machinery and seeing the

FASHION RENDEZVOUS

K

nitting has had a huge resurgence in the last year. Sites like Wool and the Gang offer complete DIY learnhow-to-knit packages. Australian model and well-known knitter Rachel Rutt has recently collaborated with up-and-coming label TOME, creating custom hand-knitted accessories for their New York Fashion Week collection.

process of a bale of wool becoming the yarn that we knit with.”

Gemma says knitting has had a bad rap for a long time but that is beginning to change.

“It’s now being recognised as the skill it is and young creative people are producing amazing pieces and showing them off on Instagram and Pinterest. We think it’s being embraced for the same reasons we have embraced it – it’s good to know where your clothes are coming from.”

Sue and Gemma are hoping to create a network of like-minded folk who want to keep the knitting dream alive. Gemma explains, “Once the beanies are out there and happening we will start to create other one-off pieces.

Our next range, Ice Ice Baby, will follow soon – inspired by Sue’s recent trip to Alaska. We would also like to create a community of Woolio crew members creating and knitting individual pieces, so we’ll be organising a knitting session at a venue soon for those who want to give it a shot.”

woolio.com.au @Woolio_knits on Instagram

GILLES STREET MARKET Sunday, July 20 / 10am to 4pm / 91 Gilles Street, Adelaide / gillesstreetmarket.com.au

The Gilles Street Market returns in July. The market is bringing all the fashion to you on Sunday, July 20. 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 July 2014 17

adelaidereview.com.au

FASHION

Collecting Vintage Watches The Adelaide Review’s series about the world of wristwatches continues with an exploration into collecting vintage watches.

by Matt Wallace

P

eople buy vintage watches for the same reason they buy vintage cars – there are lots of very cool-looking vintage watches made in styles which you just can’t get in a modern watch. Setting aside rare pieces, which have appreciated in value in real terms, you can also pick up a style of watch you like for a fraction of the cost of a similarly styled new watch. Like the vintage car market, there are some absolute bargains to be had but it is pretty easy to buy a problem too. The safest way to avoid later pain is to buy within Australia from a reputable dealer or qualified watchmaker.

Know your local watchmaker Before making a purchase, it’s worth getting an appraisal from a local before committing. If you buy elsewhere you can assume you’ll need to pay for a full service and, quite possibly, parts as well. This might cost you a couple of hundred dollars or it could top the $1000 mark. This is increasingly the case with brands owned by Richemont or Swatch, which no longer supply or are in the process of ceasing supply of parts to independent watchmakers. I reckon this will be reflected in extended repair times and astronomical repair and servicing costs going forward.

Bargains and bounty overseas The overseas market offers a huge range of vintage pieces for sale, via eBay, specialist retailers and online forums. eBay is a minefield, even if the seller has a feedback rating of 99 percent and above. The online auction and shopping site does host some genuine and very well priced pieces along with many where the dial has been restored attractively but inaccurately. You’ll also find pieces which have been cobbled together with parts from more than one watch, some of which may not be correct for the model. Unless you are a stone cold expert on the particular brand and model you are interested in, or unless you are purchasing a very cheap item, you are better off avoiding eBay. Purchasing from overseas retailers with a good reputation can be worth a go but bear in mind that unless they state that

they have overhauled the watch themselves, it will likely need a service and potentially repairs not long after you take receipt of it. You might also consider online watch forums, most of which offer sales forums.

Watchuseek is worth a squiz. In addition to providing a plethora of resources and threads on watches new and old it has a sales forum and a feedback section on purchasing from members. See a watch you like in the sales forum and you can purchase it direct from the owner having vetted his or her credentials in the feedback section. You could also check out omegaforums.net. Omega Forums is an incredible resource if you are interested in vintage watches including Omega, Longines, Universal Geneve, Zenith and more. It also has a sales forum and seller reviews.

Unusually, the site is Australian-owned (with six percent Aussie traffic) and offers a recommended eBay auctions page, showing live eBay auctions, which knowledgeable members have vetted. The forum doesn’t offer any guarantees about the listing, but is excellent at identifying quality pieces and separating them from the turkeys. Watch forums don’t come better.

Importation costs and risks If you decide to buy from an overseas source keep in mind that additional costs can mount up pretty quickly. First off, there is the risk that what you receive may not be what you thought you were buying or may not arrive at all. It’s worth looking at Paypal, which offers some protection for buyers when purchasing overseas. That will add a few percent to the cost of the watch. You’ll also be up for freight and insurance. This will add at least about $100 to the cost of a $1000 watch. Also, if the total price paid, including freight and insurance, equals $1000AUD you’ll have to pay customs (approximately 17.5 percent on top before the watch is released to you).

You say pfft, I say Patina!

Plenty of buyers want their vintage watch to look new and shiny. Others are looking for a piece that has aged gracefully, with the dial especially showing a steadily acquired patina.

Generally a watch with unrestored dial showing patina will be worth more than watch where the dial has been repainted or restored. I don’t mind pristine dials but one with a little patina really puts a smile on my dial.

AdelAide VintAge WAtch RestoRAtions Specialising in repair and restoration of vintage and antique timepieces Custom parts manufacture for brands such as Rolex and Omega Pocket watches fully restored. Full case and dial restoration Qualified watchmaker and restorer with over 24 years experience Member of the Watch and Clockmakers of Australia Contact Richard on 08 7225 7292 9/118 King William Street, Adelaide. By appointment only adelaidevintagewatch.vpweb.com.au

18 The Adelaide Review July 2014

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

The Balti House 167 Goodwood Road, Millswood Win a free dinner for two valued up to $70. Enjoy true British-style Bangladeshi cuisine.

Rising from Ashes Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas From Thursday, July 3 The impossible triumph of Team Rwanda.

Directed by TC Johnstone and narrated

by Forest Whitaker.

Keep Everything AC Arts Main Theatre, 39 Light Square Thursday, July 17, 8pm From the critically acclaimed, genredefying Chunky Move comes Keep Everything, a fusion of dance and performance from one of Australia’s most innovative choreographers, Antony Hamilton.

Charlie’s Country In cinemas from Thursday, July 17 Blackfella Charlie is out of sorts. The intervention is making life more difficult on his remote community, what with the proper policing of whitefella laws now. Directed by Rolf de Heer. Stars David Gulpilil, Peter Djigirr and Luke Ford.

The Importance of Being Earnest Dunstan Playhouse Saturday, July 26, 8pm The grand dame of Australian theatre, Nancye Hayes, returns to State Theatre Company to star in Oscar Wilde’s brilliant and much-loved comedy of love, manners and mistaken identity, The Importance of Being Earnest.

The Selfish Giant In cinemas from Thursday, July 31 A contemporary fable about two scrappy 13-year-old working-class friends in the UK who seek fortune by getting involved with a local scrap dealer and criminal, leading to tragic consequences. Directed by Clio Barnard. Stars Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas and Sean Gilder.

Philip Glass Trilogy Her Majesty’s Theatre Tuesday, August 5 to Saturday, August 23 What do Einstein, Gandhi and the Pharaoh Akhnaten all have in common?

They changed the world through the power of ideas. Be inspired by their stories brought to life by one of the most influential music makers of the late 20th century (Philip Glass) in 2014’s must-see arts event. A world premiere exclusive to Adelaide.

Imogen Cooper Adelaide Town Hall Thursday, August 21, 7.30pm One of the greatest pianists of her generation, Imogen Cooper makes a long overdue return to Australia for this special program highlighting her insightful interpretations of Brahms, Schubert and Schumann.

Words and Pictures

Russell Morris

In cinemas from Thursday, July 17 An art instructor and an English teacher form a rivalry that ends up with a competition at their school in which students decide whether words or pictures are more important. Directed by Fred Schepisi. Stars Clive Owen, Juliette Binoche and Bruce Davison.

The Governor Hindmarsh Friday, August 22 ARIA Hall Of Fame inductee Russell Morris will perform songs from his awardwinning album Sharkmouth, his current hit album Van Diemen’s Land and past classics.

MONTEFIORE The risk of failure among Town Hall leaders and their teams is all about perceptions and comprehending the consequences – if one can access the details.

BY Sir Montefiore Scuttlebutt

O

ne of the most challenging lessons for leaders to learn is how to risk failure, and sometimes actually experience it.

For Adelaide’s run of Lord Mayors over the past quarter century, failure hasn’t been an obvious feature, either because some simply did not risk it or, for those that did, the consequences were obscured. One feature of SA local government is legislation that gives wide scope for administrations, endorsed by elected members, to obscure messy details contained in operational and financial paper trails. And then there is the matter of ‘commercial in confidence’, a catch-all that allows much to be declared ‘confidential’ and embargoed for years.

This year, Adelaide city dwellers will elect another Lord Mayor, and the current one is in the running for a second term. Stephen Yarwood is up against some competition – naturally; the status of the job is coveted. Ask anyone familiar with city matters and Mr Yarwood’s preoccupation with developing a bike-friendly city quickly comes to mind. It’s a major contrast to previous leaders, and the risk that attaches to it in a deeply conservative city is significant. A consequence of this pursuit played out this year in May, when about 250 international cycling aficionados flew in for the Velo-City Global cycling conference.

Much media noise followed, but there wasn’t much discussion about the numbers behind this event. From Town Hall’s original $115,000 commitment in 2011, the event’s expenses eventually ballooned to $1,414, 813, less income of $923,463, leaving administration having to find $491,350. The Weatherill government, which originally pledged $150,000, ended up writing a cheque for $250,000, plus in-kind support of more than $200,000.

In about January 2013 the alarm bells had begun ringing, because confirmed bums on seats were not meeting targets. Anticipating at least 700 paid-up attendees, 16 months later the event attracted fewer than 500. At the exhibition, of 18 booths, only 10 were paid. The numbers suggested failure. However, despite the risk, those that pushed for the event can now say that Adelaide has nailed its colours to the mast, and during year four of the mayor’s four-year term, had a leader that was prepared to stand up and be counted for a more sustainable approach to city design and city life. The residue of the event he championed (apart from a traumatised accounts department) is a legacy that, if pursued, has potential to change our city.

Compare that to another time and another city mayor and his team: Michael Harbison (2003– 10). Eleven years ago under his leadership, a Town Hall vision for high-density residential accommodation was born. Twin towers (and more) were to be erected west of the city, for

which Town Hall did something unusual and risky. It devised and had approved its own development plan amendment to rezone land that Town Hall spent millions acquiring, to allow a developer to build higher and denser than what was previously allowed there. Eleven years later, the failure to achieve the vision is easy to see by anyone traversing Morphett Street.

A vision for 1300 twin-tower residential apartments for 2200 residents today sees only 320 apartments and one silo, with surrounding empty land and old buildings now up for sale, and groundwater contamination recently costed at $248,000 to remediate, but with a $600,000 budget allocation just in case. It was not Mayor Harbison’s fault. In 2003, the concept seemed like a very sound idea, approved by elected members in good faith, and no doubt with confidential due diligence advice that the risk was worth taking. It was linked to development of a new bus station across the road – the overall concept activating a tired precinct, “encouraging vitality”. But it hasn’t achieved its goals, and as the one edifice that towers over low-scale (much older) built form, it is so at odds with the surrounding amenity that planners use it as a case study, but are not complimentary.

Lord Mayor Yarwood’s cycling exploration also has hit some snags. Early in his tenure, a $400,000 spend on a Copenhagen-style cyclinglane in Sturt Street was completed then quickly demolished after local traders protested. And in what could be a telling political metaphor, the recently installed Frome Street duplicate begins with full Copenhagen infrastructure, but it peters out to nothing as cyclists approach Rundle Street.

A key difference, however, between Lord Mayor Yarwood’s ‘cycling-city’ risk, versus the risk taken by councillors who endorsed the 2003 blueprint for the run-down western frame district, is that almost all of the financial detail relating to that multi-million dollar, 11-year saga (so far) remains confidential, locked away under clauses made possible under local government legislation. While one mayor’s risk-return has been visible for all to see via a detailed paper trail over four years, another mayor’s riskreturn is obscured in files locked away under confidentiality orders, and its future western-edge potential unclear. It will take much work to clean up the contamination and pursue the original vision, with millions more to spend by another risk-taking developer – and then it would have to attract residents in an environment changed by 2012 government rezoning, which now allows similar high-density high-rise across far more attractive edges of the city.

Town Hall claims that the Velo-City Global event was the largest cycling conference in Australia’s history. It brought millions in spending, filled 2665 hotel beds, created 24 jobs, and put Adelaide’s previous low profile on the international map. It also provoked the city’s politicians into considering more active, healthy transport options that could save the city millions in future infrastructure planning: affecting the commute of Adelaide’s 300,000 daily city visitors using cars and bikes in integrated transport.

Both men, leading diligent teams and taking high-level advice, took risks. Adelaide’s challenge is to get the best opportunity to assess the longterm consequences of the risks that leaders take.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 19

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

BOOKS

MIDNIGHT CROSSROAD Charlaine Harris / Gollancz

BY ROGER HAINSWORTH

Brought up in the Mississippi Delta country, Harris sets her stories in the South and her sense of place is outstanding. She is a witty, sensitive explorer of the social mores of American medium-sized southern towns. Her first two novels, Sweet and Deadly (1981) and A Secret Rage (1984), reminded me of the early novels of Margaret Millar, high praise indeed. However, recognising that to make money mystery writers must devise series featuring an unusual sleuth (vide Hercule Poirot), Harris launched into an eight novel series featuring an indomitable young woman, Aurora Teagarden. The settings were beautifully realised, the heroine delightful, the characterisation vivid, and the plots intricate. However, as always with Harris, there are darker shadows and these increase as novel succeeds novel. Then five much darker novels set in a small town called Shakespeare introduced us to Lily Barr, a karate expert and cleaning lady with a sharp

eye for the idiosyncrasies of her clientele.

Today, Harris is surely the queen of series writing both for quantity and quality. She has taken to weaving the paranormal into her stories without losing her grasp on place and characters – as in a melancholy but gripping four-novel series about Harper, a clairvoyant who can identify the dead once she stands over their grave and re-lives their final moments – a nightmare for murderers. However, before embarking on this very moving, chilling and sometimes scary series Harris began the story of a telepathic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse, living in a small town in northern Louisiana.

With the remarkable Dead Until Dark (2001), an Anthony Prize winner, Ms Harris hit the mother lode. In 13 novels, enthusiastic fans have been introduced to an America in which vampires and shape-changers (mainly werewolves) have ‘come out of the closet’ to reactions of hatred and fear to grudging respect. The series won a huge following and a TV series, True Blood.

The Stackhouse series was laid to rest last year but here begins a three-novel series set in Midnight, rural Texas. A community tiny even by Harris’ standards, Midnight is only a clump of mainly stone buildings where Davy Highway crosses Witch Light Road.

There is a delightful witch, Fiji, among the dozen or so inhabitants we get to know and even a vampire, Lemuel. The rest are just a bit eccentric. The story moves slowly as we explore the community through the eyes of Manfred, a newcomer who rents a little house from Bobo. Bobo owns the Midnight Pawn and rents its cellar to Lemuel who works the night shift (naturally). Newcomer Manfred, barely 20, is a full-time psychic left over from the Harper series who operates his practice via the internet. Manfred knows Midnight is the place for him when he realises nobody has asked him where he’s from or why he’s arrived. He finds Bobo a nice chap although melancholic because his much-loved de facto wife ran off months earlier – or did she?

Thanks to Bobo’s rich but very unpleasant grandfather, now deceased, sinister forces are focussed on Midnight. They will find meddling seriously hazardous. You will miss this absorbing novel when it ends and I can’t wait for the next. Enjoy!

THE SLEEPERS ALMANAC NO. 9 Louise Swinn and Zoe Dattner (eds) / Sleepers Publishing

BY DAVID SORNIG

SleepersAlmanac, the (almost) annual anthology of original Australian writing, has always had the touch of the carnival about it. Here in its ninth edition, editors Louise Swinn and Zoe Dattner have again erected a tent into which they have invited a fairly motley bunch of storytellers without issuing instructions for specific dress code, aside it seems, from the injunction that they’ll only put on stage a tale well-told, and told on its own terms.

There’s formal play here in Darby Hudson’s whimsy, a table of ‘100 Points of ID to Prove I Don’t Exist’ – ‘Letting all my bills get eaten by snails (23 points)’; and Rhett Davis’s ’Interior Exterior’ which recounts the screenplay for a Kaufman-esque film about Yvette and Manny who grow up suspecting they are playing out their lives on shoddy film sets in a film about themselves. The thread of self-invention is also of interest to Tim Richards whose ‘The Destiny of All Who Oppose Destiny’ follows peripatetic James through a story of self-invention, selfdoubt, love, and a mirror-self who is unable to say which one is the original.

It’s stories like Richards’, those that open doors from narrow worlds into the abysmal universe, that are most successful. The current champion of this type of writing in Australia (even though there is no such title) is Ryan O’Neill who here plays movingly, and with measured, gentle irony on the line between invention and actuality in ‘The Stories I Read as My Mother Died.’ Pierz Newton-John occupies similar territory, as he scoops up equal measures of memoir and popphiloso-physics in the brief but busy ‘Something for Nothing’. So too Chloe Wilson’s stanzas that arrive tenderly on an intimate version of Trotsky’s last words.

As with any anthology, the Almanac is the kind of publication that merits some dipping in to and out of, not only to offset the couple of shallow moments in it, but also so it doesn’t get too noisy. It is a carnival after all and with it comes a clamour: there are lots of clearly very talented local writers in it who have saved up their some of their most attention-grabbing work for it. It’s wonderful to sense that this kind of confidence among the ‘emerging’ category of Australian writers of the kind that Sleepers, as publishers, have now spent over a decade nurturing, that they cut it with some real verve, particularly as they are lined up with some more established names. It’s a mark too of the respect that local writers afford the publication, particularly as they are a sizable part of the community of readers to whom the book is addressed.

Friends of the University of Adelaide Library

John Safran

In conversation with Ewart Shaw

John Safran is an award-winning documentary-maker of provocative and hilarious takes on race, the media, religion and other issues. John first hit TV screens in 1997 on Race Around the World. Both John Safran's Music Jamboree and John Safran vs. God won Australian Film Industry awards for Best Comedy Series and Most Original Concept, and were nominated for Logie Awards. Other shows include John Safran's Race Relations and Speaking in Tongues.

John currently co-hosts Sunday Night Safran, a radio talk show on Triple J with cranky but beloved Catholic priest, Father Bob Maguire. His first book, Murder In Mississippi - the true story of how he met a white supremacist, befriended his black killer and wrote a book - is currently out through Penguin and was named iBooks 2013 Best Non-Fiction.

Thursday 17 July 2014 at 6.00 for 6.30pm Napier Theatre 102, Napier Building, University of Adelaide

Bookings by Tuesday 15 July to: robina.weir@adelaide.edu.au or telephone 8313 4064 $5 admission at the door / Open to the public / Seating is limited Sponsored by Unibooks / Wines by Coriole Vineyards

2014 Salisbury Writers’ Festival 22 August - 31 August Program now available on our website

www.salisbury.sa.gov.au/swf

20 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

PERFORMING ARTS

A STAR RETIRES When the Australian Ballet opens its season of Cinderella in the Festival Theatre on July 4, it will be without its most senior ballerina, Lucinda Dunn.

BY ALAN BRISSENDEN

D

unn retired on May 23 after a truly illustrious 23 years with the national company. A dancer in the grand classical tradition, with a flowing line and a formidable, pure technique, the classics were far from her thinking when she began learning at four years of age. She wanted to be a tap/jazz/modern dancer, as her mother had been (her father was in theatre too, backstage.) But a percipient teacher saw her potential, encouraged her to enter Sydney eisteddfods, and then the high-ranking Prix

de Lausanne. She was only 15. “I was very insecure, very naïve, very small,” she says on the line from Sydney. One of the prizes she won, which “was astounding”, was a scholarship to London’s Royal Ballet School, and while there she danced with the Royal Birmingham Ballet, who offered her a contract.

But so did Maina Gielgud, then the Australian Ballet’s Artistic Director, so after a month’s deliberation, Dunn picked up the phone, rang her mother and said, “Mum, I’m coming home”.

“It was a very special moment for both of us,” she remembers. That was in 1991. Gielgud was intent on broadening the company’s repertoire, and alongside the delicacy of Les Sylphides, Dunn was dancing the demanding athleticism of Jiri Kylian and other contemporary choreographers. In 1992, she was promoted to principal, on the same day as Robert Curran, with whom she had already formed a ballet partnership that would produce many memorable performances. When asked about this, she says, “we pushed each other” – always striving to be better, to jump higher, to turn faster, to go that much further.

The dramatic challenges of the big narrative ballets appealed to her – Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty – and finally Manon, a magnificent achievement in her final season.

In 2005 she won the Green Room award for best female dancer for her roles in Balanchine’s ineffable Serenade and Ashton’s joyous La fille mal gardée (1960), and three years later, even more significantly, the Australian Dance Award for outstanding performance, in Don Quixote and After the Rain.

Those four works nicely indicate the wide range of Dunn’s talents. The Balanchine, choreographed in 1934 to Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, is neoclassicism at its most romantic; Lise, the heroine of La fille mal gardée, is lovable and mischievous

The Adelaide Review July 2014 21

adelaidereview.com.au

PERFORMING ARTS

BO O K

N O W

!

Adam Bull and Lucinda Dunn in Manon 2014.

Photo: Courtesy of The Australian Ballet

as she and her boyfriend Colas outwit their parents in order to marry. Don Quixote (1865) has plenty of comedy, too, for similar reasons, but it also has one of ballet’s most famous virtuoso pas de deux (“It’s one of the most terrifying ballets to do,” she says with a laugh); After the Rain, created in 2005 by Christopher Wheeldon to music of Arvo Pärt, is a most beautiful, continuously unfolding work for two couples, virtually one long movement, and one of her favourite ballets: “So simple,” she says, “so elegant, so meaningful – and oh, it’s so delightful to dance; one of my special pas de deux that I love to do”.

Asked about the difference between the classical story ballets and modern works by such choreographers as Wheeldon and William Forsythe, she pays tribute to the Australian Ballet (AB). “I love the fact that the AB has such a diverse repertoire that we can delve into different parts of our bodies and display what we can do.” But she relishes the challenges of the classics. “There’s not a lot you can hide in a tutu – it’s just so exposing, and you really have to be on your game and in peak performance and feeling great to pull those off. But to do a contemporary piece – I did Gemini [Glen Tetley’s extremely athletic work created in 1973 for the AB] 18 months ago and really enjoyed that physical challenge and moving your body in different shapes.”

“There’s not a lot you can hide in a tutu – it’s just so exposing, and you really have to be on your game and in peak performance and feeling great to pull those off.”

The many different shapes that Dunn’s body has taken in the past 23 years on the stage have given enormous pleasure to thousands of people in many parts of the world. At the same time, her role as a model for younger dancers has been exemplary, made even more so as the mother of Claudia (5) and Ava (2) (their dad is Danilo Radojevic, soon to retire as AB Associate Director).

Dunn’s vast experience, her grace, and her mentoring abilities will serve her well when next year she becomes Artistic Director of the Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy in Sydney – most fittingly, the school which set her on her brilliant career.

australianballet.com.au

choir of king’s college, cambridge This winter Musica Viva brings the world’s most famous choir to Australian shores. Presenting an intimate and beautiful program of works from favourite classics, including Fauré’s Requiem, to contemporary Australian carols by Sculthorpe, Dean and Vine.

“The choir sings with full-bodied tone and unfailing precision” GRAMOPHONE

SATURDAY 2 AUGUST 7.30PM Adelaide Festival Centre Tickets from just $46*

Visit musicaviva.com.au/kings | Book Now bass.net.au or 131 246 *Terms and conditions apply. Booking fees apply. Prices shown are C-Reserve in selected cities

22 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

PERFORMING ARTS

ELDER CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC PRESENTS

2014 CON CER T SEA SON TWO

ELDER HALL | NORTH TERR ACE FRIDAYS 1.10 – 2.00PM 25 JULY – 21 NOVEMBER For your FREE BROCHURE call 8313 5925 or email claire.oremland@ adelaide.edu.au Admission $10 at the door from 12.30pm

www.elderhall.adelaide.edu.au

Evenings PRESENTED BY ELDER CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC

Saturday 26 July 6:30pm Elder Hall, North Terrace

SCHUBERTIADE

2014 CONCERT SEASON

Rachel Johnston Cello David Barnard Piano Singers from The State Opera of Sout h Australia

Celebrating Schubert’s exquisite musi c, this concert blends a snap-shot of his best most evocative writing for piano, voice and and cello into one special evening.

Be transported to the Schwarzenberg Adelaide’s own ‘Schuber tiade’ – compfor lete with mulled wine upon arrival and coffee with Viennese Sachertor te served at inter val.

Adult $28, Concession $22, Stud $18 Enquiries and bookings (08) 8313 ent Online booking www.elderhall.adela5925 ide.edu.au

PROUDLY SUPPO RTED BY

James Muller

JAMES MULLER

Acclaimed Adelaide-born jazz guitarist James Muller will be performing as part of the Adelaide International Guitar Festival on Saturday, July 19 at the Space Theatre.

BY TISH CUSTANCE

M

uller has released four albums since he burst onto the Sydney scene in 1996 at age 21, including All Out, his second album, which won an ARIA award for best jazz album in 2000 and Thrum, his third album, which was nominated for the same award in 2002.

of the rock and pop music I was listening to at the time.”

From a young age, Muller took a liking to jazz music and, at age 15, joined Marryatville High School’s Jazz Ensemble band.

“As a developing musician, it’s crucial to hear music played live at the very highest level. It’s a life changing thing when you get to see your heroes play in the flesh rather than watching them on YouTube or on CD.

“I remember, even as a primary school kid, liking the sound of jazz whenever I’d hear it on the radio or TV,” Muller explained.

B A R O S S A VA L L E Y

IMAGES: RACHEL JOHNSTON: DAVID BARNARD.

adelaide.edu.au

After joining the school band, he and some other members decided to investigate jazz more seriously.

“I thought jazz sounded more sophisticated and interesting than a lot

This will be the first year Muller performs as part of the Guitar Festival, which he says is great for exposure of jazz music and an important event for aspiring musicians to attend.

“You learn so much more in a live situation – it’s much more profound and undiluted than on recorded medium. It’s also great for artists to be able to perform in this kind of festival environment because the audience is a lot more diverse than at a typical gig; it’s a great opportunity to gain wider exposure.”

Muller will be performing at the festival alongside Sydney guitarist Ben Hauptmann; Melbourne bassist Chris Hale; and Ben Vanderwal, the drummer from his band. The group will also be featuring singer, Gian Slater.

“We’ll be playing Ben Hauptmann’s new music, which will be a lot of fun.”

Muller enjoys performing on stage with other musicians and embraces the effect the sound of two guitars has.

“I love playing with another guitarist – two guitars sound great together.

Although we’ve all known each other for a long time we have never played together as this band before.”

Throughout and following the festival, Muller’s trio will be embarking on their first Australian tour, with the group visiting most of the major capital cities and a few other smaller towns.

“Our first gig is at the Wheatsheaf in Adelaide on Monday, June 30, and we head up to the eastern states after that and then finish up in Perth.”

The trio are planning to release a new album sometime later this year.

» James Muller Adelaide international Guitar Festival Coopers Late Night Sessions Saturday, July 19 Space Theatre

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 23

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

GUITAR FESTIVAL

Stochelo Rosenberg

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Three legendary performances to inspire you in July and August

BY JIMMY BYZANTINE

CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA Master Series 5

T

he God-like legacy of Django Reinhardt casts a shadow on the world of Gypsy jazz as long as some of his guitar solos. But if the French-born virtuoso is the first name in gypsy jazz, Stochelo Rosenberg runs a pretty close second. Since first picking up a guitar at the age of 10 – a rather late start in the guitar-obsessed Rosenberg family – his impact on the Gypsy jazz community has been inescapable.

Master 5

Friday 25 July 8pm, Saturday 26 July 6.30pm Adelaide Town Hall Eugene Tzigane Conductor Alban Gerhardt Cello

While his most notable achievements have been with the Rosenberg Trio, comprised of Stochelo and his two cousins Nous’che and Nonnie, this August he is bringing a brand new trio with him to the Adelaide International Guitar Festival. Unsurprisingly, they will be guided by the music and style of Django Reinhardt.

Alban Gerhardt solo recital in Elder Hall on Sun 27 July, 2.30pm recitalsaustralia.org.au

RICHARD TOGNETTI

“Sebastien Giniaux is the guitar player that I bring to Australia,” Rosenberg says. “He’s a good friend to me; I’ve known him now for 10 years, maybe more. The good thing about Sebastien is that he has not only the gypsy jazz influence, but also the Balkan influence. So he can make a combination of two styles and he can bring them together. So at our concert you will hear some Django in it, but also the Balkan music in it.

“The bass player is Joel Locher. He is also my friend for a number of years. The good thing about Joel is he loves modern jazz, but he can also play fantastic, old school music from Django Reinhardt.

“The difference between the original trio and this one is I have more possibility to share some bass solos and share some solos with the rhythm guitar,” Rosenberg explains.

“In the original trio the rhythm section is only rhythm section – no bass solos or anything.

I play everything. But with this new trio it’s more open. I can breathe more. I can play double solos with Sebastien Giniaux and I can play also solos with the bass player [Joel Locher]. And I don’t have that with the original Rosenberg Trio.”

Improvisation and creativity are two defining characteristics of Gypsy jazz, so it’s only natural that Rosenberg would want to branch out and try something new. Once again, he is simply following in the footsteps of his idol.

“When you go back and you see how Gypsy jazz started, it was Django Reinhardt.

In the ‘40s and ‘50s it was jazz, but Django was a gypsy and he brought a new style of jazz that was specially for the Americans,

The dynamic young American conductor, Eugene Tzigane makes his Australian debut in one of the 20th century’s great orchestral showpieces Bartók’s virtuosic Concerto for Orchestra.

Also, we celebrate Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe’s 85th birthday with a pair of beautifully atmospheric orchestral works.

The ASO is joined by cellist Alban Gerhardt in Dvořák’s much-loved Cello Concerto.

Master Series 6 Friday 1 August 8pm, Saturday 2 August 6.30pm Adelaide Town Hall Richard Tognetti Director/Violin

v Stochelo Rosenberg.

v like Duke Ellington, who was a good friend of Django’s. So the Americans were amazed and they respected Django so much because he didn’t copy the American jazz but he brought his own style. Now the people say, ‘Okay, he was a Gypsy, so we call it now Gypsy jazz’.

“So in my case, I started with Django Reinhardt of course, but I listen to many kinds of music. I love to play with guitarists who don’t play in the gypsy style because when you mix the music together you get a different style. For example, I had a tour with Tommy Emmanuel and we mixed the Gypsy style with his style and it’s a beautiful combination.”

The great Australian violinist Richard Tognetti returns to Adelaide to play and direct a fascinatingly diverse program as only he can. Hear an American musical landscape as imagined by Charles Ives, then Michael Tippett’s richly-scored Corelli Fantasia and Beethoven’s vivid symphonic depiction of our natural world in his evergreen Sixth Symphony - Pastoral.

OUR DON New Music Now Series

Thursday 14 August 7pm, Adelaide Town Hall A World Premiere concert celebrating the life, times and spirit of Sir Donald Bradman.

Conducted by Luke Dollman, the first half includes a performance of Golijov’s Songs

by Greta Bradman and opens with Graeme Koehne’s Shaker Dances. Then witness Our Don, a new multimedia musical portrait for orchestra and narrator by South Australian composer Natalie Williams. Interwoven with stunning archival video, and words by Bradman biographer, Peter Allen.

Commissioned by the State Government of South Australia

» The Stochelo Rosenberg Trio Adelaide International Guitar Festival Festival Theatre Sunday, July 20

Tickets from $33.30. Book at bass.net.au or 131 246

24 The Adelaide Review July 2014

PERFORMING ARTS

Leigh Warren’s New King After 21 years at the helm, Leigh Warren is handing over the directorship of the company he founded in 1993. Enter the new king: Daniel Jaber.

by Paul Ransom

T

here is such a thing as knowing when the time is right; yet in a world where vanity often holds sway, having the good grace to let go the reins is perhaps rarer than it should be. However, when the company you are departing is not only your baby but also bears your name, walking away can be doubly difficult.

Back in April, when internationally-renowned, Adelaide-based choreographer Leigh Warren announced that he would be stepping aside from the company he founded 21 years ago, there was an audible gasp, not only from the tight-knit dance industry but also from the wider arts community.

Over the course of his two decades in charge, Leigh Warren & Dancers have carved out an enviable reputation for quality, experimentation and staying true to the ensemble ethos. Works like Quiver, Klinghoffer, Quick Brown Fox and the mammoth Philip Glass Trilogy have shone the light on Adelaide as a centre for contemporary dance and on Warren for his enduring passion and choreographic clarity.

Yet for all that, Warren now freely admits that LWD’s future lays in the hands of former ADT (Australian Dance Theatre) member Daniel Jaber and that his own new horizons lie elsewhere. “It’s massive but also everything feels right,” he begins. “The great part of it is being able to share with Daniel his journey.

And it sure beats an assassination.”

Warren’s grace and readiness to move aside for the younger man is notable. “Daniel has that hunger. He’s ready to go. And y’know, I’ve had a fantastic innings and so it’s a perfect time for me to hand over to somebody,” he reveals. “It’s like, after 21 years with the company, you start out in one place and then gradually over time you evolve.

So yeah, it’s also time for me to make a move.”

Daniel Jaber and Leigh Warren.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 25

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

CINEMA For his successor, the challenge is both enormous and inspiring. Jaber’s journey from ADT company dancer to award-winning creator of 2013’s much loved Nought (also with ADT) has seen him leapfrog from ensemble member to artistic director in a few short years. “It’s quite overwhelming but very, very exciting,” he says simply. “I’ve been pinching myself for days now.”

However, his rapid elevation is perhaps not that surprising. Not only has he been on Leigh Warren’s radar since his student days but he has long harboured an ambition to be ‘more’ than a talented dancer. As he explains it, “People’s pursuits in dance are obviously really different and some people do just have an interest in performing; but about five years into my dance career with ADT I started to question what it was about dance that I liked, and for me it was always the creative process. Even when I was an eight-year-old boy I used to put on shows for the local ‘nan’ community.”

For Jaber, and to a lesser extent for Warren, handing over the baton invites inevitable comparison. “It’s bound to happen but so far it’s been extremely positive,” Jaber declares. “I suppose we both somehow have a sense of identity here in Adelaide as dance practitioners and also we’re both going at this very much together at the moment, so it makes the comparison a bit void.”

From Leigh Warren’s perspective at least, there is no doubt. “I saw a short little trio he put on some time ago and I thought, ‘There it is’. It stood out for me. It was like a beacon; and I’ve just been watching from the sidelines and talking with Daniel all that time and we discussed his possible future with us almost immediately. But the timing was never quite right until now.”

After a lifetime in dance, much of it with the responsibility of steering a company, Warren is clearly ready to slow down. “There are times when you are very stimulated by the pressures of being an artistic director because you’re always doing three things at once. You’re finishing off what’s been before, y’know, writing the grant acquittal; but also making the new work and, at the same time, planning the next one,” he elaborates. “I’ve come to a point now where I’d like a little more space in between.”

So, while Warren works on remounting his epic, eight-hour Philip Glass Trilogy for his LWD finale in August, Daniel Jaber will slowly take over the day-to-day running of the company and, more significantly, its redirection. “The biggest theme in terms of rebranding the organisation,” he explains, “is turning it into more of a contemporary ballet company and bridging the gap between the classical and new.”

But of course, the stewardship of a company like LWD is more than simply announcing a creative vision, as Jaber is all too aware.

“The difference in structure between LWD and say a bigger national company is pretty huge. LWD is somehow more intimate and the responsibility to guide what is Leigh’s legacy is massive but also really special.”

The ‘retirement’ of the company’s talismanic founder and its handing over to new blood is no small thing, not the least because the company has Leigh Warren’s name and it is therefore inextricably associated with him. Warren simply laughs when asked if this will present an ongoing problem for his successor. “No, it’s going to become LW Dan,” he announces. “That will go very nicely until they think of something else.”

lwd.com.au

RISING FROM ASHES

history of drug use and a period in jail. Boyer is uncomfortably upfront about his shame to Johnstone’s camera, and he draws a real connection between his own personal need for redemption and that of selected members of the team – and, of course, the entire country.

BY DM BRADLEY

TC Johnstone’s cycling documentary might sound at first like just another sport movie trying hard to seem inspirational, yet this study of the story behind ‘Team Rwanda’ is indeed just that.

Scarred by the civil war in 1994 that left more than a million dead, Rwandans always had a use for bicycles (transport and other practical means in this ‘land of a thousand hills’), but it wasn’t until 2005 when bike builder Tom Ritchey toured the region that the outside world knew of the then-unofficial ‘Team Rwanda’.

After meeting with this popular group, who sometimes rode wooden cycles without brakes or gears, Ritchey was compelled to return with Jock Boyer, a formerly revered figure who, in 1981, was the first American to ride in the Tour de France but had been disgraced after a

Boyer’s revelations of his crimes (he speaks rather more than narrator Forest Whitaker) and a few shocking images of the dead during the massacres could make this confronting for some. Yet there’s sweet humour here, as Jock’s team joke around as they travel to America and beyond, while there are some touching and even enlightening elements. You’ll surely be moved as Boyer states that in this life we must try to do things that have meaning, and you watch the Rwandan lads go further in the sport than they or anyone else dared dream.

Just another sport movie? On your bike!

» Rated M. Opens July 3

Mature themes and coarse language

26 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

PERFORMING ARTS

Wake in Fright

more of an action film than this one is. I went away and wrote the first draft and, as I was writing it, I came to realise I wanted to make it myself. Finally, I went to Nash and said, ‘I’d actually like to make this’. I went away then and redrafted it into the kind of film I’d like to make and that involved stripping about three car chases out of the movie. I’d fallen in love with the characters and I’d fallen in love with the strangeness of the world. In a way, the car chases felt like big distraction; big, expensive distractions and big, technically irritating distractions. It’s not fun to shoot car chases.

They can be fun once you’ve put them together and you see how the hard, slow work has paid off but when you’re out there doing it... that isn’t the reason I want to make movies. I love watching two great actors bringing characters to life.”

Australian director David Michôd follows his hardboiled crime drama Animal Kingdom with a terrifying vision of the near future – The Rover.

A

director in demand after Animal Kingdom, the great Australian crime drama of the last decade, Michôd’s debut feature received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Jacki Weaver and thrust the former editor of Inside Film into the international spotlight. Part of the Blue-Tongue Films collective, Michôd stayed in Australia for his follow-up, The Rover – a RISING FROM ASHES bleak near-future vision of this country, which Michôd a “pretty brutal imagining of an Press calls Week 3 - SA Australia that’s been abandoned”. Starring

Photo: Matt Nettheim

BY DAVID KNIGHT

Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson.

Guy Pearce (who follows Michôd from Animal Kingdom) as Eric and Robert Pattinson (who is carving a nice career in independent films after the Twilight saga) as Rey, the two men form an unlikely bond in the middle of the outback.

Set 10 years after the collapse of the western economic system, a criminal gang steals Eric’s

– DIRECTOR OF TEN CANOES

“COMPELLING & ENTHRALLING. ABC R ADIO

“DAVID GULPILIL CROWNS HIS CAREER WITH A MESMERIC PORTRAIT.”

only possession worth fighting for – a car – after a heist gone wrong. On the hunt for the thieves, Eric runs into Rey (Pattinson); the younger brother of one of the gang members Eric is pursuing.

The plot is simple (Eric’s car is stolen. Eric gets angry. Eric seeks revenge) but there is plenty to ponder between the lines – nothing is explained about the collapse responsible for this Old West-meets-Third World outback, and you have no idea about what lies beyond the horizon. Originally a road movie with the base idea of ‘cars in the desert’ by Michôd and fellow Blue-Tongue member Joel Edgerton, the film was to be a project for Joel’s brother Nash to direct, but the film took a personal edge after Michôd starting redrafting it.

“When I decided this was the movie I wanted to make and I started redrafting it, it was a couple of years after the financial crisis which seemed to coincide with Kevin Rudd dropping the ball on the ETS [Emissions Trading Scheme],” Michôd explains. “I felt like I was living in a world where everyone had thrown in the towel. We had basically surrended our economies to avaricious pigs in the financial sector and the truly important challenges for us were being dumped in the too-hard basket.

I found this experience filling me with despair and that despair quickly morphed into anger.

When I was redrafting The Rover, I started channeling a lot of that anger into the script and into the world of the movie, and specifically into Guy Pearce’s character. In a way he’s a proxy for me, but a really murderous one.”

SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

IN CINEMAS

OPENS JULY 3 EXCLUSIVELY AT PALACE NOVA July Insertion – 1/8 Page Adelaide Review

JULY 17

PALACE NOVA EASTEND, TRAK CINEMAS

Though there are traces of Ozploitation classics such as Mad Max, The Rover is much more of a character-led drama than an action flick.

“I always knew I didn’t want it to go into that world of crazy, leather-clad punks in soupedup vehicles. The initial conception was much

The Rover is not post-apocalyptic but a frighteningly real and harsh vision of what can happen soon. Australia, in this neo-western, is a mineral-rich Third World country. This realism was important to Michôd.

“In a way it doesn’t seem surprising to me that a lot of films that are set in the future involve a future that is dystopian. You never see movies set in the future where everything’s just so much better than it is today. But it was important to me that this one felt grounded in stuff that feels real, and feels connected to the world today. As soon as you make a movie that’s post-apocalyptic you throw a cataclysmic event in between the audience and the world as a movie. It’s almost an inconceivable cataclysm. I wanted this one to feel dark and dirty and scary because it might feel on some level, despite the movie being a fable, still entirely plausible.”

On his “pretty brutal imagining of an Australia that’s been abandoned”, Michôd, who will shoot The Operators starring Brad Pitt next, says there was a period where it felt like people were taking climate change seriously.

“Then the financial crisis happened. Then it seemed quite apparent, quite evident to everyone, that the ways of addressing the two problems [the economy and the environment] were mutually exclusive. And the environment lost. And big screen TVs won. That’s where the despair came from.

More than anything, it was just about the feeling I had when I was... I don’t know if times were different when I was younger, or if I’m just older now and more cynical, but I remember that I used to walk around vaguely dreaming about the world and always assuming it was getting better, or the potential for it getting better was always there. It feels to me, only in the past five or six years, that I don’t have that feeling anymore.

It’s kind of a terrifying realisation to make.”

» The Rover is in cinemas now

The Adelaide Review July 2014 27

adelaidereview.com.au

CINEMA CHARLIE’S COUNTRY

by DM Bradley

Director Rolf de Heer (no longer ‘Adelaide’s own’ since his relocation to Tasmania) co-wrote this, his follow-up to 2012’s The King Is Dead!, with David Gulpilil, in their third collaboration after The Tracker and the wonderful Ten Canoes.

And while there are some problems here, including a final act that curiously doesn’t know where to finish, this is obviously constructed as a moving tribute to Gulpilil, who seems quite frail at times, but nevertheless delivers a wonderfully subtle performance of great emotion and cheeky humour.

In a remote community, Charlie is finding that since the ‘intervention’ his life has become more difficult, with more of a police presence and stricter enforcement of rules, especially those pertaining to alcohol and drugs. He sometimes helps officer Luke (Luke Ford) track criminals, but mostly objects to whitefella laws. When his gun and spear are confiscated, meaning that he can no longer hunt, he journeys deep into the bush and is alone in nature in a long, lyrical sequence. Here he salutes lost friends, catches, cooks and praises a barramundi, and laughingly shouts to the trees that this is his land, in scenes

that feature Gulpilil at his very best. But Charlie’s health is failing and soon he’s forced to take a trip that sets into play a last half-hour that doesn’t quite click.

While several of de Heer’s previous players

(including King’s Bojana Novakovic and The Tracker’s Gary Sweet) turn up in small roles here, this is entirely Gulpilil’s show, and even in the simplest, quietest moments he’s riveting. It’s one of the key performances in any of de Heer’s films and, basically, magnificent.

7.5pt Univers 57 Condensed

»»Rated M. Opens on July 17

28 The Adelaide Review July 2014

VISUAL ARTS

Adam Hill portrait.

Macleod,Desert Painter,180x200cm.

Vanishing Point

by Jane Llewellyn

W

ith the world facing a tough financial climate, and technology continuing to evolve at rocket speed, the landscape is changing for artists and gallerists. Artists are becoming much more savvy at creating online markets, often promoting and pushing their work outside the commercial gallery structure.

The need for artists to find new ways to broaden their audience has led to a spike in temporary and innovative spaces popping up around Adelaide.

It’s not surprising that the international hotel giant Hilton has jumped on board this

phenomenon, enlisting the experience and expertise of former gallery manager and artist Sophie Hann. Level One of Adelaide’s Hilton Hotel had a previous incarnation as a gallery space when the now defunct Greenhill Galleries filled its walls with art, but Hann’s concept is quite different.

The gallery occupies a vast space; it’s more than 100m in length and about 20m wide and is the lobby area for the Hilton’s numerous conference rooms, which attracts around 70,000 visitors a year. “I have a huge audience to start with but then I want to also attract an art audience who are going to go there and

know that there will be fantastic art and not be disappointed,” explains Hann.

Hann is looking at running five group shows a year, each with about a 10-week duration.

The focus will be on contemporary art with a minimum of two local artists in each exhibition.

“As a pop-up gallery I’m not purporting to be a commercial art gallery. If you are a commercial art gallery, you’re representing artists in a major way. But this way I can contact any artist from anywhere whether they are represented or not.”

The exhibition schedule kicks off with Vanishing Point, which features an impressive list of artists (Troy-Anthony Baylis, Penny Coss, Elisabeth Cummings, Euan Macleod, Idris Murphy and Paul Sloan) brought together under the theme of landscape. “This is the first theme. I think I will branch out with the other themes and not have something so generic. It was just a good starting point.”

While Hann has gone for a generic theme, the artists don’t approach the landscape in a generic way. Sloan’s artworks focus on colonial Australia while Cummings uses colours and textures to represent the beauty of the

landscape. According to Hann, Baylis is talking about not being territorial of land. “An artist goes into the landscape and then they walk away and that’s it. They had an experience, they are not claiming ownership. I love that idea. I think it’s really interesting.”

Hann is especially excited about showing the work of MacLeod who, she believes, has not exhibited in Adelaide before. She has managed to score six of his works for the opening exhibition. “To get someone like him and show his work, I am really excited about that.”

If Hann continues to attract this calibre of Australian artists then Level One Gallery will be more of a permanent fixture than a pop-up gallery and Adelaide will no doubt see more spaces like this emerge.

»»Vanishing Point Level One Gallery Thursday, July 3 to Wednesday, August 20 levelonegallery.com

JAMJAR Storage Jar

esigned by Deb Jones, Tom Mirams and Brian Parkes

KONTAKTRAUM AUSLANDER Space of contact_foreigner JAMJAR Storage Jar

Joe FELBER

designed and made in our glass and furniture studios

14. June_14. July 2014 Contemporary Art Centre SA 14 Porter Street Parkside www.cacsa.org.au

Available online and in-store www.jamfactory.com.au JAMJAR Storage Jar, designed by Deb Jones, Tom Mirams and Brian Parkes, $250 each

Adelaide Review.indd 1

5/06/14 10:55 AM

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 29

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

VISUAL ARTS

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

BY JOHN NEYLON

M

ary-Jean Richardson’s As above so below (2014) talks to the Art Gallery of South Australia’s Priestess of Delphi (1903) by

John Collier.

A neoclassical statue to the god Mercury crouching above a pool of water and a young woman surrounded by sulphurous fumes in a cave in ancient Greece – what could be the connection? The fact that both images ‘belong’ in a sense to the Greco-Roman world of originating mythologies and beliefs is reason enough to put them in the same frame. But that’s not the full answer.

Collier was a late 19th century ‘Victorian Olympian’ who subscribed to populist taste in neoclassical themes. When Collier painted Priestess at Delphi, Paul Cézanne had been painting his apples for around a decade and Picasso was embarking on his well-known Blue Period works. That academic artists such as Collier could have plied their trade well into the 20th century (he died in 1930) is an indication of the level of resistance an older generation of conservative British artists had to the perceived virus of modernism.

His pre-Hollywood preference for sexier subjects such as nubile young women in diaphanous dresses embodies that coarsening

As above so below, Mary-Jean Richardson.

of taste that accompanied the slide of high-art into ‘Olympian’ idealism. But it is a reminder of this conscious alignment in high Victorian society between the virtues of classical Greek and Roman culture and its own sense of destiny, moral leadership and achievements. It is also a window on a late 19th century curiosity, and sometimes obsession, with death and the afterlife.

The young woman in Collier’s painting is the fabled Oracle known as the Pythia, a name given to any priestess at the Temple of Apollo, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. The image is faithful to historical accounts of the Oracle mounted on her tripod seat, holding laurel wreathes and a dish of spring water.

The fumes that rise up from a fissure in the cave floor add to the general impression of uttering prophecy in a drugged state. From a contemporary perspective, it is easy to make a casual connection between this scenario and the séances (usually conducted by women)

associated with the spread of spiritualism in the late 19th century.

Mary-Jean Richardson’s figure is Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods. The inspiration for As above so below came from a chance encounter with a fountain featuring a sculpture of Mercury, while Richardson was undertaking her Cibo Espresso Studio Residency in Rome in 2013.

Mercury is usually depicted as an upright figure with winged helmet and shoes, striding through space. But this interpretation is more ambiguous. Viewed from low down, Mercury is positioned just above water level.

The horizontal gesture of his figure implies listening to or about to visit the underworld.

In this visual context the water of the fountain becomes an infinity pool of possibilities.

Richardson comments, “Because my work is always filtered through the materiality of paint, the idea of ‘dead and alive’, or

existing in more than one state, resonated very strongly when encountering so many symbols of life and death and the human and divine in Italy last year.”

In Mercury, the artist found a ready-made messenger that speaks of this liminal state, not only between the living and the dead but the deliciously unstable identity of painting in a post-medium world. The artist adds, “The idea of being able to move between states/worlds/places through contemplating objects, images and symbols from the past and present was something I became very interested in. Materially, the buttery wetness of paint transforming into ‘something’ else drives my day-to-day studio practice.”

Collier and Richardson have come to the classical world through different doors and for different reasons. But their conflations of fact and fiction share a common purpose in adding to the mystery of what lies beyond – or below.

Youthscape 2014 22 June – 13 July 2014 A Prize Exhibition open to all young artists 15 - 26 years Over $5,000 in Prizes over all mediums

Pomegranates, pastel by Imogen Ramsey

ROYAL SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY OF ARTS INC.

Four categories, 2D, Photography, 3D & Printmaking.

Wayne Grivell, 27 (2014), Digital print on photo paper, 760 x 505

Suburban Dreaming Wayne Grivell

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.

6 – 27 July 1 Thomas St (cnr Main North Rd) Nailsworth prospect.sa.gov.au facebook.com/ProspectGallery

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.

30 The Adelaide Review July 2014

VISUAL ARTS

Down Down Down

within which is the Earthly Paradise where Dante meets his idealised love Beatrice who leads him to Paradise.

Tellingly, Blake dedicated 72 of his 102 watercolour illustrations to Hell. It is easy to understand why Hell and its devilish torments were very popular subjects with artists. Depicting corrupt clergy and unjust rulers being cast into the fiery furnace must have been very gratifying to ordinary folk, not to mention the naughty acts for which fornicators deserved eternal damnation.

Blake’s imagery wrenches Dante’s Hell from its early Renaissance moorings and places it firmly within the foment of late 18th and early 19th century political and religious debate about the rights and responsibilities of individuals, church and state. To say that some of his illustrations could sit comfortably within an ABC Insiders Talking Pictures segment is not to discount the deep passions that inform them but to declare that, despite the seeming archaism of reinterpreting a 14th century epic poem, the themes and subjects of Blake’s Comedy beat with a contemporary heart.

William Blake at the National Gallery of Victoria and Steve Cox – A Reinterpretation of Dante’s Inferno at BMG Art

by John Neylon

U

nbelievable. In an era of 3D cinema and curved plasma screens I found myself in a room full of hundreds of people looking intently at tiny black and white engravings and delicate watercolours. And they were transfixed. They knew they were in the presence of a genius – William Blake.

The magnetism of the Comedy has no bounds. Major interest in Dante’s work in 19th century France was fuelled by the midcentury graphic illustrations of Gustave Doré.

To this day, Doré’s brooding invocations define a sense of the individual soul on a perilous path in search of meaning and salvation.

Such relatively fragile works are rarely exhibited. The message was out and the viewing public have rightly responded. The National Gallery of Victoria’s collection of watercolours, books and prints by Blake are one of the institution’s greatest treasures. No matter if you are a Blake cleanskin or tragic, here is a rolled gold opportunity to get to know or re-acquainted with the range and dynamic imagery of this visionary artist.

Included in the exhibition are early reproductive engravings, hand-printed books of poetry and selections from commissioned series including illustrations to Thornton’s Virgil, The Book of Job engravings and watercolours to Milton’s Paradise Lost. Of particular significance is the representation of the artist’s late years featuring 36 of the 102

Steve Cox, Ugolino, 2014

watercolours illustrating the Divine Comedy

by Dante. This group constitutes the single largest group from the series.

To recap – the Divine Comedy tells the

Mother Nature is a Lesbian Political Printmaking in South Australia 1970s-1980s

story of Dante’s pilgrimage, guided by the Roman post Virgil, through Hell and Purgatory to Paradise. Hell is a pit with nine circles, each reserved for a different category of sinners. Purgatory is on a mountaintop,

Steve Cox is currently exhibiting Dante’s Inferno-inspired watercolours at BMG Art. Like other modern-era artists before him, including Auguste Rodin, Salvador Dali and Robert Rauschenberg, he has discovered in the Inferno a rich vein of exploration. Blake’s passionately held views on social injustice, political oppression and crass materialism influenced his take on Dante. Cox also holds Dante at bay, the better to see his way forward.

He first read the Inferno when he was in his mid-teens and found the imagery to be “incredible”. While a non-believer in such

ADELAI DES LARGEST RANGE OF QUALITY ART MATERIALS

10 May - 13 July 2014

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

83 Commercial Road, Port Adelaide Open: Open:Mon Mon- Fri - Fri8.30-5pm 8.30-5pmSat Sat9-2pm 9-2pm Phone: Phone:8241 82410059 0059 sales@portartsupplies.com.au www.portartsupplies.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 31

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

VISUAL ARTS things as a god or a heaven or hell he says that, “I do have a strong moral sense of right and wrong, and I think there are certainly ‘hellish’ things all around us and heavenly things as well.” He adds, “I think little has changed for humanity since Dante wrote that remarkable work centuries ago. We see the same greed, corruption, pollution and politicians’ lies. We are no more ‘moral’ beings now than we were then. And so Inferno, as a subject, is a perennial one.”

Cox is no stranger to the dark side of the human condition. Earlier work dealt with the psychology of murderers and their victims.

Other work has explored the dimensions of club culture and transgressive zones associated with homoeroticism and male nudity. Surprisingly, given the potential of such themes to confront, the art has a sensuous quality, hinting at unnerving beauty.

His watercolour methodology, seen in this current exhibition, is built on allowing the chance flow of the medium to direct the imagery. Things are “allowed to emerge”. Many of the heads have derived from first wetting the paper and then letting the applied watercolour find its course.

There is an element of surprise contained in this, as much for the artist, I suspect, as the viewer. This sense of forms and faces coalescing maintains the imagery in hover mode, caught between our time and another, between Cox, Dante and Blake and ultimately choices that need to be made between good and evil.

» William Blake National Gallery of Victoria Continues until Sunday, August 31 ngv.vic.gov.au » Steve Cox A Reinterpretation of Dante’s Inferno BMG Art Thursday, June 26 to Saturday, July 19

as a finalist in the Lethbridge 10000 and he was also a finalist in the Adelaide Park Land’s Art Prize.

In addition to this, his work A Global Warning has been selected as a finalist in this year’s Waterhouse Art Prize. “It was out of my comfort zone because I’m used to doing structures, and for the Waterhouse you can’t do anything man-made, so I thought, ‘What can I do?’ I thought urban destruction, decaying, and so I painted an explosion on the beach with a cloudy sky.”

Christie is working on a series called Frontal, which will feature iconic new and old Adelaide shop fronts. Also in the works is a series showcasing the emerging movers and shakers of the Adelaide art world. “I plan to paint roughly 12 to 15 big pieces. Each piece will be a portrait of the artist in front of an example of their work, for example Vans The Omega in front of one of his large-scale murals.”

End Credits.

Profile: Donovan Christie

BY JANE LLEWELLYN

P

op Tarts, Donovan Christie’s current exhibition at Sugar nightclub, consists of images of well-known female cartoon characters. “I have always had this inner child trying to scream out,” he explains. While it is a bit of fun, Pop Tarts is more of a side project and not really indicative of where his practice is heading. Christie’s main focus is on urban landscapes and streetscapes, highlighting iconic Adelaide landmarks.

“Growing up [in] Adelaide – born and bred – I love this little humble city. Adelaide is my inspiration, it’s pretty simple,” he explains.

Christie started out as a graffiti artist before

bmgart.com.au

making the transition from street to canvas.

His graffiti background continues to influence his work as he creates images of the urban landscape, painting scenes of alleyways and desolate spaces that he once would have been a part of through his graffiti.

Many of the works are easily recognisable as Adelaide landmarks. “They are things people walk past in day to day life. I pick up on them and other people won’t. I want to highlight the urban landscape and let people see it for what it is. I leave it up to the observer and let them place themselves in it and tell their own story.”

Christie also tried his hand at running his own gallery, These Walls Don’t Lie. But while running the gallery, Christie’s artwork was suffering and he found he wasn’t painting at all, so he decided to close the doors and focus on his own work. “At this point it’s better focusing on my art. I was juggling art and other people’s art. Forty people’s stresses become your stress and it was too much.”

Set up in a new studio in Camden Park, a huge warehouse he shares with a cabinetmaker, Christie’s decision to refocus on his own work seems to be paying off. He was recently selected

» Donovan Christie Pop Tarts Sugar Nightclub Continues until Tuesday, July 1 donovanchristie.com

exhibitions gallery shop

4 - 27 July 2014 THREE EXHIBITIONS

Transformation Improvisation

contemporary woven textiles and collage by Katharina Urban & Bev Bills

Lost Horizon

drawings and paintings by Alison Main

T’Arts Collective

J U Z KI T S O N

Gays Arcade (off Adelaide Arcade)

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

25 June - 25 July

textiles by Joy Harvey

Plantation, Barbara Palmer

Window Display at Tarts from 30th June to 26th July Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm Phone 8232 0265

www.tartscollective.com.au Find Us On Facebook

The Art of Cleaning

[

]

Greenaway Art Gallery 39 Rundle St Kent Town www.greenaway.com.au

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

www.gallerym.net.au

32 The Adelaide Review July 2014

A-Z Contemporary Art

J

ARTSPEAK JUNK The age of recycling has changed the face of junk art as we know it. Some junk just isn’t junk anymore. Creative duo Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s silhouetted junk assemblages are the game breakers right now. Time for you to move on from Toddler Time hand shadow goosies and bunnies and shine a little light on the Sulo.

JOUISSANCE Lacan had it right there when he asked ‘How much pleasure can a koala bear?’ The answer is ‘not enough’ – unless, unless, the pleasure turns to pain. It’s hard to tell with koalas so one hopes he had better outcomes with humans.

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

JUGGERNAUT The original juggernaut was a rather large Hindu temple wagon that reputedly crushed devotees as it was dragged through the streets. The art world has no need of such things. It has biennales which have a habit of leaving some uninvited artists crushed with disappointment.

by John Neylon

J = Journey

No Va, Whitechapel London, 2012. Photograph John Neylon

Don’t let the political spin-doctors have all the fun. You too can move forward.

Take a journey. The creative one of course.

suggestion of effort. Birds and fishes should be handled with extreme care.

Trek treat Nothing beats a good walk in the outdoors to create a sense of actually going somewhere.

But being an artist you’ll need to do something.

Consider the British artist Richard (“a work of art can be a journey”) Long, famous for his epic walks across various terrains. A feature of some of these walks was the act of placing stones as markers to add significance to the event. Stones might not be your thing.

Take the ka Consider aligning your journey with an ancestor myth or hero journey. There’s lots to choose from – The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Beowulf, The Arthurian Quest for the Holy Grail, adventures of the Mighty Finn and so on. Ratchet up the association by calling in a few favours from the gods.

Ancient Egyptian cosmology is quite helpful here. The journey into the afterlife beats any package Trafalgar Tours will ever come up with. Everyone is heading for the Field of Rushes but getting there is no stroll in the park. The deceased spirit has to contend with all kinds of gatekeepers before reaching Osiris and the Hall of Final Judgement. Sounds a

‘Party Girl’ - Pauline Richards

Trope up Exploring the right kind of journey trope can affirm you quest to move on.

Suggestion: Make pictures about (or photograph) staircases. Looking at all those steps climbing upwards is insanely uplifting.

Add graceful curves to counteract any

Float my boat Boats are the rolled gold of journey metaphors.

And so versatile. You can fill them with water (contradiction), burn them (purification) or fill them with stones (guilt). Form matters. A coracle implies a ‘happy to drift in any direction’ mindset. An ‘Indian canoe’ may speak of a Hiawatha fixation. A milk carton raft says you think the whole thing is a joke. Including a tiger or baboon can value-add Freudian resonance.

‘Coorong Light’ - Victoria Rolinski

Moving forward The best starting point is self. The old self that is. Time to put it behind you.

How to get started? Look up back issues of a lifestyle magazine for dos and don’ts tips about creating the New You. Here’s a sample: Embrace the challenge. Take a hike. Plan a trip. Get some attitude. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Go with the flow and follow your intuitions. Moving forward – it’s all about getting with the programme. Perhaps it all starts with a decision to change the colour of your painting smock.

Progressively discarded items of personal clothing could be substituted with interesting outcomes guaranteed. For inspiration, consider local artist Gavin Malone’s bare foot ‘n’ RMs retracing of McDouall Stuart’s 1861 bottomto-top of Australia expedition. Now that was a walk in the woods.

little like working towards a PhD. Fail this and Ammut ‘The Devourer’ gets to eat your heart and then the lights go out big time. For inspiration, consider Matthew Barney’s film River of Fundament in which he fused Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings, structured on ancient Egyptian narratives of death and the seven stages of reincarnation, with the rise and fall of the American car industry. With a dash of imagination you could reprise this mash up by portraying your own creative odyssey set against the decline and consignment of Holden into the darkness.

Last minute tips Wear appropriate clothing such as Birkenstock shoes or if going for a more sportif look, North Face Base Camp Lite Skimmers or a Thermoball Micro-Baffle Bootie. Hats? A Joseph Beuys felt trilby for men and for women an ethnic dash of a Yoruba gele. Note: if you wear the traditional Yoruba buba and iro without a gele it will be considered a fashion faux pas. Remember: you may be working out of a suburban studio but the right threads can create the perception that you are really a pilgrim on life’s journey. But hold the scallop shells.

PAULINE RICHARDS & VICTORIA ROLINSKI Now showing until 12th July

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

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 33

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

VISUAL ARTS

THIS MONTH THE ADELAIDE REVIEW’S GUIDE TO VISUAL ART’S HIGHLIGHT JULY EVENTS

MORTIMER MENPES An Australian Master Peter Walker Fine Art Continues until Thursday, July 19 peterwalker.com.au Port Adelaide-born Mortimer Menpes was considered one of 19th century London’s greatest artists, as this exhibition at Peter Walker, run in conjunction with the Art Gallery of South Australia’s exhibition, The World of Mortimer Menpes, will show.

ART IMAGES GALLERY The exhibition Adelaide Eclectic – Art and Design opened on Friday, June 6 at Art Images Gallery.

Photographer: Andreas Heuer

WAYNE GRIVELL Suburban Dreaming Prospect Gallery Sunday, July 6 to Sunday, July 27 prospect.sa.gov.au Photographer Wayne Grivell offers an architecturally focussed exploration of the stillness and fading memories of Australian suburbia with his latest exhibition Suburban Dreaming.

Saxon Rudduck and Annie Rudduck.

Eliza Dallwitz and Adrian Potter.

Steve Soeffky and Nick Fuller.

Sheila Bryce and Steve Donovan.

POH LING YEOW New Works Hill Smith Gallery Tuesday, July 24 to Saturday, August 23 hillsmithgallery.com.au Yeow will continue her exploration of western and traditional Chinese iconography with contemporary Asian imagery at her upcoming exhibition of new works.

FELTspace 2014

STEVE COX: A REINTERPRETATION OF DANTE’S INFERNO

Steve Cox, All Tremor & low & Gaudy Pelt 1

Carolyn V Watson thelivinglifeless 27 June - 19 July 2014

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

July: 2nd - 19th Will Nolan - Where to Now Lara Torr - Fishing August: 6th - 23rd Sundari Carmody - The Black Swan Suite Jana Hawkins-Andersen - The Mute World September: 3rd - 20th Jessica Taylor - View Master Riley O’Keeffe- Monument for the Virtual October: 1st - 18th Arlon Hall - Black and White Sophia Nuske - First world problems? Here’s a BADAID November: 5th-22nd Chris Dolman/Paul Williams -Pipe Down Alex Bishop-Thorpe – Planetshine December: 3rd - 20th FELTspace curated exhibition

12 Compton Street Adelaide, SA 5000 feltspace@gmail.com www.feltspace.org Open Hours Wed-Thur: 1-4pm Friday: 1-7pm Saturday: 10-4pm

34 The Adelaide Review July 2014

VISUAL ARTS

Still Life

“I was using latex during this time because of its ephemeral qualities juxtaposed against more enduring materials like bone and porcelain... and the fact that latex has a lifespan and, like ourselves, ultimately will perish,” Kitson explains.

by Jane Llewellyn

J

uz Kitson pinpoints the moment when Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) Director David Walsh walked into her Darlinghurst studio and purchased her unfinished honours project, Formations of Silence, for Mona’s permanent collection as the turning point in her career. Suddenly people began taking an interest in her often confronting installations, which depict human and animal organs, sexual reproductive organs, bones and hybrid specimens.

Kitson initially set out to study photography at art school but became captivated by what she describes as the potential limitlessness of ceramics. It was during this time that Kitson began experimenting with the medium, introducing materials such as latex and taking her work beyond the confines of the ceramics genre.

Kitson currently splits her time between a rural property on the NSW Central Coast and Jingdezhen, an ancient porcelain city in China.

The process for developing her work begins in Jingdezhen, where she has been working since 2011, assisting Chinese contemporary installation artist, Lin Tianmiao.

“I have spent the last three years working there, refining skills, learning from local master artisans, developing new techniques and experimenting with new surface treatments and porcelain bodies through processes inaccessible to me here in Australia.”

While she’s in China, Kitson works day and night producing what she describes as naked, raw pieces, which are without sentiment and attachment. The work is then shipped back to Australia and it is in her Central Coast studio that the works come to life.

While her two studio spaces are polar opposites - the hustle and bustle of China compared to the quiet solitude of the Central Coast - this is an important part of her practice. Dividing her time between the two studios also means she lives a very nomadic lifestyle.

“It’s important for me to constantly move, collecting obscure materials, making connections and drawing inspiration from the landscape - I see my practice as a process of evolution.”

Kitson’s work is driven by the underlying themes of Eros and Thanatos (life instinct and death instinct), fragility and decay. The choice of material is very important and informs her work. She uses materials such as southern ice porcelain, wax, latex and resin, as well as horse, fox and goat hair and bone to create installations of unsettling beauty. Kitson gleans much of the material and inspiration from her immediate surroundings and creates forms that are fragile yet confronting, beautiful yet shocking.

Kitson pours plaster into condoms to create ‘udder’ like breast forms, just one of the processes she uses. She explains, “These life-giving forms represent the Mother, though equally ambiguous in execution, they represent the masculine testicles of some sort of mammal that hang menacingly on an austere white gallery wall.”

The current exhibition at Greenaway Art Gallery continues Kitson’s exploration into the notion of ‘omnia mors aequat’ (death makes all equal). The refined yet complex installations or taxonomic collections explore ideas of the ephemeral and transient nature of life.

“These installations are ‘Still’ formed from

COLLECTIVE INSPIRATIONS An exhibition of mixed media

by Off the Couch Art Group

4 – 25 July 2014

John Lennon Silkscreen Portrait.

Artists: Trevor Bairstow, David Baker, Annette Dawson, Joe Dennis, Brian Garner, Hazel Harding, Maureen Helps, Frances Lukeman, Jan Monks, Margaret Morton, Violet Moylan, Kay Paterson, It Hao Pheh, Alana Preece and Max Stanyer

Lennon Exhibition

An Exhibition of Limited Edition Prints & hand written Lyrics by the legendary John Lennon, arranged with the cooperation of Yoko Ono Lennon

Brian Garner, Autumn Harvest

Working for Peace through the Arts

Opens: Friday 4 July 6 pm Launch Guest: Mr Tony Zappia MP, Member for Makin and Mr David Parkin, Mayor of Burnside Free Artist Demonstrations Saturday 5, 12 and 19 July 2 pm - 4 pm

Free entry - all welcome!

Susan Sideris at Hanrahan Studio

Also open by appointment.

48 Esmond Street, Hyde Park,South Australia 5061 T 0449 957 877 hanrahanstudio@bigpond.com Barbara Hanrahan and Jo Steele’s private residence and gallery are open for viewing during exhibition hours

Annual Grant 2014 Call for Submissions Applications are invited from artists & community art organisations within Australia for art projects that reflect the Peace Foundation’s vision.

In 2014 there will be one major grant of $10,000. Applications close Friday 22 August (no extensions) Successful recipients will be announced at the Peace Foundation’s 25th Anniversary Annual Dinner, on 20 September, 2014.

The Application Kit can be downloaded from the Foundation’s website: www.artspeacefoundation.org

Jewellery from The Mistress Von Berlow Collection.

Dates Thurs 24th July to Sunday 27th July 2pm to 6pm Thurs 31st July to Sunday 3rd August 2pm to 6pm

The Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation Inc.

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

The Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation Inc. PO Box 693, North Adelaide, SA 5006 email: contact@artspeacefoundation.org Telephone (08) 8267 3915 Celebrating 25 Years – 1989 - 2014 Established in 1989, The Peace Foundation is a non-profit and totally volunteer supported organisation which distributes funds raised to individual artists and community art groups for projects that include themes of human rights, social justice and environmental sustainability.

Juz Kitson

‘Life’ but on closer inspection they are far from dead,” she explains. “I take dead lifeless objects – inanimate material – and I give them a spark of life. Although I deal with death, more importantly I deal with life.”

Kitson will continue her nomadic lifestyle, spending the rest of the year in Peru travelling through the Amazon to gain new inspiration.

She will also spend some time in the Himalayas in India before returning to China to start on a series of new works for next year.

»»Juz Kitson: Still Life: Sleep of non-being Greenaway Art Gallery Continues until Friday, July 25 greenaway.com.au

The Adelaide Review July 2014 35

adelaidereview.com.au

TRAVEL Music of Jaén’s Earth

by Koren Helbig

T

he province lies off the beaten tourist track and is instead a nature-lover’s wonderland with 20 per cent of its rolling mountains and lush woodlands safeguarded as natural park. Those who do visit Jaén’s small cities of Úbeda and Baeza are rewarded with some of the best examples of Renaissance architecture outside of Italy, preserved as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

But these aren’t Jaén’s only secrets. Turns out those same famed olive groves have lined the stomachs of local musicians now surging to national and international prominence. An exceptional crop of indie and rock bands has emerged from the Jaén province in recent years and each band jokes that a steady diet of the region’s “liquid gold” has propelled them to rock-stardom.

Indie folk singer-songwriter Zahara, who grew up in Úbeda and now regularly plays London and beyond, even has her parents hand-deliver bottles of locally made olive oil to her band and crew while on tour. She won’t touch anything but the best from her hometown. “I always keep a bottle of olive oil with me wherever I am because you never know... I’m always drinking, cooking, using it for breakfast,” she says.

The musical vein of Jaén runs deep — one of Spain’s most influential singer-songwriters, Joaquin Sabina, hails from here — and the area’s working class influences are noticeably woven through each song. Guadalupe Plata bassist Paco Luis Martos describes their sound as “blues of olives, music of the earth, of grief and work, which is part of our DNA”.

The region’s cultural heritage is undeniable, says José Chino, lead singer of indie rock band

Trevor Huxham

Deep in the Spanish south, about an hour north of Granada, lies one of the world’s best olive oil producing regions. Orderly rows of olive groves that line the hillsides of Jaén account for about one-fifth of the world’s entire olive oil supply.

Supersubmarina, from Baeza. It’s a place where children often learn to recite the poems of Spanish literary figure Antonio Machado before they learn to read and write, he says, a culture that naturally seeps into the lyrics of local musicians.

musical vein. Cafes like Iroquai in Jaén city, Café Teatro Central or Burladero in Baeza and La Tetería in Úbeda remain good spots to catch live music. But, says Zahara, too often local councils refuse permission to night concerts amid noise complaints.

“When we compose songs in our language, we often use expressions that are part of our culture,” Chino says. “The title of our last album, Santacruz, is in fact one of these more local expressions. So, without intending to, we have adapted the way of speaking of our land to our songs.”

It’s the downside of trying to make it big from

Santacruz, released in 2012, hit number three on the Spanish charts. Chino’s not a superstitious guy but he does note that his band noshes on the region’s finest oil at every opportunity. “A healthy diet is key to cope with a full day of rehearsals, recording sessions or touring and luckily we can count on our liquid gold, the olive oil,” he says. “We use it with every meal: on toast for breakfast, in salads at lunch time or with anything else we might think of.”

But Jose Gómez, lead singer of famed Baeza band Autómatas, believes the olive oil’s magic power lies more in its ability to bring tourists to the region and therefore international attention to its bands. “In the last few years there has been a huge, exponential growth of rock bands in the province of Jaén,” he says.

“The calm and peace that comes with living in such a small province, especially the serenity of Baeza, marks itself on our composition. It gives our music a Baroque character, full of details.”

Some, Gómez boldly claims, are even hailing the Úbeda and Baeza as the new Seattle. “We have created our own musical stamp and we are throwing it out to the whole world,” he says.

That success continues despite a lack of support from local authorities, which have largely failed to capitalise on the region’s strong

new adventures in

SOUTH EAST ASIA • EAST ASIA CENTRAL ASIA | ACTIVE HOLIDAYS CYCLING • TREKKING • KAYAKING

new brochure > order online

FREE INFO NIGHTS • SOUTH AMERICA & ANTARCTICA WED > 16 JUL

register online for info nights:

worldexpeditions.com

1300 720 000

a small community but, Zahara speculates, perhaps such restrictions serve as motivation for Jaén’s up-and-comers. “In Úbeda, my home town, there’s a lot of hip hop bands, heavy metal bands and rock bands, though sometimes they don’t even have a place to rehearse,” she says.

“So maybe it’s like we’re told we cannot play so we decide that we must and we will!”

36 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE REVIEW:

LONGVIEW

BY PAUL WOOD

W

hile music is always an important ingredient, it would be nothing without the encouragement of food and wine and I propose that if Julie Andrews had spent her glory days twirling about on the slopes of the Adelaide Hills, the songs may have turned out a little differently. In place of curtain-clad children picking fruit, there’d be vignerons and seasonal pickers gathering the best vintage bunches, and Sister Mary such-andsuch would be replaced with worshippers of the wine-variety, out of the convent and into the cellar, as is (the wine) god’s plan.

At the peak of this food and wine musical would be the Brothers Saturno – owners and guys-in-charge of the Longview Vineyard estate and all of its operations. Season after season they are the ones leading Longview’s charge and deliver a sensational performance in the art of food and wine.

One-hit-wonder winemakers of the ‘80s have a lot to answer for but thankfully the plight of under-appreciated Chardonnay is getting stronger after years spent in the buttery shadows. Longview’s Blue Cow is a dazzling example of a refreshed version, with only a light hint of oak and tastes of stone fruit and citrus that will suit even the most reserved of palates (while still pleasing judging panels around the country, considering the number of medals this drop has been awarded). Another favourite white is Queenie, a delightfully aromatic Pinot Grigio named after the owners’ nonna, Tarquinia (who received the first bottle of this tribute as a surprise on her 90th birthday).

A Sunday matinee is the best (and only) time you’ll get to try the tapas menu at Longview’s restaurant or balcony bar, unless you are

lucky enough to be invited for a special event or wedding. Course after course of bite-sized offerings and tasty treats are prepared in a kitchen of extras brought in to create the scene every weekend at this charming rustic restaurant space.

Longview serves a refined Spanish-influenced menu that includes an entrée starter of juicy marinated olives and grissini, spiced pumpkin dip that packs a punch, served with hand-made corn tortillas and a leek, potato and cheese tortilla. All simple ingredients, but seasoned and spiced precisely, and matched perfectly with the Willy Wagtail methode champenoise Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sparkling and hand-picked Iron Knob Riesling – gaining a gravelly mineral undertone from the estate hill where the grapes are grown.

Next come the main course dishes, jumping from the plates with colour and flavour. A smoked peppered chicken served with a chargrilled vegetable mix of capsicum, zucchini and eggplant atop a bed of baby rocket, drizzled in a marvelous house-made mayonnaise is the dish of the day, only slightly ahead of the mini slow-cooked pork and oregano pies (with the flakiest of pastries), served with a green salad and side of hand-cut sweet potato chips. A warm roasted carrot, lentil and labne salad comes next, coated in a well-balanced harissa yogurt that will get your tastebuds whirling.

This does feature some fairly underwhelming BBQ lamb kefta, though.

with some divine little domes of vanilla and raspberry jube, sprinkled with lime sugar. It’s enough to make you blush.

Dessert is a cascading romantic vintage comedy of tiered cake stands, filled with naughty R-rated delights including salted caramel chocolate shards, almond butter cookies and petite chocolate éclairs, along

The cheese plate that follows includes agedCheddar with candied walnuts, guava paste and fresh apple atop poppy seed lavosh. The perfect encore that leaves you suitably sated.

McLaren Vale might be the gateway to the

southern sea and vines, and the Barossa Valley may be consumed, but the Adelaide Hills are alive with the sound of vino, and Longview is full of your favourite things. * Paul Wood was a guest of Longview

longviewvineyard.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 37

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Afternoon Tea

BY ANNABELLE BAKER

T

he very hungry Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, is rumoured to have started the late afternoon indulgence of cake and tea in the early 1840s. The lull of energy and the hunger pains that creep up on us all became too much for Anna and she began to take a cup of tea, bread and butter, and a small cake in her room. With hunger kept at bay, the only thing lacking was company, so she began to share her afternoon ritual with others.

By the 1880s the art of taking afternoon tea had turned into a grand affair for all concerned.

Etiquette on how to dress, set the table and even the invention of fine bone china came from the growing demands of the upper-class and their afternoon tea sessions.

Once guests were at the table, and suitably dressed for the occasion, the most iconic afternoon tea dish would grace the table: the very humble cucumber sandwich. It was the humbleness of this sandwich that proved just how much of an extravagant event afternoon tea was. While a nation was starving, and every meal was considered to be of importance, the upperclass were enjoying frivolous sandwiches that had little to no nutritional benefit. The cucumber sandwich would make legendary status and was even referenced in the first act of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

Once sandwiches had been eaten, only then would a selection of small, but very elegant, cakes be brought to the table. Victorian classics – fruit cake, sponge cake and brandy snap baskets – kept people eating well into the evening. But foreign influences would eventually make their way to the table and are now considered mandatory inclusions at afternoon tea.

Madeleines, traditionally baked in the shape of scallop shells, are the perfect addition to the afternoon tea line-up. Originally from the northeast of France, these cakes have the perfect crumb for soaking up hot cups of tea.

Although many of us reference high tea, it was in fact afternoon tea that was the more grand and lavish affair. High tea was traditionally a more robust event and enjoyed in a much more relaxed way. High tea was also served much later in the day but more importantly was the meal directly after finishing a long day’s work.

It is suggested that this is where the term ‘tea time’ originated.

Whether it is afternoon tea, high tea or even a snack and a cup of tea, most of us indulge in this ritual daily, thanks to Anna and her hunger pains!

Madeleines This cake batter is traditionally baked in shell-moulded tins but if you don’t have one, they bake perfectly in muffin tins.

Ingredients • 4 eggs • 150g caster sugar • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract • Zest of two oranges

• 150g unsalted butter • Extra butter for greasing the tins • 200g plain flour • Pinch of salt • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda Method 1. Preheat the oven to 210 degrees.

2. Whisk the eggs and sugar for four to five minutes or until pale and double in volume.

3. Add the orange zest and vanilla.

Whisk for a further minute to combine.

4. Melt the butter until slightly nut brown; set aside to cool.

5. Using a pastry brush, lightly grease the tins with room temperature butter (if not using a non-stick pan, lightly dust the buttered tin with flour. Tap upside down to remove any excess flour and leave to set in the fridge for 15 minutes).

6. Sift the flour, bicarb soda and pinch of salt onto the egg mixture.

7. Lightly fold the mixture.

8. Add the melted butter when

nearly all of the flour has been incorporated, ensuring to fold the mixture gently to ensure a light batter.

9. Spoon the mixture into the moulds, filling them around three quarters of the way to the top.

10. Bake for 10 minutes or until just set in the centre and golden on the underside.

11. Serve warm from the oven. @annabelleats

South Australian Prize

GIVEAWAY

Buy South Australian and The Adelaide Review have teamed up to offer a monthly all South Australian giveaway.

WIN This month’s prize is a Pannier of Tea filled with an assortment of T BAR teas and tea-ware, valued at $200!

Enter at: www.facebook.com/BuySouthAustralian

w w w. tu rke y y at . c om . au

38 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

EASTERN PROMISES The reemergence of the city’s east end as a quality food and wine district continues with the addition of Mother Vine and The Tasting Room.

BY DAVID KNIGHT

R

undle Street’s east end used to be a haven for food and wine lovers. It lost its appeal after many institutions closed and streets such as Waymouth, Leigh and Peel emerged as food and wine hotspots. This was exacerbated by the closure of the Universal Wine Bar last year, and it seemed all was lost for Rundle Street and its adjoining laneways.

But there were signs of life, as Ebenezer Place evolved into the food destination it had promised for many years with numerous cafes and lunch spots such as Hey Jupiter, Sad Cafe and Nano. And late last year, Rundle Street

snagged the quality gastronomic destination it was waiting for with the opening of Jock Zonfrillo’s Street ADL and Orana.

One premium wine destination has been a constant throughout all these changes – East End Cellars. Michael Andrewartha’s much-loved wine retailer, importer and wholesaler, called Adelaide’s best wine shop by wine writer Max Allen, has been an institution on Vardon Avenue (which runs parallel to Rundle St, near Ebenezer Place) for 16 years. It has now moved across the avenue to bigger premises. It’s not just a larger space. The shop includes The Tasting Room, a licensed area where you can enjoy a glass of wine

Lenzerheide celebrate at

for special occasions and functions.

years Celebrating 25 Est.1989

Voted South Australia’s Favourite Fine Dining Restaurant for 2014 Mention this ad to enquire about our 2 Course Lunch Special from Tuesday to Friday for $54pp or High Tea including a glass of champagne on arrival from Tuesday to Saturday for $49pp

EnquiriEs WElcomE | Bookings rEquirEd

T 08 8373 3711 | 146 Belair Road, Hawthorn SA 5062 | www.lenzerheide.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 39

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE Botanic and the National Wine Centre.

“There’s been a long tradition of wine bars in Rundle Street from the days of Universal and Tapas,” explains Hannon-Tan. “And that space [Tapas] was a wine bar continuously from 1920s up until Tapas closed, according to Howard Twelftree [the late Adelaide Review food reviewer].”

Hannon-Tan, who owns Frome Street’s Amalfi, said he felt there was a change of direction on Rundle St when hospitality businesses moved out to be replaced by fashion shops.

or two with food options including imported and local ham and salami, toasted sandwiches, antipasto and a Ploughman’s Platter.

Andrewartha is also involved in the premium wine bar Mother Vine, located in the old East End Cellars building. Due to open in the middle of July, Andrewartha is responsible for Mother Vine along with Amalfi’s Frank Hannon-Tan, East End Cellars’ Pablo Theodoros and Master of Wine David LeMire from Shaw + Smith. The small bar license was the genesis for both the Tasting Room and Mother Vine. Andrewartha and Hannon-Tan want the area to be a food and wine hub and for their businesses to complement existing east end food and wine premises such as Street ADL and Orana, The

“I think the pendulum has swung back and corrected itself with the laneways behind Rundle St,” he explains. “It’s an equilibrium. I don’t want to criticise that period but it swings in roundabouts.

I think this is a part of a balancing out of the city as well – there’s a lot happening in the west end and it’s provided an impetus to redevelop here. This is never going to be the late night precinct that it once was, and that’s not a bad thing.”

“We’ve both been in the east end for the same amount of time, about 16 years,” explains Andrewartha. “It’s funny how we’ve now joined forces to open this new bar. I think both venues will work off each other fairly well. The Tasting Room is a lot smaller, it’s licensed for 75, but across the road [Mother Vine] we’re licensed for 120. This [The Tasting Room] is a not a late night venue, you won’t be hanging off the rafters

Experience the finest quality award winning lamb

Norwood

|

UNley

|

CeNTrAl MArKeT

at 2am, it closes at 10 o’clock at the latest. And across the road it will go to one o’clock on Friday and Saturday nights only but normally midnight, so they are not late night venues as such.”

Mother Vine’s wine list will be 300-strong and driven by Lemire.

“He’s looking at a wine list that showcases the best of independent winemakers in Australia and around the world, with a focus on France, Italy and Spain as well as some German wines.”

Andrewartha says the Tasting Room and Mother Vine will be separate businesses with different identities, as he’ll be the face of the Tasting Room and East End Cellars while Hannon-Tan, Theodoros and Lemire will be the faces of Mother Vine.

“Of course there will be some crosspollination of clients who will drink wine there and want to buy it here,” he explains.

“It’s about creating a wine hub,” Hannon-Tan says. “When people think, ‘I want to go for a glass of wine’, it’s not necessarily a specific place but its about coming to Vardon Avenue, it’s about coming to the east end for a selection of places.”

eastendcellars.com.au facebook.com/mothervinewinebar

Feast!

Fine Foods For the best quality meat used by Australia’s finest restaurants, backed by exceptional customer service.

|

VICTor HArBor

feastfinefoods.com.au

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO SEE OUR UpCOmINg ClASSES

40 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Measuring Creativity with Ferran Adrià It was in the late 1980s that Ferran Adrià, on a visit to Nice, heard Jacques Maximin define creativity as “creativity means not copying”. Since then, nothing’s been the same.

BY LOU PARDI

A

drià’s elBulli kitchen closed for winter for the first time to focus on development of new techniques and dishes following that visit to the Maximin’s restaurant at the Negresco Hotel. It was a long time ago – but it’s an important turning point. Perhaps this is where

Adrià’s trajectory to become the best chef in the world began?

Adrià had always been a remarkable chef.

Having joined elBulli in Spain in 1984, he travelled overseas to meet other chefs and gain inspiration. In 1996, Joel Robuchon described him as the best chef in the world – perhaps the first international endorsement of his talents, but certainly not the last. Heston Blumenthal, Juan Mari Arzak, and Paul Bocuse are just a few of the chefs who reiterate admiration for Adrià’s genius.

Newer t wiN meNu

The

He was travelling the world promoting elBulli 2005-2011 when The Adelaide Review met him. elBulli 2005-2011 is a seven-volume compendium with striking imagery, luxurious paper stock and meticulously gathered insights into the 1846 dishes created over seven years at elBulli.

Adrià has taken creativity further than just not copying. He is convinced creativity can be measured. “Yes, perfectly so,” he states. “But in general, we don’t want to do it because it seems as if, ‘Okay, if I’m creative then I can do anything!

Don’t pressure me, because pressure is not good for me if I am creative.’ That is not true. You can measure creativity at the end — whether you have produced or not. There are so very many ways to create in the world and so many disciplines in the world that everyone has their own process. But it’s the quantity of results, that’s where you are going to measure it, so you can measure it perfectly.”

The measurement of creativity, even with a reliable formula, isn’t an easy process. It’s hard to imagine what would motivate someone to do it. “To not copy myself. Most people don’t want to look at their own past because they would realise that they copy themselves,” he says. “Another thing that’s important is, if you understand what you do and analyse it, I think it’s useful for you to create, at least it’s useful for me to create. When you want to last for many years — I want to be very long-lasting in

creativity — it is a daily battle. And all of this self-supervision, if you will, I think it’s very important to do it. And this is just subjective, some people may say, ‘Oh no, that’s not true’, but then I’d like to see how long they last. And in general you could say that people who have lasted [for] a long time have been very ordered.”

The compendium, elBulli 2005–2011, certainly reflects this order. Each dish is beautifully photographed and recorded.

Ironically perhaps, it will lead to copying.

“Well, if we publish something like this, it is indeed to share it,” he says. “Some people take 10 ideas, others take five. Another takes one.

For someone it’s a life changing experience, for someone else it’s not. Every chef is different but it is without a doubt a very influential work.”

It is also a very beautiful work, by any aesthetic measure, and was mostly completed in-house, including the photography. “We do this every year, four or five times a year. And the styling, we also did that. Because after 1846 dishes and thousands and thousands of snapshots we have learnt a thing or two.”

» elBulli 2005–2011 is available through Phaidon Australia

BalTi house British-style Indian Cuisine DINE IN – PICK UP HOME DELIVERY – CATERING Call FoR BooKiNG 8357 7716 ORDER ONLINE www.baltihouse.com.au

open 7 days from 5pm til late (20% discount Mon-Wed) 46 Grote St, AdelAide 8231 5471 www.hotelmetro.com.Au

The Balti House 2/167 Goodwood Road Millswood SA 5034 Ph. 8357 7716

TheBaltiHouseAdelaide

WINTER DINING AT ELLEN STREET NEW MENU OUT NOW Maxwell’s Ellen Street Restaurant RESTAURANT OPENING HOURS Lunch: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday from 12 noon Dinner: Friday nights from 6pm Olivers Rd, McLaren Vale SA 5171 Phone:(08) 8323 8200 www.maxwellwines.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014 41

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Leaving Their Mark

BY DEREK CROZIER

Great Wall of Coffee

BY DEREK CROZIER

A

s soon as you walk into Java Lifestyle you are greeted by friendly staff, a fivekilogram coffee roaster and a wall of coffee beans sourced from around the world. I was drawn in like a magnet and didn’t hesitate to ask about the 1950s vintage Gaggia espresso machine that’s set up on display like the true piece of art that it is. The great wall of coffee beans consisted of 20 bean hoppers with welldisplayed names and shiny fittings that reminded me of lolly dispensers from my childhood.

The barista was very busy but still able to talk to

me about the beans on offer. For my espresso she suggested I try a single origin bean called Ethiopian Sidamo. Full of flavour, it had a big impact upon my first sip, the cherry notes initially dominated but the cocoa came through towards the end.

For the latte, I tried their house blend called Super Crema; made from beans from Colombia, Africa, India and Sumatra. The first sip had hints of roasted nuts but then the dark chocolate notes came through. It was presented with the latte art of a rosetta and made with milk from Tweedvale.

Java Lifestyle is a place that has a very bright clean feel to it with that hint of traditional coffee house mixed in. There’s a great display of some antique equipment and, if you’re lucky, you might even catch them roasting the beans that you’ll be enjoying in your next cup.

» Java Lifestyle 2/84 Gorge Rd, Newton

A

signature is a person’s name written in a distinctive way as a form of identification, so the name Signature fits well when you see this boutique. The owners have created a distinctive place that reflects and complements who they are – bright, clean and passionate. The red and white theme is striking and the coffeerelated artwork on the walls tell a story of the origins of the beans you’re drinking.

The barista guided me to the coffee menu and there was an array of beans on offer but I knew the Indonesian Kalosi would be ideal for my espresso. It was served with a thick layer of crema and the taste had a sweet syrupy body that’s often associated with Indonesian coffee.

The latte was made from their signature house blend, roasted by Patio Coffee Roasters. It was presented with a traditional symmetrical heart as the latte art and a roasted almond taste in the blend really stood out on the first sip. It had a zesty aftertaste that lingered in the mouth and went well with the silky smooth Paul’s milk.

Signature is a boutique coffee bar/cellar door that provides brilliant coffee, freshly bagged beans and, even, equipment. Though this boutique is easy to find, you can’t miss the bright red Ruggero coffee machine through the large front window. If you visit for a second time, there’s a good chance that the friendly staff will remember you and most likely your order too.

» Signature: A Fusion Of Coffee Shop 23 Charles Street Plaza, Adelaide coffeeatsignature.com.au

this Mention bout ea ir u ad to enq Spa Room k e e W our Mid r $145 Special fo oked g co includin t for k brea fas .

2 people

Seafront Central Location. Delightful heritage style accommodation and dining on the seafront. Central to shops and tourist sites. Balcony rooms with sea views and spas. Licensed café restaurant wine bar open 7 days.

Free Wi-Fi. Off street parking.

21 Flinders Parade Victor Harbor. Ph: 8552 5970 anchorageseafronthotel.com

42 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Maggie’s Mission

She is aware of the enormity and complexity of the task ahead to create change in a positive, inclusive way” “That’s why I created my Foundation comprised of a skilled Board with expertise and a message designed to appeal to like-minded people around Australia.”

Renowned cook and food personality Maggie Beer has established The Maggie Beer Foundation, which aims to improve the quality of food being served to elderly Australians.

The project will be trialed initially at Mount Pleasant Hospital and Abbeyfield Residential Care in Williamstown as part of the State Government’s Ageing Action Plan.

BY MICHAEL HINCE

L

aunched in April 2014 at Tasting Australia (part of which included a forum on the elderly and a cooking competition for chefs from aged-care centres), Beer’s mission is to marry her innate knowledge of what good food can do for everyone’s (particularly the elderly’s) state of mind to the latest cutting-edge research on nutrition’s impact on brain health and general well-being.

Beer describes the initiative as a “truly nourishing mix, so much greater than the sum of its parts”. A good food life for all, and all that encompasses, is what drives Beer, and that includes the aged. Beer’s interest in the elderly was sparked when, as Senior Australian of the Year in 2010, she spoke at a conference of aged-care leaders.

Drawing inspiration from her “mentor”, the indefatigable Stephanie Alexander, Beer wants to do for elderly South Australian aged care residents what Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden Foundation does in enhancing food education in primary schools.

“Everyone, regardless of their age or circumstance, deserves access to good food,” Beer says.

Beer has teamed up with Country Health SA in leading a campaign to improve the food served in regional aged-care facilities in SA.

The regional project will involve Beer developing and testing a new approach to food in aged care, with a focus on quality, freshness and presentation.

According to well-known chef Simon Bryant, some of the major hurdles facing aged-care homes were budgets, training and liability surrounding risks such as falls, food poisoning and choking.

Currently more than 15,000 people are in residential care homes, while about 70,000 people use home and community care services in South Australia. As South Australia’s population ages, these numbers are set to increase rapidly. In 2011, the state had nearly 400,000 Baby Boomers (born 1946-64), which represented nearly 25 percent of the population.

The project will focus on beautifully presented, fresh, high quality food. Beer hopes the campaign will bring a much-needed change in regional aged-care homes’ approach to food.

ways to encourage facilities that are not already doing so to purchase fresh, seasonal, local (Australian) ingredients in the preparation of the food for residents.

“This is a mission dear to my heart. So I am delighted to be working with Country Health SA in a project that has the potential to change the way we ‘do food’ in aged care in those facilities where beautiful, fresh food has not been a priority,”

However, how well elderly Australians eat is a matter for conjecture. Many aged-care providers may take exception to the suggestion that their residents do not receive an excellent food and dining experience.

The kitchens in aged-care facilities are tightly controlled environments of activity where the staff work hard in order to produce many meals and between-meals offerings each day.

In that regard they are not very different to the pressured environment of a commercial kitchen in a well-patronised restaurant.

In order to gain accreditation, and consequent funding, aged-care providers must already provide many things in their menus and food service (including choices at each

So what is the standard of food currently being served in aged-care homes in South Australia and nationally? What are the criteria on which these assessments are based? And, just how does one

One initial aim is to identify and celebrate aged care facilities that are already doing a good job. Another important step is to find

meal to allow for personal preferences and cultural diversity).

The more you buy South Australian, the more South Australians you support.

Find out who you’re supporting, www.buysouthaustralian.com.au

Jan, Foodland Customer

The Adelaide Review July 2014 43

adelaidereview.com.au

Hot 100 FOOD.WINE.COFFEE Wines THE ADELAIDE REVIEW

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN

Grenache: The Old Blocks Pump Out a New Style

by Charles Gent

E

ven when deliberately making a lightto-medium-bodied red, St Hallett is not in the business of dispensing lollies.

made wines using old vine fruit that so captured the palates and the romantic inclinations of Australian and international Shiraz lovers.

So while their 2012 Old Vine Grenache is made in a modern, pinot-influenced style, the wine shows a degree of structure and gravitas.

And it has every right to – its fruit comes from vines that were planted in 1926.

Yet while the Old Block and Blackwell Shirazes remain emblematic, Barlow says that to characterise St Hallett as conservative is a mistake.

Well into late middle age, the rangy vines, which are kept in a semblance of order by a single wire, now produce small berries and very low volumes that give the wine extra complexity.

Or as its maker, Toby Barlow puts it: “When you’re looking for that slightly lighter bodied Grenache style, with young vines, if you pick earlier, you tend to get a bit more of that confected, bubblegumm-y character; the old vines have a better expression of fruit.

“It’s hard to describe, apart from saying it’s a bit more mature in the flavour structure.”

go about devising, funding and implementing an effective scheme (presumably a long-term national objective)?

A logical starting point is to benchmark the current state-of-play and then move forward from there. Beer’s initiative is ambitious, it promises much and it is engendering public interest. Now the Foundation has been established, and public donations solicited, we can hope to see the project implemented.

maggiebeerfoundation.org.au

Descriptors, however, came tumbling out of the judges of The Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines – as well as giving it a top 10 spot, they called it “musky, raw and soft with a mix of pulpy and fresh fruit” and cited a “cranberry tang” on the finish.

Old Block Shiraz it ain’t.

Founded in 1944 by the grape-growing Lindners, descendants of Silesians who settled in the Barossa midway through the previous century, St Hallett’s reputation still rests to a large degree on its claim to be one of the purist producers of Barossa Shiraz. Thirty years ago, the winery stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Rockford in the great leap backward to hand-

“Outwardly, people can see it as slightly traditional, but the people who come to the winery are often a bit blown away, because we play around with a lot of things, and this is part of our evolution – it gives us a few canvasses to play on, really,” he says.

It’s certainly worth remembering, for instance, that St Hallett has had considerable success with its Grenache Shiraz Touriga blend.

And, if creating a straight Grenache represents another piece of bravado, Barlow, who shares winemaking with the wily veteran Stuart Blackwell, was only too happy to do the R&D. Barlow, who came to St Hallett in 2006, has been around a few blocks himself. He has vintage notches on his belt from New Zealand, Oregon, the Hunter and the Rhone and, more recently, a substantial stint in cool-climate Victoria for Michelton.

Inspiration for the St Hallett Grenache style, however, is more Burgundian. With some input from a mate in Mornington Peninsula, Barlow says he tested a range of techniques on small batches of Grenache in open fermenters and eventually found himself inclined towards whole bunch pressing and the inclusion of some stems.

more integrated and has that added structure and mouthfeel.”

Quantities, as befitting very old vines, are small, varying from 100 to 300 cases a year.

Barlow said the first vintage in 2009, with its conspicuous debt to the pinot noir style, was a cat among the pigeons. But he thinks the appetite for Grenache and other lighter styles has picked up over the past 10 years and will continue to grow.

“People are slowly becoming more aware of Grenache as a straight varietal, but still need to be encouraged and shown.”

He says that the Barossa – “there’s a winemaker on every corner” – is actually a good place to take a punt.

When fresh from the ferment, the stemmy character sticks out in the nose, Barlow says, and can be “a little scary”.

“You get plenty of ideas and plenty of feedback.”

“It’s polemic; people love it or hate it. A year on, when it comes out of oak, it’s definitely

sthallett.com.au

44 The Adelaide Review July 2014

21 Flinders Parade, Victor Harbor. Open seven days a week. Breakfast: 8am to 11am, lunch: 12pm to 2.30pm, dinner: Sunday to Thursday – 5.30 to 8.30pm, Friday and Saturday – 5.30pm to 9pm. 8552 5970 anchorageseafronthotel.com

WINTER SPACES Basement, 89 King William Street. Monday to Saturday, 11.30am until late. 8231 5795 jackruby.com.au

The Anchorage The Anchorage is the perfect place to wine, dine and even stay while on a getaway down at Victor Harbor. The historic seafront hotel is a beautiful and classy destination that offers stunning views of Encounter Bay. With many areas to eat, drink and socialise, The Anchorage includes two function rooms, as well as its main restaurant. The Anchorage also features accommodation, which includes private spa rooms with balconies as well as seafront rooms and suites.

The King’s HEad

Jack Ruby This basement diner and speakeasy-style soul bar captures American cool to perfection.

The underground bar and eatery mixes its blues bar look with an industrial edge, including matte pendants, exposed bricks and ducts as well as neon signs. Black leather booths complement the industrial vibe with recycled timber tables and classic rock ‘n’ roll posters on the walls. One of the best spaces in the city.

Winter Spaces Long, chilly winter nights call for cosy corners and those special food destinations that make us feel warm inside and out, as this feature showcases.

357 King William Street. Open seven days a week. 8212 6657. thekingsbardining.com

Located on Goodwood Road, The Balti House is a remarkable little dining nook with its Britishstyle Indian cuisine. The Balti House’s menu is perfect for a cold winter’s night with its range of balti, tandoori, biryani and traditional dishes. The comfortable interior is the right place to forget about the cold weather outside and just enjoy its culinary delights.

2/167 Goodwood Road, Millswood. Open seven days a week, 5pm until late.

8357 7716. baltihouse.com.au

The King’s Head celebrates the best of South Australian food, wine and beer, as it serves only locally-sourced produce and drinks. The pub, which opened its doors in 1876, went fully local in 2008. Dining options include its famous gourmet pie floater, which you can enjoy in the King’s Head restaurant, a space that juxtaposes exposed brick with contemporary line-art on the walls.

The Balti House

The Adelaide Review July 2014 45

adelaidereview.com.au

ADVERTISING FEATURE Maxwell’s Ellen Street Restaurant

Lenzerheide RESTAURANT

Maxwell’s Ellen Street Restaurant is the perfect place to spend a winter’s day while you enjoy the beautiful views of vines that grace Maxwell Wines’ eight-acre estate.

Featuring art by local artists on its walls, the restaurant with the million-dollar view adjoins Maxwell’s cellar door, which includes a welcoming fireplace, where you can warm while experiencing Maxwell’s list of quality wines and mead (it is the largest producer of mead in the southern hemisphere). A brief country winter escape doesn’t get much better than a degustation at Maxwell’s Ellen Street Restaurant (by ex-Elbow Room and Eden Dining Room + Bar Chef Tom Boden) or tasting some fine wine by the fire.

146 Belair Road, Hawthorn. Lunch: Tuesday to Saturday from 12pm, dinner: Tuesday to Saturday from 6pm, High Tea: Tuesday to Saturday 12pm to 3pm. 8373 3711. lenzerheide.com.au

Lenzerheide is an elegant dining experience with its function spaces and its main restaurant, which complement its European-inspired menu.

The perfect destination for a high tea or a more substantial dining experience, the restored former historic residence has been a Belair Road institution for 25 years. Lenzerheide Restaurant is the ideal place for sumptuous elegance.

Corner of Olivers and Chalk Hill Roads, McLaren Vale. Lunch: Friday to Monday from 12pm, dinner: Fridays from 6pm. 8323 8200. maxwellwines.com.au

46 Grote Street. Open seven days a week. Lunch: 12pm to 2.30pm Dinner: 6pm to 8.30pm. 8231 5471. hotelmetro.com.au

There aren’t many city pubs that have an authentic feel equal to that of the Hotel Metropolitan. From the menu to its live music to its traditional interior and exterior, the Metro is a pub, pure and simple. Featuring two bars, a function room, and dining and outdoor areas, it takes many visits to experience all the elements of this classic pub. And because it’s the season, head to the Theatre Bar and have a dark ale or two by the fireplace – winter doesn’t get much better than that.

24-26 Kangarilla Road, McLaren Vale. 10am to 5pm, seven days a week, 8323 0188. oxenberry.com

The Hotel Metropolitan

Oxenberry Farm Cellar Door & Cafe This McLaren Vale cafe and cellar door embodies country dining and ambience with its mix of rustic charm and modern minimalism. Then there’s the outdoor dining area, which nestles over the lush green valley, wetland and vines. Despite opening relatively recently (the cellar door in 2009 and the cafe in 2011), Oxenberry Farm is an historic site, as Devonshire farmers William Colton and Charles Hewett set up their homesteads here in 1840.

Perfect for a quick winter stop while in McLaren Vale, you can warm comfortably in the couches next to the fireplace with lunch or a hot chocolate.

46 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

CHEESE MATTERS Winter Cheese Table

BY KRIS LLOYD

I

love South Australia’s clearly defined seasons. There is no mistaking the crisp winter mornings and often drizzly and misty evenings we are experiencing at the moment. I recently played around with a few new and old combinations of what I consider winter cheeses. I’ll be sharing these with you, along with some stunning accompaniments, which are seasonal and lend themselves to warming you and leaving you feeling content.

This combination would have to be one of my all time winter favourites: a creamy blue cheese, perfectly ripe and extensively marbled with blue mould, served with a fabulous locally-made fig jam infused with ginger and star anise. The spice combination in the jam adds a glorious complexity, and when combined with the salty and pungent blue, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Pair this with a Champagne or Gewurztraminer, both of which are rich, satisfying and offer just the right contrast to

bring out the best in the cheese.

Raclette is both a type of cheese and a dish.

The cheese is a style of washed rind, it is semihard, sweet, nutty and melts like a dream.

Popular in Switzerland near the Alps, the dish is derived from the French verb racler, meaning ‘to scrape’. It is a hearty offering and, as its name suggests, is served tableside by scraping the melted cheese from large wheels onto boiled or roasted potatoes. Crispy cornichons or dill style gherkins are added, along with pickled onions, charcuterie and some good heavy bread like pumpernickel – I did say hearty! I imagine that after a good day of skiing on those Alps this would be a dream come true – not unlike fish and chips wrapped in newspaper after a long day at the beach. If you haven’t tried raclette it is well worth it, a great cheese made even greater when melted.

A more simple approach, if you want to create raclette at home, would be to melt the cheese in a small pan until it almost browns. Then drizzle the melted goodness over some crispy toasted bread, top it off with a pickle and serve with beer, cider, wine or tea. The melted cheese is truly flavoursome and seriously addictive.

Corella pears are in season; you can pick up some beauties in the Adelaide Hills; they are an exceptional accompaniment with any cheese. While I do prefer them fresh and crisp, as the temperature has fallen, I’ve been lightly

poaching them in Earl Grey tea, cooling them slightly, before serving them alongside a sharpaged cloth-wrapped Cheddar and a glass of port. Quite a traditional combination that is tried and trusted and most certainly has its place on the winter table.

Win

kets to Two return tic your of n io at in a dest choice!

Courtesy of Singapore Airlines

Hot 100 Wines

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN

CALLING ALL SA WINE MAKERS

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2014/15 ADELAIDE REVIEW HOT 100 SA WINES ARE NOW OPEN The annual Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines is an innovative showcase of SA wines.

Our panel of respected judges will blind taste submissions to select the most outstanding examples.

Each successful wine will be individually featured in The Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines magazine.

Top 10 wines receive special recognition and a feature story in The Adelaide Review.

The Wine Of The Year takes home the Hot 100 Award as well as two return tickets to a global destination of your choice thanks to Singapore Airlines.

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE 4.30PM FRIDAY AUGUST 15, 2014 For online submissions and payment visit adelaidereview.com.au For PDF versions of entry forms and conditions, email hot100@adelaidereview.com.au or phone Kate or Maria on (08) 7129 1060 ENTER ONLINE ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

If you can, try and get hold of a very ripe soft cheese such as Brie, Camembert or, even better, washed rind (anything with a robust flavour works best). Choose from cow, goat or sheep’s milk, depending on availability and your preference. I tend to look for cheeses that are nearing their best-before date for this cheese dish. Once you have found the right cheese, place it in an ovenproof dish that keeps it snug. Make a small well in the centre of the cheese and fill it with your favourite wine (I prefer white but any will do!), bake until it is hot through. Serve straight from the oven while it is super hot, with baby potatoes and roasted winter veggies. I am pairing Sangiovese or Rose with this great sharing dish, not dissimilar to fondue. It is easy to make this a meal by serving with a fresh salad, warm olives, thinly sliced prosciutto and good crusty bread.

Winter fruit compote is an easy but rewarding food in winter. We tend to think of it as the perfect accompaniment to our porridge

or breakfast cereal but it takes on a whole new meaning when it is served with cheese.

Compote is easy to make: simply poach dried fruits of your choice – I like figs, cumquats, prunes or dates – with a little sugar and cognac until the fruit is plump. Add the zest of one lemon plus a large star anise. Then, if you can let it steep for a couple of days, it is worth that wait to get a truly rich flavour! Serve it with hard cheeses such as Pecorino, Parmigiano Reggiano or harder blue cheeses. Some cristini or oatmeal crackers and dessert wine make this a perfect finish to a winter evening.

Cheese is so portable, serve it on large boards or small individual plates, it can be as simple or as complicated as you like, the blessed cheesemaker has done all the hard work for you. You simply need to settle in, whether it is in front of the fire or anywhere else you feel is cosy and warm this winter, to share and enjoy some winter cheese.

» Kris Lloyd is Woodside Cheese Wrights’ Head Cheesemaker woodsidecheese.com.au

THE ADELAIDE R EVIEW JULY 2014

FORM D E S I G N • P L A N N I N G • I N N OVAT I O N

MEGAN MORTON Sydney’s Megan Morton has made her name as one of this country’s mos respected stylists

PAGE 50

48 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JULY 2014

FORM PLACE MAKING WITH JAMFACTORY AND STYLECRAFT On Friday, June 20 Brian Parkes (CEO of JamFactory) spoke with Adelaide’s design community on the role of art and design in South Australia.

Tree Top Studio / Interior Architecture / Max Pritchard Architect / Photos: Sam Noonan

South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute / Interior Architecture / Woods Bagot / Photos: Peter Barnes

SOUTH AUSTRALIA ARCHITECTURE AWARDS

A

s each state prepares for the National Architecture Awards to be held at the end of the year, South Australia puts its best on show in the South Australia Architecture Awards.

This year’s South Australia Architecture Awards played host to a field of entries that were notably diverse in scale. From Max Pritchard’s delightful Treetop Studio to Woods Bagot’s mighty South Australian Health and

Medical Research Institute, each project offered something distinct in terms of program and expression. A new category was introduced – Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations & Additions) – giving architects even more entry opportunities, and judges included wellrespected names such as Ben Hewett, Sean Humphries and Michael Pilkington.

On Friday, July 4, the winners will be

announced at a lavish dinner at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre where awards, prizes and commendations will be presented across 13 categories.

» For a report on the night’s major winners visit adelaidereview.com.au from Friday, July 4 onwards

NEW CENTRE LOCK RELEASE Simply the best track guided blind system.

The new centre release mechanism makes the operation of Ziptrak® blinds easier than ever.

Additional handle optional;

Lift handle to activate release latches on both sides of the bottom bar. You may also use a pull stick – no need to bend down.

Optional: An additional handle on the reverse side of the bottom bar to allow for unlocking your Ziptrak® blind from both sides.

NO ZIPS • NO ROPES • NO STRAPS • NO BUCKLES Electric motors can be solar powered with remote control to help reduce your global footprint. Ziptrak® is now offering the amazingly simple and environmental SolarSmart™ automation solution for your Ziptrak® blinds.

For product information and contact details of your nearest Authorised Ziptrak® Dealer please call:

Phone +61(8) 8377 0065 ziptrak@ziptrak.com.au www.ziptrak.com.au Ziptrak® blinds can only be sold through Authorised Ziptrak® Dealers. Ziptrak® Dealers are carefully chosen for their integrity and quality workmanship to ensure customer satisfaction.

The Adelaide Review July 2014 49

adelaidereview.com.au

FORM

Simply Does It For Liam Mugavin, a love of Japanese design underpins a striking furniture and lighting portfolio that is beginning to receive national attention.

by Leanne Amodeo

I

t’s hard to believe that Liam Mugavin only established his practice last year.

The Adelaide-based furniture and lighting designer has already received a number of accolades, including a place in the 2014 Temple & Webster Emerging Designer Awards shortlist. He may not have taken out the highly regarded title, but even being in the running has afforded him the type of recognition that will come to serve his practice well.

Mugavin’s current portfolio features a number of key pieces that are bold and dynamic in their geometric form. Clean lines, angles and shapes characterise each work, making for a clever interpretation of traditional design ideals. Not surprisingly, he draws most of his inspiration from Japan, having lived there following his graduation in 2008 from the University of South Australia’s Bachelor of Design (Product Innovation).

“I lived in Japan for four years, so I had time to absorb the country’s aesthetics and

philosophies, which have really influenced my tendency towards creating simple design,” reflects Mugavin. “I use a lot of lines in my work and this is something that’s common in Japanese architecture. Most of the homes traditionally found in Kyoto, for example, feature facades of a detailed horizontal and vertical framework.”

But perhaps Mugavin’s biggest influence is the work of contemporary Japanese design powerhouse Nendo, founded in 2002 by Oki Sato. “I particularly like how his work tells a story and so every part of his design is there for a reason,” explains Mugavin. “If something doesn’t serve the narrative it’s not included and I really appreciate that.”

Such rationalisation of form is evident in Mugavin’s own Tangle table from which

Premium outdoor awning and shade solutions from the oldest and most trusted shade company in South Australia. Exclusive agent for Markilux European automated awnings and sun roofs

all superfluous detail has been judiciously removed.

The table’s origins are rather less formal than the outcome, however, and this reveals the appealingly organic nature of Mugavin’s process. “I was playing around with the geometric forms that are in my logo and the design just evolved in the workshop,” he says. “I wasn’t even trying to design a table, but that’s how it ended up.” Mugavin has also taken this design one step further and developed it into a sphere light, which works effectively well as either a pendant or floor lamp.

As a second-year Associate in JamFactory’s furniture studio, Mugavin is well placed to continue refining his craft. His priority is to develop a thorough knowledge of materials and

a strong understanding of artisanal skills and techniques. Working under the leadership and guidance of Jon Goulder means he is receiving the very best training available in the country.

But this isn’t to say that emerging furniture designers in Adelaide don’t face the same challenges as their interstate peers.

“I guess it’s pretty tough because we’re working in a niche market and there’s not always a lot of work out there,” reflects Mugavin. “So getting your name known to help generate commissions is really important.” If this is a strategy on Mugavin’s part, then his plan is already in action, aided by a personal philosophy that is unfailing: “It’s just about persistence and eventually I’ll get there.”

liammugavin.com

1300 818 864 www.weathersafe.com.au shades@weathersafe.com.au

50 The Adelaide Review July 2014

FORM

Stylish

by Design Megan Morton has made a name for herself as one of Australia’s most well respected stylists and she is also generous in sharing the secrets of her trade.

by Leanne Amodeo

M

egan Morton quite possibly has the best job in the world.

As one of Australia’s foremost stylists, the Sydney-based ‘house whisperer’ spends her working day making people, places and stuff look good. She was in Adelaide recently to deliver her School of Styling masterclass at 1000 Chairs’ Medindie showroom and the speed at which the event sold out is a measure of her widespread popularity.

Interestingly, it’s not just other stylists who attend her masterclasses, but rather people who want to know how to think like one.

Morton’s generosity in sharing her skills and knowledge is only matched by her infectious enthusiasm for the craft she has spent 15 years perfecting. “There’s a lot of process and theory involved in styling, but also a lot of instinct and magic and this is what I want to teach people,” she says. “The whole point of a class is to help everybody understand how things work well together and why they work well together.”

Morton established The School – of which her School of Styling masterclass is an integral part – a few years ago to further aid in achieving this goal. It’s a diverse creative program that offers courses taught by experts on everything from basket weaving, Shibori and gold foil to blogging and how to makeover your small business. With classes held around Australia, Morton is well on the way to ensuring as many people as possible learn ‘stylist etiquette’. She also intends to take a version of The School to New York next year for one week.

In the meantime, she continues to work at a feverish pace on back-to-back styling jobs for interiors and lifestyle magazines, such as Vogue Living and Inside Out, and advertising campaigns for, amongst others, the recently rebranded Cult (formerly Corporate Culture) and Alannah Hill. All the while, Morton’s

MORE THAN BEAUTIFUL FLOORS

SALA on Terrace 2014 Opening: Thursday July 31 at 6:30pm

Runs: Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 10am-4pm until Saturday August 16 Features: emerging and established artists in an energetic exhibition of various mediums – oils, collage, printmaking, sculpture, jewellery, photography and ceramics.

Michael Meade

Tsering Hannaford

FINEST WALL-TO-WALL CARPET • BEAUTIFUL RUGS • TIMBER & RESILIENT FLOORING HOME ACCESSORIES • COMMERCIAL PROJECTS • CUSTOM RUG & CARPET DESIGN

51 Glen Osmond Rd Eastwood Ph 8274 1125 www.terracefloors.com.au Open Mon–Fri 9am–5pm Sat 10am–4pm

design philosophy is informed by a refreshingly simple approach. “A good stylist doesn’t always have the best of everything because budgets are tight, but we just know how to make the best of everything,” she explains.

Although one of her most memorable jobs was styling a big-budget feature on Nicole Kidman for Vanity Fair four years ago, Morton remains philosophical when it comes to issues of costing. “To be honest, as a stylist you live for those Vanity Fair moments, but it’s all the other good bits in between that get you ready for work at that level,” she reflects. “Someone’s $10 is someone’s $10,000 is someone’s $100,000 budget, so it’s kind of what you do with it and the outcome that makes it super impressive.”

Morton continues to study the work of visual artists for inspiration and amasses wish lists of colour, form and texture that she then applies in her own practice. She is also enamoured of renowned British stylist Carolyn Quartermaine, who was an early influence when Morton was defining her own aesthetic style. For those who missed out on the first Adelaide masterclass, Morton promises to return with an even grander offering. “In a world where everything is ‘pinned’ or ‘instagrammed’,” she says. “I’m trying my hardest to show people what proper, good old-fashioned styling is.”

Megan Morton’s School of Styling returns to Adelaide on Sunday, September 28. For more information subscribe to theschool.com.au.

meganmorton.com

Need a Night away?

Great location, HuGe rooms, Boutique stylinG, Deep freestanDinG BatHs... free miniBar

9 2 F ran kl i n Street, adela ide S a 500 0

/

(08) 8410 0036

/

w w w. t he Fra nk linh o t el . c o m . au

/

t h eF r an kl i n h o t el

The upgrade of Adelaide Railway Station’s North Terrace entrance is a vital component to a revitalised precinct. Enhancing the station’s ability to handle large crowds, the entrance now provides a vastly improved segue in one of Adelaide’s busiest and diverse transport hubs.

Schiavello, as a trusted construction partner, is privileged to have worked with the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure to deliver the project, setting new benchmarks in public space management and appeal.

Visit our construction project portfolio online, or contact us for more information.

Contact Tony Tsakalos ttsakalos@schiavello.com telephone 08 8112 2300 schiavello.com/construction