The Adelaide Review - March

THE Adelaide

REVIEW Issue 409 March 2014

adelaidereview.com.au

30 Years Celebrating three decades of The Adelaide Review

State Election

Vitalstatistix

Adelaide Has Balls

John Spoehr writes that the State Election has the makings of a close contest

The arts company turns 30 this year and will mark the anniversary with a series of events

Duncan Welgemoed on Adelaide’s gastronomic resurgence

08

30

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The AdverTiser

WELCOME

TheAdelaideReview

ISSUE 409

GENERAL MANAGER MEDIA & PUBLISHING Luke Stegemann luke@adelaidereview.com.au

50

SENIOR STAFF WRITER David Knight davidknight@adelaidereview.com.au DIGITAL MANAGER Jess Bayly jessbayly@adelaidereview.com.au ART DIRECTOR Sabas Renteria sabas@adelaidereview.com.au

DESIGN CONVERSATIONS

ADMINISTRATION Kate Mickan katemickan@adelaidereview.com.au

Leanne Amodeo interviews past South Australian Architecture Award winners Max Pritchard, John Adam and Dimitty Anderson

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INSIDE Features Politics Business

MANAGING DIRECTOR Manuel Ortigosa

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

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

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THE ADELAIDE

REVIEW

AdelaideReview

Books Fashion Performing Arts Visual Arts Food. Wine. Coffee Travel FORM

05 14 15 16 19 21 23 34 40 SHIFTING GROUND 48 Ilan Volkov discusses his ambitious Adelaide Festival new music program, Tectonics 49

24

42 FOOD FOR THOUGHT Chef columnist Annabelle Baker on the joys of honey

COVER CREDIT: Ankles, photo Andre Castellucci

CONTRIBUTORS. Leanne Amodeo, Annabelle Baker, D.M. Bradley, John Bridgland, Michael Browne, William Charles, Derek Crozier, John Dexter, Alexander Downer, Robert Dunstan, Stephen Forbes, Andrea Frost, Charles Gent, Roger Hainsworth, Jane Howard, Andrew Hunter, Stephanie Johnston, Jane Llewellyn, Kris Lloyd, John Neylon, Nigel Randall, Avni Sali, Christopher Sanders, Simon Sheikh, Margaret Simons, John Spoehr, Shirley Stott Despoja, David Sornig, Graham Strahle, Duncan Welgemoed, Paul Wood. PHOTOGRAPHER. Jonathan van der Knaap

FEATURE Looking back, The Adelaide Review has hosted in its pages a litany of leading figures from Australia’s cultural and political landscapes of the past 30 years.

From Les Murray to Tony Abbott, from Guy Rundle to Shirley Stott Despoja, from Peter Goldsworthy to daughter Anna, from Frank Moorhouse to Margaret Simons, Don Dunstan to Alex Buzo, Angela Carter to Michael Duffy, Geoffrey Lehmann to Valmai Hankel, Alexander Downer to Mike Ladd, Cheong Liew to Howard Twelftree – the list is endless, and makes for an impressive archive bearing witness not only to the cultural life of Adelaide, but of independent publishing and its champions.

Ankles designing the cover. Photo Andre Castellucci

For the last two-and-a-half years, our media group has also expanded into the competitive Melbourne market with the establishment of The Melbourne Review, a publication that, like its Adelaide elder sister, seeks to champion the best of thought, innovation and creativity while still celebrating the lifestyle for which both cities are justifiably famous. We seek to combine intelligence with style, and believe both are vital to any quality publication. We are also in the process of considerably enhancing our online platforms to bring this content more directly and regularly to readers here, interstate and overseas.

The first Adelaide Review cover, March 1984.

Three Decades of The Adelaide Review

by The Adelaide Review

T

his month, The Adelaide Review celebrates 30 years of delivering the finest free political, social, cultural, design, architecture, planning, arts and food and wine writing to the streets of Adelaide. Our having survived three decades during a time of great upheaval in the media industry is testament to the quality of our contributors, staff and clients

and, of course, our loyal readers. We have always been, and continue to be, fiercely proud of our independence and our intimate engagement at so many levels with the city of Adelaide and the broader state of South Australia.

The first issue dropped on the streets in March, 1984. Then edited by Mark Jamieson,

the redoubtable Christopher Pearson took over the editorial reins soon after. We’ve undergone many changes in those three decades but still deliver on the principal values of the very first issue – to provide an alternative voice within the Adelaide media landscape, a voice which values quality of writing and independence of thought above all other considerations.

To mark this occasion, we enlisted street artist Ankles to design the anniversary cover.

Using our very first issue in March 1984 as a rough guide, Ankles painted a mural on a brick wall using icons to represent Adelaide.

The anniversary cover honours our past while representing the lesser-known icons of contemporary Adelaide.

Thanks to all of you for reading, wherever you are and whatever device you may be using.

Here’s to the next 30 years.

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” Albert Einstein Associate Degree of Visual Art

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Bachelor of Visual Art

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The School offers undergraduate degrees, specialist short courses, workshops and masterclasses. All lecturers are leading practitioners in the field in which they teach. In our studio based teaching program we emphasise structured sequential learning developing practical skills in parallel with rigorous intellectual inquiry.

Lecturers teaching in the School’s 2014 award course program include: Roy Ananda, Daryl Austin, Melanie Brown, Nona Burden, Deidre But-Husaim, Jack Cross, Johnnie Dady, Dr Andrew Dearman, James Dodd, Trena Everuss, Nicholas Folland, Zoe Freney, Geoff Gibbons, Sasha Grbich,

Rob Gutteridge, Jessica Mara, John Neylon, Renate Nisi, Christopher Orchard, Mary-Jean Richardson, Julia Robinson, Yve Thompson, Sera Waters and Sara White.

The School welcomes three new lecturers this year: Dr Sue Kneebone, Monte Masi and Luke Thurgate.

In the Gallery visceral eye 25 February - 21 March 2014 Stephanie Bromley, Anna Gore, Rhiannon Jones and Jenna Pippett Free entry, all welcome | 9am - 5pm Image Rhiannon Jones, Paperclip Work #2 (detail), 2013 - 2014, paperclips and wire, dimensions variable

PO Box 225 Fullarton SA 5063 7 Mulberry Road Glenside SA 5065 [via Gate 1, 226 Fullarton Road] T 08 8299 7300 info@acsa.sa.edu.au www.acsa.sa.edu.au

6 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

FEATURE

Genteel Shambles

The Adelaide Review with its gang of wits and an emerging demographic of literati was far more interesting. It confirmed something I’d learnt by meeting and reading the likes of Robert Hughes that writing about art was first and foremost about writing.”

Thrity years of The Adelaide Review.

BY JOHN NEYLON

I

don’t think I had much idea of what I was down for, climbing the stairs to the Paringa Building upper floor office of The Adelaide Review in mid 1984. Stints as art critic for The News and The Advertiser had given me a glimpse of what it was like behind the scenes, grinding out text to fill the holes between ads.

Hitting deadlines and working in all kinds of places; trains, buses, front bars and park benches, I learnt the art of writing under wet cement. Later in life I came across E.M. Forster’s observation “How do I know what I think until I’ve seen what I say?” appears to sum up the lot of art journalist/reviewer.

The scene which greeted me on entry to The Review’s office was one of genteel shambles.

There were a few faces I knew; certainly Howard

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Twelftree (AKA John McGrath) who had been a fellow ‘journalist’ with me on the originating issues of the Blackfriars College OPtimist magazine. Howard had mentioned something about a new review starting up around town and that it had no art reviewers. I was curious.

On the strength of a handshake with the editor, Murdoch press affiliations melted away and my name was entered in the royal list of esteemed contributors for The Adelaide Review. Well that is a stretch. What happened is that each month, I and several other contributors, wandered with our handwritten copies into the office, found a desk with some clear space and just ‘dropped it off’. Occasionally you might get a breathless phone call from Christopher (‘Lord’) Pearson concerning some obscure point of grammar, or, if the content came anywhere close to referencing High Anglicanism or Popish tendencies it was a case of buckle up and prepare for an inquisition. The ‘drop-off’ ritual eventually took on a kind of system as Michael Vanstone assumed a proprietorial role towards contributors. As he also conspired to hold back some sponsorship wine from the clutches of Pearson and others, to ‘pay’ the contributors, his desk and what lay beneath became the go-to point in the office.

I mentioned genteel shambles. I still have a visual memory of that first encounter with the Review as stepping into an early 19th century engraving by either Thomas Rowlandson or James Gillray – take your pick. Rowlandson’s The Brilliants with its rowdy group of gents intent upon getting drunk seemed close to the mark but Gillray’s The Union-Club, with chamber pots flying through the air and general mood of

stylish uproar, now looks closer in spirit to the event. Deep down I sensed that The Review wanted to be a naughty gadfly and that moment in time with a lot of manly chaps sitting on stacks of TARs, perched on the few desks available or huddled in conversation in the corners, and all drinking big reds, looked to be the closest I’d get to a literary café society. The art scene offered none of this. The revolutionary 1970s may have had big political agendas but the routine gatherings of political point scoring and polemics in cold, dimly lit halls and the growing dread that the anarchic spirit of the decade was about to be hijacked by careerists and academics, settled like a damp, gray cloud. But The Adelaide Review with its gang of wits and an emerging demographic of literati was far more interesting. It confirmed something I’d learnt by meeting and reading the likes of Robert Hughes - that writing about art was first and foremost about writing. I may also have ingested The Review’s avowed aims in 1984 of being a ‘tabloid for intelligent newspaper readers… not catering to gossip or sensationalism’ nor wishing to bore with ‘esoteric intellectualism’.

Looking at the first year (1984) it is possible to see the beginnings of an alternative visual arts voice. The inimitable Ian Were covered the visual arts with me in that first year but award for first art review might go to Christopher Pearson for his ‘Sculptures of the dead’ article, covering assorted cemetery statuary around Adelaide (TAR March 1984). In contrast to the turbulent 70s, the art scene began settling back into the routines of putting on shows, which despite their quality couldn’t match the counter-culture fervour of the previous decade. The artist reviews for 1984 established an important role the journal would consolidate over the next three decades in documenting individual artist (particularly Adelaide-based) emergence and development. The reviewed ‘class of 1984’, for example, included Annabelle Collette, Lynn Collins, Rita Hall, Noela Hjorth, Dianne Longley, and Barbara Zerbini. It’s a snap shot in time repeated each month over the next 30 years that will prove its value when or if ever Adelaide gets the courage or appetite to tell its own contemporary art story.

The Adelaide Review March 2014 7

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8 The Adelaide Review March 2014

FEATURE

Fixed-Term Parliaments How South Australia got its fixed-term parliaments, or how we know exactly when the next election will be held.

by Jenny Stock

Jay4SA and the Marshall Plan This month’s State Election has all the makings of a close contest.

by John Spoehr

H

aving dislodged Mike Rann and Kevin Foley, Jay Weatherill promised a new era of political civility. The decide and consult days of the past were over, he declared. A more inclusive and less aggressive style of government would be ushered in.

To break with the divisions of the past, the Liberal Party offered its own new fresh face, a relative newcomer to the Liberal machine, Steven Marshall. Marshall had the advantage of being untainted by past divisions within his adopted Party. He has been able to unite warring tribes for the task of winning the State Election.

Much more is known about Weatherill than Marshall. The electorate seems to have warmed to him, winning back some of the support lost to Labor at the end of the Rann/Foley era. Steven Marshall, on the other hand, comes to the role of Opposition Leader with little form, untainted by the longstanding wet/dry tribal divisions that have destabilised the Liberal Party.

Labor has had its own tribal problems.

After imploding at a national level, the recent Farrell/O’Brien pre-selection deal threatened to wreak havoc on Labor just as it prepared to go to election. The Premier’s only real choice was to demand Farrell stand down. He did, going much further than anyone expected by threatening to resign if Farrell persisted. All of this was ugly political theatre, playing out as it did on primetime ABC radio. Decisive action resolved it in Weatherill’s favor.

Amidst all of this has been an unfolding calamity – the collapse of the Australian automotive industry. Closure announcements

by Ford, GMH and then Toyota would affect tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of businesses around the nation. With the Federal Government’s automotive policy decision-making processes paralysed by its commitment to waiting for the results of a Productivity Commission inquiry into the industry, the industry made its own decisions. They proved to be political fuel for Labor. Weatherill was bold in his criticism of the Federal Government’s apparent failure to do enough to keep the industry alive. He hammered what he viewed as the inadequacy of its GMH closure assistance package. With his Federal counterparts insisting they could not have done anything to save the industry, Steven Marshall has been seen at times to be defending the indefensible and not offering hope.

The Premier’s jobs package in response to the collapse of Holden set the bar high for the State Liberal Opposition. Labor announced that it would invest $60m to tackle the crisis and sought $333m from the Federal Government.

To regain some lost ground in responding to the crisis Steven Marshall needs to broker a deal with the Abbott Government to deliver a substantial assistance package over the coming weeks.

While long-term governments face an uphill battle to be re-elected, oppositions are unlikely to be elected in a landslide if they don’t capture the imaginations of the public with sound and forward looking policy. The Jay4SA campaign got off to a flying start with the release of a 200-page policy manifesto, placing pressure on the Liberal Party to release policy detail earlier rather than later in the campaign. Steven Marshall’s most significant policy announcement to date, from a political point of view, has been the Liberal Party’s public sector workforce reduction target.

To overcome fears that the Liberals would cut in excess of 10,000 jobs from the state public sector, Marshall set a cap of 5170 (around 1000 more than Labor planned to cut). While this has taken some of the heat out of the public sector job cuts debate, Labor is arguing that voters can expect more widespread cuts in practice, particularly as a consequence of a Liberal Government appointing the Productivity Commission to advise it on how to achieve savings. The problem for the Opposition in advocating this is that the Productivity Commission has a clear preference for privatisation and outsourcing, policies that are deeply unpopular these days.

Steven Marshall and the Liberals are likely to win the State Election. They have the benefit of campaigning against a long-term government that only in the most extraordinary circumstances is likely to be re-elected. Only major blunders by the Liberal Party can change the outcome along with an exceptionally well-run campaign by Jay Weatherill and his party machine. One other factor might also be influential over weeks to come. The Federal Government has received its 900page report from the Commission of Audit. A softening up process is already underway by the Coalition in the lead up to its release. If the report concludes, as many expect it will, that a substantial amount of our remaining public sector assets should be privatised and core elements of universal health care removed, the South Australian Liberals will very likely be damaged by association.

Steven Marshall must be hoping that the Federal Government delay release of the Commission of Audit until after the State Election campaign. Jay Weatherill will have a field day if it is released before the election. It is shaping up to be a fascinating election, one that may well be closer than the polls suggest.

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

O

ne by one most of the Australian states and territories have fixed quite precisely the dates on which elections are held at the end of the three or four-year parliamentary terms. This has happened not because premiers and chief ministers wanted to give up the power to call elections when they are most likely to retain office, but rather because other, minor players have used their periodic moments of political leverage to institute reform.

NSW was the first, largely because Liberal Premier Nick Greiner’s calling of an opportunistically early election in May 1991 left him lacking a majority in the Legislative Assembly. He first cut a deal with Independent Tony Windsor, and then also with the three other, unaligned, Independents (John Hatton, Clover Moore and Peter Macdonald), accepting their ‘Charter of Reform’ on September 1.

Minister Metherell’s sudden resignation a month later forced Greiner to sign up to a more formal and very comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding that included the constitutional entrenching of four-year parliamentary terms. At a referendum, held in conjunction with the next election in March 1995, three in four voters gave approval, despite the major parties’ lack of enthusiasm, and NSW elections have been held on the fourth Saturday of March in every subsequent fourth year.

SA was next, but the process was more protracted and low-key. The stability and regularity of Tom Playford’s nine election wins every third March/April from 1938 to 1962 ended with Labor’s victory in 1965. Liberal Premier Steele Hall called elections in 1968 and 1970, and Labor’s Don Dunstan had three further elections in 1973, 1975 and 1977. When his successor Des Corcoran announced in 1979 yet another premature poll, so annoyed were so many people that Liberal leader David Tonkin’s televised policy speech included a promise to legislate to prevent ‘this abuse of the parliamentary system’. When he unexpectedly won, despite mention in the Governor’s Address, Tonkin did not pursue the matter.

The Adelaide Review March 2014 9

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FEATURE When John Bannon returned Labor to office in 1982, landmark amendments to the Electoral Act in 1984-85 extended to four years the maximum term, with elections possible any time in the final year. During debate, the fixed terms idea was raised

by Ian Gilfillan, one of the two Australian Democrats who held the balance of power in the Legislative Council, but his amendment to this end failed, as Attorney-General Chris Sumner did not wish to push a reluctant Opposition any further.

Late in 1991, Martyn Evans, Independent Labor member for Elizabeth and long a believer in proportional representation and fixed terms, took the opportunity, while helping to keep the minority Bannon government in office, to introduce his own Constitutional (Parliamentary Terms) Amendment Bill. It would advance ‘electoral honesty’ and ‘abolish political expediency’, but attracted little serious discussion. Opposition deputy leader Stephen Baker stated that ‘Liberal policy is not to have fixed terms’, and that it was more important ‘to get rid of incompetent governments’. Accepting defeat, Evans had the bill read and discharged on May 6, 1992.

Another attempt was made the following year in the Legislative Council with Ian Gilfillan’s private member’s bill principally designed to add to existing legislation ‘a predictable

election date that falls four years ahead’. But, debate was adjourned within minutes, and never resumed. The State Bank disaster was dominating politics, and Labor was reduced to 10 seats in the December 1993 Dean Brown landslide.

After Labor surged into contention in the next September 1997 election against the Liberals, led by then by an increasingly unpopular John Olsen, one of its new members, Kris Hanna, picked up the baton.

A lawyer with a reforming bent, he nurtured his marginal Mitchell electorate and took up various environmental and accountability issues, including in late 1999 a Private Member’s Bill that would enshrine a set date for each four-yearly election. He favoured the third Saturday in October, when the worst of winter was over, and voters not distracted by football finals and examinations. Ralph Clarke, already displaying the independence that had seen him take his own party to court over branch-stacking, made a cogent supporting speech, and on July 13, 2000, the bill passed its second reading 22:20 with the help of Independent Liberals Rory McEwen and Peter Lewis and the National Party’s Karlene Maywald. She urged the Liberal government to heed the needs of the business community and others for certainty.

By April the following year, the minority

Liberal government of John Olson was acknowledging the mood for parliamentary reform. After talks with McEwen and Maywald, and party room discussion, Deputy Leader Rob Kerin, stated, ‘There is now certainly a level of support for four-year terms with a fixed election date’. When debate resumed on May 3, the main sticking point was when the change should come into force, given that Olsen’s current term was due to expire in October.

Opinion now favoured March as a better time of year, although some Labour MPs voiced objections to effectively granting the Liberals a four-and-a-half year term during the transition period. During a lengthy debate, tributes to Hanna were paid by John Hill and also by future Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith, who acknowledged his ‘genuine commitment to parliamentary reform’.

A relieved Hanna noted the turn-around in Liberal attitude within the past year, grateful for Maywald and McEwen’s ‘extraordinary influence with the government’. Finally, his amended bill fixing March 2006 as the date of the next but one election passed its third reading in the Assembly on May 3, 2001 on the voices. After the Winter break, passage through the Legislative Council was assured, with the support of the Democrats and independents Terry Cameron , Ralph Clark and Nick Xenophon. On July 4, Attorney-General Trevor Griffin announced that the principle

of the bill had Government support, and three weeks later, the second reading passed without division. In early October, Griffin’s clarifying amendments were accepted, the bill passed its third reading on the voices and was immediately accepted by the Assembly. On October 11, the Constitution (Parliamentary Terms) Amendment Act 2001 received Viceregal assent and was gazetted, coming into operation on March 5, 2002.

Thus was this quite significant reform to the way SA conducts its elections achieved, with a minimum of dissension or fanfare.

The state’s only daily newspaper mentioned the fact briefly on an inner page under the heading ‘Terms fixed for four years’. A besieged Liberal minority government had been forced to cooperate with a resurgent Labor Party to allow through the bill of a persistent Opposition backbencher, assisted in both chambers by independents and Democrats. Elections were held, as required, on the third Saturday in March 2006, 2010 and are due again on March 15, 2014.

»»Jenny Tilby Stock, Visiting Research Fellow, School of History & Politics University of Adelaide

10 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

FEATURE and economic benefits for people’s lives and livelihoods are rarely taken beyond rhetoric to action (although exemplars such as Bogota, Paris and Singapore illustrate possibilities).

The turmoil of the 20th century has driven a rich exploration of our ideas of gardens. While the conversion of these ideas into resilient, sustainable and enriching landscapes remains largely unrealised, the exploration of these responses remains a necessary journey in transforming city landscapes and transforming our lives.

Architecture Museum, The University of South Australia.

CULTIVATING MODERNISM

or the revolutionary changes to people’s lives. Such changes have accelerated since the industrial revolution; the information revolution and globalisation describe even more rapid changes to people’s lives in train.

Stephen Forbes and Stephanie Johnston on the exciting book and twin exhibition that is Cultivating Modernism.

BY STEPHEN FORBES

T

he idea of a garden is continually changing. The ability of gardens to adapt to rapid changes in society is evident in the erosion of the quality of greenspace in both public

and private realms over the course of the 20th (and 21st) centuries. The evidence suggests our garden of ideas hasn’t kept pace with the revolutions in the nature of cities, transportation and building materials

While the built environment and its attendant infrastructure generally illustrate adaptive responses to change, the response in our city greenspace has been rather dismal. The reasons for this are likely complex: perhaps we’ve chosen to trade public good for private goods, perhaps the floral displays that characterised public and private landscapes have been lost to changes in fashion and a perception that while resources spent on buildings and roads, pipes and wires and telecommunications represent an essential investment, resources spent in greenspace provide little value. Indeed, greenspace in the public realm is largely viewed in terms of cost and risk with limited consideration of opportunity and benefit. The health and wellbeing, social, environmental

In this context Richard Aitken’s Cultivating Modernism: reading the modern garden 1917-1971 presented as in a recent book and in a current exhibition provide a wonderful introduction to the field. Aitken’s meticulous research and scholarship is presented in a beautifully designed book and complementary that integrates accessible and engaging prose with a curator’s eye for over a hundred representative and radical images.

Aitken manages to explore the meaning of modernism while managing to avoid either making assumptions of, or perhaps worse, patronising readers and with a generosity and focus in analysis rather than opinionated critique. Perhaps most importantly, while Aitken acknowledges the significance of industrialisation, the fascination with new materials, increasing urbanisation and changes to lifestyles, his focus is clearly on reconciling design and this new environment for living.

The period chosen by Aitken illustrates a rich vein of sources for contemporary endeavours to bring living, working and leisure into a space “… previously occupied by perhaps only one of these.” While Cultivating Modernism explores important territory, the prose, material and images include marvellous morsels that generally escape academic publications.

The potential opportunities and benefits to be derived from green infrastructure are given their context in the Modernist period - in 1948 Australian landscape architect Frank Heath observed the basis for planning: “… whereby economic, social, physical and aesthetic values are simultaneously recognised and proportionately emphasised according to the requirements of the problem for the

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The Adelaide Review March 2014 11

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FEATURE purpose of delivering maximum use and human enjoyment”. Contemporary preoccupations such as green walls and roof gardens are also given context in the Modernist period.

That most plants are reluctant to follow the specifications resident in built materials appears to have been unpalatable through much of Modernist design. Perhaps our failure is nowhere more evident than with Australian native plants. In 1930 “The wildflower garden ... is steadily gaining favour”; in 1949 South Australian architects Andrew Benko & Rex Lloyd lamented ‘Native flowers, shrubs and trees have been ignored for too long’ and in 1956 Robin Boyd was still concerned that the native plant movement was asleep: “In an odd sort of way any move to waken interest in native plants has practical value for the protection and value of our native growth and the development of our contemporary houses are part of the same movement”.

Our inability to work effectively with plants continues to see the twin substitutions of functionalism and featurism. Aitken’s commentary on Robin Boyd’s 1963 The Australian Ugliness’ now half a century old remains relevant today: “Boyd saw an irritating skin-deep affliction with featurism that could only be ameliorated by a return to the beauty of form, truth to materials, and appropriateness of spaces to their uses”.

Our future will depend on the way we utilise plants to determine food, water and climate security and our own health and well-being.

Cultivating Modernism provides an invaluable and engaging survey of our progress in this arena since the Industrial Revolution.

»»Stephen Forbes, Director, Botanic Gardens of Adelaide

• Richard Aitken, Cultivating Modernism: reading the modern garden 1917-71, The Miegunyah Press in association with The University of Melbourne Library, 2013 Two exhibitions at the University of South Australia will run until March 28 for further information see cultmod.org • Cultivating Modernism: reading the modern garden 1917-71 Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, Level 3, Hawke Building, City West Campus University of South Australia Open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday • Cultivating Modernism: French garden style of the 1920s and 1930s Architecture Museum Room 2-21, Level 2, Kaurna Building, City West Campus University of South Australia Open 10am to 4pm, Monday to Wednesday

futuristic designs, graphics and landscapes.

These found their way into popular journals that encouraged suburban householders to experiment with the new aesthetic in their own gardens.

Graphic from Cultivating Modernism by Richard Aitken, The Miegunyah Press.

Reading the Modern Garden

by Stephanie Johnston

F

or bibliophiles like me who love 20th century modernism in all its manifestations there could be no better festival offering.

Garden lovers might however be a little disappointed by twin exhibits on display at the Architecture Museum and Kerry Packer Civic Gallery until the end of March.

Cultivating Modernism: reading the modern garden 1917–71 charts modern Australian garden design through rarely seen books, journals, prints, brochures, pamphlets and postcards. Curator and author of the accompanying book Richard Aitken augmented his substantial personal collection with books and ephemera from Australian libraries and archival collections – including the Architecture Museum’s own repository – to illustrate how the transfer of knowledge from Europe, (and later America) was “rapid, immediate, and palpable”. However there is little evidence of modernist influences on actual Australian gardens in the exhibits.

“That’s because quite often it’s the only printed evidence which remains,” explains Julie Collins, collections manager at the museum. “Gardens grow and change and get built on, so the printed material is often all the record we have left.”

Also art, costume, graphics and the decorative arts could easily reflect overseas trends in a matter of days or months, whereas gardens required a timespan of years, as well as a receptive frame of mind. Aitken’s twin exhibition Cultivating Modernism: French garden style of the 1920s and 1930s explores early 20th century responses to garden design during the interwar years, when a succession of exhibitions mounted in Paris promoted a more decorative form of modernism, which became known as art

deco. A series of extraordinary photographs from the Exposition Internationales de 1937 depict extravagant deco birdbaths and illustrate the prevailing mode of bringing art into the garden. Once again, despite the legacy of ideas that made it to Australia, direct emulation in Australian gardens appears to have been minimal.

Aitken goes on to offer some tantalising glimpses of the Australian garden as backdrop to European functionalist architecture, “as a functional outdoor room, as a canvas in its own right, as living sculpture, and as the key link between interior and exterior.” The European artistic avant-garde inspired local architects, planners, landscape architects, horticulturists and illustrators to dream up

Reconciling modernist functionalism with gardens was, however no easy task. “Plants had the unruly habit of growing,” says Aitken, pointing out that Australian experimentation with the new forms of architecture often occurred in the casual environs of a weekender or resort dwelling. Here Australian flora enjoyed an increasing appreciation, along with a growing national movement to conserve scenic “primitive” areas. In frontier locations like Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, Sydney’s North Shore and the Adelaide Hills, the natural bush often formed a ready made garden for modernist designs that linked the indoors with outdoor garden spaces and living areas.

In the postwar period the spotlight shifted from Europe to the Americas. A relaxed beachside Californian style suited Australian taste-makers, while Brazilian experimentation with bold sculptural foliage, fluid ‘amoebic’ planting patterns, variegated leaves and strong vibrant colours gave birth to a new tropical modernism coined ‘tropicalia’, which found its way into the gardens of Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide.

Credit: Tess Allas, Charlie Schneider and Vernon Ah-Kee Andy Warhol on Aboriginal Art, photographic performance

Four Rooms 25 February – 6 April 2014 Curator troy-anthony Baylis

Room 1: Zane Saunders (QLD) Room 2: Jenny Fraser (QLD) and James Luna (USA) Room 3: Gordon Hookey (QLD) Room 4: Tess Allas (NSW), Charlie Schneider (USA) and Vernon Ah-Kee (QLD) Tandanya - National Aboriginal Cultural Institute 253 Grenfell Street, Adelaide

12 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

FEATURE

Three Decades of Imprints

customer came in, saying, ‘I haven’t been down here since you moved!’”

The doom and gloom that stalks tales of Hindley St are beginning to loom over the book industry, too. With e-publishing and internet “monsters” Amazon and The Book Depository chewing into their business, Lake admits that these last five years have been the hardest.

Having a “curated” selection of books that he and fellow employees know extremely well gives them the edge to survive.

In 1984, a bookshop opened its doors on Hindley St, joining what Jason Lake remembers as a diverse retail precinct.

But from his first days at Imprints – reading Patrick Suskind’s Perfume – to today – finally cracking the pages of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx & Crake – the difficulty of the business side of things has done nothing to dull his passion for words.

BY ILONA WALLACE

L

ake, who began working at the shop in 1993, never believed that 20 years on he would still be behind the counter. Now owner of the shop, Lake takes time between chatting with familiar customers and speaking to The Adelaide Review about the 30-year anniversary the store and the magazine share.

Cozy Imprints, with its rich dark shelves and deep turquoise walls, is a respite from

Lake recalls his first encounter with the work of Paul Auster, when he was working at Third World Bookshop, a once-upon-a-time 24-hour bookstore.

Jason Lake at Imprints.

the bustle and surge on the street outside.

Despite their “little gem among the detritus” being welcomed with delighted surprise by locals and tourists alike, Lake explains that a bookshop on Hindley St shouldn’t be too much of a shock.

WHAT WILL YOU DO?

“Every time we talk about Hindley St, it’s like talking about the Wild West, and it’s just not,” he says. “What is not promoted enough about this end of town is that, on Hindley St, we have Arts SA – we have a major arts funding body on this street – and we have the symphony orchestra on this street.

“There are a lot of positives about this end of town,” Lake continues. “I’d love to see people talk differently about Hindley St, talk up its past; it has an amazing history, this street, but they only think about the last person who got punched. It’s a nighttime street! But that negates the validity of its daytime trade as well.”

Imprints also faces the small challenge of a sedentary population that sometimes struggles to venture beyond its familiar pockets in the Square Mile we call home.

“As an example,” Lake says with a bemused, resigned look, “fifteen years ago, we moved 80 metres down the road. Last Christmas, a

We should never take our safety for granted.

Your life and the lives of your family could depend on what you do.

“It was a couple of doors up [from Imprints] – it’s a massage parlour now – but when I worked there, I did the 6pm to midnight shift. I had a friend bring me a cup of coffee, a piece of dope cake and this Paul Auster novel, and – I don’t condone doing drugs on the job, but – it was one of my formative literary experiences.”

Since then, Lake has encountered the elusive Donna Tartt, snaring a signed copy of The Secret History in one of her rare public outings.

He had a “weak at the knees” “fanboy” moment in the presence of Ron Rash, and he met the famed Paul Auster.

As for the future, Lake is out of predictions.

“I wish I could throw those runes or a crystal ball to see what’s going to go on, but I don’t know what the publishing world will look like,” he says. “I don’t think the book will ever die.

It’ll be here until the end of time.”

imprints.com.au

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The Adelaide Review March 2014 13

adelaidereview.com.au

OPINION

Ethical Saving

Investment analysts are encouraging fossil fuel asset owners to re-evaluate the economic viability of coal projects that are on the books.

This increases the risk that investments in coal and other fossil fuels could become what the industry calls “stranded assets” – assets that no longer have the same value they once had.

To protect our planet and to manage their own financial risks, many people are making the choice to divest from unethical investments.

by Simon Sheikh

W

Already, thousands of Australians are joining the divestment movement – switching their superannuation, banking and energy products so that their money is part of the solution, not the problem. Even World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, has publicly backed divestment.

Many banks and superannuation funds don’t want you to think too deeply about where they’re investing your money.

While each of our investments alone may not add up to much, together we have the power to disrupt the status quo. We can harness our power as consumers to drive investment in clean energy, make sure our money is invested responsibly and send a message to the big end of town that they must take climate risks seriously when they’re managing our money.

After all, it’s our future at stake.

hen we put money into our bank accounts and our superannuation funds, we think we’re acting responsibly – saving that money for a rainy day or for our retirement.

But the reality is that right now, much of Australia’s superannuation and savings are funding an unprecedented expansion of the fossil fuel industry here and around the world.

It’s the plain and simple truth: most of us are inadvertently funding the climate crisis. It’s ironic – the very savings that are meant to provide for our futures, could be harming our future.

Two degrees is the reddest of red lines. After two degrees, warns the scientific community, comes catastrophic climate change. More than two degrees is more than likely to be the point of no return for our climate.

The Earth has already experienced a global average temperature rise of one degree Celsius since the industrial revolution – and already we’ve increased extreme weather events like droughts, fires, floods and storms. We are already experiencing the effects of climate change, and to continue on a business as usual path would be irresponsible in the extreme.

The numbers are straightforward: to stay below two degrees, we have a maximum carbon budget of 565 Gigatons. Currently, the fossil fuel industry holds 2765 Gigatons in reserve – almost five times the safe amount. This means that 80 percent of the fossil fuel assets on the ledgers of fossil fuel companies cannot be burned if we are to have any hope of staying below the two-degree target.

So what does all this mean for our investments, our superannuation and our bank accounts?

Some experts are already predicting future volatility in Australia’s coal prices, driven by the rapid growth of renewable energy worldwide combined with possible reductions in Chinese demand.

Fossil fuels are becoming increasingly risky – not just from a climate change perspective.

HSBC has warned companies such as BP and Shell that they could lose up to 60 percent of their value if they don’t change the way they do things.

»»Simon Sheikh is former National Director of GetUp! and Founder of fossilfree.com.au, where you can sign up to switch your savings and investments to match your values. »»Skeikh is one of WOMADelaide’s Planet Talk speakers. WOMADelaide runs from Friday, March 7 to Monday, March 10.

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Scientists have repeatedly told us that two degrees of warming is the absolute maximum increase in temperature our planet can sustain before our climate passes dangerous tipping points.

Simon Sheikh

14 The Adelaide Review March 2014

Politics Modern Times Art and Evolution

BY Andrew Hunter

Y

ukio Mishima rose to prominence in the late 1940s. Mystical nationalism, the virtues of the Imperial Japanese Army and the idealisation of the samurai spirit were themes that connected Mishima’s novels, plays and short stories. Although the prodigiously gifted Mishima was thrice nominated for a Nobel Prize for literature, his political views were widely ridiculed during his lifetime. In 1970, Mishima committed ritual suicide after a failed coup d’état. He was 45.

Mishima was not the only Japanese novelist to use his art form in defence of an ideology that was discredited following the Pacific War. Shintaro Ishihara, a close friend and contemporary of Mishima’s, started his career as a novelist but subsequently entered politics.

Ishihara, now the leader of the second largest political party in the National Diet, continues to write prolifically. His most recent offering is entitled The Poison of Peace.

It is deeply troubling that Mishima is today promoted as a national literary hero. New editions of his works feature prominently in every bookstore in Japan. The novel is not, however, the only popular expression of revisionist or xenophobic nationalism.

Many serials of wildly popular manga comics focussed on Japan’s role in the Pacific War, which take extraordinary liberties with the facts, have also become wildly popular. The thinking conveyed through these popular artistic forms echoes a disquieting reality: ultra-nationalists have returned to a position of influence in modern Japan.

Reports of violence targeted at ethnic minorities in Japan increased dramatically last year. The Zaitokukai, a far-right organisation, have become increasingly active, staging protests in front of schools attended by ethnic-Korean students. During this period, the government has adopted a more confrontational foreign policy vis-àvis China and the Koreas. Last December, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe further inflamed tensions in the region when he visited the Yasukuni Shrine, where convicted war criminals are buried among the 2.5 million Japanese soldiers.

Over thirty million people died in the second Sino-Japanese War alone. Nationalism should have been long since interred by its actions.

Although thoroughly rejected following Pacific War and subsequent American-led Allied occupation, its dull pulse was kept constant in dark corners of Japanese society. Shadowy, financed and well-connected ultranationalist

organisations remained active throughout the post-war period. The novel provided an avenue for nationalism as a philosophical or ideological expression.

The art of the novel is an exploration of the potential of man - both good and bad. In literature, as in politics, words are important because they endure. But if the novel can play a role returning ultra-nationalism into a viable political expression in Japan, it can also provide a path to resistance, helping to turn the tide of insularity and fear. With a rich potential to influence comes great responsibility.

Haruki Murakami is Japan’s best-selling novelist. Although frequently criticised by the literary establishment in Japan, he has received international acclaim and a number of awards for his literary work.

Murakami has also been an outspoken critic of the insidious creep of nationalism.

In late 2012, he warned politicians of the dangers of drinking the ‘’cheap liquor’’ of nationalism.

Hot 100 Sponsor Event PwC and The Adelaide Review hosted a sponsor event for Hot 100 SA Wines on Thursday, February 13 at PwC/Westpac House.

Unfortunately, Murakami has yet to use his novels to explore the potential for a positive, inclusive future for Japan and for its role in the region. Murakami seems intent on escaping the Japanese condition, rather than shaping it. Now, more than ever, progressive artists need to have the courage to use their considerable influence to propose an alternative to the narrow conservatism to which the world increasingly appears captive. Writers and other artists need to commit anew to the exploration of humanity’s potential for good.

This is as relevant to Australia as it is to Japan. Artists have a powerful role to play if we are to help avoid the resurrection of a politics that proved devastating in the past. Former Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating, recently reflected: “I always thought the arts were central to a country, central to a society, holding up a mirror to itself, celebrating itself.” The arts can also help shape the future.

Hitnes Masterclass The Guildhouse Hitnes Masterclass wrap party was held on Sunday, February 2 at the Adelaide Festival Centre.

In Australia, music perhaps provides the most potent avenue through which to encourage a change in cultural attitudes.

Which Australian musician will have the courage today to stand up and offer an alternative voice to the diet of dehumanising language and half-truths the Australian people are fed in respect to the detention of asylum seekers?

Popular cultural expressions such as literature, film, animation, music, even sport, have the potential to reverse the recent restoration of intolerance, insularity and fear. The arts have a profound potential for positive intercultural exchange and evolutionary progress, if only those who value peace and harmony grasp the potential of brush, pen and voice.

» TO SEE MORE SOCIAL IMAGES VISIT ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014 15

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

BUSINESS Stop the Navel Gazing

BY MICHAEL BROWNE

E

ach year PwC surveys more than 1300 company leaders in 60 countries to better understand the issues their businesses are facing. While the CEOs surveyed represent the largest companies, it’s fair to say concerns are the same across the board, irrespective of size.

So what are those concerns? In the most recent edition, PwC’s 17th Annual Global CEO Survey, there is a positive outlook among global CEOs that now is a time for growth. Their positivity also carries over into their views about the global economy and both the short and long term prospects for their businesses.

Closer to home, Australian CEOs expressed a cautious optimism despite a relatively sound domestic economy. The subdued positivity was reflected in both the short and the longer-

term outlook and had declined from 48 percent in 2013 to 34 percent this year. It is also noticeably less than their global peers in Asia Pacific (46 percent) and US (51 percent). The lower confidence appears to be largely due to domestic concerns.

The mismatch of confidence in Australia highlights the need for a stronger, long-term vision for business and economic growth. We need a bold plan to cure our short termism and secure our future. Reforms in the areas of tax and infrastructure, as well as a bigger focus on Asia as an investment partner, are vital components of that plan.

While CEO optimism varied, they did all agree that over-regulation was the number one concern facing business. Australian CEOs were the most concerned about regulation (85 percent) as the biggest threat to future business as compared to their global and regional peers (72 percent).

Making up the top five concerns keeping Australian CEOs awake at night, were the government’s response to debt, weak growth in developing economies, availability of key skills, a slowdown in high growth markets and exchange rate volatility.

While Asia’s growth is all the talk, Australian CEOs have been more internally focussed on getting their houses in order than seeking to

capitalise on opportunities. Overwhelmingly, they say any planned joint ventures and strategic alliances will be focussed on Australasia and not beyond. The downside of this approach may well see growth opportunities lost.

Australian CEOs are also more vocal than those elsewhere calling for the need to reform the tax system. They see reform of the tax system as a much bigger issue than their international peers and take the view that government should make infrastructure improvement its number one priority.

On the digital front, nearly every Australian CEO surveyed (91 percent) believes technology will be the biggest transforming trend for their business. Their belief is not entirely reflected in their actions with less than half (45 percent) starting or completing a technology change program that would enable them to adapt and thrive in the digital age.

Looking at the future concerns and how Australian CEOs view it as compared to their global counterparts, it’s obvious we need a clear vision for the future. It’s time to ‘lift our eyes’ and consider the risks and opportunities domestically and internationally over both the short and longer-term.

remember that Asia is not one county but many with a diverse cultural mix. Now is the time to understand the opportunities and impact the Asian economies will provide.

It’s important too that business develop an overall business plan for the digital age, not just a digital strategy that looks singularly at technology, systems and processes. Innovation will also be a key to ensuring business is best placed to meet the needs of a new generation of consumers.

Customers are becoming accustomed to the choice that the digital age has brought. As a result they want more accessible, portable, flexible, customised services, products and experiences.

In return for being able to move seamlessly between the virtual and real world, they are prepared to share a lot about themselves. Shared data across multiple channels will mean a better understanding of customers and in turn grow brand value and market share.

Now is the time for action. No more navel gazing, look outward and seize the opportunities.

» Michael Browne is a Partner at PwC

Opportunity is on our doorstep with Asia as our neighbour; however it is important to

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16 The Adelaide Review March 2014

COLUMNISTS Let Them Rest In Peace “A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!” Merchant of Venice

BY Shirley Stott Despoja

F

ormer army special services commander, James Brown, has said that Anzac Day has become a military Halloween, a lavish festival of the dead. That for me is a description not only of the centenary commemorations starting this year, but of every Anzac Day for quite a long time, with the exception of some rural and street corner services. Third Agers are among those who detest this.

blood sacrifice, spirit, legacy, pride, ethos; hoping reflected glory will come to them as they pull a long face and sing hymns out of tune. And by manipulated children with designer tears.

Little kids sobbing in the streets saying “They died for us”; teenagers, with pious fervour, placing wreaths and scripted to say, “They died for freedom”; inflated prose, macabre tourism...

That’s what Anzac Day has become.

War politicised him. It didn’t ennoble or soften him. The speech he might have made on this April 25 would scare the pants off the Prime Minister and other worshipping bigwigs.

Reserved as most returned WW1 personnel were, I believe they would have found their voice to condemn the military Halloween.

And all the time we know that the Anzacs, those who survived, had devised for themselves the perfect commemoration... the dawn service and a simple march, and maybe a picnic after.

We have forgotten that, and their taste for simplicity and contemplation on the day. We have not shown them respect by ignoring that.

By the time the centenary festivities are done, the day will become like Olympic Games opening ceremonies, each successive Anzac Day outdoing the ones before. The funeral games.

Stop: who are we commemorating here?

Mostly, a bunch of kids. Kids who grew up horribly fast when they found that there was no glory in war, only suffering, horror and loss.

Aussie and NZ kids, some with horses they loved, wanting to get away from home for a bit, see the world, have some adventures, serve the Mother Country. They became brave and sometimes heroic and damaged and dead. They called for their mothers as they died.

Survivors came home to a life forever changed by what they had seen and endured.

And, try not to forget this (it so often is): their families suffered from their anger and sadness, particularly their anger.

I knew these men, some of them, and one of them was my father. They would hate what is planned for this year. They felt the absence of the young dead as we cannot and we should not try to stage it. Their families watched them booze away their pain, many of them. Watched them die young after the peace. Or live on with lingering illnesses and neuroses.

That kind of pain must not be belittled by being commemorated by a circus, and worst of all, the patronising speakers who have worked the thesaurus for variants of

If I had ever thought of going to Gallipoli for the festival of the dead, my father’s voice in my head would have scared me off. That voice is authenticated by his war diary.

Let them rest in peace. Look after the present survivors or war, as James Brown insists. Teach kids to detest and resist war, to get on with our neighbours, and to seek glory, if they need it, in life-affirming work. That’s it. *** One of the useful things I did in my earlier life was to challenge the extraordinary powers of the Australian Bureau of (Census and) Statistics when they insisted I take part in a nine-month household survey that included invasive questions such as “do you have wheezes in your chest?” But it was on grounds of security I refused to answer, even though the ABS has always claimed that its information was secure and their questioners entrusted with private information above reproach. I was prosecuted, I defended – and won. It seems I was the only successful refusenik, but that might have changed since this occurred in the 80s.

How happy were my supporters (and there were many), who objected to these inquisitions to which one must reply or pay (then) $100 per day per unanswered question for as long as the question remained unanswered. There is now a healthy internet rebellion about such compulsory surveys. My case gets honourable mention.

And now the ABS has popped up again at my door. I was sick with a killer virus for their first call and the questioner went away.

I responded shortly after to a note in the letterbox by phoning, as required, telling them the virus still had me in its grip. I asked them ever so politely to stay away. But will they?

After nearly 30 years, they are after me again, readers. Will the questions this time include really awful ones like “Are you incontinent?”, “Do you have an opinion of smokers?” as they did in the past? How this old woman longs to tell them to bugger off.

Six Square Metres Of Readers and Writers

BY Margaret Simons

“Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.”

It takes great readers to achieve that kind of connection. No writer can do it on their own, or at all. Sometimes I think the talent of reading is rarer than the ability to write.

I

And so I walked into the garden to reflect on this loss. It is about three years since I last saw Peter and Libby. While they are frequently in my thoughts, I hadn’t rung, I hadn’t written. I had made plans to visit, but I left it all too late.

She had one of those cruel, wasting diseases that leave the mind intact while the body gradually ceases to work. She knew she was dying. Her husband Peter told me that in the last few days there was a sense of peace, and of permission having been given for her to leave this life. Her children were grown and well. Her husband was resigned to losing her.

And in the garden the lettuce has all run to seed, the leaves on the purple king beans have the mottled look that comes with stress, and the passionfruit vine is putting out small, wrinkled fruit. It seems incapable of getting sufficient water to its extremities to combat the effects of forty degree heat.

walked out in to the garden this morning in order to recover from some news. I had heard that a friend of mine had died. I had known she was ill. I had intended to visit. I left it too late.

Peter recalled his mother’s death. Apparently, her last words were “I never knew it could be so wonderful.” She meant death. Peter’s wife didn’t say these words, but the feeling, he said, was similar. The leaving of life was as it should be – except too soon.

The news, and my long conversation with Peter, carried me back to an earlier time in my life. This couple were crucial to me. It was largely through my friendship with them that I first dared to call myself a writer. I had already published one book when I met them, but I was not a writer. I had merely written.

It takes readers to make a writer, and their great talent was reading. Peter and Libby were the best, most instinctive, perceptive and careful readers I have ever met. They saw your intention, and they saw the things you didn’t know you were trying to achieve. They told you what you were doing in such a way that you could see it for yourself. They could fulfill that profound imperative of E.M Forster’s – only connect.

Midsummer is, in the pagan tradition, the time of full fruit. It is the tipping point of the year, when one prepares for harvest and the preservation of bounty.

I wish. Instead, my garden is ragged and the weekends have been so hot that I have not had the will to get out there and repair, replant and recoup.

Someone once wrote a poem about Libby.

I remember it being shared with the small group of writers that, at that time in my life, gathered around the Varuna Writers’ Centre in the Blue Mountains. It was an observation of her in the garden, travelling back and forth to the garden beds on a crisp, cold day with her wheelbarrow. It was an observation of her beauty.

And so, too late, I have booked my air fares and will go back to that place and visit my remaining friend, and we will reflect on the past, the present and the future.

margaretsimons

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014 17

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

HEALTH In Search of Sunshine Vitamin D is a potential antidote to the current epidemic of autoimmune diseases and a key strategy for public health. Taken consistently, it can provide a foundation for good health throughout the entire lifecycle.

BY PROFESSOR AVNI SALI

A

re you constantly fatigued? Do you experience muscle pain and weakness, or are you finding it difficult to lose weight? Have you been suffering from insomnia or experiencing difficulties with concentrating? Have you recently been diagnosed with bone disease or musculoskeletal weakness? Feeling depressed?

Australians are currently deficient in vitamin D. A vitamin D deficiency in the human body can result in all of these symptoms, and many other chronic health problems, so it’s possible low vitamin D levels could be your real issue. The good news is treatment and further prevention through supplementation, diet and prudent sun exposure is one of the easiest and healthiest health reforms we can make.

Australia’s long-held reputation as a nation of sun lovers has been challenged in past decades by the important need to protect the skin from harmful rays and the dangers of skin cancer. Public health researchers, in light of recent research into the dangers of low vitamin D levels, are now calling for a revisit of sensible sun exposure, fearing that deficiency has the potential to become a major public health issue.

A Deakin University Study in 2012 found that 42 percent of Australian women are vitamin D deficient in the summer, while for men, the rate was 27 percent. The same study found the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency increases with age, especially for women, and that obese or inactive people were twice as likely to be deficient.

Recommendations for vitamin D therapy include:

Recent research shows that one-third of

CCF SA

Politicians

PRUDENT SUN EXPOSURE To restore or maintain vitamin D in the body we need more than just casual exposure – daily sessions for timed periods are necessary to keep our bodies in a steady and supported state of vitamin D production. The ideal time periods will depend on personal circumstance but the following protocols and conditions will be helpful in determining what is most suitable for you. An Integrative Medicine practitioner is also able to ‘prescribe’ the right combination of vitamin D therapy needed for your situation.

Here are some recommendations: • Take time out in the sun every day (for fair people six minutes in summer, 15 minutes in winter) until skin is slightly pink. Build up to ideal exposure times slowly.

• Expose at least 15 percent of your body, especially large limbs including the torso, and parts of the body not normally exposed.

• Account for time of day and the season. The optimal vitamin D times are midday in winter, and mid-morning or mid-afternoon in summer.

• Apply sunscreen immediately after your timed exposure session if you plan to be outside longer.

• Remember UVB, the vitamin D rays cannot penetrate glass/windows • Where you live will also affect optimal sun exposure dependant on how close you are to the equator • Vitamin D therapy is appropriate for every

age, and particularly relevant in older age groups. Ensuring adequate vitamin D levels in young children is a terrific proactive measure that can bring about long-term health benefits.

ADD VITAMIN D-RICH FOODS TO YOUR DIET In an Integrative Medicine-based approach to health, diet is one of the most vital ways in which we can achieve optimal health and prevent disease. Fruits and vegetables, quality grains and a regular intake of good proteins including oily fish and other omega 3 rich foods will help us achieve our health goals. Some foods are a rich source of vitamin D (and other essential nutrients) so it is useful to plan your menus so that each meal includes something from the following list: Eggs (including the yoke), vitamin fortified cereals, full fat cheeses and fortified dairy products, plain yoghurt, oily fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, oysters and black caviar – especially if raw.

Mushrooms especially shitakes (but also button mushrooms) are good sources of vitamin D if grown in sunlight. Last year, a study showed that mushrooms grown indoors could be put in sunlight for about two hours and this produced a very high vitamin D content in the mushrooms. Keep an eye out for other vitamin D fortified foods that appeal as long as they are not overly processed.

– Your recipe for success

“Civil Contractors have been the backbone of South Australia’s economy since European settlement.

Let’s get the handbrake off so this important sector can continue to build the South Australia our citizens deserve.”

Phil Sutherland, Chief Executive Officer, Civil Contractors Federation – South Australia

PROSPERITY THROUGH INFRASTRUCTURE Develop a long term 9infrastructure plan (pipeline) of shovel ready projects of differing sizes accompanied by a budget, time frame and schedule of works, designed and prioritised to stimulate the economy and give the tax payer and the community the best return on this investment.

INFRASTRUCTURE RIGHT TIME – RIGHT PLACE Establish an 9indepen dent body able to objectively and transparently assess and prioritise

cture PM. infrastructure projects. Prime Minister Abbott says he is the Infrastru Create incentives Leverage this! Generate public/private partnerships in infrastructure. strategies. funding itional non-trad and ve alternati r for private sector funding. Conside

REDUCING BUSINESS COSTS Reduce the cost burden of doing 9business in South Australia. This includes taxes, power, water and WorkCover,

and government fees and charges. Embark on major tax reform. Replace the current system which is based on an old economy. Focus on an incentive based tax regime.

e

DEREGULATE AND PROSPER Address the growing, costly, repressiv ce

9regulatory regime that is putting a hand brake on business including complian

deregulate! All requirements, paperwork and red tape. Don’t just trim. Cut and business approval processes to be subject to strict time limits. Actively support es. start-ups. Establish regulatory one stop shops or on-line process

SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS Preference local firms for 9government work and procurement. Build local capacity.

SIZE SHOULDN’T MATTER Contractors, regardless of size, to have 9access to government work on a fair, reasonable and equitable basis.

WHAT’S GETTING IN THE WAY? Establish a Productivity 9Commission of Audit to examine every facet of the relationship between government and business and eliminate impediments to productivity.

POPULATION GROWTH Aggressively implement strategies 9designed to increase the population of South Australia including foreign students. Seek a differential migration status for South Australia.

GOVERNMENT THE ENABLER Adopt a small government model.

9Government should be an enabler and not a deliverer unless there is a market

failure. Government should not compete with the private sector for work. Public sector needs renewal. Discard public policy settings that have more to do with the past than the future. Encourage greater interaction between government and business.

A SMART WORKFORCE Formulate a cross sectorial work force 9education and training strategy so South Australia has the right skills at the right time. Promote science and technology in our schools.

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Encourage private, including foreign, 9investme nt in regional economic development, and implement strategies

e special designed to differentiate SA from the other states, e.g. introduc nt dollars. economic zones so that SA is an attractive destination for investme Increase public investment in regional SA.

A STRONG ECONOMY Work to the strengths of our broad based 9economy – focus on fishing, agriculture, mining, defence, education, wine,

tourism, lifestyle. Take a global view. Focus on country, region, and brand.

Collaborate with Austrade offices throughout the world. Maximise economic opportunities by moving up the value chain. Leverage our geography including climate, clean air, great beaches and open space. Promote collaboration. SA should be a state characterized by partnerships, joint ventures and alliances so as to provide the capacity and balance sheet to compete globally.

ALL HAVE SOMETHING TO OFFER Unlock the power of our 9olderWE citizens who have much to offer in expertise and experience. Facilitate their involvement in the paid or unpaid workforce. Encourage volunteerism, part time and casual work opportunities for this demographic.

18 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

EDUCATION

EDUCATION FEATURE The Adelaide Review’s Education Feature focuses on creative education in the arts

DEVELOPING YOUR LATENT PASSION

“

Everybody writes, but there are few writers. Everybody photographs, but there are few photographers.” Today, 20th Century art historian Beaumont Newhall’s (paraphrased) words seem ahead of their time.

Photography surrounds us and cameras are always at hand. The number of photographs made and circulated has never been greater. But don’t let this dishearten or annoy you — take control of the medium. Understand it and learn to use it for good.

The Centre for Creative Photography (CCP) is the only private photographic school in Adelaide with accredited courses. It offers a Certificate IV and Diploma of Photoimaging as well as one-day workshops and private tuition.

There is a strong ethos to deliver flexible study options. Students can complete the qualifications at their own pace, full-time or part-time. But it is also possible to select individual subjects from the program. With rolling admissions, students can begin in any of the four school terms.

foundation of solid theoretical education married with rigorous practical work. All CCP lecturers are professionals practicing and teaching in their areas of expertise. There is a range of views from the spectrum between commercial and artistic.

Gavin Blake insists that the success of the CCP lies in their expertise and dedication.

The school is also a resource centre for photographers, with facilities for hire to professionals. A symbiotic relationship with the photographic industry is valuable to both students and practitioners. In this spirit The CCP also houses The Light Gallery, run by Curator Mike Lim. It is the only dedicated photographic gallery in Adelaide and exhibition proposals are always welcome.

The Light Gallery is showing the exhibition Swingabilly until Saturday, March 15. The work by Chris Oaten, former CCP student, is an enthralling view of colourful characters from Adelaide’s rockabilly scene.

Term 2 commences Monday, April 28 and enrolments are open. The CCP Autumn Workshop program runs from April 5-13.

Gavin Blake had such a system in mind when he founded the CCP in 1997. He was the sole lecturer, teaching only six students. Now, hundreds of students pass through each year and the school’s facilities have expanded accordingly.

For more information about your chance to work in this challenging field as an artist, commercial photographer or for personal interest please contact the CCP: 8354 0839.

The dynamic training program encompasses all aspects of photographic practice. There is a

info@ccp.sa.edu.au

First Aid • Managing Small Business Finances • Stone Therapy Massage • Yellow Card • Japanese • Visual Wheel Loader Operations • Millinery • Etiquette • Excel • Chemical Card • Photography • Mandarin • Load Waxing • Graphic Design • Arranging Flowers • Screen Printing • Spanish • Journalism • Creative Writing • W Young Adults • Nail Art • German • SketchUp Pro • White Card • One Day Cheese Making Workshop • Fre Visual Merchandising • Working at Heights • Pattern Making • Sewing • Biography Writing • Responsible Se Photoshop • French • • Manicures & Pedicures • AutoCAD • Photography • Mandarin • Loader Operations Bartending • 3D Drawing • Risk Assessment • CISCO • Indonesian • Hazardous Substances Training • Writing Hi Over 300 short courses. now.

Dreamweaver • Marketing for Small Business • Liquor Licensing Laws • Apply Fashion Buying • Bookkeeping • Jewe Degree Holders • Vietnamese • Italian • Body Massage • Mastering the Bottom Line for Small Business • Usin www.tafesa.edu.au/shortcourses Cheese Making • Firear Safety • MYOB • 3D Drawing • Fantasy Writing • Visual Merchandising • Forklift license • Painting for Real • Bookkeeping • Technical Writing • Painting • Editing Techniques Art of Espresso • Group Exercise Instructing • Vietnamese • Digital Video Production • Graphic Design Property Investment • Hand Drawing • Jewellery Making • Painting • Graphic Design • MYOB • Indian head

The Adelaide Review March 2014 19

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Cultivating Success

T

he Adelaide Central School of Art prides itself on the industry success of its lecturing staff and graduates.

The School employs leading contemporary artists to develop and deliver a studio-based teaching program that cultivates sophisticated practical skills, underpinned by intensive conceptual investigation. The School’s recent move to the Glenside Cultural Precinct has expanded its operational capacity, providing a solid platform for continuing to nurture the success of its staff and students.

In 2013, Annalise Rees, artist and former Head of Drawing at the Adelaide Central School of Art, was included in the exhibition HEARTLAND at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Rees’s work was an interactive collision of sculpture and drawing that invited participants to respond to her ongoing obsession with architectural space.

Artist and lecturer Julia Robinson is presenting The Studio as part of the 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart, currently on display at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Robinson, the first artist to present The Studio, has designed an interactive installation imbued with playful references to superstition.

Artist and Head of Sculpture at the School, Roy Ananda, has been commissioned to produce a work for the Samstag Museum of Art. Ananda’s sculpture, Slow crawl into infinity, will cascade

through the Gallery in a work referencing cinematic conventions and popular culture. His work will be on display from early June.

The School’s lecturing staff and graduates have been awarded international studio residences to help support the development of their art practices. In 2013 artist and painting lecturer Mary Jean Richardson was awarded the Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Cibo Espresso Studio Residency at the British School in Rome. For Richardson the residency was an opportunity to immerse herself in the European gothic narratives which inform her painting practice. In 2014, artist Nic Brown, a former student of Richardson’s, will follow in her footsteps having been awarded the same residency.

The School’s Head of Contemporary Studies, Nicholas Folland, is the subject of the 2014 South Australian Living Artists publication. Folland is a nationally recognised sculptor and installation artist, known for his poetic activation of materials such as cut glass, crystal and ice.

Folland’s dedication to both his art making practice and his role as an educator is consistent with the School’s commitment to connecting students with leading exponents of contemporary Australian art.

acsa.sa.edu.au

TAFE SA Short Courses Provide the Taste of a New Career

W

hen most people think of a TAFE course, they think of fulltime commitment of six months or more, but that’s not always the case. As South Australia’s largest and most experienced vocational training provider, TAFE SA offers a wide variety of short courses - over 300 in fact. Short courses are a great way to learn something new, expand on existing knowledge or even get a taste of a different career.

With course areas ranging from language, creative arts and hospitality and business, through to building, construction, health and agriculture, there is something for everyone.

Courses are held at different times, many outside working hours, and with 55 TAFE SA campuses and learning centres across the state, as well as many courses being online, it’s easy to study at a time and place that suits you.

All TAFE SA short courses offer small classes, meaning individual attention and the opportunity to learn at your own pace. You will also get “hands-on” in courses that can provide pathways to nationally accredited qualifications.

the Creative Writing short course a go to see if I had the writing skills I needed to make a career out of my passion. By taking on the short course I was able to get a good feel for the work required and of the teaching style of the lecturers. They encouraged me to take my learning further,” Ms Albrecht said.

Inspired by her experiences in the Creative Writing short course, in 2012 Ms Albrecht successfully applied for the Advanced Diploma of Arts (Professional Writing).

“During the course I have written and performed poetry and short stories and had the chance to work collaboratively with fellow students. I have just commenced the third year of my Diploma and I’m studying scriptwriting for film and television. I am very excited to have been given the opportunity to work with award-winning South Australian novelist Vikki Wakefield, who will be mentoring me as I write my first novel,” she said.

With many short courses set to commence in the coming weeks, now is the time to study something you’ve always wanted to, but never had the time.

Professional Writing student, Margot Albrecht, commenced her training at TAFE SA by enrolling in the Creative Writing short course in 2011.

“I’ve always had a keen interest in writing and was looking for a career change but was too scared to take the plunge. I decided to give

»»For more information about short courses visit tafesa.edu.au/shortcourses or call 1800 882 661.

20 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

BOOKS

THE RAVEN’S EYE

THE GREAT UNKNOWN SAINTS OF THE

Barry Maitland / Allen & Unwin

Angela Meyer (ed.) / Spineless Wonders

SHADOW BIBLE Ian Rankin / Orion Books

BY WILLIAM CHARLES

BY DAVID SORNIG

BY ROGER HAINSWORTH

Former architecture professor Barry Maitland continues his entertaining series featuring DCI Brock and DI Kathy Kolla, this time amid the mazy canals and private clinics of the UK. When Vicky Hawke is found dead on a London canal houseboat, the first anomaly is that this is not her real name. She was in fact Gudrun Kite, daughter of a grieving Cambridge professor of Scandinavian mythology whose other daughter, Freyja, had also died in mysterious circumstances not long before.

Both daughters had been working in the fields of hi-tech encryption and surveillance technology and, following their noses, Kolla and Brock are soon sniffing around a private medical clinic where secret operations on animals and humans are taking place; Kolla also falls into the perilous web of Jack Bragg, cleaver-wielding gangster and butcher – and unwilling patient at said clinic. Throw in a group of houseboat-dwelling anarcho-greenies and, within the police ranks, new brass enforcing management-speak and organisational rationalism upon the spontaneous Brock and Kolla, and the fuse is lit. Smart characterisation and beautifully paced the whole way through, this is once again high quality crime fiction from Maitland.

In Krissy Kneen’s ‘Sleepwalk’, the opening story in this anthology of the strange and unsettled, a woman wanders the house every night in her slumber taking photographs that reveal a haunted other world in the midst of the mundane and the domestic. It’s a truly creepy signature piece that reveals the premise of the rest of the collection as its writers show how the normal can be so easily disturbed. Chris Somerville develops the collection’s implicit political colour in ‘The Rift’, a simultaneously very real and surreal story of disconnection and violence in the wake of modern war. Carmel Bird’s coolly-told ‘Hare’ delivers all and none of the answers to a whodunit murder mystery. While there are a few less-polished stories that hint that this is also a testing ground for lessexperienced writers, the collection is dominated by strong work from some of Australia’s best contemporary fiction writers: Ryan O’Neil, Ali Alizadeh, P.M. Newton, Paddy O’Reilly. Even philosopher Damon Young expertly turns his hand to fiction. Editor Angela Meyer has assembled an entertaining, disturbing and thought-provoking collection that continues small publisher Spineless Wonders’ commitment to the short form.

At last Rebus is really back! He has rejoined the Edinburgh cops under a new scheme to recruit experienced detectives.

This reinforces my long held suspicion that Rebus is Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch with a Scottish accent. Hugely popular Californian writer Connolly found he had to pull his famous detective out of retirement a few years ago, and posted him to a cold case unit. In Rankin’s gripping last novel, Standing in Another Man’s Grave, Rebus is attached to an Edinburgh cold case unit as a civilian consultant before re-joining the force.

Of course what really matters is that Rebus and Bosch are great detectives. They might be hopeless team-players, seen as dangerous mavericks by their superiors, and at their best playing loan hands. However, both combine the single-minded persistence of sniffer dogs with a capacity for lateral thinking and spotting connections others miss.

It’s all about the Journey Cheryl Bridgart

An exhibition of tactile stories told through exquisite fine art embroidery.

Artist Demonstrations Thursday March 20 & Sunday April 6

Rankin’s new story has the bite of an anaconda and even more coils. Rebus is in an odd situation even for him: he is a suspect

- albeit only a minor one. Elinor Macari, Solicitor General for Scotland, has got the double-jeopardy law changed: you can now be tried twice for a very serious offence if the original investigation was bungled or if new evidence has come to light. Macari is determined to retry a criminal, Saunders, who got away with bashing a man to death 30 years earlier because the team from the local nick, Summerhall, blundered badly.

The leader of the team, Stefan Gilmour, fell on his sword and resigned. He is now a selfmade millionaire. A late and very junior team member was John Rebus. There are strong suspicions that a lot of irregular goings-on, some of them criminal, had characterised the Summerhall team and that the ‘blunders’ were deliberate. Saunders was a very useful informer and Gilmour (it is claimed) wished to protect him. Rebus, the member the team did not trust because he had become a copper too recently, had always felt there was something else behind the Saunders fiasco.

Inspector Fox of The Complaints, the body that investigates cops, is Macari’s choice to delve into Summerhall’s murky past.

Fox had earlier opposed Rebus’s application to re-join because he had wrongly believed he was ‘bent’. Now he has to work with Rebus because he is the man with inside knowledge of Summerhall but was too junior to be seriously involved. The surviving members of the team (all retired) want Rebus to be their mole. Fox wants Rebus to betray their secrets when he discovers what they were.

In the background is the continuing campaign for Scottish independence. In addition to his work for Fox, Rebus has to help his old junior, now his immediate boss, Siobhan Clarke, on a strange case that seems simple enough but gradually assumes a labyrinthine complexity. A Scottish government minister prominent in the campaign is killed. It proves a challenging test of Rebus’s investigative skills and (as we expect from Rankin) is superbly plotted.

Then in the middle of it Saunders, the key to the Solicitor General’s investigation, disappears…

AMCHAM IINET BUSINESS LUNCHEON THE FUTURE OF DEFENCE IN SA FRIDAY 28 MARCH InterContinental Adelaide 11.45 – 2PM

GROUND FLOOR GALLERY 7 March – 21 April 2014 BAY DISCOVERY CENTRE Glenelg Town Hall, 1 Moseley Square Glenelg Open 10am to 5pm Daily Ph: 81799508

Warren King

holdfast.sa.gov.au

T: 8212 4688

Chief Executive Officer, Defence Materiel Organisation

David Allott

Chief Executive Officer, BAE Systems Australia

E: sa@amcham.on.net

Dean Rosenfield Managing Director, Saab Systems

THE ADELAIDE

REVIEW

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014 21

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FASHION

INTRODUCING BNKR

FASHION RENDEZVOUS

In the last few years, Melanie and Dean Flintoft have grown their fashion house – Australian Fashion Labels – from a local institution to a global phenomenon. The brand has thrived based on a wholesale and online business model; although in April they will open their very first flagship store in Adelaide’s Rundle Mall, showcasing all their brands in the one place.

BY LACHLAN AIRD

opening their first store in the city that they’re based in, Melanie has been impressed by the wealth of talent, determination and passion that Adelaide creatives have for the fashion industry, attributing their hard work and enthusiasm to the business’s success.

“It’s a flagship store, so it’s showcasing everything we do in one location. It’s about selling the lifestyle and building the brand’s awareness. The first one will be in Adelaide, obviously because we’re in Adelaide, and then once we get the concept right we’ll roll them out – one in Sydney, LA, New York, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Auckland and Johannesburg, as we have distribution points in all of those cities already.”

“We’ve got such great talented people – so self-driven and motivated. They’re coming up with their own ideas and making them happen. When you see your own idea come to fruition and get the amazing feedback it really just drives you and makes everyone excited, which then makes the whole team excited. It’s a really young team of people that are doing really clever stuff, and they’re getting a global reaction from it. There’s no better feeling then that, is there?”

BNKR will consist of concept concessions based around their labels; each will have its own identity and aesthetic. This ensures that all the thought and effort that goes into designing the collections will be on display to the public for the first time.

“The vision that the designer has and the vision behind it is what you’ll see,” Dean explains. “You’ll see it in the window displays with the editorials. We put a lot of effort into photography for editorial and lookbooks just for wholesalers to see, but now the customer that buys it will also get to see it.”

The aim is that the stores will be practically identical no matter what location you visit, featuring the same collections, editorials and designs that are all created at their Currie St headquarters. The designers have already become accustomed to designing monthly collections that are diverse enough for both southern and northern hemispheres – a key to ensuring the brand’s success internationally, with Finders Keepers stocked in Harrods, Cameo in Bloomingdales and Keepsake in Urban Outfitters. The strength of their brands are only set to continue from here, with high street wear label Jaggar reaching stores in May and newest label, aptly titled The Fifth, scheduled for June.

While the Flintofts have been discussing a retail store for several years, the opportunity to land the perfect Adelaide location kick started the endeavour. Besides the practicality of

GILLES STREET MARKET Sunday, March 2 and Sunday, March 16, 10am to 4pm 91 Gilles Street, Adelaide gillesstreetmarket.com.au For fab vintage and pre-loved fashion including the latest from local emerging designers, check out the Gilles Street Market. DJs spin the tunes alongside delicious food vendors and over 90 stalls of fashion and accessories.

This faith in their team and the speed in which they work has seen Australian Fashion Labels swell, employing an extra 27 people in the last 12 months and still needing more to staff in their design, production and marketing teams – in addition to staffing the retail store and the infrastructure behind it. Their close relationship with TAFE SA – located next door to the fashion school – has meant that they have been able to select and nurture many of Adelaide’s most talented young designers before they look interstate or overseas for opportunities that without Australian Fashion Labels may not have been available to them.

Other additions to the business for 2014 include a line of shoes that will correspond with the collections for each label, which is expected to be implemented by mid-year. Melanie is confident about the company’s growth, and is glad that these new endeavours for their business will take place in Adelaide, as not only can they have a hands on approach, but help reinforce what they’ve always believed – that Adelaide can produce work worthy of international acclaim.

“They say if it works here, it works anywhere, right?”

fashionbunker.com australianfashionlabels.com.au

A T T I T U D E

AUTUMN EDITION OUT MARCH 20TH

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

T

he store, simply called BNKR, a simplification of their FSHN BNKR online outlet, will be housed at the old Commonwealth Bank site on the corner of Rundle Mall and Pulteney Street.

Dean explains their intentions.

22 The Adelaide Review March 2014

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

Mr Morgan’s Last Love preview screening Trak Cinema, 375 Greenhill Road, Toorak Gardens Monday, March 3, 7pm A look at the life-changing connection between a retired and widowed American philosophy professor and a young Parisian woman. Directed and written by Sandra Nettelbeck. Stars Michael Caine, Michelle Goddet and Jane Alexander.

Thank You for the Music Capri Theatre, 141 Goodwood Road Sunday, March 9, 2pm The Theatre Organ Society presents ‘Thank you for the Music’ – a celebration of movies, musicals and all things cabaret featuring pianist, vocalist and theatre organist Mathew Loeser.

Wadjda Palace Nova East End Cinemas, Cinema Place From Thursday, March 20 An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school’s Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest. Directed and written by Haifaa Al-Mansour. Stars Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah and Abdullrahman Al Gohani.

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival Palace Nova East End Cinemas, Cinema Place Thursday, March 20 to Saturday, April 8 Returning in spectacular form for its 25th birthday, the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival will transport audiences to a nation awash with colour and romance through an evocative program of keenly anticipated new features and documentaries.

South Australian Prize

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

The state election in a few days prompts Sir Monty to pen a tribute to the political career of Labor’s top man for the benefit of the visitors flooding our fair city.

BY Sir Montefiore Scuttlebutt

“

Sometimes in government people write in convoluted ways using language which hides or confuses the real message they want to convey.”

Thus begins an introduction to plain English, penned in 2007 by a youthful new minister, keen open-space aficionado by the name of Jay Weatherill, then minister assisting the Premier in Cabinet.

Regular visitors to Adelaide now know that Jay has since ascended to the summit and has been South Australia’s Premier for three challenging years. This month his Labor team faces its fourth state election in a row.

“Writing in plain English sends clear messages about what the government is doing...” Jay told readers way back in 2007.

This came as a surprise to Monty. More often in his experience it is about governments explaining why they have not been able to do what they claimed they keenly wanted to do, in the days leading up to the previous election.

Jay’s preface, in a booklet titled Plain English, Good Practice Guide, was published by a body called the Government Reform Commission. Reforming the government or reforming the readers? It didn’t say.

WIN

Jay’s Guide gave several examples, which were described as gobbledygook. Here’s one. “With only a year remaining to July 2008 there is a risk that the state government may not deliver on its committed targets.” Plain English proposed replacement: “With only a year remaining to July 2008 we may run out of time to achieve the target.” Ah, clarity! Blame time. Why not? The Opposition shouldn’t accept all of the blame, all of the time. The cat o’ nine tails for Father Time!

Much time has passed since then, and the excuse is just as useful six years later.

This month’s prize is two tickets into ‘FIVEaa Locker Room’ at the ‘Balfours Showdown’ on Saturday 29 March, valued at $480!

Maestro Series 1- New World

Enter at: www.facebook.com/BuySouthAustralian

MONTEFIORE

Elder Hall, North Terrace Sunday, March 30, 6.30pm Welcome Adelaide Youth Orchestra as they launch into their ‘New World Order’ for 2014 with three stunning and diverse works: Copland’s homage to all men serving in World War II, SaintSaëns’ virtuosic third violin concerto and Dvorák’s much loved American composition, Symphony No 9.

Monty scoured the document for the Eight Most Preferred Government Words, but found no reference to Boost, Bolster, Buoyant, Robust, Full’n’Frank, Finesse, Leverage and Vibrant.

Each appears to have slipped out of the room while the document was being prepared, illustrating that timing is everything. The word Time is revealing in itself. Early in SA Labor’s second consecutive term, a 2006 survey by the publishers of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary revealed that Time appears in the top-25 list of commonly used words. So did the words Government and Problem. Can you see a pattern there?

Similar patterns can be seen among the adjectives littering the floor around the government shredder on the green, deep-pile Axminster of the South Australian House of Assembly. These words sound rather like a collection of military gentlemen, loitering in a corner, ready to be trotted out on important occasions. They include the lowercaste Corporal Punishment; the more officerlike Major Development; and the higher ranked General Reform. These old boys strut about the news releases, but it’s hard to find any reference to Lance Corporal Cock-up or Brigadier Bluster, the officer usually brought in to bail out the said Lance Corporal at door-stop interviews late on Friday nights when TV crews have all gone to the pub.

“My eighty-one year old grandmother still rides her Harley motorbike her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars.” Wait for it. That sentence really did appear in Jay’s Guide. It’s in a section committed to teach the uninitiated about coordinating conjunctions. Add a comma, plus the word ‘and’ after motorbike, and the sentence will make more sense, Guide readers are advised.

But it does leave a legacy of questions about our still-youthful Premier. Why is his 81-yearold grandmother riding a motorbike? Can’t the poodle run alongside the Harley? If our Police Commissioner Ken Burns sees the said poodle in the basket between the handlebars, should he write Jay an expiation ticket? If not, why not? Everyone else is getting one, for one transgression or another.

Should the Director of Public Prosecutions know in advance? Although Jay was only a junior minister in 2007 when this is alleged to have occurred, he’s now Top Dog. And Monty doesn’t mean the poodle.

On the subject of the inexorable passing of time, Jay’s Guide advised that readers should “avoid or minimise the following” - At the end of the day; On a weekly basis; At this moment in time; and Going Forward. Monty anticipates the day that a Government of South Australia letter advises him: Dear Sir - At the start of the day, or at least on a daily basis, the matter is Going Backwards. Ah, Brutal Honesty: I knew him well! That might win a plain English award were it ever to escape the confines of the Cabinet office, the only place you might find it.

Jay’s Guide concludes by quoting shamelessly a fellow named Eric Blair, a poverty stricken British writer with a toothbrush moustache and a habit for cheap tobacco in the 1940s who used the pen name George Orwell. “Good writing is like a window pane,” Jay quotes. Perhaps Jay was being cryptic?

Wasn’t his advice supposed to be about plain English and clear communication? On checking the Orwell quote, Monty found another, elsewhere, by the same writer. Jay should have used that. It was more transparent. “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

(Politics and the English language, Horizon, no 13, 1946.) Since Jay’s the top dog and also treasurer, he might find a few dollars for a revised reprint of Plain English, Good Practice Guide for the next administration. Besides, the grandmother would now be 88 and we’re keen to know whether - in an election year - the poodle still does motorcycle tricks. Given what’s happened in recent weeks, it could be a useful diversionary stunt for a party pedalling up a very steep hill.

The Adelaide Review March 2014 23

adelaidereview.com.au

PERFORMING ARTS

Luminous Black light, body paint and circus are three things that are rarely combined but Jessica Watson Miller says combining these different elements is the point of her show Luminous.

by John Dexter

W

atson Miller is Luminous’ director.

She is a top-class body painter, having competed in the World Bodypainting Festival and was crowned Australian champion of the art in 2011. Her work is internationally recognised and Luminous is billed as “the only show of its kind in the world”.

Standing out in the Fringe – where dozens of shows compete to do just that – can be a struggle but when you are a champion body painter, have a swag of UV lights, and circus performers on your side, that task gets easier. When asked what drew Watson Miller to body painting over another creative practice she explains that the impermanence of the art is what fascinates her.

“You can’t put your artwork away and come back tomorrow with body painting, because your canvas will go and take a shower.”

Luminous is a way to combine things she loves; circus and UV body paint. Like any good Fringe show, Luminous draws on the skills of the cast to be more than just performers.

Everyone has something to contribute, be it ideas for new contortion positions, juggling routines, disappearing acts or electricity and lighting expertise. That said, creating a show of such complexity is no cakewalk. Since light and objects create shadows, full coverage of the arena is important to maintain the illusion of glowing specimens onstage. Watson Miller explains that one solution to this was to construct umbrellas with their own UV lighting.

Unfortunately, these were lost in a taxi on the opening night of the Fringe. Attempts to recover them, including a pleading Channel 10 Tweet and Luminous’ producer putting her number on a huge blackboard in the middle of town, have been unsuccessful.

Performed at La Petite Grande in Gluttony, Luminous shares its space with a few other acts.

Since the other acts don’t rely on the tent being completely blacked out, along with UV lights and circus equipment, there is an almighty bump in and out each night. Aside from the sets, there is the paint to clean up inside the venue, as well as off the performers.

“By the end of the show there is body paint everywhere: on the bottom of peoples’ feet, inside suitcases. Our producer even got some on her the other day and she’s not in the show.”

Constructing and taking down the Luminous set, plus cleaning the paint off performers and props, speaks to the same temporary nature of the show that Watson Miller is so enthralled by.

With shows selling out, the chance to see this one-of-a-kind performance might soon disappear as quickly as paint in the shower.

»»Luminous Gluttony (La Petite Grande) Continues until Sunday, March 2 gluttony.net.au

Featuring performances and Master Classes by Lynn Harrell USA Li-Wei Singapore/Australia Marko Ylönen Finland Leonard Elschenbroich Germany

Concerts, recitals, lectures, Master Classes and the Cello Building Project 30 March to 6 April 2014

Featuring the

Adelaide, South Australia

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Artistic Director Janis Laurs

conducted by Arvo Volmer

Telephone +61 417 889 996 Email hello@adelaidecellofestival.com.au

Winner of the Ruby Award

www.adelaidecellofestival.com.au

for “Best Event” in 2011

Pei-Jee Ng UK/Australia Pei-Sian Ng Singapore/Australia Eugene Friesen USA Rushad Eggleston USA Howard Penny Australia Georg Pedersen Australia Louise McKay Australia Janis Laurs Australia Giovanni Sollima Italy

24 The Adelaide Review March 2014

PERFORMING ARTS Volkov contends this does not mean popular taste has to then arbitrate on artistic decision-making. He prefers, he says, hard-edged experimentalism and styles of more popular appeal being able to co-exist but to do so within a single creative environment. “It is good to have both, but what I’m ultimately interested in is not something that’s ‘audience friendly’. I don’t believe in that.

I’m not here to serve people, because if people have the mentality that they are paying for something like they’re going to supermarket, they should go there or see a film. I have a responsibility to trust that audiences will be interested, and if I reach down, I don’t feel I’m fulfilling my responsibility as an artist. I have to get into a dialogue with that understanding, not sit down and eat something.”

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Jahja Ling Conductor Alina Pogostkina Violin

MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO Friday 21 & Saturday 22 March Adelaide Town Hall Adelaide Symphony Orchestra raises the curtain to their 2014 Master Series with Strauss’ fiery orchestral tone poem Don Juan.

Alina Pogostkina will perform one of the best-loved violin concertos of all time and the concert finishes with Dvořák’s Bohemian folk music inspired Eighth Symphony.

Ilan Volkov

“Pogostkina switched on the power for an electrifying finish.”

Shifting Ground Not for the last three Adelaide Festivals have we seen a serious commitment given to new orchestral music.

The Journal

by Graham Strahle

T

he London Sinfonietta came out in 2010 to play two concerts of Glass, Nancarrow, Bryars and Brett Dean, and before that the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra was tasked with the job of programming new music – Absolute Ensemble in 2004 and John Adams’ Dharma at Big Sur in 2008. But since then, the festival has rather dropped the ball, favouring more mainstream and eclectic forms of contemporary music over new classical music, which because of its perceived listener challenges sadly often sits in the too-hard basket.

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With the promise of changing all that, along comes one of today’s originals of the conducting scene, Ilan Volkov, to help curate the 2014 Festival. This young Israeli-born conductor is an uncompromising experimentalist, liberalist and reformist all rolled into one, with an intriguing train of successes behind him centering on his Tectonics Festival, which began in Iceland’s Reykjavik in 2012. Named after the geographic point in that country where the European and North American tectonic plates meet, Tectonics has also shown in Glasgow and Tel Aviv. This year it debuts in Adelaide and New York.

Volkov’s Tectonics concerts so far have seen avant-garde era works by Christian Wolff and Morton Feldman jam up against pioneering ‘process music’ by Alvin Lucier (‘I Am Sitting in a Room’, 1969) and up-to-the-minute, grungy DIY electro-acoustic improvisations.

Tectonics Adelaide will be a compressed version of the original event – it runs on consecutive days in two concerts, four hours 30 minutes and seven hours 30 minutes each, at the Grainger Studio and Queen’s Theatre.

But the aim is the same: to create a meeting ground for different styles of music that otherwise rarely intersects.

Experimental electronic composers, improvisers and sound installation artists will combine with their orchestral, chamber and solo classical counterparts.

Trust, he says, is an important thing from the audience’s perspective. “If you look at art galleries and how many people visit them, there’s a huge interest in the art world in new work. Music is a different thing. It is very immersive; you have to trust the composers and performers to be able to give your time to them.”

Tectonics Adelaide looks set to resemble no other concert experience witnessed in this city. Quite apart from the concerts’ extraordinary duration, audiences will be free to walk in and out any time they wish. Says Volkov: “These concerts are people inspired. You can come and go out whenever you please.

You can go out and get a beer. People can choose what they do. But what I’ve done in my head is assemble, I believe, some really amazing performances that people will be curious to hear.

“In Australia,” he says, “one of the most important things is working with local musicians. It’s the same with Iceland; the idea is not about trying to bring stars from all over the world. I’m interested in that.”

There will be orchestral works by Australian composers David Ahern (who studied in Adelaide with Richard Meale, and in Europe with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Cornelius Cardew), Adelaide-born Matthew Shlomowitz and guitarist-percussionist Oren Ambarchi from Sydney. A new work by Elena KatsChernin and experimental violinist Jon Rose, Elastic Band, will be unveiled.

These plus two orchestral scores by Xenakis, Aurora and Akrata, will be presented by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with Volkov directing.

Adelaide’s Soundstream and Japanese pianist Aki Takahashi will contribute piano works by Xenakis.

»»Tectonics Adelaide Adelaide Festival Program One: Grainger Studio, Sunday, March 9 (2.30pm to 7pm) Program Two: Queen’s Theatre, Monday, March 10 (2.30pm to 11pm) adelaidefestival.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014 25

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

PERFORMING ARTS

Elder Hall 2014 Season

“For Elder Perspectives we’ve commissioned some six-foot high wooden screens which can be set up to turn Elder Hall into a much more intimate venue,” Oremland says. ‘It turns the hall from a 600-seater venue to an intimate space for 250 people. And the wonderful acoustics are still retained.”

BY ROBERT DUNSTAN

Evenings At Elder Hall, hosted by The Elder Conservatorium of Music and which commence in April and continue once a month until October (with some concerts having a Supper Club component with wine and canapés), also boasts a strong line-up with artists such as jazz musician James Morrison and renowned soprano Rosamund Illing taking part.

N

orth Terrace’s historic Elder Hall, considered to be one of the finest concert venues in the country since opening in 1900, has just announced its season for 2014, which commences on Friday, February 28 with a lunchtime concert featuring Ensemble Galante with guest soprano Tessa Miller.

“The lunchtime concerts – and there are more to be announced for the second half of the year – have something for everyone because they are a real mix,” Claire Oremland, a former member of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and now Elder Hall’s Concert Manager, says.

“If you are not fond of jazz, the following week will be a string quartet with an oboe recital the week after. And, as a concert series, they have a high profile and we are able to attract musicians from interstate and even overseas.”

Thus, classical accordion player James Crabb, from Scotland, will team up with well-

“As part of that evening series, Elder Hall will also be presenting its very first opera, Englelbert Humperdinck’s folk opera Hansel and Gretel,” Oremland points out. “That will be over four consecutive nights in October.

Elizabeth Layton and Aleksandr Tsiboulski

known Australian recorder player Genevieve Lacy for a lunchtime concert on Friday, March 7 as well as presenting the world premiere of their Shadow Box collaboration, which features a multi-media component, the following evening.

The lunchtime concerts, which have been an Elder Hall favourite since the 1950s, have actually seen increased attendances since having a $10 door charge.

“I think that’s because people seem to value a concert more that has a price on it,” Oremland muses. “And our lunchtime subscriptions – a transferable, full season Gold Pass – have also become incredibly popular.”

Elder Hall, which is utilised by Adelaide Fringe and Adelaide Festival during those annual events, also hosts many Masterclasses as well as having Elder Perspectives, a series of intimate evening concerts.

“There’s actually something happening at Elder Hall all year round,” she concludes. “As well as what we program, there are also other events such as Adelaide International Cello Festival, which happens in late March. Elder Hall is really a lovely treasure for the people of Adelaide who love music.”

music.adelaide.edu.au/elderhall

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26 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

PERFORMING ARTS

Adelaide to Infinity For two decades Stars of the Lid have been pioneers of vast, minimalist, slowly unfolding soundscapes.

Performing in Australia for the first time, and exclusive to the Adelaide Festival, they are the outstanding attraction of Unsound 2014.

BY WILLIAM CHARLES

“

If you’re making art, there are things that happen to you your whole life that sort of resonate off you, and this is how you start to create. It’s great if you can get this connection with people that turns into something bigger than you ever thought possible. I never in a million years imagined I’d be making a living off music – it was completely accidental. I feel very fortunate. I wanted to be a professional tennis player when I was a kid,” admits Adam Wiltzie, on Skype from Belgium where he has lived for the past 15 years. Although speaking the local language,

he finds being a non-native in Belgium allows him to escape into the necessary silences of his mind, while at the same time enjoying the more equitable northern European social system that contrasts with the ongoing ravages of contemporary American collapse. “It’s the most uncool place on earth,” he says of Brussels. “I love it here.” Berlin, he says by way of comparison, as a mecca for so many aspiring artists from around the world, “has turned into New York City. It’s horrible.”

Wiltzie and long-time collaborator Brian

state theatre company

in association with Adelaide Festival Centre presents the Sydney Theatre Company and the Australian Defence Force production

The Long Way Home by daniel keene

01 april — 05 april Dunstan Playhouse / BASS 131 246

Stars of the Lid

McBride form Stars of the Lid, the enigmatic US pairing whose shimmering, elongated drone experiments have produced some of the most beautiful recorded music of the past 20 years. Their following – small yet fiercely loyal, as is common to niche artists – has nevertheless grown substantially since the release of 2001’s The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid and 2007’s And Their Refinement of the Decline, both double CDs from US label Kranky that spend over two hours stretching the conventional sonic possibilities of classical instruments – violin, piano, horns and cello – layering harmonies, building sheet upon sheet of immersive drone ambience. Both artists have also worked side projects of an experimental nature – McBride both solo and as Bell Gardens; Wiltzie as The Dead Texan, or with Labradford and Aix Em Klemm, among others.

The music speaks for itself; the Stars of the Lid sound seemed to be there from their very first release, Music for Nitrous Oxide, back in 1993. It was clear this was a new template for listening, quite unlike anything else, though Wiltzie would never claim, he asserts strongly and humbly, to be doing anything special. The often comic nature of their song titles attests to a pairing not quite prepared to take themselves too seriously, despite the evidence of their music.

Stars of the Lid are not about the sugar hit.

Film maker Andrei Tarkovsky once commented that while in cinema a long shot can be boring, an extremely long shot becomes fascinating as the complexities of what is in range are slowly revealed – the expansion of time allows for a better study of the essence of things. Stars of the Lid’s music sometimes operates on the same principle of lengthened and slowed

concentration. Its depths are revealed over long stretches of subtly changing sound such as treated guitar, cello or piano, lit up with odd tweaks and shimmers, twists and scraps of dialogue, reverb and organic decay. The music plays out as gravitational, archaeological, even glacial, while verging on the psychedelic in its regular homage to David Lynch; it somehow manages to be simultaneously meditative, melancholy and unashamedly romantic.

As a music that gives a sense of not being intimidated by the vastness of things – in fact of wanting to explore that vastness that surrounds us – Stars of the Lid have been likened to a contemporary secular form of religious music and experience, though Wiltzie would never claim that as an intention.

A commitment in New York directly after Unsound means Stars of the Lid will play exclusively in Adelaide. And, Wiltzie suggests, they’ll be playing a combination of new music (it’s six years since their last CD) and “the hits”.

How would the group decide which of their long, stately pieces are the hits? Given Wiltzie and McBride live so far apart, and don’t have opportunities to practice together, it tends to be the pieces they know best. “Whatever’s easiest to play,” Wiltzie finishes off laconically.

» Stars of the Lid Adelaide Festival Adelaide Town Hall Thursday, March 6 (8pm) adelaidefestival.com.au/2014/music/ unsound_adelaide

ELDER CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC PRESENTS

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ELDER HALL | NORTH TERR ACE FRIDAYS 1.10 – 2.00PM 28 FEBRUARY – 27 JUNE

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Tickets: $25/$18 | Enquiries & bookings 8313 5925 Online booking www.elderhall.adelaide.edu.au

For FREE BROCHURE, enquiries and bookings call 8313 5925 or email claire.oremland @adelaide.edu. au Online bookings www.elder hall.adelaide.edu.au

adelaide.edu.au

28 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

PERFORMING ARTS

Ready to Rumble Belgium’s Ontroerend Goed (OG) returns to the Adelaide Festival to present the Australian premiere of Fight Night, a collaboration with award-winning local experimental troupe The Border Project.

BY DAVID KNIGHT

L

ast in Adelaide to present their trilogy of immersive theatre (Internal, The Smile Off Your Face and A Game of You) as part of the 2013 Adelaide Festival, OG’s collaboration with The Border Project (Trouble on Planet Earth, I am not an Animal) was more than two years in the making. Presented like a boxing bout, Fight Night introduces five political candidates who must win over the audience over five rounds.

When you see the show it will seem very simple from the beginning, and on the surface it is, but there are layers hidden if you want to go deeper.”

Heinrich, who composed the score for State Theatre and Bell Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors last year, as well as Fight Night’s score with Border Project’s Cameron Goodall, says the rehearsal process was quite relaxed in the beginning, as the Belgian company didn’t follow the Australian theatre tradition of 10am-6pm rehearsal days.

Fight Night

It’s a political play minus the politics – a popularity contest, as the audience votes for their favourite candidate throughout the show.

The Border Project’s David Heinrich (actor, composer and sound designer) said they were conscious when they began this project to not make the show political, even though it’s about five political candidates battling it out for votes.

“We didn’t want to all of a sudden start having political debates about issues and so on,” Heinrich explains. “It gets too specific to different countries and the show doesn’t need to do that – if you want to have a political debate, politics already exists

Season 2 O 1 4

to facilitate that exchange of ideas.”

Heinrich, whose character is an old fashioned conservative, explains that Fight Night is more about how the audience, as voters, engage in the political process: “How they make their choices and what it is that influences them to the extent that they think they have control over the choices they are making.”

Created by OG’s Alexander Devriendt after Belgium was left without a government for 500 days, it will travel to Sydney after its Australian premiere in Adelaide. Fight Night had seasons in Belgium and the UK last year. Even though it was created and devised by Devriendt, Heinrich says Fight Night was a complete collaboration between the two companies.

“He [Deviriendt] came in with a basic structure for the overall show and this idea of where he wanted to go with it – simply what he wanted the show to be about. But the rehearsal process was very open – we worked together.

All of us wrote different parts of the script together and separately. Often we would work on something and then we would get homework tasks to write a speech about a particular thing and we would bring that in the next day.

“We spent three months making this show, which is a crazy unheard of amount of time in Australia for rehearsals. It was a real slow burn.

Sunday 30 March 2014 6.30pm Elder Hall

a d e l a i d e yo u t h o r c h e S t r a keith crellin oaM tianyou Ma

Conductor Violin

copland Saint-Saëns dvořák

Fanfare for the Common Man Violin Concerto No 3 Symphony No 9 From the New World

“They [OG] spend a long time making a show but then they will tour it for years. Here you might spend six weeks making a show but then you’ll do it at the Playhouse once and go to Mt Gambier and that’s it – done. Their model is to build shows that have longevity and can tour internationally and they build that into them.”

Fight Night will travel to Sydney before returning to Belgium in May when the country is in the midst of elections. Nothing is confirmed after that but Heinrich says The Border Project will be developing their follow-up to the award winning I am not an Animal this year, which will be a “weird funeral” show.

“It’s basically about imagining what your own funeral would be like. That’s the starting point for it.”

» Fight Night Adelaide Festival Queen’s Theatre Thursday, March 13 to Sunday, March 16 theborderproject.com

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Maestro Series 1

New World Order

“There were some days early on where at two or three in the afternoon Alexander would go, ‘Yeah, you know, I think I just need to go home and think about it now. That’s all for today. Come in tomorrow and we’ll talk about this then.’ Initially, we were like, ‘What’s going on?’ But it’s nice to have that reflective space built into a process where you can actually think about an idea properly rather than go, ‘Well, this is all the money we could get. We’ve got four weeks to make the thing – let’s go for it.’

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Tandanya acknowledges and pays respect to the Kaurna people - the traditional owners of the country on which we celebrate.

The Adelaide Review March 2014 29

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PERFORMING ARTS

by John Dexter

“There’s a wonderful sense of fraternity between cellists,” he says.

When asked whether an event like this is perceived as stuffy, Laurs says that this perception might be inevitable with some and that the backbone of the festival is a more classically focussed Lunchtime Series.

Yet, Laurs also notes that the key to the festival’s success is having a diverse range of music on offer, like jazz, or improvised performances.

“Curating the festival relies on listening to artists and audiences as to what they want.

They don’t always want to hear the same thing.

In a festival, you have to offer choice.”

Likewise, masterclasses will be run for cello students with accomplished master cellists.

Since much of the festival will be hosted at the University of Adelaide, students of the university will be offered these classes for free.

Laurs has been able to garner an attractive swathe of popular cellists for the festival both from Australia and overseas. This year will see the likes of Lynn Harrell, Eugene Friesen, Zoe Knighton and the esteemed Ng twins, Pei-Jee and Pei-Sian.

“When you give younger players an opportunity to participate, their parents will come along. They might come along for a few years, and participation just grows from there.

People grow an appetite for the future.”

Collaboration is key to gathering such a diverse set of artists. Laurs explains that he has brought these players together by connections with groups like the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and, of course, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

»»The Adelaide International Cello Festival Sunday, March 30 to Sunday, April 6

“It can’t be an international festival without the ASO,” he comments.

adelaidecellofestival.com.au Lynn Harrell

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St Peter’s Cathedral, North Adelaide

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The music of Eric Whitacre, Arvo Pärt, Australia’s own Clare Maclean and Renaissance masters Victoria and Palestrina.

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CARL CROSSIN Director

W

hat makes the cello so important that it deserves its own festival? Why not other classical instruments, like the piano or flute? Because, the founder and Artistic Director of the Adelaide International Cello Festival, Janis Laurs says, the cello is dynamic. It has a huge range that sounds great on its own or in concert and, crucially, cellos draw a devoted crowd.

Photo: Christian Steiner

Adelaide International Cello Festival

Aside from live performance, the festival has craft and educational elements too. For the duration of the 13-day festival, five luthiers will work together to build a world-class cello, as they have in previous years. Audiences are welcome to go and observe the construction of the cello. Laurs describes it as a heady experience, “You go into that room and you smell pine and cedar. It’s an intoxicating kind of thing.”

30 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

PERFORMING ARTS

30 Vital Years

BY JANE HOWARD

I

n 1984, amidst a collection of community focused groups being established, artists Roxxy Bent, Ollie Black and Margaret Fisher founded Vitalstatistix Theatre Company.

Looking back over the company’s 30-year history, current Creative Producer Emma Webb describes this time as having a real sense of opportunity for feminist art. “The personal is political, and what you do in your own life is really important. Initiating organisations, and women organising, was a really important part of that feminist philosophy.”

For Bent, Black and Fisher, Webb explains that there was a two-pronged approach in the early days of the company: creating a space for the support of women artists in a cultural environment where women and women’s voices were often sidelined; and creating political work to educate the community about sexism and other important issues of the day.

As with any small arts organisation, Vitalstatistix’s history has been rocky. They’ve lost – but always regained – funding multiple times over their history, and partially through this, and through the changing tide of theatre, politics, and feminism in Australia, it’s found itself operating in many different guises.

“It was quite feasible that at any point throughout its history that the company might not have survived,” says Webb. “Small-tomedium sized companies have a really hard time surviving.

“Let alone anything else that might affect an arts company’s ability to survive, but on top of that a company that is a feminist organisation, that’s based in a working class suburb like the Port [Adelaide], and that has produced a lot of political work.

“It’s kind of remarkable, in some ways,” she says, “that it’s survived and thriving.”

Since the departure of the founding members in the mid-90s, the company has been led by Catherine Fitzgerald, Maude Davey, Jane Fuller and, now, Webb. Talking to Webb, you get a real sense she carries the history of the organisation with her, and she speaks passionately about their anniversary celebration series Her Story, where each of the artistic directors will take to Waterside Workers Hall for a Sunday

Afternoon, beginning with the founders on Sunday, March 30.

Says Webb: “I’m really interested in hearing personal perspectives and personal experiences about what it was like to be the AD [artistic director] at that time, and why them at that time? What impact has it had on them personally to work with this company?”

“It’s been really interesting to reflect on the different eras of the company because they are really distinct. There is a real line through in terms of the support for women artists and the place of the company of the local community,” but she says, “they’ve all really put a big stamp on the company.”

Under Webb, audiences at Waterside Workers Hall might see a tour of a contemporary Australian work developed interstate, a debut work from an independent company created in association with Vitalstatistix, or development of a show at the beginning of its life. For Webb, the common thread running through all of these programs is a curatorial vision, and the relationships the company has with the artist.

“We are a small company, and so those relationships to us are quite intense, and they’re quite sepcialised in a sense,” she says. “The artists that we work with really have an impact on the feel and culture of the company over time.”

The Gay Divorcee, Margaret Fischer.

» Her Story: Sunday Sessions Sunday, March 30 (3-5pm) Waterside, 11 Nile St, Port Adelaide (entry: $5) vitalstatistixtheatrecompany.blogspot.com.au

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THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014 31

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CINEMA

French Film Festival Highlights

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

T

he Alliance Francaise French Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary from Thursday, March 20 to Tuesday, April 8 with the opening night film (The Finishers) and the traditional closing classic (Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle from 1958) as well as plenty of new French films to check in-between.

The Adelaide Review selects four highlight films of this year’s AFFF. MICHAEL KOHLHAAS Starring man of the moment Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt, Hannibal), this joint French/German production is a brilliant historical drama. Slowpaced to the extreme, your patience as a viewer is aptly rewarded by this fine film about a man who takes the law into his own hands when he feels injustice has been done to him in 16th century France. Pick of the festival.

MOBIUS Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin (The Artist, The Wolf of Wolf Street) stars in this romantic

MR MORGAN’S LAST LOVE

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

Sandra Nettelbeck’s Mr Morgan’s Last Love is a strange little film punctuated by strong performances in this tale of cross-generational friendship. Michael Caine plays lonely widower Matthew Morgan, a retired American professor living in his departed wife’s hometown of Paris even though he doesn’t speak a word of French, and seems completely uninterested in learning the language of his current home. A chance bus encounter with young dance instructor Pauline (Clemence Poesy) leads to an unlikely friendship between the two. But what are they looking for in this friendship? Are they both just lonely souls seeking family figures, or is there more?

An unfortunate event brings Matthew’s son and daughter to Paris. His daughter, Karen (Gillian

thriller with a brilliant international cast. Dujardin is Russian secret agent Gregory Lioubov, whose mission is to nab Russian oligarch Ivan Rostovsky (Tim Roth – effortlessly brilliant, as always). Of course Lioubov falls for the femme fatale trader he enlists to rat on her Russian boss, but this tale of double-crosses is spectacular with its exotic Monaco setting and Hitchcock-like twists.

JUST A SIGH The wonderful Emmanuelle Devos (Read My Lips, The Other Son) plays down-on-her luck actress Alix who stumbles across English professor Doug (Gabriel Byrne) while Doug is in Paris for a funeral. The two have a passionate affair, but was it meant to be? A lively comedy drama that belongs to Devos, as the kooky actress searching for meaning.

CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1915 Arguable the finest actress in the world, Juliette Binoche, stars as sculptor Camille Claudel in this unforgiving and brutal true story. Locked away from the outside world in a mental institution, Claudel tries to make her case for sanity via a heartbreaking performance by Binoche.

» Alliance Francaise French Film Festival Thursday, March 20 to Tuesday, April 8 Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas affrenchfilmfestival.org

Anderson), is more interested in shopping than spending time with her dad but his son Miles (Justin Kirk) is suspicious of the friendship between the young dance instructor and his old man. Caine is the reason to see this film (despite his wavering American accent, which can be a little distracting) but the 80-year-old brings depth and heart and is completely unforgettable. Caine is ably supported by Poesy (127 Hours), as their friendship convinces despite the far-fetched circumstances. The film is enhanced by the arrival of the cautious Miles, who is basically estranged from his dad, and the attempts by Pauline to reconnect the two stubborn men brings much needed drama. Mr Morgan’s Last Love is an admirable film, but one that needed more weight to rock its gentle pace.

» Mr Morgan’s Last Love commences on Thursday, March 6. Rated M

32 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

PERFORMING ARTS

The Cruel Sea J.C. Chandor is driving home in New York City while talking on his mobile during the following interview (and yes, that does sound dangerous), and he winningly begins by explaining just how lucky he is: “You know, this [All is Lost] is only my second film as a writer/ director [after Margin Call], although I’ve been in the business for 10, 15 years, and it’s been great, an amazing experience.”

BY D.M. BRADLEY

T

he GFC-haunted Margin Call and the open-sea-set All is Lost couldn’t be more different (the former has lots of characters and dialogue, while the latter has one unnamed character and almost no dialogue), so did Chandor set out to make All is Lost deliberately different?

“I didn’t set out for it to be like that at the time. I write and direct my own stuff, so when the process starts – you’re just writing. I was working on a bunch of things. This began with the letter that starts the film, and when it came to me I didn’t know what the movie was going to become. I suppose that, in a way,

the two films actually share a lot in a weird way, but after the six months that the film came together, I looked back and realised that I’d painted a completely different picture.

Although, when I think about it, the structure of the two films is actually similar, as both times you learn about a person through their actions and reactions in a crisis and a limited environment.”

Chandor’s star is Robert Redford. His casting is intriguing as Redford’s age (78 this year) gives it an edge that it would have lacked if, say, Shia LaBeouf had toplined.

“The script was always written to be about an older man, and that’s what made the project interesting. I was looking at actors who could do the physical side of this role, which is very important, but who were also getting to the later chapters of their life. The list gets short pretty quickly. Redford, for me, was a very cool combination of having a very deep history with the audience while also having a certain amount of mystery. A rare combination.”

Is this the first movie in which Redford

TRACKS

BY NIGEL RANDALL

THE FIRST FILM EVER MADE IN SAUDI ARABIA COMES FROM F E M A L E D I R E C T O R H A I FA A A L M A N S O U R

HHHHH

UTTERLY CAPTIVATING… Unmissable THE VIEW LONDON

PHENOMENAL...with humour, warmth and smarts INDIEWIRE

IN CINEMAS MARCH 20 PALACE NOVA EASTEND

Robert Redford

Other films will come to mind whilst being enthralled by Tracks, director John Curran’s (Praise) mesmerising new feature based on Robyn Davidson’s best selling account of her solo trek across 3,200km of west Australian dessert. The haunting mystique of the outback landscape captured by Curran easily recalls, and matches in effect, classics such as Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout, Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright and Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock. And of course David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia simply in terms of the epic scale of endeavor that a journey by foot across uninhabitable terrain necessitates. Tracks is just as majestic in it’s own right.

Beginning with Davidson (Mia Wasikowska) arriving in Alice Springs in the late 70s

Robert Redford and J.C. Chandor.

clutches his chest several times as if fearing a stress-induced heart attack?

“It is… it’s pretty courageous for a guy like him at this point in his career. I mean, he certainly has nothing left to prove. Or maybe

he wants to prove something to himself? It’s a very creatively courageous move. And I was very lucky,” he continues, “as I wrote the letter that opens the film while I was editing Margin Call in September 2010. I went to Sundance in January 2011 with Margin Call

determined to learn how to break wild camels needed to aid her trip, Curran and screen writer Marion Nelson provide ample time and space to set characters in place. Along with some sparse voice over (“I’d always been drawn to the purity of the desert, its hot wind and wide open spaces”) and brief interactions with various others along the way, we don’t so much gain insight into Davidson’s motivation (other than to be alone with her camels and beloved dog), but do develop a sense of the woman. The closest she comes to a sustained relationship is with American National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan (charmingly nerdish Adam Driver), whose assignment and friendly nature she resents. Another notable figure is Mr Eddy (scene stealing Rolley Mintuma), an Aboriginal elder who escorts Davidson through sacred land.

The real story here though, is that of interiors – the vast, unknown within country and self.

Wasikowska is superb as the enigmatic sole searcher undertaking the trip into those dual spaces that most curious onlookers thought

impossible. This beautifully actualized story transports the viewer along the way on what becomes, and ends, a profoundly memorable journey.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014 33

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CINEMA to premiere it there, and Redford gave an opening talk at that festival [Sundance is his baby, of course]… I was about 80 percent done with the script then and as he was giving this rousing, funny speech I started thinking about him in the role. A month after that we offered it to him and, amazingly, about a week after that, he accepted it, and less than a year later we were shooting.”

Chandor is quick to point out that there is very little FX in the movie: “Some layering and compositing… everything – sort of – done to Redford is real, as really we couldn’t afford anything else. The majority of the film was shot in the ocean off Mexico, and a huge tank facility where they also shot Titanic. Right on the Pacific Ocean… And then we shot in the ocean off Los Angeles and off the Bahamas and in the Caribbean. A real jigsaw, a patchwork of locations.”

Chandor is pleased with how the preproduction of his current film, A Most Violent Year, is progressing.

“It’s going to be shot here in New York. We’re in the process of locking in our cast now.”

Is it true that Jessica Chastain and Javier Bardem will be starring?

“Nothing’s confirmed now [or at least when this interview was conducted]. You know, you just have to wait and see how things work out when you make a movie, but it’s a script we all believe in and I have my great team working with me again. So, it should be fine.”

» All is Lost commences at cinemas everywhere on Thursday, March 6

A Landmark Film Haifaa Al Mansour explains the difficulties involved with filming her fantastic feature debut, Wadjda.

BY DAVID KNIGHT

N

amed as one of The Guardian’s 10 best films of 2013, the uplifting story of a feisty 11-year-old tomboy, Wadjda (Waad Mohammed), is the first feature-length film to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first Saudi feature to be directed by a woman. But these historical achievements are not the reason to see Wadjda – you should see it because it’s a damn fine piece of filmmaking. But it is a landmark film, as Al Mansour, who studied in Australia, made a film in a kingdom basically has no film industry and where cinemas are banned.

Also, because of restrictions to women, she had to direct the street scenes via a walkie talkie in a van, as she was not allowed to interact with the male crew.

“It was really hard to shoot in Saudi Arabia,” Al Mansour begins, “not because of the country, we had permission to shoot and everything, but that the society itself is very conservative and doesn’t accept film and is not very friendly when it comes to films. We had problems with access to locations, we lost locations really quickly, we had to find another place because of scheduling, we had a small budget – all of that. But for me, it was very important to make an authentic film, a real representation of the culture. Also, I thought that people don’t necessarily know what it [Saudi Arabia] looks like.

It’s very important to open the country for people to see how it is and how it feels to be in Saudi.”

Al Mansour believes things are slowly changing in regards to women’s rights, as she thinks it would have been difficult to shoot this film 10 or 15 years ago.

“Saudi Arabia is opening up a little bit more and new ideas are emerging, as the new generation is more accepting and more tolerant – they want to see films and there is a push for women, but it is very small though, very gradual. Still Saudi Arabia is a very conservative place and lots of things are still to happen... the situation for women is not perfect yet.”

after numerous schemes to raise the money.

Though it is a feminist film, to Al Mansour the story trumps ideology.

“For me, it is about a young person searching for herself, finding a voice and pursuing a dream.

For me that is the message. It’s true, I don’t make films for ideology, but this film is, of course, a feminist film. It’s about empowering women and giving them a voice. Next time, maybe, I’ll make

a film about men, that is not just about women, for me it’s also very important to tell an engaging story, an emotional story rather than say, ‘I’m just going to make a feminist film only about women’ that is not my approach.”

» Wadjda commences on Thursday, March 20

MOVIE EVENTS The Regal Theatre or Trak Cinema can be booked any day or night of the week for a social club/fundraiser/ corporate movie night.

With a variety of films available, make the Trak or Regal your venue for your next movie night.

For more information, email Tom Baxter tom@republictheatres.com.au

NOW SHOWING Nebraska (M) Le Weekend (M) Dallas Buyers Club (MA15+) 12 Years A Slave (MA15+)

COMING SOON Tracks - March 6 Mr Morgans Last Love - March 6 The Monuments Men - March 13 Noah - March 27

TRAK CINEMA 375 GREENHILL RD, TOORAK GARDENS 8332 8020 REGAL THEATRE 275 KENSINGTON RD, KENSINGTON PARK 8431 5039 theregaltheatre.com.au

» Tracks commences on Thursday, March 6.

Rated M.

A wonderfully shot simple story about the titular character participating in a Qur’an recital competition in order to buy a bike

‘Trak Cinema & Regal Theatre belong to the Republic Theatre Group’

34 The Adelaide Review March 2014

VISUAL ARTS

Helpmann’s Anniversary Class This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Helpmann Academy.

by Jane Llewellyn

S

et up to help artists make the transition from university to professional life, the Academy now plays an integral role in nurturing and developing the arts in South Australia. It’s a unique model and CEO Amanda Pepe says: “It’s absolutely unheard of in any other state or country, as far as I know, that competing tertiary institutions come to a collaborative table in an organisation such as the Helpmann Academy to work together for the greater good of arts training in the state.”

While initially the plan was that the Academy

would offer further training, it’s now the attitude that the Academy picks up where universities finish. The Academy has been running its graduate exhibition for 19 years to showcase the visual artists of the future. It’s become a much anticipated event on the visual arts calendar and provides an opportunity for artists to kickstart their career and for audiences to discover the next big thing.

“This exhibition is a launching pad. It gives the artists exposure, it’s professionally presented and provides an opportunity to have their work seen by key players both here and interstate,” explains Pepe.

Tom Borgas, Postdigital Artefacts, wood, plaster, concrete, cardboard, acrylic, spray paint, foam, glass, plastic vials,

An independent panel of selectors (Lisa Slade (Project Curator, Art Gallery of South Australia), Brian Parkes (CEO, Jam Factory) and Hugo Michell (Director, Hugo Michell Gallery)) chose 33 artists showcasing the breadth of emerging local talent. “Generally we see this as our gift to the artists, to have people as qualified as the panel really critically consider their work and give them some feedback,” says Pepe.

florescent light, water, food colouring

Bruce Tolley, Red pods and green leaves, acrylic on canvas

The Intimate Landscape Bruce Tolley 1933-2013 Curator Leo Neuhofer 2 - 23 March 2014

1 Thomas Street (cnr Main North Road) Nailsworth

The exhibition often indicates trends emerging within the visual arts. For instance this year not a lot of photography was selected but the installation component was strong. Pepe says, “It’s partly to do with trends but you can also see the personality of the panel in the selected works. I think that’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

ROYAL SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY OF ARTS INC.

Trickle Crunch till 16 March 2014 RSASA Members’ artworks with a trickle and a crunch. A vibrant and creative bunch of artists with colourful contemporary and traditional artworks in paintings, printmaking, photographs, mixed media, sculpture, textiles, and so much more.

Forest Floor (detail), Textile by Vikki Waller

RSASA Fringe/Autumn Exhibition

RSASA Characters of the Fleurieu Prize exhibition 24 May – 22 June. Open to all artists and mediums.

Over $5,000 in prizes.

Entry form from www.rsasarts.com.au Entries due 12 April 2014

Sophia Nuske, soft penCiLs, hand-built stoneware, acrylic paint

TESTING GROUND 22 February - 4 May 2014

A S alamanca Ar ts Centre exhibition toured by C ontemporar y Ar t Tasmania Curated by Julie Gough

Flinders University City Galler y Where: RSASA Gallery, Level 1, Institute Bldg, Cnr North Tce & Kintore Ave, Adelaide.

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

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

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

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

The Adelaide Review March 2014 35

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VISUAL ARTS

Zoe Kirkwood, The Neo—Baroque Spectacle (detail), mixed media installation

Sophia Nuske’s have a more subtle charm.

Nuske (who received the Adelaide City Council’s acquisitive award) uses ceramics to recreate everyday objects - in this case pencils.

She wants the audience to look at these objects more closely and reconsider their role. Called soft penCiLs, Nuske creates the illusion that the pencils are soft, they look as if they are made of rubber, but on closer inspection you realise the works are anything but soft.

Roger Myles, UNTITLED No. 5 (architecture of a book), acrylic, paper and mixed media on Arches paper

Standing out in an exhibition of this size can be difficult but it’s something that Zoe Kirkwood has no problem with. She picked up two prizes (the Hill Smith Gallery/Helpmann Academy Friends Award and the City of Adelaide Award) for her large detailed installation work, The Neo-Baroque Spectacle. The work reflects Bernini’s artistic theory bel composto, which involved unifying the arts of painting, sculpture and architecture. Using bright, bold colours the work also shows immense attention to detail Kirkwood hand-turns the wood herself.

While the sheer size of Kirkwood’s work immediately draws you in, other works like

Another artist whose work stood out was Cassie Broad, particularly her works on aluminium. Broad, who received the Peter Walker Fine Art Encouragement Award, reconstructs her childhood home through memories evoked from old photographs. She explores notions of home and presents images that the audience can easily identify with and which evoke our own feelings of home.

Tom Borgas is another artist to watch. He has featured in the last two Helpmann Graduate exhibitions and is currently showing in the project space at CACSA alongside the Adelaide International, which is running in the main space. Borgas creates minimalist sculptural works, which are made of various materials like concrete, wood, plaster, stone and plastic exploring concepts around analogue and digital systems.

Roger Myles took out the San Remo best new talent award. An architect-cum-artist, Myles presented two series, works on paper and a large painting. Carrying as subtext the

architecture of a book, the works on paper were particularly interesting. “I was looking for something that was different to painting in just about every respect you could think of, but at the same time address all the underpinning rationales behind geometric abstraction,” says Myles.

In the works the book becomes the medium in a sense, with Myles allowing it to determine the proportion and scale, an outcome of the work of art. “I’m interested in these sort of slight, what I call ‘chance stimuli’. It’s these little slippages that occur. There is nothing pre determined about it, no preliminary sketch.

Here is a book, I deconstructed it,” explains Myles.

As the Helpmann Academy celebrates 20 years helping artists fulfill their potential Pepe says: “We would love more artists to engage with us. That’s probably the biggest challenge we have - getting people to avail themselves of all the stuff we have on offer. We have more than 20 different programs across all the different art forms.”

»»Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition Drill Hall, Torrens Parade Ground Continues until Sunday, March 9 helpmannacademy.com.au

36 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

JUMP CUTS

Evening shadows: the gift that keeps on giving

viewer to re-view Evening shadows from a contemporary and Indigenous perspective.

Remarkably, two other Australian artists, Tom Nicholson and Nici Cumpston have referenced this specific work. Nicholson convened 38 copies of the work (Evening shadows is held to be Australia’s most copied work of art) and in his 2012 Adelaide Biennial installation, counterposed these copies with a stack of take-away posters referencing an historical event, a mass indigenous strike in 1939 involving 200 Aboriginal men and women who walked off the Cummeragunja Mission in protest at their living conditions.

For Nicholson Evening shadows’ attraction is its complicit relationship with a later colonial era that conveniently thought of Aborigines as a ‘dying race’.

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

BY JOHN NEYLON

A

s shadows crept across the outfield at Adelaide Oval, Australia v England, 2nd Test, December 2013, how could fielders, batsmen or the crowd know that the spirit of one of Australia’s most popular paintings was abroad? The painting in question is H.J. Johnstone’s Evening shadows, backwater of the Murray, South Australia, 1880. It can

exhibitions gallery shop

7 - 30 March 2014 TWO EXHIBITIONS

Layers

artwork in various media by the ‘Figs and Cheese’ group of artists Jenny Dupont, Jo Gilbert, Lindi Harris, Valerie Lewis & Ros McDougall

(above) painting by Ros McDougall (right) painting by Valerie Lewis

Ben Quilty, Evening shadows, Rorschach after Johnstone (detail), 2011. Art Gallery of South Australia

be found down along North Terrace at the Art Gallery of South Australia where it has been in residence since the 1880s (acquisition no.

1). The painting was a gift to the people of South Australia by a remarkable individual, Henry Yorke Sparkes, who in addition to holding down various public offices, was closely involved in the establishment of sporting bodies and facilities, including Adelaide Oval.

In the contemporary era Evening shadows has become a lightning rod for revised views on colonial history and the dispossession of

MEET THE ARTISTS 2pm, Sunday 16 March

Aboriginal people in particular. From this perspective it is possible to understand why the painting has attracted the attention of contemporary artists. One of these is Ben Quilty whose take on Evening shadows was inspired in part by seeing a reproduction of the work when a schoolboy. His painting, Evening shadows, Rorschach after Johnstone, 2011, is a monstrously succulent take on the image fashioned using a ‘Rorschach blot’ technique on a grand scale. This work has now joined Johnstone’s ‘original’ in the Art Gallery’s collection. You don’t have to be Freud to appreciate the artist’s agenda in asking the

IVARS JANSONS

Outback Mirage an exhibition of paintings by Maré Puksand

Moments of Inspiration March 2-29

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

www.gallerym.net.au

A September Shower, Vernazza, Italy

An exhibition of the artist’s studies.

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

Cumpston’s relationship with Evening shadows is derived from a series of works made as a commission for the Commonwealth Law Courts in Adelaide in 2005. The artist had previously made photographic works, tracing her Barkindji ancestry, which featured gum trees, along the River Murray, many stressed by a lack of water. Memories of a childhood spent along the River spurred her on. Johnstone’s mirror-like backwater is referenced in Cumpston’s tree that was fortuitously flooded as part of a restoration program to bring life back to River Red Gum forests in the Katarapko area near Loxton. Companion works (notably the 2008 Attesting series of the Nookamka Lake area) record a reversal in conditions with drought and irrigation stripping trees to their bones but in the process revealing ancient markers such as campsites and scar-trees where bark and timber were removed for shields, coolamons and canoes.

Back to Adelaide Oval. Well before flannelled fools took to the pitch, the area now occupied by the Oval was a site where Kaurna people held public ceremonies, games and religious observances. This tradition continued well into the colonial era. From Adelaide Oval to Evening shadows via the prism of contemporary practice – it’s a cultural cross-country event which Henry Yorke Sparkes, a keen athlete, would have enjoyed.

The Adelaide Review March 2014 37

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VISUAL ARTS

Untitled, 2013. Oil on linen, 120cm x 140cm

Profile: Anna Gore

The paintings are generally static works where Gore leaves it to the viewer to create the motion.

In this sense the works are like a starting off point proposing or initiating a conversation rather than suggesting an end point. Gore is particularly interested in the audience’s emotional response and how the work affects people. “I can only go on my own tastes so it’s sort of what I think it’s doing. What other people think it’s doing might be different.”

her painting and she approaches it in much the same way. She doesn’t consider herself a sculptor but instead looks at how she can extend her painting into the three-dimensional space.

For the exhibition RENDEZVOODOO, Gore has created works using papier-mâché and says: “There is no casting or moulding. You are building something and it is completely formed in response to your gestures and imagination.

You can’t make the same one twice.”

The process of creating the artworks is an important element in Gore’s practice as she tries to work with the material allowing it to be part of the composition. “It’s not necessarily representing anything; it’s doing its own thing.”

That’s not to suggest that Gore’s compositions aren’t carefully considered, concentrating on the way the works look in terms of shapes and colours. “I try to keep shapes really basic, keep gesture really obvious and spontaneous.”

Since graduating with Honours in 2012 from Adelaide Central School of Art, Gore has spent the last year consolidating her ideas, creating works and honing her craft. “I had this really long time off contemplating and thinking for myself and then now, one year later I have all these exhibitions up against each other.”

While Gore’s paintings are completely abstract she believes that while you are dealing with a pictorial space you are always drawing upon reference. “It’s hard to make something not look portrait-like or landscape-like. If you put a horizontal line all the way through it will always read like a horizon. If you add a vertical shape it is always going to look figurative. Those sorts of things always happen.”

»»Visceral Eye Adelaide Central School of Art Continues until Friday, March 21

Gore’s installation work is an extension of

An exhibition by Graduates of Certificate IV Visual Arts – Painting, Drawing and Textiles

MARDEN

SENIOR COLLEGE

A

your pathway to success

nna Gore’s paintings aren’t really depicting anything in particular.

And it’s precisely this idea of abstract or non-representational art that she finds most fascinating, and that makes her work so appealing. “It’s not really directing people so much. It’s not really moulding their minds to see what you want them to see. It begins so much more with the viewer and so much less with the artist.”

20 February - 19 March 2014 www.hillsmithgallery.com.au

An exhibition of paintings

28 February – 16 March 2014 Ceramics by Julie Shaw Jewellery from The Mistress Von Berlow Collection Susan Sideris at Hanrahan Studio By appointment, and open for the duration of this exhibition 2: 00 – 6: 30 pm Fri 28 February – Sun 2 March 2: 00 – 6: 30 pm Wed 5 – Sun 9 March 2: 00 – 6: 30 pm Wed 12 – Sun 16 March 48 Esmond Street, Hyde Park, South Australia T 0449 957 877 hanrahanstudio @ bigpond.com Barbara Hanrahan and Jo Steele’s private residence and gallery are open for viewing during exhibition hours

image Hugo Shaw, First Swim, Port Willunga (detail) 2013, oil on canvas, 39 x 49.5 cm

Chris Bowden, detail

28 March – 24 April 2014

Hugo Shaw Reflections peter daverington into the never

»»Emerging artists group show Greenaway Art Gallery Wednesday, April 30 - Sunday, May 25

BRUSHES AND THREADS

by Jane Llewellyn

Untitled, 2014. Oil on linen, 50cm x 40cm

»»RENDEZVOODOO Fontanelle Sunday, March 2 to Sunday, March 30

Opens: Friday 28 March 6 pm - 8 pm Launch Guest: Cathy Boniciolli Visual Arts Educator/Artist

Free Artist Demonstrations throughout the exhibition: Saturdays 29 March, 5 and 12 April 2 pm – 4 pm

Free entry - all welcome!

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

www.pepperstreetartscentre.com.au

38 The Adelaide Review March 2014

A-Z Contemporary Art

F

ARTSPEAK Funk Funk is the snake on the barbed wire fence of art’s catechism. It should not and will not die. A word derived from ‘lu-fuki’ (‘bad body odour’) will always have important work to do in describing the culturally indescribable or outregrunge. To be a true funkster be prepared to turn your back on polite society.

Photo: J. Neylon

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

by John Neylon

FOOD

Bear-faced, Takayama, 2013

Food and art – the perfect combination to nourish your art practice.

Never ever Heed the advice of one unnamed gallery director skilled in the verse of relieving eager art lovers of surplus wedge; “In choosing items for still lifes, avoid bananas. But do try to stick to a blue/white/ yellow colour scheme. It works everytime.”

My Kitchen Tools Martha (”when the woman speaks she names her own oppression”) Rosler made a video in 1975, featuring herself as TV cooking host rattling through the alphabet with the aid of various kitchen implements (B = bowl and so on) plus dismissive gestures implying anger and frustration at the role of happy housewife thrust upon women. It’s now 2014 and in the light of current celebrity chef mania it’s time to revisit the moment. So now it might be C = Crispy Crust Pizza Maker, E = Electrolux Lavazza Capsule Coffee Machine right on to T = Thermomix, and finish with a Martha Rosler Z for Zorro, as a who-gives-a-flyingfalafel gesture of ironic defiance. Might go viral.

Might not.

Food art You have two choices; arrange or sculpt. The internet’s arteries are clogged with food ‘artistes’ who continue to stupefy with bizarre ways to force food into simulated sex with the world of illusion.

Trainer wheel options include using assorted snack biscuits in a mosaic manner to create a landscape.

Tip: grissini work fine for tree trunks. Challenge options include more liquid and organic items such as custards, jellies and tripe to attempt sunsets or breaking waves. Other tips: avoid working under hot lights. If sculpting use pizza dough. It has the added option of giving your exhibition guests something to chew over.

Yes we can cam This used to work in the 1970s. Throw a dinner party and film the event. But this time, instead of trusting a half-cut fellow artist to lay it all down with a Sony HMV-100CE camera before disappearing for a few months to splice edit a tape, equip all guests with a head mounted (‘Be a Hero’) GoPro and go live on a big screen. Warning: Expect tears and tantrums before go home time.

Recommendation: For this kind of project to

be taken very seriously (as an art work) suggest filming the detritus (half-eaten wild rice pottage, gutted bread roll, abandoned brie puddle) and jump cut edit with slivers of conversation (“ I’m in favour of public education but my child was being bullied so we...”) to explore the semiotics of food-mediated social congress.

Fast Food Claes Oldenburg’s hamburgers and slices of pie may be staring to look a bit stale but that’s no reason why you shouldn’t get into the act. It’s fun, everyone loves it and there’s always the chance of a food company spinoff commission. You’re dreaming: a cinema chain goes nuts for your two story high bucket of popcorn. Tip: Choose materials with care. Apparently Oldenburg’s use of foam rubber and milk cartons to stuff his burger has sponsored a shed load of art conservator PhDs. The pickle by the way disappeared from the burger.

The artist got a replacement through customs by disguising it as a travel pillow.

In good taste The artist Rirkrit Tiravanija created an

Fetishisation This goes far deeper than media obsession with stiletto-cam red carpet toenail pedicures.

Apparently there is no accounting for fetishes so buckle up for some lofty thinking and overelaborated theorizing on the subject. The Enlightenment for example held a concept of fetishism as a fixated chiasmus. Have I lost you? A more contemporary take sees any object or situation as having fetish potential.

It’s all a matter of reconciling fact with fantasy. Many people think shoes but Freud thought feet and any other part of the human anatomy capable of accommodating sexual anxieties. Fetishistic phallocentrism remains in the cross hairs of some art activists. You have been warned.

Form Such a beautiful term which miraculously has survived the predations of later 20th century ideologue word-burners. Why even cricket commentators now refer to players keeping their form in the act of smiting or releasing balls. Formlessness (or ‘informe’) has been touted as the Goyder Line of departure with classically enshrined notions of beautiful form. So ugliness has become the new (if not the you) beauty. Such simple segues continue to entertain us all.

exhibition in New York in which he converted the gallery into a kitchen. Visitors were served (free) rice and Thai curry. Various claims were made such as “the distance between artist and viewer was blurred”. New friends, apparently, were made along the way. If this seems like too much hard work consider Allan (‘The Happener’) Kaprow’s 1964 staged performance (Household) which incorporated some women licking strawberry jam off a Volkswagen. Fifty years later and nearly everyone has forgotten.

Just change the car (Kia?) and condiment (lime pickles?) and no one will notice. Apart from the lickers.

T’Arts Collective Gays Arcade (off Adelaide Arcade)

gregory ackland habitus

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

Jenny Knight Beaded Brooches

20 February - 19 March 2014 www.hillsmithgallery.com.au

Green Desert Window display from 3rd March to 29th March.

Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm Phone 8232 0265

www.tartscollective.com.au Find Us On Facebook

The Adelaide Review March 2014 39

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VISUAL ARTS

Sound of Silence

by Jane Llewellyn

P

hotographic artist Justine Varga is particularly fascinated by the current culture of digital images, the vast number of them and the speed of them.

It’s a fascination which leads her to question why she takes photographs in the first place.

Justine Varga. Evening.

“I have come to the conclusion that my work is counteractive in a way because I empty the images out and ask the viewer to spend time with them and to look and to see. The images create a space for that.”

The process of creating the images is just as important as the end result. “My work can be read in terms of photographic process and what it means to take a photograph.” It’s a slow process for Varga shooting on 4 x 5 sheet film and hand printing everything. She asks audiences to spend time with her work in the same way she does while creating the works.

other works that are lens-based are really based within the studio and they are quite contained.”

However even these studio works contain a hint of the outside. In some works Varga has used sticky tape, which has caught the reflection from the windows of the trees outside.

It’s difficult for Varga to talk about her work because much of it is based on a visual rather than verbal dialogue. “I look at it as giving form to an unarticulated language. It’s something we can’t use words to necessarily describe, it’s a visual thing.”

The exhibition also includes a video work focusing on the drop sheet she used when she repainted the studio, “I pinned it up against the wall and the window was open and the wind was blowing and catching the light. It became like a breezing entity.”

Varga also likes the idea that the audience doesn’t necessarily know what to expect when she has an exhibition - this is as much for herself as it is for the audience. “I want to keep it interesting for me. I spend a lot of time making work so I have to be excited, she

COLIN PENNOCK

In this exhibition Varga returns to lens-based work, except there are a couple of works, Morning and Evening, which are camera-less. She says: “I use them as references to the outside because the

Justine Varga. Still Life.

27 February - 22 March 2014 Gallery hours during Adelaide Festival Tuesday to Friday 11am to 5pm Saturday & Sunday 2pm to 5pm

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

Betty Carrington, Darrajayin, Natural ochre and pigments on canvas, 120cm x 90cm

In this latest body of work, Sounding Silence, Varga breaks down the forms even further. “I am quite interested in the shapes that you can’t quite make out, that some remain nameless to us but somehow resonate somewhere within the viewer.”

Justine Varga. Morning.

JEFF MINCHAM

In her last exhibition at Hugo Michell Gallery in 2012, titled Film Object, Varga began using a camera-less technique - removing the intermediary between the objects she was photographing and the film’s surface. “I was sort of coaxing the objects or subjects onto the film’s surface and playing with different light exposures. They became quite abstracted.”

explains. “I don’t want to know what the next work is going to be. I want to go along that journey of discovery with the audience.”

»»Justine Varga: Sounding Silence Hugo Michell Gallery Thursday, March 27 to Saturday, April 26 hugomichellgallery.com

warmun

art centre until 16 march

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

40 The Adelaide Review March 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE “Who knew what was happening with Tasting Australia and I just thought, ‘Well if I don’t do it now, someone else will do it’. It was a now or never thing, that’s why it came together so quickly. I had been thinking about it for the six years I’d been living in Adelaide – literally the first minute I started working in Adelaide I had the idea to have an Adelaide Food and Wine Festival.”

The Festival hit Adelaide at around the same time that our gastronomic scene exploded with exciting new bars and restaurants.

“That’s just a fluke,” James-Pritchard comments on the timing. “Lachlan [Colwill] made his way to Hentley Farm and with Duncan [Welgemoed] at Bistro Dom and Jock [Zonfrillo] leaving Penfolds/ Magill Estate to start Orana, it is a very exciting time in food. Since I’ve been here the wine’s always been exciting with emerging varieties, but I think with the more restaurant-side of things doing well it gives people a chance to focus on the independent winemakers, people like James Erskine [Jauma] and Taras [Ochota Barrels].”

This year’s major event is the Town Picnic, which is an old school themed picnic, held at Rymill Park with guest Peter Russell-Clarke, as well as chefs Salvatore Pepe (Cibo) and Jimmy Shu (Hanuman).

James-Pritchard is planning to attract thousands of people to the retro picnic, which includes a dogfriendly area for dogs and their owners.

From Little Things...

From social media post to eight-day, 30-plus event food and wine extravaganza four months later – the Adelaide Food & Wine Festival came out of nowhere last year to deliver a festival this town was waiting for.

by David Knight

T

he Adelaide Food & Wine Festival returns this April. Although the program won’t be out until March 11, Creator and Director Amanda James-Pritchard believes there will be between 40 and 50 events in 2014, including this year’s signature event – the Town Picnic. JamesPritchard says planning for this year’s festival is travelling at the speed of a freight train.

“We’re so far ahead of ourselves,” she

explains, “if I think about where I was this time last year, let alone two weeks before. It’s fantastic. It’s all coming together really well.

There’s always a few red herrings in the mix, but that’s what happens when you try and do things that are a bit out of the ordinary.”

Some of these out of the ordinary events include the return of the Don Dunstan Tribute Dinner at Fino, regional celebrations at five iconic South Australian food and wine regions

such as the Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale and Think. Talk. Food>Wine, a forum featuring speakers such as Feast’s Richard Gunner, winemaker James Erskine, Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood and wine journalist Mike Bennie. Think. Talk. Food>Wine’s theme is ‘Collaborators or Competitors’ and is presented

by The Adelaide Review.

James-Pritchard, who moved to Adelaide from Melbourne six years ago, previously was a publicist for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and runs Kooki PR. In late 2012, she posted on Facebook about a plan to start a food and wine festival. After support from food and wine identities, James-Pritchard commenced organising. Four months later the inaugural Adelaide Food & Wine Festival was staged with 30-plus events, as well as its big-ticket dinner – Market Feast at the Central Market.

Punters and producers alike embraced the festival, guaranteeing a return this year.

“It just snowballed. I thought maybe we’d have 10 events and I was really planning it around this after-hour feast at Central Market that to me felt it would be the hinge of the Adelaide Food and Wine Festival.”

Held on Tasting Australia’s off year and when there was doubt as if the biennial event would return (it is, from April 27-May 4 with Simon Bryant and Paul Henry in charge with Maggie Beer as its patron), James-Pritchard believes this fresh air was part of its success.

“I’m trying to recreate my best ever family picnic from when I was a kid because I think everyone has fond memories of that. There will be four different corners of cuisines with an old school slant and North Adelaide Country Women’s Association are doing a cake stool and picnic hampers.”

The grass-roots, not-for-profit and community-driven festival has a team of about 30 volunteers including ambassadors Gill Gordon-Smith (Fall From Grace) and Rebecca Sullivan (Dirty Girl Kitchen).

“I said to them that they can be as hands off or as hands on as they want. I’m not going to push them to do anything really, except to be really great ambassadors for the festival and they have been. They’ve both done amazing things so far.”

Ultimately, James-Pritchard says she is like a party planner – as the Festival is about people enjoying themselves.

“It’s about connecting people to producers, produce and places. It’s about exploration and discovery but ultimately having a really, really good time. ”

»»Adelaide Food & Wine Festival Friday, April 4 to Sunday, April 13 »»Think. Talk. Food>Wine Tuesday, April 8 (9am-5.30pm) National Wine Centre adelaidefoodandwinefestival.org

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014 41

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

THE HIGHWAY

CRAFT BEER & CIDER FESTIVAL The Happy Motel team

We’ve Got Balls Bistro Dom Head Chef Duncan Welgemoed writes about Adelaide’s gastronomic resurgence, a locally nurtured movement that is about substance over style.

BY DUNCAN WELGEMOED

A

delaide has balls. Formerly known as the city of churches, Adelaide is now described as the new Portland; however, as Samuel Johnson put it, “No one ever became great by imitation”.

We can’t deny that we have been the butt of a few jokes until quite recently. Sometimes it’s been utterly deserved. When I first arrived in Australia, I was always asked why the hell would I want to live in this state. It was believed that we didn’t have the populace or demographic that could sustain interesting restaurants and cool bars. We should have been named the city of ‘shnitties’ (nothing wrong with a great parmi) but the recurring theme was that the people of Adelaide would not be open to change, or able to warrant something brave and different (unless it was promoted on the next episode of MasterChef).

Like every noteworthy movement, it started from the earth, the terroir – and in this case, from the primary producer.

In the last five years, there has been a slow and steady movement from producers who have driven a more artisanal approach to their growing, husbandry and the finishing of their products. The sellers, whether farmers’ markets or wholesale suppliers, have ensured this quality product reaches our chefs and you, as the consumer, taste

Duncan Welgemoed and Ross Ganf.

the point of difference. South Australian produce (rather than another soonforgotten celebrity chef) is the heart of this resurgence in our once-waning food scene.

With this all-permeating product confidence, our chefs have pretty much given the finger to whatever the next fad coming from Melbourne and Sydney is.

We are producer-focused, not personality focused and having every producer engaged in the process allows each player to bring their A-game, whether they are running a small bar or a restaurant, and even those of you who cook and curate at home.

Why emulate trends from other cities when we can carve our own niche, cultivate our own style and have so much fun doing it that we don’t even look over our shoulder to see what the big boys from elsewhere are up to?

We are also very lucky to have close relationships with incredible winemakers; for me this is the heart and soul of my operation. Every release of brilliant local wine brings inspiration (without sounding too sycophantic). These cats can change the way you plan your next dish, the structure of the menu, even convince you to call in sick, open a bottle of wine and spend the night heckling the next carbon-copy reality TV cooking show.

We are becoming a state of doers. We pride ourselves on substance over style and we have that in bucket-loads; the style naturally follows.

For a while this state suffered from a hospitality brain drain because we haven’t been as dynamic as other places. What’s fantastic about this ‘renaissance’ is that more young people are deciding to stay, invest and create. This has been a quick progression and, if anything, I worry that it may soon start to suffer from market saturation – this is where we need you, the consumers, to support the creative businesses. Tell your friends, have a party, head out and find the latest exciting place, because there’s no shortage of them.

We are extremely lucky to have grass-root food festivals such as The Adelaide Food and Wine Festival, which encapsulates the collaborative ethos shared between producer, chef, winemaker and customer. The festival has been an exceptional platform to throw caution to the wind and let everyone have a bit of fun.

Corporate sponsors do not dictate these events, which means the narrative is pure.

I’ve been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to curate the food and beverage at Lola’s Pergola (The Adelaide Festival’s club) in conjunction with Ross Ganf, Creative Director of the club and The Happy Motel. Collaborations have emerged between unbelievable chefs, winemakers, producers, performers, party-boys, designers and artists who have a deep connection with this movement. We all have the same goal; to bring love, passion and, occasionally, a little weirdness and thrust it centre stage.

What we do in this state matters - people far and wide are starting to look and get excited about what we’re doing.

This Adelaide Festival club is presenting everything that Adelaide’s food and wine culture should represent minus the spin and politics but with the highest integrity. I’m extremely proud to be cooking and living here and frankly even from a tourist point of view, as English satirist and columnist Charlie Brooker wrote when describing South Australia for The Guardian: “If the rest of the country gets any better than this, it’s quite frankly taking the piss as a nation.”

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» Duncan Welgemoed is the Executive Chef of Bistro Dom, The Happy Motel and Lola’s Pergola bistrodom.com.au thehappymotel.com adelaidefestival.com.au/2014/club/ lolas_pergola

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42 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Baked Honey Cheesecake

Honey

Baked cheesecakes can be intimidating, as they have a tendency to crack when baked but the addition of a sour cream glaze hides all imperfections!

BY ANNABELLE BAKER

I

really love honey and until a couple of years ago I didn’t realise that I wasn’t eating the real thing! Under pressure from consumers and retailers, a large portion of the honey industry made a decision to give us a smooth and runny honey, reminiscent of liquid gold, but in fact, the value is as far from gold as can be.

Ingredients • 200g Nice biscuits or equivalent • 30g butter – melted • 875g block cream cheese – room temperature • 150g sour cream • 4 eggs • 2 tablespoons plain flour • 4 tablespoons raw honey • 250g sugar • 2 egg yolks • 100g (extra) sour cream • 2 (extra) tablespoons raw honey

Honey is an example of natural perfection; it is reported to have anti-viral, anti-bacterial and even anti-fungal properties. Honey is also full of powerful enzymes, antioxidants, natural vitamins and nutrients. Unfortunately, this is not what is readily available to us on a consumer level. It is often heated to refine the texture and increase the shelf life but a consequence is the removal of nearly all of the health benefits that were once naturally present.

You have to wonder when and/or who made the decision to sacrifice the health benefits so

that we could spread it on our toast. Clever advertising campaigns, such as runny honey in a bear shaped squeeze bottle (now I think about it, not so clever) kept us wanting more.

Lets face it, honey can be messy and sticky; the ease of it almost spreading itself on our toast is an extremely tempting ploy. But now we know what we are giving up, it almost seems unfathomable that such an option was even considered.

Bees still pollinate one third of the world’s food supply and they have been successfully thriving on Earth for around 50 million years.

There is even evidence that we have been gathering honey for around 8,000 of these years. It is safe to say that bees and honey is an extremely natural and important part of our evolution but the question is – what role will it play in our future?

Look for raw and/or low-temperature processed honey and be careful of the ‘organic’ label, it doesn’t always mean that the honey hasn’t been heat-treated.

And, if you feel so inclined, plant beefriendly flowering plants. This will help keep natural pollination of our food supply going and also contribute to the creation of one of earth’s most natural, nourishing and delicious foods - honey.

twitter.com/annabelleats

Method 1. Line a spring form base cake tin with baking paper and for extra security, lightly grease the base with some of the melted butter.

2. Process the biscuits until the consistency of fine sand.

3. Add the butter and pulse until combined.

4. Press the mixture into the base of the lined tin.

5. Bake the base at 180 degrees for 12 minutes and then leave to cool.

6. Reduce the oven temperature to 160 degrees.

7. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment beat the cream cheese until smooth.

8. Add the sour cream, eggs, plain flour, honey and sugar, beat until well combined and a smooth consistency.

9. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time allowing the mixture to combine between each egg.

10. Pour the mixture into the tin and tap gently to remove any air bubbles.

11. Bake for 60 minutes or until just set and slightly golden brown in colour.

12. Allow to cool completely at room temperature.

13. Combine the extra sour cream and honey until a pouring texture.

14. Pour over the cooled cake and leave to chill in the fridge overnight.

15. Remove from the tin and garnish with seasonal fruit.

The Adelaide Review March 2014 43

adelaidereview.com.au

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE interested in starting a small distribution company. Johnson explains: “Within a week of Gabriella’s call, cheese maker Richard Thomas from Milawa Cheese Company in Victoria and master cheese maker Frank Marchand from Heidi Farm in Tasmania also knocked on my door with the same request.

This was the birth of the business, which I literally started on the smell of an oily rag – with an unregistered Honda Civic and it was fundamentally all about cheese! Here I was with three amazing cheese makers we had in Australia at the time. I was indeed fortunate to be in that space at that time.”

Celebrated chef Serge Dansereau, a great friend of Johnson’s and the Executive Chef at the Regent Sydney in the late 1980s, was looking for foods with a point of difference.

He didn’t want to be serving cheeses that were available in supermarkets. Richard Thomas at Milawa Cheese Company had just started dabbling in washed rind cheese. These rather smelly cheeses were quite new in Australia at the time. Gabriella had her goat cheeses and Frank had a Pandora’s box of pasteurised and unpasteurised Swiss styles. Johnson: “In order to get a specialty cheese industry here in Australia off the ground, I asked Serge to commit to taking at least 30 wheels of each per week.”

Simon Johnson

Cheese Matters Cheese Beginnings

BY Kris Lloyd

S

imon Johnson is obsessed with food quality; his passion is uniqueness and his primary objective around food is flavour. He is also a self-confessed cheese addict, but admits he is no cheese expert. He now has eight Simon Johnson retail stores across Australia offering a range of highend food products including the jewel in the crown: cheese!

New Zealand born, Johnson began his career in food as an apprentice chef and spent a number of years cooking in Sydney and Auckland restaurants before permanently moving to Sydney in 1987. In 1992 he opened a showroom for chefs in Pyrmont, Sydney, with Australia’s first specialist in-store fromagerie or cheese room. It wasn’t long before the showroom transformed into a retail store largely due to the increasing demand from Sydney’s foodie public.

He explains part of his success was being in the right place at the right time. It was around 1989, when he was “looking for something to do” when Western Australian cheese maker Gabriella Kervalla (pioneer of goat milk cheese making in Australia) called him. She had no one to look after her product in NSW and asked Johnson if he would be

Johnson assured him he would be getting something different. “We had found a big supporter who actually had the budget to support this venture, otherwise it would never have got off the ground. This was fundamental to the introduction of specialty cheese in Australia.”

Richard Thomas Cheese Makers Selection and sold them all for $30 a kilo. He would pull up at the Regent loading dock with his unregistered Honda Civic and do business. He described it as an amazing time in Australian food, which set the pace for things to come.

The introduction of his famous cheese rooms did not come without controversy. Four days before Christmas in 1989, a Victorian council confiscated all the cheese from the Simon Johnson cheese room in Toorak, claiming that Johnson was storing hazardous material above five degrees. This laughable conclusion is typical of the regulation the food industry must undergo at times. Many European towns have stores which are entire cheese rooms; at times the cheeses are outside the store in barrels or on tables. This hazardous material has been in existence for thousands of years stimulating both the palate and the economy – what an overreaction. Needless to say it all ended up in court and it’s pleasing to write that Johnson and his hazardous material won.

»»Kris Lloyd is the Head Cheese Maker of Woodside Cheese Wrights

Sure enough they did taste fantastic. There was not a trace of blue but when Johnson went to the chefs they said they couldn’t use them.

Even discounting didn’t convince them. The following week he reintroduced them as the

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Fringe cheese making came of age, as did the introduction of goat and sheep milk cheese and yoghurts in Australia. “Frank Marchand, without a doubt, was making the best Comte we could get our hands on,” Johnson explains.

He would mature his large wheels of Gruyere on cedar slabs in a 40-foot shipping container; it was a time that was like no other. I feel very fortunate to have been part of that era – it was a really special time.”

According to Johnson there was an amazing camaraderie between chefs across Australia in supporting the specialty cheese makers and their understanding of just how important it was to grow a specialty cheese industry in Australia. Through the chefs’ demand, the industry grew irrespective of the fact that everyone was very green. He recalls cheese maker Richard Thomas calling him. “Simon, I’ve got these amazing blue cheeses, they taste fantastic but I can’t call them a blue because there is no blue and they’ve kind of collapsed. I‘ve called them the Uglies – we need the money so can you just go out and sell them.”

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44 The Adelaide Review March 2014

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Travel the Cosmos

by Derek Crozier

H

ey Jupiter is well known for its pork belly sandwiches but some may not know that it can be enjoyed with a cup of boutique-level coffee. The decor is warm and welcoming with hanging ferns and a wall of antique looking mirrors with some specials written on them. They use Five Senses Coffee and the friendly barista pours it through a La Marzocco espresso machine.

A Simple Exchange

by Derek Crozier

T

he first thing you see when you walk into Exchange is a Synesso machine and a brew bar that brags boutique.

The counters, the tables and the brewing areas all seem to be designed for that clean, clinical feel but the warm and inviting colour scheme balances it out perfectly.

It is the only outlet in Adelaide that serves Market Lane Coffee, a boutique coffee roaster that sources and chooses its green beans by what’s in season to provide different tastes regularly. This visit to Exchange gave me the pleasure of trying beans from Bolivia that was complemented with postcard photos of the farmers themselves.

For my espresso I had a single origin called Familia Montano Espresso, which had walnut

notes on the nose and a berry taste on the back of the tongue. A nice acidity came through at first but it seemed to get sweeter as I sipped on. It was refreshing that the barista served my espresso with a glass of sparkling water, which seemed to be a standard with any order.

The barista was very knowledgeable and spent time going through the beans on offer.

He suggested the single origin from India called Veer Attikan India for my espresso. It was served with a thick layer of crema and had a rich berry smell but a honey-like taste with

For the latte I sampled the house blend called Harvest, which is made up of beans from Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala.

The milk (Tweedvale) was silky smooth and creamy with a six leaf tulip on top as the latte art. The first taste had a buttery mouth feel with a pleasant acidity but towards the end were citrus notes, which lingered in the mouth.

If you’re in the city, you won’t have to travel through the cosmos to get to Hey Jupiter. It’s in an up and coming location and is a place that has a marriage between good food and boutique coffee that, with the friendly staff, makes you feel at home.

»»Hey Jupiter 11 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide facebook.com/heyjupitercafe

I tried a blend called Seasonal Espresso for my latte, which was composed of beans from the Copacabana, Familia Montano and the Juan Ticona region. The milk (Paris Creek) was silky smooth and dense with a symmetrical rosetta as the latte art. The toasted almond notes came through with the first sip but it was the hints of chocolate orange that stood out.

Exchange Specialty Coffee is a simple boutique with fresh modern look that suits the Rundle Street precinct. Even though they are new in town, the different brewing methods and design really shows that they mean serious coffee business.

»»Exchange Specialty Coffee Shops 1 and 2, 12-18 Vardon Avenue, Adelaide exchangecoffee.com.au

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my first sip. It had a velvety body throughout and finished on hints of spice.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014 45

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

Hot 100 FOOD.WINE.COFFEE Wines THE ADELAIDE REVIEW

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN

board rations of cocoa all the way to Adelaide) and also imagination (during the summer his Grenfell Street wine bar sold iced claret to the passing punters).

A Looming Talent in the Riesling Races

BY CHARLES GENT

J

ess Hardy has been working for Loom Wine for four years; she took charge of the Riesling only last year. When the 2013 Long Yarn Riesling took third spot in The Adelaide Review’s Hot 100 South Australian Wines last year, it was the first time I, and I suspect many others, had heard either her name or the winery’s.

The ignorance is not altogether surprising. The Long Yarn label is the visible tip of Loomwine’s oenological iceberg, with much of the company’s

efforts directed to making wine for export to the UK and the US in formidable quantities.

Operating at McLaren Vale under the aegis of Barossa-bred Steve Grimley, Loomwine draws on vineyards in several regions.

Winemaking and management of the four varieties in the “week-night” local brand, Long Yarn, has been turned over to Jessica Hardy.

The surname of Hardy does have a certain familiarity, and it emerges that Jess, who is 28, is indeed a sixth generation member of South Australia’s celebrated winemaking dynasty.

She is, to wit, the great-great-great-greatgranddaughter of Thomas Hardy, proprietor of extensive vineyards at Bankside (on the Torrens below Adelaide) and McLaren Vale.

The emigrant Hardy became one of 19th century Australia’s greatest winemaking entrepreneurs, a success attributable to his many personal qualities, among them shrewdness (he reportedly hoarded his ship-

His McLaren Vale vineyard and winery, purchased from another less buoyant visionary, Dr Alexander Kelly, became the base for a profitable export empire that rested on supplying robust, “ferruginous” red wines for the English market.

While McLaren Vale is also Jess’s base, the grapes for the Long Yarn Riesling actually come from 100 kilometres to the north-east. Playing out the great South Australian Riesling rivalry, earlier vintages of Long Yarn Riesling used fruit from Clare, but last year Loomwine switched to a grower in the Eden Valley, and the wine was made “just down the hill” at a site in the Barossa.

Some 30 tonnes of fruit came from the block, but after selecting the best parcels, around 1500 cases of the wine were made. “We now wish we’d done a bit more,” Hardy says, who tastes the grapes, as well as testing the baume, to help decide the right time for picking.

Last year’s growing season offered almost perfect ripening. “On that particular block there was a really nice, even drop in the acid and rise in the baume – it was almost something you’d see in a textbook graph,” she said.

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Hardy admits that Riesling is not her long suit – her vintage in Spain after graduating from the Waite has left her with a fascination for Tempranillo, which may soon surface in the Long Yarn line-up – but it is a style she loves. She says that most days at the winery end with a bottle of either aged Riesling or cool-climate Chardonnay.

Stylistically, the Long Yarn has around four points of residual sugar to give it drinkability on release and commercial appeal, but Hardy said the wine also has the chemistry to last the long haul.

“In a selfish way, we wanted to be able to throw some in the cellar to age and drink ourselves, so we were angling for it to go that way.”

Hardy said the praise from the Hot 100 judges, who talked of the wine’s “layers of fruit and vibrant minerality”, was very welcome.

“It was my first real crack at making Riesling, and while I was quite happy with it, it was a bit of a confidence booster to get the feedback.”

The recent extremes of weather will make the next Long Yarn Riesling a tougher proposition for winemaking, Hardy says, but the current release offers some ready consolation: “It’s good on a hot evening, that’s for sure.”

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WINE DE BORTOLI LA BOHEME ACT TWO PINOT NOIR ROSÉ 2013 RRP: $20 Yarra Valley debortoli.com.au Leanne and Steve Webber of De Bortoli Wines in the Yarra Valley are champions

Everything’s coming up Rosés WINES BY ANDREA FROST CHEESE PAIRED BY VALERIE HENBEST FROM SMELLY CHEESE

It might well be nearing the end of summer but there’s still plenty of heat to come. Rosé, that pink wine made from red grapes, is one of the vinous world’s most thirst slaking and refreshing wines. See the last weeks of summer off with a few of Australia’s most adorable pink wines. Serve ice cold with a good view and even better company.

of rosé. So much so, they started a revolution – the Rosé Revolution – to encourage the relishing, making and consumption of pale, dry and textural rosé. This all started, as it often does, with the inspiration derived from a bottle of French rosé while holidaying in Provence. This wine, the De Bortoli La Bohème Act Two, keeps their dream alive.

Made from 90 percent Pinot Noir with a splash of a few other varieties, it offers a gentle puff of strawberry, rosehip and a red summer berry aromas. True to their maxim the palate is savoury, dry and lovely and well worth starting a revolution for.

BIRD IN HAND PINOT NOIR ROSÉ RRP: $20 Adelaide Hills birdinhand.com.au For reasons known to viticulturalists, winemakers and Mother Nature only, the Adelaide Hills and Pinot Noir go particularly well together. The higher altitude and cooler climate help to keep the famously wily variety happy so it can produce all of the things that Pinot Noir produces well; pretty and beguiling aromas with great complexity and spice… when it’s in the mood, of course. So it’s no surprise that when Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir is made into rosé it is equally enticing, if only in a less complex way. This wine has a particularly pretty nose of strawberries, watermelon, and bright red fruits while the palate is crisp, lively, dry and very moreish.

The Adelaide Review March 2014 47

adelaidereview.com.au

WINE & CHEESE Port Phillip Estate Salasso Rosé Pinot Noir RRP: $22 Mornington Peninsula portphillipestate.com.au I remember, some time ago, hearing a rock star accept a Hall of Fame music award by saying, “It takes a lot of effort to look this casual”. This wine is a bit like that; lots of care and attention backstage to make a perfectly effortless wine on stage. Behind the scenes

Bonne Bouche from Vermont

curd is carefully hand ladled,

are super vineyards, careful varietal selection and meticulous winemaking.

Tomme Mi Chèvre from France (Mons)

de France and provides his cheese

lightly sprinkled with ash, and

Bonne Bouche is the flagship of

aged just long enough to develop

In the glass, the wine offers depth and

The Mons family travel throughout

made this cheese made from half

Vermont Creamery. Introduced

a rind. After about 10 days, the

complexity all wrapped up in a lovely

France to find artisan cheese

cow and goat milk. It arrives here at

in 2001, Bonne Bouche quickly

cheese is packaged in individual

salmon hue. The nose offers a hint of

makers who work with the best

about two months of age and is a

won acclaim. Reminiscent of the

crates and sent to market where

spice and strawberry aromas, reminding

milk and offer the best expressions

delicious supple textured cheese at

Loire Valley cheeses of France,

they will continue to age up to 80

me of the lovely pink fuzz off newly made

of that milk in their cheese. Hervé

that point. Some are aged a further

Bonne Bouche means “good

days. As a young cheese, the rind

jam. The palate is dry, savoury, textural

Mons learned his craft from his

two to three months to develop

mouthful” and is indeed a tasty

has a pleasant yeast flavour and

and delicious. Which makes it sound a

father and has been recognised

a firm natural rind and a smooth,

bite. Made with fresh pasteurised

creamy interior becoming softer

lot simpler than it actually is, but this of

by the French government with the

slightly sweet, yet full flavoured

goat milk from family farms, the

and more piquant as it ages.

course, is what makes rosé special.

prestigious title of “Meilleur Ouvrier”

interior with a creamy mouth-feel.

to the best tables in France. Hervé

La Linea Tempranillo Rosé 2013 RRP: $21 Adelaide Hills lalinea.com.au Since its first release in 2007, this wine has steadily built a reputation as one of Australia’s best rosés. Not surprising when you have the cleverness and credentials of the team made up of Peter Leske and David LeMire MW, wine industry professionals with a swagger of

Appenzeller from Switzerland

they cure. This adds flavour

vintages, qualifications and experience

Mahon from Spain

which carries the imprint of the

while also assisting in the

with esteemed producers behind them.

Mahón is produced on Menorca,

cheesecloth, is rubbed with oil

preservation of the cheese.

Every decision here has been scrupulous

the outermost of the three

and paprika creating a vibrant

Produced in the Appenzell

The result is the formation of a

but I’ll not complicate such a beautiful

Spanish Balearic Islands. Curd

orange colour. Mahón is sold at

region of Northeast Switzerland

golden coloured rind encasing

thing with technical details. This wine

is piled in the centre of a cheese

various stages of maturity. When

for more than 700 years, this

a straw coloured interior with

is delightful. Lovely pale pink, it is dry,

cloth and the square corners are

young, the texture is smooth and

cow’s milk cheese has a cooked

occasional pea-size holes. The

savoury, crisp and delicious. Brimming

knotted and twisted together.

supple and the aroma is sweet

curd which is then pressed.

cheese has a strong aroma

with dreamy wafts of red fruit, rosehip

The cheese is pressed and

and fruity. It can be matured for

Herbal brine, quite unique

and a nutty, fruity flavour with a

a little spice the wine finishes bone dry

twisted for a number of days

up to 10 months when it will

to this cheese, is applied to

pleasingly smooth texture.

with lovely refreshing acidity. A perfect

giving the cheese its typical

exhibit a hard, slightly granular

wine for pretty much any moment.

“cushion” shape. The hard rind,

texture with a sharp, salty tang.

the wheels of cheese while

“There is a natural affinity between cheese and wine.”

BOOK A CHEESE MASTER CLASS WITH THE SMELLY CHEESE SHOP CHEESE AND BEER $80 inc GST ($72 for members)

CHEESE AND WINE PAIRING $80 inc GST ($72 for members)

CHEESE AND SPARKLING WINE PAIRING $80 inc GST ($72 members)

Ever tried good Cheddar with pale ale? Some cheese experts contend that beer is more compatible with cheese than wine. Naturally beer connoisseurs agree and this two hour session will help you form your own opinion!

There is a natural affinity between cheese and wine. Just as every wine is unique, so is every cheese and matching them is a fascinating process.

With the help of our wine expert, you will learn a few simple rules to help achieve the ultimate cheese and wine marriage.

While Champagne and other sparkling wines are often enjoyed to toast a special celebration, they are also very food friendly and especially cheese friendly. Whether it is Champagne from France, Cava from Spain, Sparkling from Australia or Prosecco from Italy, pairing cheese with bubbles is one of life’s pleasures. This session will give you a chance to enjoy some of the best sparkling wine with some of the finest cheeses from all over the world!

CLASS DATES Friday 28th March 6.30pm – 8.30pm

CLASS DATES Thursday 1st May 6.30pm – 8.30pm

CLASS DATES Friday 9th May 6.30pm-8.30pm

smellycheese.com.au

TheSmellyCheeseShop

@thesmellycheeseshop

PHONE: 8231 5867 TO BOOK

or visit smellycheeseclub.com.au (all classes held at 25 Wright Street, Adelaide) Fun for friends, perfect for corporates and great as gifts!

48 The Adelaide Review March 2014

TRAVEL

Discovering Dubai Photo: Airspectiv Media

With its reputation as the Las Vegas of the Middle East minus the sin, it’s refreshing to discover there’s more to Dubai than shopping and a quick escalator ride up the world’s tallest building.

by David Knight

D

ubai never interested me as a travel destination but the desert oasis of building sites, mammoth towers, mega malls and high-end fashion is discovering (or more correctly discovering how to promote) its culture through new arts precincts, food tours and Emirati culture programs. The regional port rapidly evolved into a city some 40 years ago and the cosmopolitan metropolis is one of the world’s major flight stopovers. The most populated city in the United Arab Emirates is of more interest than just a brief overnight layover as it is now a destination worth exploring and is growing into its title as the centre of the arts in the UAE.

The key tourist attractions are still worth a visit – the shopping (that includes the mustvisit world’s largest mall, The Dubai Mall with its ice rink and aquarium) is brilliant, as is the rapid 163-floor escalator ride up the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa for breathtaking views of the city. (The best time to visit is when evening breaks to view the Dubai Fountain water display). Not everything worth visiting in Dubai needs to come with a ‘world’s biggest’ tag. Which brings us to the food.

Given that a lot of Middle East’s great food destinations are located in war-torn or hard-to-visit

FORMERLY JONES THE GROCER BUT ONLY THE NAME HAS CHANGED RUNDLE PLACE, GRENFELL ST, CITY AND 123 KING WILLIAM RD, HYDE PARK WWW.COLINANDCO.COM.AU

Arva (left) from Frying Pan Adventures.

countries and regions such as Iran, Palestine and Lebanon, Frying Pan Adventures boss and guide Arva believes the Old Town of Dubai is the easiest way to experience authentic Middle Eastern food.

An enthusiastic, charming and knowledgeable host, Arva grew up in the Old Town and her five-hour walking tour through her neighbourhood is more than just a food fest – it is an all-senses degustation, as the food blogger picks each destination’s (and there are a heap of restaurants, corner shops and cafes on this visit) highlight dish (or dishes) and explains the history of each culinary choice as you take in the colour and surrounds of Dubai’s most authentic food district, which is off the tourist map.

Even if you’re in Dubai for just a night – book this in.

Along with traditional Arabic food, new restaurants are popping up in recently completed hotels such as the Conrad, which includes celebrity chef brands such as the Marco Pierre White Grill and the brand new Latin American themed supper club Izel.

coupled with the Modern Art Museum and Opera House precinct will make a powerful arts double-header.

Recently announced as the 2020 World Expo’s host city, Dubai’s Modern Art Museum and Opera House is scheduled to open five years before Dubai hosts the expo and will be the hub of the city’s art and culture with galleries and design studios joining the opera house and art museum. But you don’t have to wait until 2015 to explore exciting arts precincts in Dubai.

With a Los Angeles-like creative district feel, Alserkal Avenue is a warehouse strip home to more than 20 art galleries and design spaces.

Currently the foremost art district in Dubai, Alserkal Avenue is home to brilliant modern art galleries such as Grey Noise and Showcase Gallery. With developments underway, the district will become more impressive when the expansion is completed later this year and

»»The writer was a guest of Emirates and Dubai Tourism

The ideal way to appreciate Emirati culture is by partaking in a traditional Emirati brunch at the Sheikh Mohamed Centre for Cultural Understanding. While you eat a beautiful traditional brunch complete with Arabic coffee, your host pleasantly guides you through Emirati and Islamic traditions with grace and humour and is open to religious and cultural questions (no matter how trivial or uncomfortable) from her guests. Even if you don’t agree with everything that the host says, this is an eye-opening experience, which dispels many visitors’ myths.

definitelydubai.com emirates.com/au * Emirates operates 84 flights per week to Dubai from Australia with Economy Class fares starting from $2,303. Passengers in all classes can enjoy up to 1,600 channels on ice, Emirates’ awardwinning inflight entertainment system, gourmet food and wine and generous luggage allowances including 30kg in Economy and 40kg in Business Class. These fares are for travel between April 1 and June 23 2014. For flight information and bookings contact Emirates on 1300 303 777, visit your local travel agent or go to emirates.com/au.

THE ADELAIDE R EVIEW MARCH 2014

FORM

DESIGN CONVERSATIONS Leanne Amodeo interviews past South Australian Architecture Awards winners: John Adam, Max Pritchard and Dimitty Andersen.

Rose Park Residence. Dimitty Andersen Architects

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

50 The Adelaide Review March 2014

Photos: Sam Noonan

FORM

Jury presentations are open to the public: 9am–4pm, Saturday, March 22 Nexus 10 Hub, University of Adelaide (cnr North Terrace and Pulteney Street) voice.architecture.com.au

Max Pritchard

Design Conversations

by Leanne Amodeo

Past winners of South Australian Architecture Awards John Adam, Max Pritchard and Dimitty Andersen offer insight into their outstanding residential design practice.

A

nticipation is high this time of year as entrants shortlisted in the South Australian Architecture Awards prepare their jury presentations.

In celebration of awards season we

speak with three past winners of the South Australian Architecture Awards, John Adam, Max Pritchard and Dimitty Andersen, about designing homes for clients and the processes involved.

Is a multi-awarded architect who last year won the John S Chappel Award for Residential Architecture and Architecture Award for Sustainable Architecture for Barossa Valley Glass House.

In what ways do you incorporate environmentally sustainable design features into your residential projects?

Using sensible passive design is key to achieving sustainable design, so orientation is important and I try to get as much sun into the living areas as possible, as well as having as many rooms facing north as possible. I also use ventilation for cooling and the winter sun for heating.

What has been your biggest residential design challenge to date?

Stringybark House in the Adelaide Hills was a big challenge because of its vulnerability to fire. It was built before legislation on building compliance in fire zones was passed and so we didn’t have any strong guidelines or rules. I had to design three completely different houses before one was accepted, so it was a long process and probably a frustrating one for my clients.

What do you consider your most innovative project to date?

That’s a hard one because you always tend to think your last project is the most innovative, but I think probably one of my very first ones is. It’s my own house, which I built 30 years ago and it amazes me in hindsight that I was bold enough to do it. I designed it like a bridge with big seven-metre cantilevers and 15-metre spans between columns. It was genuinely innovative for its time, certainly in its structural system.

How closely do you work with your clients during the design process?

Pretty closely, but it’s not just a case of me going away and coming up with a design. The process can go on for months or even longer; the client might be really happy with the first designs and we both think we’re nearly there, but we’re not. Clients sometimes ask, ‘What happens if we don’t like what you’re coming up with?’ and I’ll answer, ‘We keep going until you’re happy.’ I’ve never had a situation where clients have told me it’s not working – we just keep on going until we get it right.

maxpritchardarchitect.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014 51

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FORM DIMITTY ANDERSEN Is principal of Dimitty Andersen Architects and last year she won an Architecture Award for Rose Park Residence.

What do you consider your most innovative project to date?

It would have to be Rose Park Residence because I think it’s an exemplary family home in an inner suburban context. The project involved a ground-level extension to an existing cottage and a second level addition.

It’s innovative in the sense that the client pushed us to develop the site quite densely and they weren’t afraid of the architecture, which is fantastic.

What is the biggest challenge you face when designing a residential extension or addition?

I think the biggest challenge for us is that most of our clients are building for the first time and they are entering into a process that is unfamiliar to them. So we try to teach clients about how we make decisions and the context in which we make those decisions.

What is the most common request you receive from residential clients?

The most common request would be to build something beautiful at a budget. Clients are a lot more educated about design nowadays through programs like Grand Designs, so their expectations are very high. The cost of building is still out of reach for a lot of people, so the challenge is to marry a client’s expectations with their budget. We look at designing good quality spaces not huge spaces. Managing a budget is very much about managing overall floor area and being sensible about requirements and how to rigorously use a space. We work with the client to try and maximize the use of their internal and external space to get the best value out of it.

How early on in the design process do you consider a project’s materiality?

The client directs the overall character of a project. Early on in the concept stage we think about composition and this gives direction regarding material palette. Even in the planning stages we’re deciding what kind of character a project has and we’re rigorous about maintaining this character right through to the onsite development. The initial idea almost has to be protected, so that what comes out the other end looks as fresh as how it started.

dimitty.com

An Adelaide Fringe 2014 exhibition of new works featuring:

Giles bettison, greg johns, waldemar kolbusz and milton moon.

Ends 30th March 2014 Pictured below, left to right: After The Burning...Ceramic still life (folded vase forms), 2013. MILTON MOON. Lake Mungo Sculptures, 2006. GREG JOHNS. Red gum & jarrah. 240-2700H x 100W x 100mm D. Five Pm, 2013. WALDEMAR KOLDBUSZ. Oil on linen. 102 x 102cm.

Vista 05 #2, 2005. GILES BET TISON. Glass, murrini technique. 265H x 175W x 65mm D.

APTOS CRUZ GALLERIES

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52 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014

FORM

JOHN ADAM Is a sole practitioner who won the Architecture Award for Small Project Architecture for Sticky Rice B&B last year.

What factors do you always consider when devising a design concept?

The client and site are paramount, as is trying to keep within budget. I don’t have a philosophy that our clients fit into, rather I try to find their philosophy and then come up with something that suits the way they want to live.

How early on in the design process do you consider a project’s materiality?

Sometimes it’s really early on and other times it takes a while, but the issue initially is always based around lifestyle rather than space. To begin with I get each client to fill in a long questionnaire that covers practical and aesthetic considerations so that we can tailor a house that fits them. Then the first few designs following are really just explorations to help get to know the client. I’m trying to come up with an envelope for them to live in,

rather than worrying about what the envelope should be clad in.

Do you ever challenge the client’s brief?

Absolutely, all the time! It’s part of our initial exploration phase. Not only do I learn about the client, but clients also learn about themselves, which allows me to present them with alternatives to the way they think about their space and life.

What do you consider your most innovative project to date?

Goolwa House is an interesting project

because the client came to us with one of those old, 1980s beach houses. I proposed keeping the outside of the building and completely stripping the internals, creating a ‘forest’ of existing poles with a huge hole in the middle of the floor. An open plan with Japanese-style dividers and a couple of little extensions made it much more modern. The clients got a very different house in the end and they’re very happy with it. Creating spaces that enrich people’s lives is what I love more than anything.

johnadam.com.au

Love looking at houses?

— Free Public Open Here’s your chance to come and look inside SA’s best residential houses for 2014. Hear architects present their projects at the Jury Presentation Day and view an exhibition of all this year’s Awards entries.

The exhibition will be open from Monday 17 March through to Friday 28 March 2014

Saturday 22 March 10:00am - 3:00pm Nexus 10 Hub, University of Adelaide Cnr North Terrace and Pulteney Street, Adelaide For more information, go to voice.architecture.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW MARCH 2014 53

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FORM

Rustic Appeal Samantha Agostino’s emerging interior design practice is thriving thanks to a series of successful collaborations.

filled with wild flowers and raw wooden display boxes. These add authenticity to the domesticscale setting and reinforce the brand’s highquality, ‘homemade’ identity.

BY LEANNE AMODEO

Not only is the fit out testament to Agostino and Shepherd’s successful collaboration it is also a measure of their solid relationship with the client. “I try to keep my connection with clients really strong and bounce ideas off them as much as possible,” says Agostino. “The best outcome always comes about when you have more people working together on a project.”

To this end she bought on board a trusted team of builders and joiners who she has worked with previously.

W

The Adelaide-based designer established Samantha Agostino Interior Design at the same time as Agostino and Brown, and like that business her own practice is characterised by strong collaboration. A list of past collaborators reads like a who’s who of local design talent and includes MASH Design, Folland Panozzo Architects and Sarah Matthews. Agostino’s most recent collaboration is with fellow Adelaide-based interior designer Georgie Shepherd on the Beerenberg Family Farm shop at Hahndorf.

Photos: Dan Schultz

hen Samantha Agostino and Gareth Brown established Agostino and Brown four years ago it was because they wanted to have fun making furniture. The two designers are doing just that and in the process their designs have received quite a bit of attention.

The handcrafted timber pieces are stylishly modern, with each collection characterised by simple, clean lines. It’s an aesthetic that carries over into Agostino’s own interior design practice, which has been receiving just as much attention.

This retail fit out is Agostino’s biggest project to date and she was happy to be collaborating with someone she has worked with before.

“Georgie specialises in merchandising and styling and I specialise in furniture, detailing and joinery, so it played to our strengths,” says Agostino. “We were able to balance every kind of design challenge, which made it a much quicker process.” The result is a polished interior that has the visual appeal of a cosy,

warm country-style kitchen.

A decidedly rustic material palette is brought to life with a mix of dark, light and blonde timbers. These add a robust textural flavour to the overall fit out and provide a strong yet neutral backdrop for Beerenberg’s products.

Agostino and Shepherd have charmingly furnished the space with a selection of items, including an old wheelbarrow, glass bottles

It should come as no surprise that Agostino’s collaborative nature was nurtured at an early stage. “When I studied interior architecture at the University of South Australia I worked for Khai Liew,” she explains. “I learned about collaboration from him; he was always working with different people who had a range of different skills and talents.” Clearly the experience left a strong impression on Agostino and today her furniture business and interior design practice each provide a resounding argument for working collaboratively.

gollywow.com.au

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54 The Adelaide Review March 2014

FORM / OPINION

Scrap the Tax

In what has been described by critics as a blatant cash grab, the Weatherill Government has proposed a $750 car park tax on all paying spaces in the CBD from 2014-15. The tax is expected to raise up to $30 million in its first year, will cost more every year, and increase daily parking costs by as much as 55 percent from day one.

Adelaide is more than a city for special occasions.

That’s a tax on business, a tax on shoppers, a tax on shift workers and city workers, a tax on students and a tax on inner-city vibrancy.

by Richard Angove

W

hen I talk to family and friends visiting Adelaide during the Fringe and Clipsal 500 they ask me if the city is like this all year round.

Rather than lament the fact that Adelaide only outdoes itself in ‘Mad March’ I’m actually buoyed by our city’s ability to not only draw a crowd but feed, entertain and accommodate one with such vigour.

That’s why taxing people coming in to the CBD to see a show, shop in our stores and eat at our restaurants really frustrates me.

The Government’s proposed car park tax is exactly the kind of thing the Festival State can do without.

Premier and Treasurer Jay Weatherill has played the tax down suggesting that it will only increase parking costs by 30 cents an hour. But at $750 per space, a cost of 30 cents an hour assumes that every bay in every car park is occupied for more than six and a half hours every day of the week.

With average weekday vacancy sitting at about 13 percent and ballooning to 60 percent at weekends, the actual cost to users will be much higher. And this ignores the cost to businesses, which will have their costs nearly doubled by fringe benefits tax – a tax on a tax.

Adelaide’s restaurants, bars, markets, shops and hotels offer visitors an experience that’s unique to anything you can find in Melbourne or Sydney – we don’t want parking prices to be the point of comparison. Furthermore, there is no evidence that car park taxes in other states

have achieved their stated aims. A similar tax in Sydney was introduced at $200 per space and Melbourne’s was introduced at $400 per space.

Not only does that make Adelaide’s $750 tax look hefty by comparison, but it underlines the fallacy that taxes like these reduce congestion.

Independent research tells us that central city car park taxes do not reduce congestion, but do raise quick and easy revenue for the Government.

Indeed, the razor gang set up by former Treasurer Kevin Foley recommended this same car park tax when it reported – as “a revenue measure”.

And it is an attractive revenue measure as it costs virtually nothing in terms of infrastructure and has little or no administrative burden.

The cost of the Adelaide car park tax, like Melbourne and like Sydney, will be borne by those who choose to shop, work and enjoy the activities in our CBD. Furthermore, there is no assurance that the tax won’t spread to the city fringes. Since 1992 Sydney’s car park tax has increased eight times and has extended to the city’s suburbs.

Adelaide is not Sydney. Commuting by car is still the preferred option – for some it’s nonnegotiable. Our nurses, hospitality workers, parents and elderly would be hard-pressed to make do on public transport – particularly when temperatures soar well above 30C. The reality is – sometimes you need to take

the car. Taxing people parking in the CBD on the rationale that higher prices will change commuter patterns is only relevant when there is a viable alternative.

Until our public transport is efficient, extensive and offering better services and timetables, many South Australians have no option but to drive.

The Government has done much to increase city vibrancy. Its revitalisation of the Riverbank Precinct, its investment in the Adelaide Oval and its support for laneway culture have all boosted city activity. But what’s the point in a Fringe ticket, a movie or a meal out if you can’t afford the parking to enjoy it? What is the incentive for small business to set up in the city if its employees and clients are forced to battle high parking prices?

The arguments justifying the tax just don’t stack up. If you oppose higher parking prices you can like ‘Scrap The Tax’ on Facebook, or to offer further support see Twitter @scrapthetax and ‘Stop the introduction of the Adelaide Car Parking Tax’ at change.org

»»Richard Angove is Executive Director, Property Council of Australia (SA Division) propertyoz.com.au

Baccarat Pavilion, the new home of Baccarat at the SKYCITY Adelaide Casino, offers an opulent gaming experience to rival the most premium venues around the world. A clear focus on design, fine custom detail and constructability ensured the space exceeded the expectations of the world’s most discerning players.

Schiavello is pleased and privileged to help showcase a magnificent expression of what South Australia has to offer.

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

Contact Steve Lockwood slockwood@schiavello.com telephone 08 8112 2300 schiavello.com/construction

We find the films you love, to make you feel at home.

A truly entertaining journey. There’s more to it than just the latest movies. It’s about finding culture and experiences from near and far, for you to enjoy. Because we understand that enriching moments make your flight just that much more meaningful.

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