The Adelaide Review November 2013 by The Adelaide Review

THE ADELAIDE

REVIEW ISSUE 405 NOVEMBER 2013

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AUSTRALIAN DESIGN STORY Three of this country’s most important designers will be celebrated at Aptos Cruz

TO SERVE AND PROTECT

UNSOUND

CHRIS ADAMS

Chris Feik enquires into the quality of debate in Australia's public sphere

The Adelaide Festival’s experimental electronic stream returns after its surprise success at this year’s festival

Transitions Film Festival guest, Participant Media’s Chris Adams, talks activism and film

artwork by Anelia Pavlova (Annael)

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WELCOME

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ISSUE 405

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

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Design Awards 2013

ADMINISTRATION Kate Mickan katemickan@adelaidereview.com.au

View the nominees and vote for your favourite South Australian design in the Design Institute of Australia (SA branch) Design Awards.

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INSIDE Features 05 Politics 08 Society 10

MANAGING DIRECTOR Manuel Ortigosa

Business 14 Columnists 22

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THE ADELAIDE

review

Books 24 Fashion 27 Performing Arts 28

Adelaide Festival Centre

Arvo Volmer

The AFC recently launched its biggest program yet for its 2014 season.

This month’s ASO concerts will be Chief Conductor Arvo Volmer’s last.

Visual Arts 40 Travel 50 Food. Wine. Coffee 52 FORM 63

COVER CREDIT: Coco Flip, Mr Cooper (copper). Photo: Haydn Cattach.

Contributors. Lachlan Aird, Leanne Amodeo, Jane Andrew, D.M. Bradley, John Bridgland, Michael Browne, William Charles, Derek Crozier, Alexander Downer, Peter Drew, Robert Dunstan, Chris Feik, Stephen Forbes, Andrea Frost, Charles Gent, Roger Hainsworth, Andrew Hunter, Jemima Kemp, Tali Lavi, Kiera Lindsey, Jane Llewellyn, Kris Lloyd, John McBeath, John Neylon, Stephen Orr, Amelia Pinna, Nigel Randall, Christopher Sanders, Margaret Simons, David Sly, John Spoehr, Shirley Stott Despoja, Graham Strahle, Rebecca Sullivan, Ilona Wallace, Thea Williams. Photographer. Jonathan van der Knaap

Simplicity and Harmony an exhibition of all things Japanese from the Edo, Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras

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FEATURE

OFF TOPIC:

really agitated. They all kept nodding at me, ‘yes, yes, yes’ with this knife.

TAASHA COATES

“I jumped on the top bunk, cradled into the corner and pulled the covers over me, with just my little eyes peaking out. Tristan said it was one of the funniest sights he had ever seen, as he had left and I had been in this great jovial mood drinking with these guys. Then he came back and something had obviously gone horribly wrong and I’m sitting there slightly terriﬁed.

Off Topic and on the record as South Australian identities talk about whatever they want... except their day job. Taasha Coates, singer of ARIAwinning duo The Audreys, travelled across Asia and Europe for six months after finishing university.

“Tristan went and got a provodnitsa (on every carriage they have this woman who is like an attendant). She came and took us out of that carriage and put us into another carriage with some other travellers. It was eventually explained to us that they were smuggling this knife. They wanted me to hide it in their bag, because the police wouldn’t have checked it. “Apparently it’s really common, which we hadn’t been warned about. People smuggle things by putting them in tourists’ bags. And they offer tourists money to do it. He obviously got sprung because we never saw him again. He must have got thrown off the train in the middle of Siberia somewhere.”

Taasha Coates

BY DAVID KNIGHT

oates and her Audreys partner-in-crime, Tristan Goodall, left for Indonesia 10 years ago, about six months before they formed their alt.folk outﬁt. From Indonesia they travelled across Asia and Europe by train, bus and boat, which included a two-week journey on the Trans-Siberian. “The ﬁrst stop was Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, which is beautiful and odd at the same time, as it’s just so bare,” Coates begins. “They don’t really grow anything and that’s why they’re nomadic, they rely on live stock. It’s baron. Our next stop was Irkutsk in Siberia. We started to go further north and the views from the windows were amazing, Dr Zhivago sets for hours upon hours, just snow and desolate little trees. It was incredible. We thought we would be bored on

a train for two weeks so we brought all these books. Neither of us touched a page. It was the most fascinating trip. “We ended up in a carriage with four Russians who knew no English. All we knew in Russian was ‘da’ and ‘nyet’ (yes and no) and they pulled out the most ridiculous two litre bottles of home made moonshine vodka – nasty. Tristan and I thought we had some drinking chops but we were put to shame. They were insisting that we drink with them and if we didn’t they would get quite upset, so everyone had to scull at the same time. We were trying really hard to express to them that I couldn’t drink as much as them because I was a woman. They didn’t understand. It tasted really bad.

“These guys started to get really drunk and what started out as a fun cultural experience started to get a bit weird. Tristan left the carriage to get some food. We must have got to the border because the police boarded the train and started to go through the carriages. The guys obviously knew what was going on – we didn’t. I was in there by myself at that stage with four big Russian men. And one of them pulled out a huge knife, like the Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves knife, not a little one. It was a ridiculous knife and he was really upset and agitated. He was shaking the knife at me and shouting at me. I thought he was threatening me with a massive knife. I was really freaked out. I could hear the Russian police outside. I didn’t know what was going on and they were

Coates and Goodall then caught the Baltic Express, which took them trough Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland. After a short visit to the UK, for a wedding, they visited friends in the Netherlands. It was there that they decided to go back to Australia, while in an Amsterdam cafe, to form The Audreys. “We had this epic eight-hour conversation in this Amsterdam cafe. We didn’t have high hopes for success. To mark the occasion we took a photo of ourselves at the table in the cafe. For years we had it stuck on the toilet door to remind ourselves of that moment.”

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6 The Adelaide Review November 2013

FEATURE

The Worst Form of Government by Stephanie Johnston

A 2012 Lowy Institute survey of young Australians found that only 39 percent of the 18 to 29 year-olds questioned believed democracy to be the best political system, while a shrinking voter turnout at federal and state elections seems to support the view that Australians are losing faith, or at least losing interest in political engagement. According to the Sydney-based newDemocracy Foundation, voting has become a low-involvement consumer product focused on catch phrases and effective advertising. Our electoral system rewards election-focused behaviour rather than substantive policy detail, making it difficult for the party in office to successfully govern. Parties of all persuasions are beginning to manufacture their differences, as ideologies evaporate and the political contest devolves into the worst form of populism. Inspired by a similar initiative in Oregon, the newDemocracy Foundation is researching alternative processes that might replace adversarial attack with informed deliberation. The aim is to move government out of a continuous campaign cycle, and to reinstate trust in political decision-making, in a cynical electorate who believe powerful industry and union lobbyists rule the day.

TUA7957 / AR / 0.25H

Foundation Director Iain Walker points to the one institutional model which continues to

instill trust, satisfy political representation and promote dialogue and consensus: the modern criminal jury is a profoundly democratic and egalitarian institution that operates on the principle that all persons selected are fundamentally equal. Random selection also prevents corruption of the system. The concept of a “citizen’s jury” thus relies on a deliberative decision-making process based on the random selection of a demographically representative group of people, and a structure in which those people can acquire information and find common ground, with a clear understanding of the path to authority. Walker was hired by the Weatherill government to give a jury of 43 randomlyselected South Australians the task of exploring how Adelaide can achieve a vibrant and safe nightlife. The jurors addressed their charge by focusing on the areas of commerce, infrastructure, alcohol licensing, transport, health, education and entertainment. Over five Saturdays at three-weekly intervals they considered numerous submissions, heard from local and interstate experts, and shared their own knowledge, experience and research to come up with a 15-page report containing seven recommendations that were delivered directly to the Premier, and which will be considered (unadulterated) by Cabinet and the Parliament. The release of the report in October coincided with the implementation of the government’s new Late Night Code of Practice, which introduced a 3am lockout for licensed venues, along with a suite of other measures aimed at curbing alcohol-related incidents of abuse and violence on the city’s streets. The report also

Photo: Simon Casson

n being booted out of government after leading the UK to victory in World War Two, Winston Churchill proclaimed democracy the worst form of government, “except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”.

came some nine months after the government’s other key policy initiative in this area, namely the introduction of new laws to make it easier for people to start small bars in the CBD. While it may seem, in this instance, that the implementation of policy couldn’t wait for the people’s verdict, the scope of the citizen jury’s report went beyond the confines of alcohol licensing. The general consensus was that Adelaide nightlife is already vibrant and safe when compared with similar cities interstate and overseas, but that the city would benefit from a number of initiatives. The jurors supported an awareness campaign about what the CBD has to offer, and the facilitation of activities, events and evening trading opportunities that don’t require alcohol consumption. Improvements to public transport, and pedestrian-friendly and bike-friendly initiatives were a high priority, although there was also recognition of the role of private transport, with a suggestion that car parking be subsidised in some instances to

encourage people to attend city events. Other ideas included an independent advisory body to incorporate consideration of safety and vibrancy into the strategic planning of infrastructure projects, and a central point for “live” information to enable people to embrace those projects. On the licensing front, the jurors recommended that entertainment venues be allowed to open earlier than 9pm, to allow for a diversity of patrons, and that in addition to making licenses easier to acquire, they should also be monitored better, and made easier to lose if a venue fails to met the license conditions, or is demonstrated to contribute negatively to the city’s nightlife. Finally the jury advocated a trauma registry that would compile information and support research related to street level violence. In essence, what came out of the exercise was a host of common sense. Just what you might expect from a bunch of informed ordinary people, unfettered by any political or economic imperative.

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The Adelaide Review November 2013 7

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FEATURE

Bert Edwards by Stephen Orr

lbert Augustine Edwards (1888-1963) was the man who should’ve been premier. Bert lived his life for others. Imagine, the ‘King of the West End’ roaming city streets, shop-to-shop after closing, asking for whatever wasn’t sold, loading food in his Studebaker and delivering it to the poor. Not a single media advisor in sight. Bert Edwards started young, collecting bottles and selling snags at the races. He was soon running a tearoom (with a two-up school out the back) and dabbling in politics. Bert’d have a go at anything: City Councillor for Grey Ward, Labor member for Adelaide, publican, delegate for the West Adelaide Football Club, prison reformer and inmate. Unlike today’s mob, he said it like it was. No defending redlight cameras as the road toll soared. No selling off state assets and falling silent as multinationals gorged on pre-frozen citizens. No cutting hospital services to the most vulnerable

while building stadiums. Bert had a touch of red, but he was never communist. He’d happily donate thousands of pounds for a men’s shelter in Whitmore Square, but he’d never make it known. Money for a Hutt Street meal centre. Keep it mum. Always a small-t true believer in the (United) Labor Party, but not someone who hungered after power. To him, politics was service. At times licensee of the Hotel Victor, Newmarket and Duke of Brunswick. Outspoken on the state of prisons and reformatories. Valued culture. Had a large private library in his home (which he opened to country folk with sick relatives in city hospitals). Served on the Board of the Museum, State Library and Art Gallery. Eventually left everything he had to the poor. Everyone knew Bert. You could see him coming a mile away. His white suits, bowties and gold-tipped fag-holder. Cruising Flinders Street in his Studebaker. Stops at a proconscription meeting in front of the GPO. Calls out, ‘Send yer own sons!’ Arrives at the Town Hall. Gives Mrs Goode two fingers on his way in. Or maybe North Terrace. Defending local Germans who’d been given a hard time (priest Charles Jerger, facing deportation to the Fatherland). Maybe he’d say a few words about underpaid police and teachers, or how

slums in his beloved West needed to be cleared and decent housing established. Which other SA politician does this remind you of? A touch of Dunstan? Or Tom Playford on a good day? But no-one else. Nick, perhaps, who (go on, admit it, Mr X) lives with Bert’s rumbling bowel of social discontent. Certainly none of the recent non-starters whose sole job consists of appearing in the right place at the right time wearing the right suit. Of course, Bert was always going to get himself in trouble. Like a certain writer I know, he always burnt his toast. Always had to scrape it. I’m not talking about his speech to a West Adelaide junior side, where his ripe language led to a conflict that nearly ended the league. Bert made enemies. In 1930 he defeated Frank Walsh for pre-selection as the Labor candidate for Grey Ward. He then described Walsh’s supporters as ‘a miserable crowd of speakers and a filthy lot of canvassers.’ Or perhaps SW? In 1929 he directed B. H. Bardolph’s preselection for a Legislative Council by-election. The eventual winner, Methodist Freemason Stanley Whitford, always remembered Bert’s tactics. On 14 February 1931 The Register told its readers that Bert had been found guilty of ‘an unnatural offence’. Apparently, in May of the previous year, he’d buggered 16-year-old

John Mundy in the toilets of the Newmarket Hotel. Three months before that he’d done something ‘grossly indecent’ at Victor Harbor. Bert claimed he’d been stitched up by his enemies, taken down ‘with loaded dice’. At the time of Bert’s trial, Mundy was locked up in the Magill Reformatory for himself committing an act of gross indecency against a child. Not entirely reliable, but enough to get Bert put away. Mundy had worked for Bert at the Hotel Victor. He’d stayed in Bert’s room for six of the eight weeks he was there. Bert had given him silk pyjamas (Bert’s favourite type). He told a judge that one night Bert had ‘told me to come upstairs’. He then related ‘certain things which had happened in a room there’. Apparently they shared toast. Mundy must have been a slow learner, because the same things were still happening months later at the Newmarket, where Bert had given him another job. The truth might never be known. West Adelaide wasn’t the only team Bert played for. Back then they didn’t have so many supporters. Bert Edwards knew who he was, where he came from, and the people he never could (or felt the need to) rise above. After his release from prison in 1933 he got on with life: running pubs, agitating. The Labor Party, predictably, suspended his membership. In 1948 he was re-elected to the City Council. A bit of buggery didn’t dent anyone’s enthusiasm for ‘the King’.

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8 The Adelaide Review November 2013

POLITICS MODERN TIMES Justice in our Times BY Andrew Hunter

lbert Camus wrote in the author’s introduction of The Rebel that there were crimes of passion and crimes of logic. Had Camus lived in modern Australia, he would add that there were also crimes of ambivalence – frivolous acts devoid of meaning, purpose or passion. In our imperfect world, criminal acts will always occur. If one concedes this simple reality, the question becomes how to minimise the harm of each isolated act and address recidivism. Restorative justice is a process in which each person affected by an injustice discusses and decides together what needs to occur for the original situation to be restored. Both parties must agree to participate for the process to take place. The two parties, often with one person mediating and others present to support both the victim and the offender, discuss the

situation and decide together an appropriate course of action. It is conciliatory rather than punitive, although the offender must assume the consequences of the wrong they have committed. Restorative justice does not fit easily into the cycle of crime and punishment which appears to be our only relevant prism through which we understand the justice system. Yet justice

is not revenge. Even though several jurisdictions, such as South Australia, have improved the safety in our communities, our prison system nonetheless struggles to cope with its growing population. Incarceration is costly and does little to address recidivism. Often, it has the opposite effect. To borrow from the compliance pyramid, the strength of a society is built on a foundation of citizens who have been raised to understand what is right and wrong, and to respect the laws that govern a society. The tip of the pyramid is comprised of a small percentage of citizens who will never reach such an understanding. They are beyond rehabilitation, and need to be kept separate from the general community. In between, there exists a body of people who have a capacity for understanding and are able to comply with the moral or ethical foundations of the community, yet stray from social norms. Once the imperative of removing dangerous citizens from our communities has been met, the secondary objective of our justice system should surely be the rehabilitation of those who have committed crimes but can be encouraged to abide with the laws and best interests of the community. Is it possible to achieve this shift within the current system? If not, is there a role for restorative practices in our criminal justice system? The incidence of crimes of logic – premeditated acts – is falling in Australia but acts of aggression devoid of logic or passion have become more prevalent. A sense of responsibility (personal or collective) has ceased to guide individuals in these modern times. In our media-saturated modern society, young people are increasingly desensitised to violence. Reciprocity is no longer central to the values system taught to young people. Restorative practices not only provide

the victim with the opportunity to express their hurt and anger, but also provides the wrongdoer a setting in which they can learn and express empathy. This does more than merely restore the original situation – it provides a structure conducive to moving citizens towards the mass of socially responsible citizens on whom civil society is founded. Like any social skill, early exposure is highly beneficial. Restorative justice could also be applied to an education context. Early exposure to restorative practices would help reduce the number of citizens confined to the highest echelon of our pyramid of compliance and encourage other young people to fully participate in, and take responsibility for, our ‘civilised’ society. Restorative practices would provide an antidote to the bullying that is destroying the sense of confidence and self-worth of too many young Australians. As empathy among our young people diminishes, bullying becomes a growing problem in our school system. As the lessons of reciprocity are ignored, our young people will increasingly allow their insecurities to find expression in physically or verbally aggressive behaviour towards others. An embrace of restorative practices in this country would be to return to a justice system as it was practiced by our first peoples. Indigenous cultures have used circle sentencing for centuries. The proven effectiveness of restorative practices in addressing recidivism provides further evidence that Indigenous understanding can help find solutions to modern problems in Australia. Does the increase in violent acts devoid of reason or passion indicate a civilised society? Why are we not able to address the cycle of recidivism at a philosophical, intellectual or systemic level? Although one is inclined to believe that modern society is gradually becoming more civilised, the number of people involved in our criminal justice system begs further reflection.

The Adelaide Review November 2013 9

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POLITICS

Letter from Vienna BY Alexander Downer

Vienna itself still has the air of a great imperial capital. It is dominated by the gigantic Hofburg Palace, the one time home of the Emperors. The old war ministry building built before the First World War is vast. That reflects an era when Austria had a large army and a navy which included battleships and submarines. These days it’s hard to imagine an Austrian navy. The Austrian defence force is very modest. Austria is one of the smaller members of the European Union, absorbed into the euro currency system. So there we have it. A once great empire whose mobilisation against Russian-backed Serbia was the first ugly act of the catastrophe we call the First World War is reduced to T-shirts telling everyone it isn’t Australia! In a sense, Austria is at the very heart of the modern European story. Once a bellicose nation committed to holding its imperial lands in Europe, these days the European Union, for all its imperfections, has created a totally new European paradigm. It is inconceivable that Austria and Italy could go to war with each other. Less than a hundred years ago that’s exactly what they did. The problem with the European Union isn’t its supra-national vision but the structure of its

institutions. If there ever was an Anglo-Saxon way of doing things it is this. Institutions are changed when circumstances require them to change. They are not torn down, they just evolve. The European model is more revolutionary. The Europeans design a social model, build institutions to accommodate that model and get the public to accept it. It’s a top-down approach. The Anglo-Saxon model is more bottom-up. So the Franco-German architects of modern Europe did just that. They built a complex of new institutions to run the European Union: a Council of Ministers, a European Commission, a Parliament with limited powers, a Court of Justice, a central bank and so on. The idea was that these institutions would bind Europe together. Then most recently, the architects of the EU created the euro. The seventeen members of the euro could hardly be more diverse. Some are rich, others relatively poor, some run cautious fiscal policies, others not; some have extensive outside trade with Latin America, some trade more with Russia and Eastern Europe and so on. Obviously the founders of the euro were very conscious of this. Their argument was simple: the need to preserve the euro would force greater integration. Well, it was a high risk strategy. And it’s not one which has been particularly popular with the punters. In many European countries

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they’ve started voting for nationalist populists who denounce these top-down European institutions as undemocratic. This nationalist populist movement started in Austria when Jorge Haider’s Freedom Party won 27 percent of the vote in 1999. The EU establishment was outraged. They threatened to suspend Austria from the EU institutions. Why? Because they didn’t like the way a quarter of Austrians voted in a general election. This was the high water mark of EU arrogance towards the public.

vote for them because the EU establishment won’t listen to them and its institutions have arrogantly disregarded ordinary people.

Since then other nationalist and anti-EU parties have had some limited political success. In Finland there has been True Finns, in France the Le Pen family led Front National, in the UK there is the UK Independence Party and so on. Indeed, in last month’s Austrian general elections the Austrian Freedom Party won around 22 percent of the vote.

The message is that Europe needs to develop from the bottom up, not the top down. Free trade and investment throughout Europe makes perfect sense. That requires an institutional structure to manage and even police. But the more the EU leadership tries to force the pace for European integration beyond a level of public comfort, the more resistance they will get. And, ironically, the more they will risk the viability of the European project.

These parties are protest parties. People

So there’s a simple message in all of this for EU political leaders. It’s not, as some claim, to abandon the European project. The memories of the slaughter, bitterness and subsequent poverty and deprivation of the first half of the 20th century are too recent for Europeans to undo the achievements of European unity.

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here’s a T-shirt you can buy at Vienna airport which eccentrically proclaims “Austria has no kangaroos”. Er, no, I guess it doesn’t. But I couldn’t help but reflect on this. Austria, once the heart of the great Austro-Hungarian Empire which was one of the most dominant forces in Europe for around 600 years now worries that it is being confused with Australia!

10 The Adelaide Review November 2013

SOCIETY

This Is The End? by Lachlan Aird

ennis Altman’s 1971 debut work, Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation, heralded a longstanding career as an academic and expert on sexuality and politics. Since its publication, Atlman has become a Professorial Fellow in Human Security at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, been a Visiting Professor in Australian Studies at Harvard, published 11 books and has become an important public figure on sexuality and politics. Forty years on, his latest work, The End of the Homosexual? reflects on the progress homosexuality has made since Homosexual was first published. This follow-up is a detailed history of homosexuality before, during and after the Gay Movement, drawing from Altman’s experiences in both personal and academic capacities. The End of the Homosexual? is actually the title of the last chapter of 1971’s Homosexual, with this question acting as Altman’s main thesis. This doesn’t suggest that homosexuality as a concept will end, but rather that social, political and cultural trends will evolve to an extent where people will no longer define identity based on sexuality. While this may have been the prediction of gay liberationists in 1971, it is still not a reality in 2013. Atlman

shares some of the thoughts on why this may be the case with The Adelaide Review ahead of his pending visit for Adelaide’s Feast Festival. “I think there may be an end of a specific homosexual identity in the way we now think of it,” Altman explains. “I thought that 40 years ago and that was one of the things I was wrong about! One of the things I always have to say to people is that political scientists are particularly bad at predictions – although we’re not quite as bad at economists, who are the worst. All I can say is that there isn’t anybody today who could tell you what sex and gender will look like in 40 years time. The only thing I’d be prepared to say is that it probably won’t look as it does now.” Altman then shares a topic that he wishes he included in the book but didn’t: the idea of science fiction writing and its failure to acknowledge changing gender and sexuality. “One of the things that always annoys me about a lot of science fiction writing is that it imagines these extraordinary changes to almost everything except sex and gender. There are exceptions [such as China Miéville and Margaret Atwood], which are really interesting, but for the classic boys’ science fiction, as it has traditionally been male, by and large people can imagine these radical changes yet somehow assume that sex and gender are constants — and that is so ahistorical.” While Altman does address the increasing global debate around sexual rights, including cases in Uganda, Nigeria and Malaysia, the timing of the book’s publication meant that discussion on Russia’s anti-gay legislation could not be included. This is proof that the politics of sexuality is an ever-changing landscape that can shift dramatically without warning. Altman shares his insight of how he may have addressed that particular case if given the chance.

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SOCIETY

I think often making grand statements of support boomerangs, making things worse for people in countries being persecuted. We’ve seen examples of that when Hilary Clinton and David Cameron, for undoubtedly good motives, proclaimed gay rights as very important and just fed an anti-Imperialist, anti-Western position on a number of governments.”

“I think the Russian situation for some reason has gotten through to a lot of people who were ignoring what was happening in other parts of the world... There is terrible persecution going on in many parts of the world and by and large no one in Australia seemed to register that until, for some reason, the Russian situation, which has registered with a lot more people. I notice in the gay press a lot more coverage on [Russia] than previous issues. It’s not necessarily because it’s worse than what has happened elsewhere, but because for some reason – and we can speculate what that is – it has caught the imagination of a lot of people.” Altman also offers some intriguing insights into his views on the growing public discourse for humanitarian interventions and impositions on Russia.

“It’s a really interesting and tough question,” Altman begins. “I think often making grand statements of support boomerang, making things worse for people in countries being persecuted. We’ve seen examples of that when Hilary Clinton and David Cameron, for undoubtedly good motives, proclaimed gay rights as very important and just fed an anti-Imperialist, anti-Western position on a number of governments. I think that what we do has to be thought through very carefully and has to be done on the advice and along with the groups in Russia themselves. When, for example, people call for the boycotting of the Winter Olympics in Russia, it sounds great and I’m not against it, but I want to know first of all – if we can find out – if that is what the lesbian and gay movement in Russia wants, and what the impact on them would be. We could boycott or go to the Winter Olympics and wave rainbow flags and then go home, but they’re the ones who will get beaten up. I think there’s a real danger of grandstanding by people in countries like Australia. We can feel morally righteous without actually helping people.” This is a harsh reality that is difficult to digest, yet illustrates how delicate sexuality is within governance. With the case of Australia, which is the country where The End of the Homosexual? is anchored, there has inarguably been much progress towards the legislative and cultural acceptance of homosexuality. Altman is quick to note that there is, however, an important distinction to be made between progress and success, where he refers back to a recent conversation that he had with leading feminist Anne Summers on a panel at the recent Melbourne Writers Festival. “I would say that there’s been a great deal of progress, but that doesn’t mean there has been total success. We know coming out is still very traumatic for a lot of people and there is still a lot of bigotry... I think there are a lot of markers in our culture, but we know through research that is not true across the

world, and there are huge variations in social attitudes between countries and cultures. There is growing hostility and homophobia in some parts of the world, usually connected with religious and nationalist tendencies.” Altman is visiting Adelaide during the Feast Festival this month to host a forum following a screening of Jeffrey Schwartz’s documentary Vito, which depicts the experiences of leading American LGBT activist and author of The Celluloid Closet, Vito Russo. Altman and Russo were friends, detailing some of their experiences and political objectives in The End Of The Homosexual?. However, when asked about the ongoing contentious debate surrounding same-sex marriage, which has recently re-entered the public discourse following the Federal Government’s opposition to the ACT’s legalisation of same-sex marriage, Altman offers a curious perspective, likening the plight to that of the Australian republic. “I don’t feel passionate about either issue as I feel they are both largely symbolic. I recognise that to others they are much more important than they are to me. The more important point I was making was that everybody on the Left in the 90s when Paul Keating was talking about the republic would have said that it was going to happen within a decade – and it didn’t – and I think that’s a very interesting warning.” Another issue that Altman illuminates through The End of the Homosexual? is his account of how the AIDS epidemic in the 80s unfolded, the disease responsible for Russo’s death. Given the severe loss that Altman experienced through the passing of his partner of 22 years, Anthony Smith, last year to lung cancer before the book was completed, his reflection on this tumultuous time in history is especially poignant. “What is clear is that for people who didn’t live through that terrible period when a lot of people were dying, for them it’s probably like

what it is for me when I read about World War II – a sense of large-scale death that you didn’t personally experience. However, for people in my generation and any gay man over 50, there’s a sense of ongoing loss and I don’t think that’s talked about nearly enough – and I don’t think people have come to terms with it. I lost my partner last year and I’ve thought a lot about loss and grief and the fact is that you live with it. It doesn’t go away. At a communal level that hasn’t been sufficiently recognised and thought through.” While Altman’s book, like its predecessor, is an important insight into homosexuality and its global impact, Altman also wanted the book to be as much about Australian society. “I actually wanted to write a book that is as much about Australia as it is about homosexuality, by using what had happened [in the Gay Movement] to say a whole lot of things about how Australia had changed through the last 40 years.” This implies that while The End of the Homosexual? will no doubt become a beneficial addition to homosexual literature, it also captures the changing spirit and culture of Australia over the last four decades, and is therefore an important read for all Australians.

»»Dennis Altman’s The End of the Homosexual? is published by University Of Queensland Press. RRP $29.95. »»The Feast Festival screening of Vito, followed by a forum with Dennis Altman will take place at The Mercury Cinema on Tuesday, November 12. uqp.uq.edu.au feast.org.au

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12 The Adelaide Review November 2013

SOCIETY

To Serve and Protect: Australia’s Public Sphere by Chris Feik

or several years I have worked not so much in as on the public sphere. I have done this work mainly with Morry Schwartz, on books, the Quarterly Essay journal and The Monthly magazine. I say on not in because I am not so much a contributor to the public sphere as a kind of facilitator of it. My role has been to maintain places for writers to produce work of public interest that is then offered up to a commercial world of readers. In doing this, I’ve developed an interest in what makes for a secure and flourishing public sphere, what kinds of writing are most distinctive to it, and whether Australia indeed has a healthy public sphere. First, there is the idea of a healthy national debate. I believe that a public sphere can be both corrupted and redeemed. The United States, I think, offers some very clear recent examples of this. With the George W. Bush administration and the Iraq War, we saw a concerted effort to ‘fix the facts around the policy’. Evidence about weapons of mass destruction was distorted or exaggerated in the service of a policy and an underlying world view. Unsupportable or dubious claims

were made to the United Nations and in the media about military capabilities and alQaeda links; the doubts of UN inspectors were dismissed out of hand. On this view, the public sphere – especially in the form of critics and independent forums – was something to be shaped, suppressed and bullied. We saw papers such the New York Times buckle, and unlikely possibilities aggressively presented as certainties by government. Later the Times would apologise for ‘coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been’ and acknowledge unbalanced reportage and instances when it ‘fell for misinformation’. By contrast, when President Barack Obama gave his so-called race speech in 2008 – the speech entitled ‘A More Perfect Union’ – we saw the public sphere redeemed. It was a case of reasoned discursive argument on a topic of unresolved historical pain and conflict. Obama spoke of injustice and ‘the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow’: Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For [some], the memories of humiliation and

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THE ADELAIDE

REVIEW

doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years … the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races. This is not to say that Obama’s speech resolved or redeemed this history, but that it at least redeemed for Americans the idea of a public sphere that was not corrupt. What is the public sphere? At least since Immanuel Kant we have known it as the space in which people make public use of their reason, where they think for themselves, argue, criticise and so on, in a way that is open to the scrutiny of others and for the purpose of deliberation, discrimination and judgement. For Kant, you most fully think for yourself in the public sphere, not in private. The contrasts he draws are with private reflection on the one hand, and the official speech of institutions on the other. In this connection the idea of discursive argument is absolutely crucial – it is the most distinctive mode of the public sphere. Reporters uncover and sift information. Scholars and policy-makers explain new findings and offer technical expertise. But argument, criticism, whatever you call it, is fundamental. Reporters do such work, of course, but what I am referring to goes beyond reporting. Argument is the key mode in which claims are made on the public good or the national interest, in which civic ideals are pursued and contested, in which we form judgements in dialogue with others. Criticism is deeply connected to a distinctive voice, so that scholars can do it, but they have to forsake impersonality and abstraction to some degree. (That is, they have to depart from the strict protocols of formal academic discourse. In Anatomy of a Moment, a recent book

about politics, Javier Cercas writes of ‘certain intellectuals whose difficulty in emancipating themselves from abstraction and the absolute prevents them from connecting ideas to experience’.) For me, this kind of contribution is fundamentally a response or report that doubles as an argument or analysis. It can take many forms: Pauline Kael’s film reviews, George Orwell on English society and culture, Robert Manne on the Demidenko affair, to take some less party-political examples. What of today’s Australian public sphere? Sometimes I think of it as if with its own geography and history, à la Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Thus, there are the new realms of the

The Adelaide Review November 2013 13

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SOCIETY internet, some barbarous, some rich with potential. There are Gollum-like figures; there is the Murdoch imperium. For a long time it seemed that the academy in Australia had decided on a self-imposed exile from the public sphere. But now, what with online forums such as Inside Story and The Conversation, a return from exile seems to be occurring. Cercas writes of key moments of decision that reveal both character and an underlying political culture. Thinking about this, I recall an incident of a few years ago. One morning in 2004 I received a fax from the attorneygeneral’s department informing me that they believed that Black Inc. and Andrew Wilkie were in breach of national security laws. The book we soon intended to publish on the misrepresentation of intelligence in the leadup to the Iraq War would need to be modified to prevent the breach being exacerbated. We soon found ourselves in a meeting with the deputy head of the Office of National Assessments, the chief litigation counsel of the Australian Government Solicitor, and someone senior from ‘the attorney-general’s department’ – a pseudonym, we took it, for ASIO. The venue was our solicitor’s office, which was adorned with all manner of cricket memorabilia, thereby lending events an odd ambience, part le Carré, part Wisden. Naturally, we sought legal advice. Our first port of call was a large and prestigious law firm that did a lot of work for the government. I remember ascending in the lift with Black Inc.’s proprietor, Morry Schwartz, for the meeting. Upon our arrival in the labyrinthine and wellappointed chambers, we were sounded out by a large, bald, suited butler as to whether we wanted tea, coffee or pastries. Then, very rapidly, we were told by a lawyer that we should do whatever the government wanted us to do. There was no other option. In the lift on the way down, Morry and I looked at each other, shell- shocked. Then came one of those Cercasian moments. Morry decided to seek a second legal opinion. This time we dealt with a small, family-run law firm

Reporters uncover and sift information. Scholars and policymakers explain new findings and offer technical expertise. But argument, criticism, whatever you call it, is fundamental.” whose principal had dealt with the nation’s intelligence services years before. And this time we were advised that there was the possibility of negotiation. Robert Manne came to the first of these meetings, and this produced another telling moment. Before we got down to negotiating particular amendments to the Wilkie manuscript, Manne made a short speech on the themes of secrecy, the right to publish and the necessary constraints that needed to be balanced with government accountability in the service of national security. This elicited an equally eloquent reply, in general terms, from the bowtie-wearing deputy head of the ONA on the necessity of safeguarding information about national intelligence capabilities, the role of confidentiality in the civil service and so on. For a moment it seemed that the public sphere had inserted itself into our meeting. After a couple of painstaking sessions, it was agreed that the book would be published with some small amendments concerning tradecraft. There was some give and take, and some nonnegotiable changes. What to make of this encounter? Was the public sphere any better off as a result of there having been a negotiation? Only marginally, I suspect. The book would have been published in any case. The risky and brave decision was Andrew Wilkie’s original one: to blow the whistle on the misrepresentation

of intelligence, thereby forsaking his career in intelligence and inviting legal sanction. The important thing was that his arguments were made in public, first in the form of media interviews and then in a book. But for me, the two small moments I have discussed – seeking a second legal opinion and participating in an open-ended discussion of principles and issues – showed up something essential to the maintenance of a public sphere. It is the impulse to discuss and negotiate – as opposed to order and obey – that is at the base of any healthy public sphere. This applies in small and large things. If there is not such a quality to our democratic considerations, even (or especially) when it comes to national security, then we are essentially moving in the same direction as the Bush administration did – to a point where we fix the facts around the policy, and where notions of expert advice, negotiation and principled refusal are ruled out of bounds. There was one chilling moment in our meetings. We asked about the legal consequences for Andrew Wilkie following publication of his book. No direct threats were made, but the chief litigation counsel intoned, in an abstract and absolute manner, that ‘Mr Wilkie has not been forgiven’. Connoisseurs of such things will note that Andrew Wilkie was elected to the Australian Senate in 2010. Not long after, he obtained a place on the Senate committee on intelligence and security, and also introduced whistleblower legislation. For the term of the government, Mr Wilkie was in a position not to be forgiven, or forgotten, but to serve and protect the public sphere.

»»This is an edited extract from State of the Nation: Essays for Robert Manne, edited by Gwenda Tavan (Black Inc. $32.99) blackincbooks.com/books/state-nation

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14 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

BUSINESS a generator of high wage, high skill jobs as well as innovations that spill over into other sectors. Without manufacturing South Australia’s standard of living and prosperity would be greatly diminished. While the outlook for some sectors of manufacturing linked to mining and defence is positive, many South Australian manufacturers are struggling to compete in a rapidly changing and volatile international marketplace. This is particularly the case for the automotive sector, which since the closure of Mitsubishi in 2008 has remained precariously poised. Speculation about the future of the state’s remaining plant, GMH at Elizabeth reached fever pitch in late 2012 when the company made it clear that its future depended upon a favourable funding outcome from negotiations with the Australian, Victorian and South Australian governments. GMH accepted $275m indicating it would invest around $1 billion and continue car production in Australia till 2022. Just 12 months after this ‘co-investment’ deal was struck GMH announced that it was going to cut production from 400 to 335 cars per day resulting in the loss of 400 jobs in Adelaide and 100 in Melbourne.

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ompeting on cost is not an option for South Australian manufacturers in the Asian century. The challenge is to compete on quality and value using the most advanced manufacturing methods and skills available. Technology alone won’t deliver a secure future for manufacturers. Much of the competitive advantage needed to survive in a rapidly industrializing world will come from innovations in the way we work and the organization of workplaces. While technological innovation is vital to improving performance, modernising our workplaces will be a key to future success. At the heart of the productivity and performance improvement agenda

is the right combination of technology, enlightened leadership, an engaged workforce and a culture of creativity and innovation. Despite recent plant closures and job losses, manufacturing remains a major contributor to South Australia’s economic, export and employment base. It is one of the State’s largest industries, accounting for more than 10 percent of the workforce, around 70 percent of exports and importantly 40 percent of Research & Development expenses. Restructuring of parts of the Australian manufacturing sector in response to advances in technology has seen it become

A high Australian dollar has eroded the competitiveness of Australian exports and made imports of manufactured goods a very attractive proposition. Defence related manufacturing remains relatively strong in South Australia but is vulnerable to policy discontinuities at a national level. The prospect of the mining sector generating a sharp increase in demand for South Australian manufactured goods and services was dealt a blow by BHP Billiton’s decision to not proceed with the proposed expansion of Olympic Dam. There is however considerable scope for other mining projects in the pipeline to provide a medium term boost to the sector. Less rapid mining growth is arguably a better outcome for the manufacturing sector that may well have been starved of local engineering, construction and electrical skills if the Olympic Dam project had proceeded in 2014. The signiﬁcance of manufacturing to the future development of the state was elevated greatly by the appointment of Goran Roos as a Thinker in Residence in 2010-11. Professor Roos’ challenge was to clarify a vision for, and develop strategies to reinvigorate, South Australia’s manufacturing sectors. He recognised that achieving this aim would be a signiﬁcant challenge for South Australia, compounded by its small economy with many small and medium-sized firms that have limited resources to absorb and adapt new information about opportunities, markets, technologies, and innovation capabilities. In his ‘Thinkers’ report Manufacturing into the Future, Roos argued the case for ‘government policy intervention, to ensure

The Adelaide Review November 2013 15

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BUSINESS a strong, diversified and locally embedded manufacturing sector in South Australia’ . Roos’ report served as the foundation for the South Australian Government’s Manufacturing Works strategy. Manufacturing Works proposes that investment in the delivery of policy tools should balance supply-side with demand-side policy instruments, and provides an overarching framework to guide the development of initiatives to support the manufacturing sector within key industry policy objectives focusing on transforming; rejuvenating; growing and building the state’s manufacturing sector. One of the demand-side policy tools Roos recommends is increasing the efficacy of industry and university research linkages by supporting the development of knowledge sharing networks and industry clusters. Often overlooked, however, in the contribution of universities to industry is the production of ‘a variety of skills and competencies that [can] interact in an unplanned manner and hence generate new and often unforseen knowledge that can be translated and applied in developing new product and service-systems, designs and business models’. The temptation in Australian manufacturing workplaces has been to look for the next technological fix to drive productivity and profit growth. Great gains will continue to be made from this but not in the absence of transforming the way we think about innovation, how our workplaces operate, breaking down hierarchical command and control workplace management systems and replacing them with more participative and collaborative ones. The potential gains from pursuing major changes are not insignificant. The adoption of team-work, job rotation, job redesign along with investments in training and creating a culture of innovation and creativity can result in significant improvements to productivity and performance. This is recognised in Manufacturing Works, which includes a commitment to a high performance workplace program. Australia is no stranger to these sorts of programs but we have never managed to conceptualise and implement them as well as the Scandinavians have, particularly Finland, which is widely regarded as the gold standard in workplace innovation. While Australia is not Scandinavia and shouldn’t slavishly adhere to practices imported from other nations, we would be foolish to ignore the results of their efforts. Relatively small economies in that part of the world have achieved impressive economic outcomes through smart workplace innovations linked to interventionist industry and investment policies – policies that government, industry and unions have built a consensus around over many years.

Is Your Website Working for Your Business? by Michael Browne

results on a search receive the majority of click throughs whilst less than five percent of people generally click though to the second page of results. One of the many things that search engines look for are words on the businesses website that match the words people type into the search engine. So put yourself in the customer’s shoes and make sure your website contains terms that you think they will use when looking for a business like yours. Today there are numerous web consultants who provide advice on how to maximise the prospect of finding a business website. It may be worth considering engaging a consultant on this aspect as you implement your strategy.

ost privately owned businesses understand the need for an effective digital strategy, but many are unclear about what exactly that strategy should be. With the rapid pace of change in the digital landscape comes a further question: is the business able to give its customers the online experience they already take for granted in their other day-to-day interactions?

It is also important to understand that the target audience of your website is not just anybody. In a recent discussion with a business, I was advised that in redesigning their already quite successful website they had lost their traditional audience, despite measuring a dramatic uplift in ‘hits’ on their website. The business was forced to completely revisit their search engine key word strategy to get their audience back.

Privately owned businesses operate at various levels of sophistication when it comes to their digital strategies, ranging from a simple email account to a fully integrated digital model that links their own business systems with online, mobile and social interfaces. However, many private businesses still generally see their website as the centrepiece of their online strategy. Like any strategy, it is vital to determine whether it is genuinely working for the business.

A further challenge for privately owned businesses, particularly those with limited resources, is to ensure website content remains current. A common mistake businesses make is to think the website is a ‘set and forget’ situation. While the business itself might not change from day to day, the internet does, and if the website is not regularly updated it will slip down the search rankings.

Important questions to consider about the website are whether customers can find it and what is being asked of them when they do locate it?

To illustrate, I have a client who spends a significant part of each day focused specifically on ensuring that his website stays at the top of the search rankings as it is a key aspect of his strategy.

When it comes to being found online, search rankings really do count. The first two

Some businesses use their website to demonstrate their expertise, often in the form

of information or advice about a topic related to their product or service. Others have found ways to keep the customer online through customisable products and interactive tools. Understanding customer needs is becoming more critical as more and more data can be gathered and analysed in real time. A business website needs to clearly communicate the value proposition and make a strong call to action. Often website management is managed internally by a tech savvy staff member, the IT team or a consultancy on the justification that they understand the digital environment better than management or the owners do. On a technical level that may be true, but in the current environment the online strategy is just one of the many strands of the business strategy not a standalone aspect. As a result it is the people that really understand and articulate what the business is about – usually owners or senior managers – who should take ownership of the business’s digital strategy. The digital environment also demands that your business is integrated into its supply chain as well as its customers. There is a need for continuous interaction with all aspects of the business, customers, suppliers, and your own people. The environment is more collaborative than it has ever been demanding a level of agility and willingness for your business respond to change immediately. Even if you’re not a digital expert, you are still the expert on your business and the person best placed to know how your customers think.

»»Michael Browne is a Partner at PwC »»State of South Australia (Wakefield Press), edited by John Spoehr.

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16 The Adelaide Review November 2013

RESEARCH

Young Investigator Award The Women and Children’s Hospital Foundation initiative is supporting young researchers in Adelaide. by Thea Williams

EN to 15 years out from a PhD in this country, about 20 percent of graduates are still working in research. This figure comes from the Australian Academy of Science’s Early/ Mid Career Researcher Forum, formed in 2011, which held its second national meeting in Melbourne at the end of October. Professor Les Field, secretary for science policy at the Australian Academy of Science, noted to the forum meeting: “We are moving

into an era where it is more important than ever to recognise and be able to communicate the potential application, influence or translation of the research that we do into the real world.” In South Australia, the Young Investigator Award, open to those working in the area of women’s and children’s health, is now in its fourteenth year, and has served as a useful fillip to those who have won. The award is now worth $5000, to be used towards career development, and is an important addition to a

CV. But it has also been important in promoting the exemplary research taking place in Adelaide and its value to public health. Dr Andrea Averis, Chair of the Young Investigator Award, says the aAward But it has also been important in promoting the exemplary research taking place in Adelaide and its value to public health. This year’s award saw a significant shift in applications towards qualitative research. Dr Lisa Smithers, who won the award in 2008 for her work on nutrition and is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Adelaide in the School of Population Health, sat on the selection committee and says the shift is “fabulous”. Semi-finalist topics ranged from identifying the shortcomings of programs to prevent smoking among young indigenous Australians to investigating how best to encourage people to participate in longitudinal studies of immunisations to be able to link electronic data from immunisation registers. “It’s exploring different questions,” says Dr Smithers. “The human questions have implications for the way research is adopted by the public; they can inform the type of research we do and what might work in public health.” The work of all three finalists this year reflected the generational dilemma: How to combat obesity in children and promote healthy, active lifestyles. Finalists included: Dr Katia Ferrar, an early career development fellow in the School of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia, whose research interest is in increasing physical activity levels among clinical and vulnerable groups such as obese children.

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Jessica Gugusheff, a PhD candidate at the FoodPlus Research Centre at the University of Adelaide, who is doing quantitative research looking at the role of chemicals in the brain that create ‘good feelings’ and how a poor maternal diet while pregnant and breastfeeding may predispose children to liking junk-food.

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Dr Rebecca Stanley, a research fellow in the Exercise for Health and Human Performance Group at the University of South Australia, has examined what helps and what hinders lunchtime play in the school yard. Dr Stanley says that too often research presented at conferences and in scientific journals is lost in translation to the public it concerns. “Opportunities like the Young Investigator Award provide a unique opportunity to communicate our research in a way that can be understood by the public.” Head of the selection panel of initial applications this year Associate Professor

Sam Tolley, CEO, WCH Foundation with 2013 Young Investigator Award winner Jessica Gugusheff.

Taher Omari, who was the inaugural winner of the award in 2000 and is now an NHMRC senior research fellow in the Department of Gastroenterology at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, points out that this year applicants were required to have had a peerreviewed paper published. “We wanted to give it to people who had done a bit more and could tell more of a story,” he says. “The bigger picture is obviously that if science across the board can engage the community then the community puts more value in it and that flows back to government policy.” The Young Investigator Award is an initiative of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation, supported by the Women’s and Children’s Health Network, the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, University of South Australia and Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute. The 2013 award winner, announced last week, was Jessica Gugusheff.

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18 The Adelaide Review November 2013

EXTRACT

What Westerners Have for Breakfast Writer John McBeath and his partner Sue spent five years in Goa in the mid-80s, these unforgettable years are captured in the pages of his new book, What Westerners Have for Breakfast. by John McBeath

here are frequent power failures when fridge and fan motors stop, sometimes for a day or more. Sue and I snap constantly at each other and argue over trivialities: “Did you leave the butter out of the fridge? Christ! It’s melted and run all over the bench!” “I always put the butter back in the fridge.”

“We’re completely out of ice. Didn’t you refill the ice tray?”

time until mid afternoon when Todd closes for siesta, and then to return after dinner for the evening session. Jerry is a permanent fixture and the other expats we’ve met at Todd’s usually appear too: Henri (the Human Potato), Yugo (the Mossy Log), Antoine and Rudy.

the morning the sky has a strange ivory pallor, and a few smoky clouds have begun to appear.

Here also, much of the talk is of the impending monsoon. Jerry has a fund of monsoon stories and gives a scientific explanation of the weather pattern. He claims it is difficult to overstate the importance of the annual south-western monsoon on the Indian subcontinent. He continues in teacher mode: “You know the basic elements of it were discovered by the Halley’s Comet man, Edmond Halley, in the sixteen hundreds. Halley discovered that the monsoon steps from the deep south of the Indian Ocean right up the fookin’ west coast of India through June, until by July it’s reached Karachi in Pakistan. And it’s such a regular bloody event. Every year, unless there’s a fookin’ failure, the monsoon hits Trivandrum, the most southern city, about the first of June, then moves up the coast to arrive here in Goa about a week later. Yes,” he adds, “you could set your fookin’ calendar by it.”

Each night I tie down the bamboo blinds and palm shutters and close the internal wooden shutters on each window. Inside the house is still like a steamy tropical greenhouse which all fans on full bore do little to relieve. A bowl of salt left on the table turns to brine in a few minutes.

It would be obvious even to someone who had never heard of the monsoon that a largescale weather change is coming.

Francis tells us that sometimes the coconut palms are bent so far over by wind that their fronds scrape the ground. We both feel nervously excited about the extreme weather challenge facing us, and the constant anticipation of its arrival only heightens our tensions. On the morning of June 7th, the sky is darkish; the sea froths white and churns noisily. The air is very still. I drive into Calangute market, where everyone I speak to says: “Monsoon is coming today.”

*** “Where’s the soda water? Don’t tell me that was our last bloody bottle!” At Todd’s Inn a lethargic atmosphere has descended and the temptation is to sit at the long table drinking cold drinks from lunch

It’s the fourth of June and the sea has become a sizzling, heaving cauldron too dangerous for swimming. Every evening sheet lightning flickers on the horizon and lights our bedroom with strobe flashes throughout the night. In

“What time do you think?” People shrug in the dusk-like gloom. “Not possible to say but very soon now.” I get back into the jeep and drive home from the market under a darkening sky. As I turn into the lane heading towards the beach the first few swollen globules of water

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013 19

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EXTRACT shines there surrounded by shimmering droplets, and I can see the wet, sari-clad figure of a woman. On the open verandah is Sarasvati. Her face is upturned, and with eyes closed and hands extended skywards into the deluge, she slowly and gracefully rotates in a solitary, celebratory dance of welcome for the falling rain which engulfs her. No sooner has the monsoon broken than the countryside begins to change. Abruptly, areas of brown and apparently dead vegetation turn many shades of green; plants of every kind spring to verdant life. A stick in the ground, even fence posts, start to sprout, and everywhere water runs and accumulates; wells begin to re-fill. On the foreshore, our gently sloping beach has been drastically altered into a landscape of steep drops where large quantities of sand have been carried away by the tide. The sound of the sea has increased alarmingly, thundering and crashing onto the shore, sometimes sounding as if fleets of trucks are dumping timber on the beach. At other times cracking noises ricochet along the sand dunes like rifle shots. The beach is no longer an attractive place to be, especially when the monsoonal winds howl onshore whipping spume and making it difficult to gaze windward out over the thrashing sea. What a couple of months ago had been a mild, peaceful and pleasant place, is now hardly recognisable. It feels menacing, a place to avoid while forces of unimaginable power

play themselves out. I wonder if the beach will ever return to its former state. Temperatures have dropped a few degrees, but occasionally the air is so laden with moisture that vapour is visible inside our house. During power breaks, when the fans stop, a faint mist occasionally gathers in the front room. Whenever the wind and rain cease we open the shutters and prop the palm fronds out from the wall to try and get some air circulating. Metal surfaces break out in condensation, and everything made of leather turns a quite pretty, pastel shade of greenish-grey from a coating of powdery mould, which is extremely difﬁcult to remove. There are times when we’re conﬁned to the house by rain for a couple of days at a time, but now in late June, the weather pattern has settled into regular heavy showers in the mid-morning or afternoon, and again overnight. In between those predictable rains, we can venture out.

» This is an extract from What Westerners Have for Breakfast by John McBeath, Transit Lounge Publishing, available now. RRP: $29.95. transitlounge.com.au

splatter dramatically onto the windscreen. This is it! The monsoon at last! A huge sense of relief. There is also excitement, a kind of arousal where prolonged expectation is overtaken in an instant, literally drowned, by the reality of the rain’s arrival.

invites you to a free Public Seminar Reaching home, I swing the wheel in the direction of the lean-to, exposing the open passenger-side of the jeep to the weather. Instantly a barrage of water shoots through the cab as if someone had turned a hose full onto me; I’m drenched in seconds. Laughing aloud with exhilaration, I gun the jeep forward into its refuge of foliage and bamboo. Water is already spreading on the sandy ﬂoor, supplied by several streams running in through the makeshift roof. Waterfalls cascade off the house’s tiled roof and we rush to ﬁll containers with fresh rainwater. A strong wind from the sea begins to drive the rain, and gradually increases in velocity all day. Our verandah, although doubly protected by the heavy bamboo blinds plus the layers of woven palm shutters, is soon awash. Sloshing along the verandah’s length is like walking on a ship whose level deck runs with water. Not long after dusk the wind drops, leaving rain to fall vertically and heavily to earth all night. Opening our back door to watch the water sheeting down, my eye catches a flash of movement up on the first-floor balcony of Subhind’s Hospital. A single electric light globe

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20 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

OPINION

The Lost Apples An enduring fragility BY STEPHEN FORBES

f the Garden of Eden was in the Middle East the apple could hardly have been the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – apples were a late introduction. Perhaps the Garden of Eden was, in fact, in Kazakhstan? Eden, at least for apples, is likely close by in the Tian Shan, the celestial mountain range that stretches from China through Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan. The wild Central Asian apples are incredibly diverse in habit and fruit; ranging from sprawling shrubs to oak-like trees with apples ranging through extremes in size, shape, colour, texture and taste. The source and importance of the ancestral apple in Kazakhstan was recognised by the celebrated Russian botanist, geneticist and agronomist Nikolai Vavilov in 1929. Vavilov was hardly the ﬁrst to make this observation: Alma-Ata (now Almaty) in Kazakhstan, where Vavilov’s work in this region began, translates as ‘Fatherland of the apple’. Clearly Kazakhs were aware of the region’s importance for the apple. However, Vavilov’s punishing ﬁeld work schedule collecting seeds and germplasm of crops and wild crop relatives across the globe provided a new context for the origins of many domestic crops. Bizarrely Vavilov’s endeavours to revolutionise Russian food production ran afoul of Joseph Stalin’s views on genetics and Vavilov died in prison in 1943. However, Vavilov’s Kazakh student, Aimak Dzangaliev, continued to work on the apples of Alma-Ata where he remained associated with the Almaty Botanical Garden. In 1989,

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sixty years after Vavilov’s visit, following the fall of the Soviet Union, the nonagenarian Dzangaliev was again active in leading a collecting expedition; this time with US botanists focussed on the conservation of this ancestral genetic heritage. Botanically the wild Central Asian apple is Malus sieversii and the domesticated apple is Malus domestica (although Malus pumila is often used for both). DNA evidence suggests M. sylvestris, the European crab apple, is in some way involved in the domestic apple’s parentage and the correct application of a name for domestic apples remains a matter of debate. Mapping of the apple genome was completed in 2010 and identiﬁed 57,000 genes – the largest genome of any plant known. Perhaps this genetic diversity combined with

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self-incompatibility (apples generally require cross-pollination) underlies the incredible diversity of both wild and domestic apples. Despite this rich genetic heritage modern apple breeding is rather incestuous with a very small number of cultivars involved. The chances of breeding new introductions, even in a targeted program are slim. However the rewards can be significant as the notion of ownership has changed: in celebrating the University of Michigan’s release of a new apple John Seabrook observed in the New Yorker last year that, ‘As a piece of intellectual property – branded, patented, and trademarked – (SweeTango) has more in common with the apple on my laptop than the one I used to carry in my lunchbox.’ Chance seedlings such as Braeburn, found in a hedgerow in the Braeburn area of Nelson in the 1950s, still provide a rich prospecting ground. Either way, the selection of fine apples remains a high art requiring fine discrimination, patience and an abiding commitment. The release of new apples should be celebrated. The loss of fine apples should also be lamented. While heritage pomologists and a few government and university research stations maintain orchards of heritage fruits, few remain in commercial orchards. The lost sometimes remain as names, as illustrations, and for a favoured few, in three dimensions as exquisite papier-mâché models. The papiermâché apples that reside in the Santos Museum of Economic Botany in Adelaide Botanic Gardens are perfect replicas of apples that are now largely lost to cultivation. The story of the art & craft associated with the models

and the cultivars on which they’re based is an important one. The Santos Museum of Economic Botany is the last colonial economic botany museum in the world. While the building is important, the collections displayed within the Museum are at its heart. The papier-mâché model apple and pear collection dating from the 1860s is both gorgeous and signiﬁcant as one of the few remaining collections worldwide and the only known such collection outside Europe. The heritage, purpose, art and signiﬁcance of the collection provide the focus for a beautiful new book by curator Tony Kanellos. The models are so superbly photographed by Paul Atkins, the design by Kate Burns so beautiful and the printing of such high quality that Imitation of Life stands as both a catalogue and a high-end art book. As Curator of the Santos Museum of Economic Botany, Tony Kanellos is charged with caring for the Museum’s collections; that care is evident in both the Museum and in the scholarship, art and design of Imitation of Life.

» Imitation of Life will be launched by Professor David Mabberley at the Annual Picnic at Marble Hill on November 17. » Stephen Forbes is Director, Botanic Gardens of Adelaide. marblehill.com.au/picnic.html environment.sa.gov.au/botanicgardens

The Adelaide Review November 2013 21

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MONTEFIORE

MONTEFIORE A ban on drinking your favourite tipple in the park lands? It’s been discussed inside Town Hall. BY Sir Montefiore Scuttlebutt

t’s a sign of the times that, if you share fish and chips while sitting on some Adelaide metropolitan beaches, you can’t legally wash it down with a fine riesling. That’s the washup of lads who once lugged slabs of beer to the frothy sandy edges and, as a result, misbehaved badly in front of young families. In Adelaide city, something similar kicked in about 10 years ago in the early days of the Rann administration when dry areas were created to block casual outdoor boozing in city squares. The ban was later extended to surrounding streets. Opponents who saw this as a racist policy said that it would force the largely Aboriginal congregations that favoured this social activity into the park lands. And so it has come to pass. One area, possibly visible by Parkside, Unley and Wayville families with balconies and binoculars, is the south park lands, where, to

quote Town Hall, “low occurrences of alcohol related violence or anti-social behaviour” have been alleged during the past year. Police data is ‘confidential’ but Town Hall statistics are more detailed - eight complaints. Staff acted by monitoring groups in the south park lands to “document congregation, the consumption of alcohol and any related anti-social behaviour”. Results: of 378 ‘events’, booze at 118 of them (31 percent). That puts the eight complaints into some perspective. And perspective is all. For as long as South Australia as a colony has existed, Aboriginal people have, like the city settlement whites who invaded Kaurna country in 1836, used public parks as places for partying and drinking (among other things). The whites have organised some truly spectacular alcohol-soaked celebrations.

Another perspective might be even more telling - that a perfectly legitimate pastime, informally sharing a few drinks with friends somewhere in the park lands, has become subject to local government authority observation and screening, note-taking and data collection. Consider the appropriateness of such activity watching tables outside pubs in Rundle Street or Hutt Street or Gouger Street. It simply would not happen, even though “alcohol-related violence and antisocial behaviour” that can stem from it ends up depositing people in Adelaide’s hospital casualty wards. But ‘a few drinks’ - minus the offensive bits - still classifies as legal, public behaviour in those boulevards. One, in the park lands, is subject to “auditing”; the other is not. In less than a year, Adelaide will be at a crossroads. When the next `dry zone policy extension’ comes up for renewal, the city fathers are pondering whether to ban drinking in our park lands. In a bid to pursue the policy (the racist tinges which of course everyone denies), it is admitted behind closed doors that it was the original ‘dry area’ rules that created the problem in the park lands in the first place. Aboriginal ‘congregations’ found it far more convenient to drink in city squares and find it much less so along the distant leafy edges where there are few toilets and little shelter. Bureaucrats also quietly confess that Adelaideans poorly understand the ‘dry zone’ concept. When fined for enjoying a

savvy blanc or a nip of the ol’ Four Crown port in a city square (technically park lands, but where the policy applies), they feel aggrieved at having to empty out the tipple and pay a police fine for the privilege. Which is why their next knees-upwith-drinks would be planned for where the rule doesn’t apply - away from the squares and into the park lands. To get the policy expanded and to declare the park lands dry, our city fathers and the police department brass would have to mount a strong campaign. But some Town Hall administrators are dry on the idea. In August this year they advised: “An extension of the dry area would require strong support and lengthy, thorough consultation with residents and businesses, as well as letters of support from SAPOL and local members of parliament. Data collected by SA Police and [Town Hall] administration is unlikely to justify the extension of the dry area to include the entire park lands or the southern park lands at this time.” This appears to be the realpolitik - and behind the scenes one can hear the quiet crackle of eggshells being trodden. That’s the sound of members of parliament who initiated the original dry zone policy to get drinkers out of Victoria Square, but have always made sure that the proposals to extend the policy application (routinely updated) come from Town Hall. In politics, appropriate distance is everything.

22 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

COLUMNISTS SIX SQUARE METRES

There isn’t much to them. The bags are like green sausages, around a metre long, with a little hole at the bottom and a big one at the top, together with some wires and a hook by which to hang them. The idea is that you push a seedling’s leaves through the bottom hole, leaving the roots in the bag, ﬁll from the top with potting mix, water and hang it in a sunny spot so the plant grows upside down.

The Struggle Against Gravity BY MARGARET SIMONS

Four weeks ago I planted an eggplant, a tomato and a capsicum, and hung the bags from the only part of my sundeck railing not occupied by the straddling pots. They look like fat, premature Christmas stockings.

he persistent miracle of gardening, and parenthood for that matter, is that things grow despite one’s incompetence. They also grow according to their nature. You can train and trellis, but plants still struggle to be themselves.

The picture on the package showed tomato plants growing like upside down trees, trailing below the bag and laden with fruit, but my plants are behaving differently. They clearly want to grow up.

It’s one of the things that makes gardening fascinating. The gardens of old sprawled across vast estates, an intermediate space between wilderness and home, the playing out of a constant tension between nature and nurture.

Just after their stems emerge from the bag, they take a U-turn and are struggling upwards against gravity. How will they fare once they (hopefully) set fruit? Will they be able to continue the upwards struggle, or will they snap off and die? There is a ghastly fascination to watching the struggle.

Sometimes, you get to cheat. And sometimes threats work. My mandarin tree, admittedly in a light-starved corner of my tiny back yard, hasn’t fruited for three years. This year I pruned it back mightily and laid on the potash, while muttering threats about the need to earn its keep. Now it has pushed out a few grudging blossoms. Gardening when you really don’t have enough space is a challenge. Logic would suggest that my efforts should be mostly to do with things that grow in pots and without much sunlight, but ferns have limited appeal, one canna lily plant is quite enough, and I like to grow food. Last year I discovered my local garden centre has cunning and distressingly expensive pots designed to straddle a balcony railing. I requested one for my birthday present, which caused the teenagers to roll their eyes, but they bought it nevertheless and I was a convert.

Martha Berkeley. Australia, 1813 - 1899. Self-portrait. c.1849, Adelaide. Gift of an anonymous donor 1993. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

THIRD AGE

Meanwhile I have cleared the gone-toseed broccoli from my prime growing space – the sunny but narrow strip of soil that divides my house from the street, and cut back the rosemary and lavender to create room for beans and corn.

Now I have six of them balanced on my little sundeck balustrade, growing bok choy, strawberries, radishes and lettuce. Even more novel are the upside-down bags, bought for two dollars each on special from Bunnings. I assumed at the time that they were cheap because they didn’t work, and nobody else was foolish enough to purchase.

Instead of putting the rosemary clippings in the green bin, I bundled them up with rubber bands and left them on the gatepost in a bucket with a note indicating they were free to a good home. They were all gone by the end of the weekend. One person’s prunings, another’s dinner garnish. Some things go right with the world.

@MargaretSimons

Old age is... BY SHIRLEY STOTT DESPOJA

can’t die now: I have enough coat hangers for the first time in my life. This seems a powerful reason for ploughing on further into my 70s. You are sensing that deep down I am a frivolous woman. It is a reaction to all the people taking up laptops and telling people how to be old. I just can’t take it. When I started this column in 2008 no one had a word to say for the old. Now the air is thick with pontifications and I really hate it. My only mantra is: don’t be told how to be old. Listen up. I am the first to say that old people should have jobs if they

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THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013 23

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COLUMNISTS

DR K’S CURIOUS CHRONICLES BY KIERA LINDSEY

e live in a ﬁve-gear society where the ideas that inﬂuence different sectors of Australia can be remarkably disparate. Where some Australians articulate ‘progressive’ values, such attitudes can be entirely alien, even abhorrent to others. Because we travel the journey of ideas at diverse speeds and with distinct interests, there is considerable room for contestation about key issues, including the way we understand Australia’s past. Despite these disparities it is reasonable to assert that over the past forty years Australia’s national narratives have been radically shaped by Bill Stanner’s 1968 Boyer lectures where he suggested that there was a ‘secret river of blood’ running through the psyche of the nation. When it came to our frontier history, he argued, deliberate denials, coupled with shame, had suppressed the truth of our colonial past and resulted in what he called ‘the

want them (as I did in my last column). I am the last to say it should be compulsory. The wind is harsh down here in the west, close to the sea. I am so irritated that I walk down the hall as noisily as I can in slappy slippers so that I can hear I am alive above the wind’s howling. I am cross that I can’t stand on the lavatory to hang a picture of a bougainvillea-covered dunny I painted years ago. I stood there for a while thinking I might risk it, then thoughts of a nursing home kicked in and I gave up. Someone will come and put it up for me one day, but that is not the point, darling. My cat is sleeping so peacefully in her basket that I think I should give her a shake so she can wake up and be my friend. I am putting off ringing a human friend because I am afraid of his news. The washing machine tries to walk

Great Australian Silence’. In the wake of Stanner’s provocative challenge, historians sought to rupture this silence. Many have produced confronting work that can be read, not only for what it tells us about the colonial project in Australia, but also the way the past informs the present. There are, however, occasions when Australia’s frontiers have been diminished to caricatured stereotypes that deny more complex and compelling realities and run the risk of reducing the past to a battle between black and white; while encouraging a kind of colour blindness that diminishes the kaleidoscope of attitudes, actions and individuals that actually animated those hybrid, threshold worlds.

captured one of the most extraordinary moments in the ﬂedgling colony. ‘The ﬁrst dinner given to the Aborigines’ in October 1838, depicts hundreds of Kaurna and Njarrindjeri families sharing the green slopes behind today’s Government House, with a crowd of colonists dressed in top hats and bonnets. There, in what we might now describe as a misguided gesture of goodwill, Governor Gawler offered boiled beef, biscuits and blankets to the Aboriginal people with whom these colonists strived to co-exist, even as they occupied their lands. Berkeley’s painting captures a rare moment of intermingling which also hints at the myopic aspirations of that small European population.

The little-known work of South Australia’s first professional artist, Martha Berkeley, is a case in point. Berkeley was among the first colonists to arrive in Adelaide, along with her competitive sister, Theresa, and Captain Charles Berkeley, the handsome soldier Martha married nine days before leaving England. Having survived the death of her mother at five and unpredictable family finances, Martha acquired sufficient training to become a professional artist and, at the age of twenty, show her work in the most respected context of her time, London’s Royal Academy.

Like Martha, her sister Therese Walker recorded her colonial experiences in art. While Berkeley favoured watercolour, Walker was a sculptor. Inspired by Greek and Roman coins, Walker carved the proﬁles of respected colonists into cream wax, creating miniature portraits that resemble cameo jewellery. These include the delicate and intricate portraits of two South Australian ‘natives’, Kertamaroo and Mocatta, which can be enjoyed in the Gallery of South Australia. Berkeley’s sister renders these ﬁgures with humanity and dignity. They are, in truth, as beautiful and carefully considered as any of her portrait work.

Upon their arrival in Adelaide in 1836, Martha and her family lived in makeshift accommodation on the banks of the Torrens, during which time she

out the door every time it is on fast spin and the cotton quilt inside is too heavy for me to do anything about it. Old age is a bugger. But most of all I am livid that the author of a new book (Patricia Edgar, In Praise of Ageing, Text Publishing) is advocating that the pension age be lifted to 70 and other nasty things “to promote a culture in which working to 70 and beyond is seen as normal”. Aaargh. You see what I mean about everyone having too much to say about old age? If you love old age you want people to share that feeling. Telling them they can’t have the pension until 70 is not the way to go. This rich country can afford to give old people who need it a bit of comfort for their ﬁnal stretch. And comfort

While Theresa enjoyed financial security and social stability, Martha’s life was volatile,

for many people means doing nothing very much: after a lifetime of being at everyone’s beck and call. The people who want the OAP to be raised to 70 are the ones who have a nice little nest egg (of course they worked for it) and are travelling the world. They feel full of life and verve. But a lot of people had jobs that were anything but challenging and enjoyable. They need to get the hell out of there before they die prematurely. Some of my friends didn’t make it to 70. Well, that saved the nation something, didn’t it? Edgar’s book is about more than the OAP. I think she would be a great person to have on board if you were trying to make a nursing home accommodate the needs of an old person. She’s a bossyboots and it is plain that she can be very effective. For her, being asked, at 76, if she uses the internet is ageism. And there

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thanks in large part to her dashing husband. In the 1840s, Captain Berkeley lost his wife’s inheritance to over-speculation, and in 1852, Martha became one of the thousands of South Australian women deserted by their husbands, when he left his family to become a magistrate on the Victorian Goldﬁelds. Faced with destitution, Martha supported her four children by selling her art. When she died in 1899, Berkeley left us with a body of work which offers a distinctive and idiosyncratic window into colonial Australia. In a world typically described as masculine and harsh, both sisters were not only active and respected professionals, but also respectful about the people they met. While their lives challenge gender stereotypes about frontier societies, their art encourages us to think about the mindset of two Regency women, who we might otherwise assume to be proponents of racial prejudice. Together, both artists offer insight into the colonial and the contemporary world, cautioning us against easy assumptions, and inviting us to delight in the everyday details of both the past and the present.

» Dr Kiera Lindsey teaches Australian History and Australian Studies at the University of South Australia.

are stories about some interesting Australian lives, told (rather stodgily) in her book. Hugh Mackay’s back jacket comment “if Edgar’s rational arguments don’t convince you, (he means that ageing is not bad news) her human stories will” is fair enough. So what did I do to overcome my irritation with bossyboots and the weather? A picture came into my mind of an old girl up the street on her rusty old “girl’s” bicycle, like the one I had when I was 13. She tells me off for gardening in my good clothes. She talks and laughs a lot. She’s a real Westie, and still has me on probation I think, as I only moved here four years ago. She is wonderful, even if you don’t know her story. Old age is wonderful. Join me in a glass of wine. Don’t be stupid. Of course you can drink on your own.

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24 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

BOOKS

GOAT MOUNTAIN

SWINGLAND

David Vann / Text Publishing

Daniel Stern / Nero

RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY Michael Fullilove / Penguin Viking

BY TALI LAVI

BY WILLIAM CHARLES

Ever since his memorable fictional debut, Legend of a Suicide, David Vann’s books have been taking us to brutal emotional terrains, often radiating from his own experience. The subject here is killing and its spiralling aftermath, after an eleven-year-old boy kills a poacher on a seeming whim during a hunting trip. Related by the now-grown man he has become, it is filled with invective for humanity and philosophical interrogations into our true natures. The Biblical story of Cain and Abel is employed as a frame on which to hang his central argument; that we all contain this brutality. Although these sections of the narration are sometimes overworked, the rendering of the landscape and the act of hunting is a masterclass of evocation. A particular account of the killing of a buck should be enshrined in literary history. In this boy’s family – as in the author’s – hunting culture is so entrenched that guns are appendages of their flesh. Vann writes into violence; this is no clinical observation. In reading Goat Mountain be prepared to emerge bloody and scarred.

If there were ever any doubt truth is stranger than ﬁction, throw out your volumes of mummy porn and get a hold of Daniel Stern’s Swingland – a cleareyed, frank journey through the society of swingers, an extraordinary subculture of those dedicated to casual and group sex. Swingers are prey to easy jokes, but who really knows anything of this lifestyle, its norms, vocabulary and habits? Stern puts his toe in the water before recounting his full, unstoppable slide into the lifestyle; this documentary narrative follows his transition from lonely heart to group stud, observing as both anthropologist and sexual anecdotist. Stern is by turns outrageous, tender, hilarious and humane. He is never in any doubt – our human condition is fundamentally absurd, and the lengths to which some people go to ﬁnd sexual pleasure, enjoyment and adventure is full of pathos and dark humour. Stern couples, triples and group parties with everyone from young models to hip-replacement grandmothers, the latter grinding him so far beyond exhaustion he enters a Zen-like state of calm. A brilliantly told, funny and revealing journey through a subculture and its labyrinths of unabashed human desire.

The Friends of the University of Adelaide Library

Patrick Iland

Why wines taste like they do

BY ROGER HAINSWORTH

This is a cracking book, much more enthralling than its subject might suggest. Mr Fullilove is a seriously qualified Sydney journalist (executive director of the Lowy Institute and a fellow of Washington’s Brookings Institute) and he is here addressing a very significant subject. I had no doubt it would be interesting but not that it would be as difficult to put down as a thriller, not least because, although it concerns the Second World War, it is confined to the period when the United States was neutral. For two years Franklin Roosevelt grappled with a near insoluble problem: how could he follow his natural sympathies and help sustain the democracies against Nazi-dominated Germany when Americans and their Congress were overwhelmingly opposed to going to war? At first it was a matter of helping France and Britain; then after the fall of

South Australian Prize

GIVEAWAY

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

The Friends of the University of Adelaide Library invite you to join us for an author event with Dr Patrick Iland, featuring an imaginary wine tasting which will lead you through the taste of several wine styles, from Champagne to the Muscats of Rutherglen. The focus will then turn to climate change and the likely impact on the taste of Australian red wine, and will finish with composts, cow horns and phases of the moon, and the mysterious world of biodynamic viticulture - a vine growing philosophy that many of our top winemakers are now adopting. Dr Patrick Iland has been teaching and researching about grapes and wine for over 30 years and has co-authored several award winning books on viticulture and wine. Thursday 21 November 2013 at 6.00 for 6.30pm Charles Hawker Conference Centre, Waite Campus, University of Adelaide Bookings by Tuesday 19 November to: robina.weir@adelaide.edu.au or phone 8313 4064 Open to the public / Gold coin admission / Seating is limited Sponsored by Unibooks Wines by Henry’s Drive of Padthaway and Coriole Vineyards

France Britain alone (apparently militarily vulnerable but in fact superbly defended by the RAF’s Fighter Command); then Soviet Russia and Britain after Hitler turned east. (Helping Russia was very unpopular with sections of Congress because helping democracies was one thing but helping Stalin was quite another.) Roosevelt needed clear, accurate intelligence about the situation and the intentions of potential recipients of American arms not simply to help him sell his policies at home, but also to help him choose and shape those policies. Roosevelt’s response to this need, the subject of this book, was utterly characteristic. The president bypassed American ambassadors and service attaches in favour of personal envoys who would both listen and speak for him. These men, the protagonists of Rendezvous With Destiny, were Sumner Welles, an eccentric but very able State Department figure, Wendell Wilkie, the Republican candidate for president in 1940, Averell Harriman, a brilliant organisor and diplomat who was sent to expedite Lendlease aid, and Colonel (later General) William Donovan, the future founder of the O.S.S. Most important of all was Harry Hopkins whose diplomacy abroad and sage advice at home was always important and sometimes decisive. Fullilove’s accounts of their journeys and analysis of their significance is so well written you feel you have shared their experiences. They walked with history and the reader walks with them. Of course, at the time Roosevelt was much criticised for bypassing official channels. However, when he sent Colonel Donovan to London to find out if Britain could survive, his ambassador was Joe Kennedy, breathing defeatism from every pore. Again in 1941 in Moscow the ambassador was convinced Russia was finished. Harry Hopkins turned that around. He is the hero of the book, an always ailing figure who was the eyes and ears of the president. Churchill regarded him as a friend. Stalin told him he was the only foreign emissary he had ever trusted. This book restores to life Roosevelt’s most trusted advisor and shows his historical significance. It is worth reading for that alone.

FORGIVE ME LEONARD PEACOCK Matthew Quick / Little, Brown

BY LACHLAN AIRD

This month’s prize is a selection of cheese, cheese accompaniment and wines from Woodside Cheese Wrights worth $200! Enter now at www.buysouthaustralian.com.au

Writing from the perspective of a troubled teenage boy is the unsettling triumph of Forgive Me Leonard Peacock for several reasons. While Matthew Quick’s Silver Linings Playbook is rightfully applauded for giving an accurate and compassionate insight into life with bipolar, Leonard Peacock offers a gripping and disturbing look at what can go

The Adelaide Review November 2013 25

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BOOKS

Drive By Michael Duffy / Allen & Unwin

BY William Charles

With the recent Squizzy, the semi-fictional depiction of Melbourne’s crime world descended into the frankly ridiculous. All the more reason then to be thankful for the unflinching eye of Michael Duffy, applying here in Drive By a brilliant mix of reportage drawn from life observation and the novelist’s dramatic touch, to paint a portrait of crime and its effects – grief, confusion, loss, multiple levels of complicity – amongst Sydney’s contemporary Lebanese community. Duffy brings a wealth of experience and a gravitas to this task: he was for many years a crime reporter and opinion columnist at the Sydney Morning Herald; has written biographies of Tony Abbott and Mark Latham; spent a number of years as the contrarian host of ABC Radio National’s Counterpoint program and most recently has emerged as one of Australia’s leading crime fiction writers with his novels The Tower and The Simple Death, featuring flawed local gumshoe Nicholas Troy, along with Bad, his 2011 non-fiction

wrong when physical and emotional abuse become unbearable. While at times incredibly touching, for its majority the reader is fraught with anguish, as the unpredictability of the title character makes the journey a harrowing experience. We follow Leonard Peacock’s stream of consciousness on his 18th birthday – a day he has also reserved for a meticulously planned murder-suicide. But first, Peacock must deliver four presents to the people in his life he considers to be the most significant. This PARTNERS is where Quick shines, delivering clues GOVERNMENT AIRLINE PARTNERS to Peacock’s motivations by explaining the characters’ relationships. Important, yet terrifying in its plausibility, Forgive Me Leonard Peacock considers teenage issues in a very adult context, making it difficult to digest and forget. National Collecting Institutions Touring & Outreach Program

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account of the murder of police informant Terry Falconer. Here Duffy moves his focus to the southwestern suburbs of Sydney – long seen by sections of the popular media as a kind of black hole of morality, a no-go area for good white Anglo Aussie Christians – and the Habib family. Lebanese-Australian Muslims, the Habibs seem to have drawn the short straw in life: with eldest son Imad in maximum security, a middle son falling under the spell of fundamentalist preachers and youngest son Rafi up on a murder charge he swears has been trumped up, mechanic John Habib (‘Honest John’ at his Toyota workshop in inner-city Auburn) longs for the simple choices in life – but isn’t getting to make them. When Rafi’s case comes to trial, the novel excels with its tightly observed legal dramas, its portrayal of a persecuted good cop in young Bec Ralston – who has fled Dubbo and had an unhappy time of it in the Navy and, even worse, suspects Rafi might in fact be innocent – and all the seething fear of racial tension boiling over from senior cops. Bad men being bad men – and yet themselves inevitably linked to the Lebanese-Australian criminal world. With its meticulous attention to detail, its social commentary and its sympathy for the deep complexities of everyday human drama – the simple struggle to get by in the world – the novel unfolds not as a standard thriller but more as an HBO-style urban narrative, a la The Wire. In analysing the webbed relationship between crime, traditional family structures and Australia’s ethnic communities, Duffy goes head first into material that many would prefer not touch. But this is material that is real, and needs to be told – it forms a critical part of the contemporary Australian social fabric. Duffy neither stereotypes, sentimentalises nor demonises. He spent hours in Burwood Court, where Lebanese families often congregate to support family members on assorted criminal charges, to assist in the authenticity of his narrative. In our flawed natures reside our truths, and Duffy has provided a voice, and a very Australian glimpse, into a layer of our society most of us know nothing of. Highly recommended.

MAPPING OUR WORLD Te r r a I n c o g n i t a To Au s t r a l i a

L o s e Yo u r s e l f i n t h e Wo r l d ’ s G re a t e s t M a p s 7 N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 3 – 1 0 M A R C H 2 0 1 4 Only at the National Library of Australia, Canberra PRINCIPAL PARTNER

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Fra Mauro (c. 1390–1459), Map of the World (detail) 1448–1453, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice. The loan of the Fra Mauro Map of the World has been generously supported by Kerry Stokes AC, Noel Dan AM and Adrienne Dan, Nigel Peck AM and Patricia Peck, Douglas and Belinda Snedden and the Embassy of Italy in Canberra.

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26 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

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THE BUTLER Selected cinemas From Thursday, October 31 As Cecil Gaines serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler at the White House, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other major events affect this man’s life, family, and American society. Directed by Lee Daniels. Written by Danny Strong and Wil Haygood. Stars Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey and John Cusack.

FRUITVALE STATION Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas From Thursday, November 7 The purportedly true story of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008. Directed and written by Ryan Coogler. Stars Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz and Octavia Spencer.

VITO (FEAST FESTIVAL) Mercury Cinema, 13 Morphett St Tuesday, November 12, 7pm In the aftermath of Stonewall, a newly politicised Vito Russo found his voice as a gay activist and critic of LGBT representation in the media. He wrote The Celluloid Closet, the first book to critique Hollywood’s portrayals of gays on screen. During the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, Vito became a passionate advocate for justice via the newly formed ACT UP, before his death.

ENOUGH SAID Selected cinemas From Thursday, November 14 A divorced woman who decides to pursue the man she’s interested in learns he’s her new friend’s ex-husband. Directed and written by Nicole Holofcener. Stars Julia LouisDreyfus, James Gandolfini and Catherine Keener.

GLORIA: MUSIC OF JS BACH Christ Church, 62 Jeffcott St, North Adelaide Sunday, November 17, 3pm Acclaimed vocal group Syntony joins the period instruments of Ensemble Galante for inspiring music of German masters Schutz & JS Bach, including his magnificent Missa Brevis in A.

The Illusionists 2.0

ADORATION Selected cinemas From Thursday, November 21 A gripping tale of love, lust and the power of friendship that charts the unconventional and passionate affairs embarked on by two lifelong friends. This beautiful and heartwrenching story follows Lil (Watts) and Roz (Wright), who fall in love with each other’s teenaged sons. Adapted by Academy Award winner Christopher Hampton and directed by Anne Fontaine, this is an erotic tale of misguided love and a celebration of the enduring nature of female friendship.

BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas Friday, November 22 to Sunday, December 1 Australia’s inaugural British Film Festival opens this month. The festival features an exceptional selection of 14 highly anticipated contemporary films, and five quintessential classics.

MADAMA BUTTERFLY Adelaide Festival Theatre Saturday, November 23, 7.30pm A favourite amongst opera lovers everywhere, Madama Butterfly is a poignant tale of love and honour pitted against callousness and cultural chauvinism. Featuring music of heart-rending power and exquisite delicacy, this beautiful production by Moffatt Oxenbould is a must-see.

CUTAWAY – A CEREMONY 11 Nile Street, Port Adelaide Wednesday 27 November, 7.30pm At sunset venture into the proud Waterside Workers Hall for a night of ceremony, performance, supper, art, ideas and transformation. Created and hosted by a team of artists and locals, Cutaway – A Ceremony completes the Cutaway trilogy, a

series of site-specific performance and art works made about the Waterside Workers Hall over the last three years.

KILL YOUR DARLINGS Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas From Thursday, December 5 A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. Directed by John Krokidas. Written by Austin Bunn and John Krokidas. Stars Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan and Michael C. Hall.

HELPMANN ACADEMY CLASSICAL MUSIC AWARDS Adelaide Town Hall, 128 King William St Thursday, December 12, 7.30pm Celebrate the winners of the 2013 Classical Music Awards from the Elder Conservatorium and hear them perform at an elegant dinner concert in the stunning Adelaide Town Hall.

THE ILLUSIONISTS 2.0 Her Majesty’s Theatre Sunday, December 29, 3pm Here’s your chance to see the future of magic, as the greatest superheroes of stage illusion hit Adelaide for this summer’s entertainment spectacular.

Photography: Jesse Mullins Models: Emily Wake @ Finesse Hair: Allyson Michalojko Make-up: Shae-Le Cross

PIPING IN CHRISTMAS - TOSA Capri Theatre, 141 Goodwood Rd Sunday, December 1, 2pm Enjoy popular Christmas music, traditional Christmas carols and a short comedy silent movie (Laurel and Hardy at Christmas) accompanied by David Johnston at the mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ. Keith Lau and Laura Thomas.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013 27

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FASHION

LUXURIOUS MYSTERY

FASHION RENDEZVOUS

Christopher Arblaster, owner of high-end boutique outlet Filter Store, won the TAFE SA Fashion Student of the Year with his genderneutral collection, Obelisk, which will allow Arblaster to complete an internship with Strateas.Carlucci in Melbourne as part of his prize. BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

nitially inspired by columns, Arblaster’s winning collection saw the emerging designer take “ﬂat, rectangular shapes and place them over the body to create elongated, gender-neutral silhouettes”.

“It started with structured, traditionally tailored garments such as coats and jackets but as the show went on this structure became looser and more distorted, with a focus on garments like drop crotch trousers, skirts made from a single rectangle of fabric, and reconstructed, oversized knits,” Arblaster explains. “My fabrics were sourced largely from Japan, Italy, and Australia, with a focus on high quality wool, cotton, and linen in complementary textures. The collection was sparse in palette, primarily black (with occasional whites) so that the focus remained on silhouette, texture, and tone.” Free from the confines of gender, the Obelisk collection allows Arblaster to create some mystery with his garments. “Historically (at least recently) clothing has drawn attention to gendered characteristics: fitted dresses which hug the body, men’s suits which draw attention to broad shoulders, etc. For me, there’s something comforting and luxurious about not dressing in a manner defined either by gender or sexuality. There’s a freedom, a mystery, and importantly a sense of privacy in creating space between garment and body, in layers that obscure the human form.” Inspired by designers such as Rick Owens, Rei Kawakubo (Comme des Garçons), Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake, Arblaster’s plan is to work for other people in the short term.

“I have learnt so much from my studies at TAFE but it is important that I get some practical experience in the industry before I could even consider launching my own label properly. At the same time, I intend to periodically release small collections of work under my own name, probably taking the form of five or six one-off pieces that explore a common idea or theme. This will allow me to build interest in my work without having to take on the level of commitment or debt involved in a fully blown label.” While his collections are not currently stocked at Filter Store, he plans to produce a small number of basics to sell alongside the store’s designer vintage stock. The garments he carries in the Payneham St store influence his own designs. “Before I ran Filter Store I was very much influenced by the work of the designers I stock there, so I suppose the most concrete way it influences my designs is that having the store gives me the chance to study the details of these garments in a way I wasn’t able to before. I can look at how they are put together and finished, and in the process gain a better understanding of their construction.” Arblaster says Filter Store has reached the point where he needs to establish it as an online boutique. “Particularly so that we can sell interstate as well as to our Adelaide customers. The physical space will actually be closing, and instead it will be primarily online, although we hope to run a series of pop-up shops and other events periodically.”

Facebook.com/FilterStore

GILLES STREET MARKET Sunday, November 3 10am to 4pm 91 Gilles Street, Adelaide gillesstreetmarket.com.au Gilles Street celebrates 100 whopping markets on Sunday, November 3. The Gilles Street Markets have come a long way since the first market in February 2008 and they want you to come down and celebrate with them! In true party spirit, there’ll be giveaways, live music, great food and as always the best market fashion in Adelaide. Open from 10am until 4pm as usual.

RUNDLE MALL SPRING SUMMER FASHION PARADES Held over two days in October these spectacular parades showcased the very latest looks from Rundle Mall’s stylish flagship retailers right through to those unique oneof-a-kind stores. PHOTOS ANDREAS HEUER

Barry O’Brian and Martin Rowley.

Mark Ward and Danielle Ward.

Louise Berri, Lisa Chisholm and Louisa Crotti.

28 The Adelaide Review November 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

Cultural Engagement Just before the Adelaide Festival Centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2014 season was launched, Artistic Director and CEO Douglas Gautier was named the Chair of the Asia-Pacificâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s peak cultural body, which will enhance Adelaideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s standing as a cultural hub. Tan Dun: Nu Shu

by Christopher Sanders

autier will be the Chair of the Association of the Asia Pacific Performing Arts Centres (AAPAC) for the next three years. AAPAC is a body consisting of 67 members from the biggest arts centres in the Asia-Pacific region. The Festival Centre â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with festivals including OzAsia and the recent Cabaret Festival Roadshow in Hong Kong, as well as various cultural exchange programs â&#x20AC;&#x201C; is a leader in engaging with this exciting and evolving cultural market.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big recognition of the reputation and position of the Centre and the position of the city in terms of it being the preeminent festival city in this country,â&#x20AC;? Gautier explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When it comes back to the Centre, we wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have been entrusted with this position unless we really earned our stripes over the last few years. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not only due to the programming work with our collaborators but most importantly itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because of our connections with Asia. OzAsia is clearly one but then we have solidly committed to intern programs, which we fund largely through our foundation, such as the Hawke

Program and our work with the Australia Council on the Korean Internship Program, and diverse other programs.â&#x20AC;? AAPAC has been based in Singapore for the last 10 years and the Centre might bid for the 2016 conference. Gautier says the chairmanship will allow him to â&#x20AC;&#x153;leverage it to the advantage of this centre, this city and the community in terms of hooking into the extraordinary development that is going on in that part of the world in terms of cultural centres, arts and societyâ&#x20AC;?. In terms of programming, Gautier says the Asian engagement work will be spread out across the year and not just limited to OzAsia in years to come. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so much going on in that region. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just massive. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a huge opportunity to be part of it. There are so many fascinating things that are happening up there. I want us to be able to show that to not only the Adelaide public, but if we take the view this is an Australian hub for Asia cultural engagement, then we are able to use this place as a platform to showcase work to the rest of Australia.â&#x20AC;? OzAsiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2014 headliner Tan Dun is one of those artists. The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon composer is part of the AFCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s major focus on music for the 2014 season.

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Viennese sonic artist working with sinewaves Richard Coates (keys), Gilli Atkinson (drums) and Chris Soole (sax) return to COMA following a new live album release.

8pm $10/$5 (COMA members) the Wheatsheaf Hotel 39 George Street, Thebarton

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are blessed with some wonderful musicians, so we are trying to give them more of a platform,â&#x20AC;? Gautier explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are simply trying to bring more music into the centre; if you look at the Live Performance Australian website thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no question where the appetite is for audiences and it is music. We think weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a special responsibility there clearly through the Guitar Festival, the Cabaret Festival and OzAsia. We are strongly focused on music in those areas and we are supporting that with our relationship with the ASO, for instance. Tan Dun is coming back next year â&#x20AC;&#x201C; thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a major connection. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s major contemporary composers.â&#x20AC;? Other major music announcements for 2014 include Januaryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eclectic Sessions program, composer Ludovico Einaudi, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Lior & Westlake, a series of cocktail concerts with local Niki Vasilakis and the return of Operamania. Dance also features heavily next year with Lina Limosaniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s A Delicate Situation, Australian Dance Theatreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Multiverse, Daniel Jaberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Reassessment, The Oracle and The Australian Balletâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cinderella. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dance is important for us. If we could bring the Australian Ballet here twice a year I would do it, and we are talking. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ballet is the only artform I can think of that is truly multi-generational. We did a survey and about 70 percent of people in the auditorium have actually participated in the artform. When you start to unpack it, including the myriad of ballet schools in this city and across the nation, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big deal. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why when the Australian Ballet comes here they sell out.â&#x20AC;? With the Riverside Project, Gautier says the Festival Centre may introduce pop up events to attract a new audience as well as more events using the Centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outdoor areas. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are looking at it in different ways. With Cabaret we have done it and OzAsia is pushing that inside-out philosophy that South Bank follows in London as well. The bridge and the fact that, at least on the weekends, we are going to have a lot more people in the vicinity, is an opportunity.â&#x20AC;?

www.coma.net.au

adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013 29

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PERFORMING ARTS thing was that it lined up with another long running conversation, one that I’d been having with Rosalba Clemente, and trying to convince her to come back on stage. I was talking to Xavier and Rosalba in tandem and I thought, ‘Hang on the combination of these two actors would be incredibly exciting. What is the perfect play for them? The Seagull!’ So there are a few situations that have come together like that. Miriam Margolyes coming here to do Neighbourhood Watch is another one.”

The music never stops ELDER CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC PRESENTS

2013 SERIES OF INTIMATE CONCERTS AT ELDER HALL

CONCERT 9 | ELDER HALL

The original production Little Bird is the combination of many connections. Nicki Bloom (Land & Sea) wrote the State Theatre and Cabaret Festival collaboration created for dynamite cabaret singer and actor Paul Capsis.

The Suit

Connections BY DAVID KNIGHT

fter a difficult start, Geordie Brookman’s first season as the State Theatre’s Artistic Director was a commercial and critical success but Brookman says the 2014 program moves up another level in terms of scale and ambition. With the highly publicised father and son team of Geordie and Rob Brookman as the State Theatre Company of SA’s CEO and Artistic Director respectively, its 2013 season got off to a troubled start when veteran Australian film and stage actor Barry Otto pulled out of the company’s opener The Kreutzer Sonata due to exhaustion.

The company’s season went from strength to strength from that point on with a smart and successful mix of local content (Babyteeth), updated classics (Hedda Gabler and The Comedy of Errors) and collaborations with international and national companies on work such as Brief Encounter and Vere (Faith). This season saw State Theatre win only its second Helpmann Award (for Alison Bell’s powerhouse performance in Hedda Gabler) and on a commercial level, ticket sales were up 30 percent on last year’s ﬁgures. Brookman wants the company to aim higher with every project for next year’s season while staying true to a mix of programming that’s “based very much around Australian writing and the Australian voice and a reinvigoration of classic repertoire”. “We’ve tried to be as collaborationheavy as possible, whether it’s with

the Sydney Theatre Company on Sue Smith’s new play Kryptonite or with the Adelaide Festival (The Seagull) and the Cabaret Festival with Little Bird, which is the piece we’ve built for Paul Capsis,” Brookman explains. Connection seems to be the overriding theme to the 2014 season. “Part of it is about wanting to explore community and the human need for connection. Even the safe and tragic pieces in the season are about people needing connection or community or love. That’s not to say it works out happily in every piece we’re producing but that was really the concern that I wanted the season to discuss.” State Theatre is connecting with international and interstate companies, as well as globally recognised actors such as Adelaide’s Xavier Samuel (Twilight, Anonymous) and England’s Miriam Margolyes (The Age of Innocence, Dickens’ Women). “Xavier Samuel is coming back from Los Angeles to play Kostya in The Seagull. Xav and I started talking as soon as I came into the job. He wants to get back on stage because it’s where he started and he loves it. But once you get caught up in the world of Hollywood it’s very easy for that to take off. He said to me that if we ﬁnd the right project, the one that gels, and the one that we both really want to do, he’d just block everything and commit to it. The beautiful

“We had this idea of creating something in partnership with the Cabaret Festival, because we hadn’t worked with them before. Paul was such an obvious choice. He’s an utterly unique performer. Nicki came up with this idea of essentially writing an adult fairy tale for him.”

SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER 8.00PM

ZEPHYR QUARTET Belinda Gehlert violin Emily Tulloch violin Jason Thomas viola Hilary Kleinig cello RESONANCE The Sounds Around Us CONCERT 10 | ELDER HALL

All they needed was music, which came from a source closer than expected, through State Theatre regular Cameron Goodall and Quentin Grant’s project You Me and the Bloody Sea who performed at the Cabaret Festival with Paul Capsis. “When I rang Paul to say that I found the guys, he said, ‘Who are they?’ I said: ‘The guys who started out as folk and then went into this Tom Waits-y rock number’. He went, ‘Oh, the pirate guys – great!’ I don’t know where he got pirates from but it was a group of artists that immediately excited each other.”

SUNDAY 1 DECEMBER 3.00PM

ENSEMBLE LE MONDE Dean Newcomb clarinet Mark Gaydon bassoon Alison Heike violin with special guest Kristian Chong piano FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Works by Stravinsky, Glinka and the forgotten Markevitch TICKETS: $25/$18

Then there is perhaps the most thrilling announcement of the 2014 season – Peter Brook’s The Suit, which is the result of another connection as Brookman says his father and the groundbreaking director go back 25 years, when Brook brought The Mahabharata to Adelaide in 1988.

ELDE OF M R CONSE RV USIC PR ES ATOR I U EN T S M

“The Suit is beautiful, it’s just an incredible show built around that really bare theatre style that only Brook can do. I truly believe he is the world’s greatest living theatre director. The Suit is the perfect distillation of his work. The 88-year-old director won’t be in Adelaide for the show’s run. “He doesn’t come as far as Australia anymore, he’s in his mid-80s now. His associate director will come out with it. It’s an incredible piece of work and most people are saying it’s the best piece he’s created in over a decade. So it’s an extraordinary opportunity to bring it here.”

statetheatrecompany.com.au

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30 The Adelaide Review November 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

The Volmer Decade by Graham Strahle

W ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

LAST NIGHT OF THE

PROMS 6 & 7 December, Festival Theatre

Guy Noble CONDUCTOR Jamie MacDougall TENOR Adelaide Symphony Chorus

ith Arvo Volmer’s final concerts in November as the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor, it is time consider how enormously far the orchestra has come during his decade-long tenure. His leadership has seen the ASO improve out of all proportion and enter an unprecedented period of ascendancy. Elegant but impassioned, his conducting unfailingly comes to the heart of the music, and under his baton the ASO can seemingly do no wrong. When a panel of 15 judges ranked it second place among Australia’s six major symphony orchestras in Limelight magazine in March, few could have been surprised. But what do the players themselves think of Volmer? Concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto says: “Our relationship with Arvo is special and extremely positive, which is quite rare with orchestras these days. He’s got us under a spell. When he comes here everybody is so happy; you can see it on their faces and it reflects in their playing. When you have such a good rapport, everybody wants to play well.” Before rehearsals even begin, she says he meets with her to think up ideas about bowing and phrasing, which she is then able to pass onto the rest of the strings: “It’s a process no other conductor does, and I really enjoy it. It enables me to understand him better and arrive closer to his understanding.”

Featuring Parry’s Jerusalem, Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance, Rule Britannia and a few Scottish favourites! Dust off the Union Jacks or wear your best kilt and sporran and grab some streamers for a night of pure enjoyment.

Book at BASS 131 246 www.bass.net.au www.aso.com.au

Some conductors have a reputation for over-rehearsing orchestras, but not so Volmer. Yoshimoto says, “He is very creative and free in concerts. We know it will be completely different the second night, which is great but scary. He trusts us to know that we will be with him, so sometimes he might rehearse one way and it comes out another way in concert. But it is about having the option there, of having the choice of going left or right. To me this is what makes him so inspiring.” Geoffrey Collins, principal flute, says it was Volmer’s interpretative clarity that struck him from the outset. “It is startling and distinctive. One thing he does even in the most complex music, such as Strauss’s Salome, is to create overall large shapes out of the complexity. Other conductors can

Arvo Volmer

get mired down in detail. Maybe he gets that from his experience in opera – he’s a fantastic opera conductor. But it will be a hard act to follow”. On the podium, Collins says, Volmer exudes “tremendous confidence but never arrogance”, and his performances “are always extremely driven while combining richness of humanity and humour”. Working with him has been “a joyful experience,” Collins adds. “Playing leading lines for Arvo is never prescriptive. He encourages individuality and has been generous with his time with us, which is not the case with a lot of other chief conductors. We’ve been a bit spoilt”. Double bassist Belinda Kendall-Smith singles out as one of Volmer’s major strengths his empathy. “The bottom line,” she says, “is that in a conductor you must have a complete musician. Technically they must be able to produce good results, which means having an extremely clear beat and being able to take charge. But more than that they need to have great empathy with the orchestra and the music. This is fundamental to achieving great results, and Arvo has this. With Geoffrey Tate in the (1998) Ring there was the same sort of respect and generosity, which elicited the orchestra’s best. To have Arvo conducting Sibelius or the Estonian composers he knows so well is like he has a particular insight into their works. For the Mahler Cycle, it was like he was channelling Mahler.” “In temperament,” observes KendallSmith, “Arvo is incredibly emotive when he’s in full flight. Salome was incredibly emotional for him and the orchestra was on a big high in that opera. Other conductors work at a lower level and the

passion is not there”. Many younger ASO players have only known the orchestra during Volmer’s tenure but have nevertheless witnessed its ascendancy under his leadership. One is Lachlan Bramble, associate principal second violin. “It is not uncommon,” he says, “for orchestras and conductors to not get on, and we’ll sorely miss him. You can’t put any conductor with any orchestra and expect it to work. The special relationship we have with Arvo is that he allows the freedom for musicians to be musicians. Part of his music-making philosophy is that he’ll craft a performance but leave some of the details up to the individual. One of the things I really enjoy is his spontaneity. He allows himself to live in the moment and every performance is unique. That is incredibly thrilling.” Luckily for the orchestra, Volmer has agreed to stay on as principal guest conductor and artistic advisor, with two annual return visits until at least 2015. The players agree this will make the transition to appointing a new chief conductor much smoother than last time. Says Bramble: “I don’t think we’ll lose the connection with Arvo. If anything, I think we’ll look forward to his visits even more”.

»»Arvo Volmer conducts the ASO in Masters 12 with pianist Steven Osborne from November 7 – 9, and Sibelius with violinist Sophie Rowell on Wednesday, November 13. aso.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013 31

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PERFORMING ARTS

Highland Fling with Jamie

that explains what kept the Romans, the Vikings and the English out of Scotland for centuries.” No Proms night would be complete without a rousing rendition of Rule Britannia, and MacDougall says audiences will not miss out on this. “It wouldn’t be a Last Night of the Proms without it. I recorded that some years back in America of all places in an authentic recording with the Philharmonia Baroque, so I’m looking forward to singing this with the full symphony orchestra. I don’t want to give too much away but it will be a Rule Britannia with a difference!”

BY GRAHAM STRAHLE

udiences can look forward to a night of Scottish revelling with the return of Jamie MacDougall, the much loved Scottish tenor and raconteur, in a special Last Night of the Proms concert in Elder Hall. Accompanying him will be Adelaide pianist Jamie Cock and the ASO under Guy Noble. It follows last year’s ‘For the Love of Scotland’ concert, which saw many of the audience kilt up splendidly and throw away their inhibitions. “The atmosphere when I came out onto the stage was amazing,” MacDougall remembers of that occasion. “This was the ﬁrst time I’d appeared in a show like this outside Scotland, it was a sell out, and from the off I knew I was going to be in for a good time. There was banter between myself and some of the people in the front rows almost from the off which is always fun.”

Doesn’t a patriotic song composed by an Englishman rankle a highlander? “Listen I’m from Scotland,” laughs MacDougall. “Singing Rule Britannia has been a hot potato for the Scottish leg of the BBC Proms in the Park for years. I don’t have a problem with it. I always like to point out that the words were written by a Scot!”

For the Love of Scotland 2012.

This next Proms concert will be more of a Union Jack waving affair than last time, he says. “It will be different in so far as the repertoire. It won’t be just a Scottish night, however, since I’ll be there will be a bit of a Scotia bias. I’ve been lucky to be the front man for the BBC Last Night of the Proms in the Park in Scotland since they began almost a decade ago, and the mix of music is always really appealing to the thousands that turn up.”

Walton, Vaughan Williams and Elgar will be among the represented composers, plus there will be arrangements of traditional folk tunes. MacDougall explains: “I’ve chosen a range of numbers, a Neapolitan song, something from musical theatre and of course some Scottish songs. They are so international and I’m sure the audience will know them all very well, a chance even to sing along to. It’s something I’ll insist on, on the night, that people join in; it’s that sort of event. Oh and there will be a song

» Last Night of the Proms is presented by Recitals Australia. Featuring Jamie MacDougall, Jamie Cock and the ASO Elder Hall Tuesday, December 3, 8pm recitalsaustralia.org.au

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Sydney Morning Herald

32 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

Unsound In 2013, experimental sonic art found a hugely dedicated audience; 2014’s edition will bring fans from around Australia and our region. BY WILLIAM CHARLES

Gardland

an audience for daring art, and speciﬁcally sonic experimentation, generally much less appreciated or publically esteemed in comparison with its brash and cashed-up sibling, contemporary visual art. Sefton went out on a limb with Unsound and it was, in retrospect, perhaps his greatest coup of 2013.

Now Unsound returns as part of the 2014 Adelaide Festival, with another carefully curated three nights of musical thrill and mayhem guaranteed. Since it began in 2003 in the Polish city of Krakow, where Schulz had set up base, Unsound has been a pioneer in taking avant-garde music to the world, bringing

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together international artists and audiences, garnering plenty of new fans along the way, and generally raising the profile for sonic experimentalists. Musical works, Schulz is keen to point out, are commissioned for each Unsound, speciﬁc to the locale: in this case, South Australian Jed Kurzel’s garlanded score

NErixR WIrN and P ma 2013

G ra a Ro a Sac Music World of the 3 Choirlangollen 201 L

deo gratias

adelaide chamber singers

CARL CROSSIN Director

f all the surprises and treasures that emerged from David Sefton’s revitalisation of the Adelaide Festival last year, none was as exciting as the success of Unsound, the three-night celebration of experimental electronic music that packed out the Queen’s Theatre each and every time. The triumph of Unsound – brainchild of Wagga Wagga-born and Krakow-based Australian Mat Schulz (and a potentially risky commission by Sefton) – was in the way this subterranean ocean of sonic art found its audience, and its audience thronged to it, revelling in artists such as Ben Frost, Raime, Tim Hecker, Actress and Lustmord. Last year’s festival proved unequivocally there is

SAT 30 NOV, 8PM St. Peter’s Cathedral, Nth Adelaide SUN 1 DEC, 3PM, Church of the Epiphany, Crafers

with guest artist ALICE GILES HARP - A Ceremony of Carols Benjamin Britten - Messe de Minuit pour Noël Marc-Antoine Charpentier - A Boy Was Born Benjamin Britten - …and on earth, peace Carl Crossin (ﬁrst performance)

Tickets $38 /$30 concession Online - trybooking.com/36977 In person/phone - BASS 131 246 (service fees apply)

www.adelaidechambersingers.com 8313 5008

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013 33

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PERFORMING ARTS for the film Snowtown will be played live with a full band and string section – a world premiere that will be set to a backdrop of previously unseen footage from his brother Justin Kurzel’s disturbing film. This event, to be celebrated on the opening night of Unsound, combines with Sefton and Schulz’s truly spectacular coup for Unsound 2014 – securing a very rare live performance from Texan ambient/drone pioneers Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride, aka Stars of the Lid. Revered for their intimate, revolving, hypnotic soundscapes created from effect-laden guitars, strings and horn, Stars of the Lid will join forces with Zephyr Quartet and Friends and video artist Luke Savisky in an absolutely singular night for Australian live music audiences. The second night of Unsound brings together two very different veterans: Morton Subotnick, the 80 year-old electronic music pioneer, will make his Australian debut, performing his 1967 album Silver Apples of the Moon, which back in the day featured one of the first uses of oscillators, filters and sequencers. The evening continues with UK legend Steven Stapleton’s Nurse With Wound, a project that has been sourcing sound atmospherics and textures from parallel worlds for the past 30 years. Rounding out the night will be two other UK outfits, producer Bobby Krlic aka the Haxan Cloak, known for his darkly brutal, otherworldly music dragged from some region of the afterlife; and Whitehouse founder William Bennett reveals his new afro noise project Cut Hands. The final night will again feature both classics and new talents when Moritz von Oswald, one of the most influential figures in modern electronic music, who helped define

Stars of the Lid.

minimal and dub techno, joins with musicians Max Loderbaur (Sun Electric) and Tony Allen (the legendary drummer for Fela Kuti’s band Africa 70). On the same bill, Bristol’s Emptyset will give Adelaide audiences a taste of their abstract techno, where noise, bass and silence merge into a storm of distorted frequencies. Meanwhile, Australians Alex Murray and Mark Smith, aka Gardland, are stars on the rise (their superb eponymous EP Gardland was released earlier this year and their debut full-length Syndrome Syndrome just this week); their dance music blends the mechanical and the organic. On the same night, US artist James Ferraro performs his own brand of lo-fi, 1980s-centric psychedelia. If you experienced it last year or only heard the rumours of something very special happening in the city, get your tickets early and do not miss out – Unsound Adelaide’s outstanding line-ups will attract audiences from around Australia and the region.

» Snowtown: Live, Stars of the Lid and the Zephyr Quartet perform on Thursday, March 6 at Adelaide Town Hall. » Unsound Adelaide continues at Queen’s Theatre, Playhouse Lane on Friday, March 7 and Saturday, March 8. » Tickets $30 - $59 (Unsound Adelaide season ticket to Queen’s Theatre shows only $100) – adelaidefestival.com.au or BASS 131 246 adelaidefestival.com.au

34 The Adelaide Review November 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

Bluefruit Theatre presents a captivating adaptation of British playwright Dennis Kelly’s psychological thriller, Orphans, exploring the conflict between family ties and moral responsibility.

by Amelia Pinna

“

It is an incredible piece of writing – brutal, real and poetic all at the same time,” Bluefruit Theatre Artistic Director, Shona Benson, says of the play. “I began reading it and just couldn’t put it down. It’s a play which challenges both the actors as well as the audience – on an emotional and intellectual level – so as a director, it’s a really exciting find.” Directed and produced by Benson, Orphans invites us into the home of Danny and his newly pregnant wife Helen, whose untroubled

The play confronts issues of urban crime, racism and the breakdown of communities, raising pertinent questions about the nature of fear and the desperate need to feel safe within the family unit. “An overarching issue in the play is our fear of the outside, the unknown,” Benson explains. “Research shows that although our streets are technically safer than they have ever been in the past, the perception is that they are more violent than ever and are intimidating places to be. One of the reasons cited for this is that our communities have broken down, we no longer know our neighbours, we don’t go to local shops or the church each week, and we often live away from our families. It is all too easy to hide away, cocoon ourselves from horrors that exist outside our front door, but it’s impossible to escape them forever.” Although originally set in London, Benson says the play can easily resonate with a wider audience. “An urban environment which suffers from

state theatre company of South Australia

Photo by Picasa

Orphans

existence is a kind of haven from the disturbing realities of violence and crime that occur on their doorstep. But when Helen’s brother Liam arrives unannounced, covered in someone else’s blood, the couple’s peace is thrown into turmoil and loyalties are tested.

bouts of street crime, random acts of violence and racism are one that is sadly familiar to anyone who lives in any city anywhere. That is why I felt able to comfortably set it in Adelaide and I felt sure that all the issues would have total relevance and resonance to an Adelaide audience.” In an attempt to raise awareness of the issues explored in the play, Bluefruit Theatre has teamed up with local charity Time For Kids, which provides support and mentoring to disadvantaged children with similar backgrounds to the characters in Orphans. In support of the project, Time For Kids will host a Blue Carpet event on Friday, November 8, where VIP guests will be invited to see the first official performance of Orphans, attend an exclusive post-show party and sign their name

on a ‘graffiti wall’ in the foyer of the Bakehouse. “Although the subject matter in Orphans is quite dark, I am very keen that there is a really positive outcome to it all too,” Benson says. “To highlight these sorts of positives and support an organisation [such as Time For Kids] through a dramatic piece of theatre is really rewarding.”

»»Orphans The Bakehouse Theatre Thursday, November 7 to Saturday, November 23 bakehousetheatre.com

Classical Music Awards 2013

Celebrate the winners of the 2013 Classical Music Awards from the Elder Conservatorium and hear them perform at an elegant dinner concert in the stunning Adelaide Town Hall.

2014 season tickets on sale now statetheatrecompany.com.au

7 for 7:30pm Thursday December 12 Adelaide Town Hall Tickets: $90 per person including meal and sparkling on arrival. Premium wines available from the wine wall at $20 per bottle. Bookings and payment must be received by Friday November 29 (08) 8132 0777 nadia.dolman@helpmannacademy.com.au

Gloria: Music of JS Bach Acclaimed vocal group Syntony joins the period instruments of Ensemble Galante for inspiring music of german masters Schutz &JS Bach, including his magnificent Missa Brevis in A. Christ Church 62 Jeffcott St, North Adelaide Sunday, November 17, 3pm Tickets: Adults $25, Concession $18 www.trybooking.com/DBYJ or at the door www.ensemblegalante.com

The Adelaide Review November 2013 35

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PERFORMING ARTS

Deep South

area, dedicated to the bands with the most members as they need the extra space; the Purple Pit, an intimate nightclub area set in the sunken lounge and designed for the artistic and experimental acts; and the Barn House, the rowdy rockabilly and blues stage set up in the front bar.

Deep South SA Roots & Blues Festival is just around the corner. Growing out of a need to celebrate the local roots talent and culture, the festival is celebrating its second birthday from Saturday, November 30 to Sunday, December 1.

Part of Deep South’s broader vision is to engage local youth in the roots scene. This grand idea is the basis for the family-friendly status of the event and the 30-40 per cent quota for new bands. Marmalade Circus.

by Ilona Wallace

ast year, the festival was a one-day event—this year, 27 acts, three stages, and two very different programs over the weekend mark the exciting expansion of Deep South to a two-day spectacular. A mix of new talent (Zkye, Doctor DeSoto) and better known (Marmalade Circus, Max Savage & The False Idols) is the drawcard for the festival. With hopes to stretch the festivities to three days in 2014, Festival Organiser Dennis Kipridis reminisces on where it all began.

“It started last year—we were doing little mini-events called Roots Nights at the Gov. They featured three original, recording rootsy

style bands—soul, country, blues; everything that the roots umbrella encapsulates these days. We did five shows last year, and what was going to happen at the end of the year was to grab all those artists and make a feature event, but as the year was going on, there were so many artists who had been involved, so we just took the next step of creating a bigger event in itself. Preparation for this year’s event began back in February, Kipridis says, explaining that the line-up relies on finding new artists as well as great-quality established acts. Bands must also be active: performing and recording throughout the year. The ‘strict’ criteria are necessary to make the weekend as fabulous as possible.

Knowing that every band has been selected on merit also helps assuage fears and hurt feelings when bands are told they are playing on a smaller stage. The boutique nature of the festival comes into play here: the size of the stage doesn’t determine its popularity; each area has its own special identity. Deep South is the only event to take over The Governor Hindmarsh, complete with refurnishing and set design across the whole venue. Luckily, the Gov has been extremely supportive of Kipridis’ work, perhaps trusting his judgement due to his background in theatre design and architecture. Three stages pop up: the Starry Night Stage in the main performance

“The whole idea is to increase the awareness of the excellent talent we’ve got here in Adelaide, and to do that, looking at the longevity of it all, [we have to look] at how to get the youth involved. The family-friendly thing opens the door for kids to be exposed to good music and that’s important to us; that’s what we’re trying to encourage. Something like this hadn’t been attempted before.”

»»Deep South Roots, Blues & Folk Festival The Governor Hindmarsh Saturday, November 30 (2.30pm–late) and Sunday, December 1 (12pm–5.30pm) facebook.com/deepsouthfest

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36 The Adelaide Review November 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

British Film Festival 2013 Palace Cinemas presents a treasure trove of both contemporary and classic British Cinema. by Anna Snoekstra

n a valuable addition to its commitment to annual foreign language film festivals, Palace Cinemas is including an annual English speaking festival to the mix.

Kim Petalas, the programming director, spoke about the decision to create the inaugural British Film Festival, saying “We felt it was important to complement our foreign language film festivals with an English language festival. Our audience has always felt a really strong affinity toward British cinema and some of the highly grossing films across our circuit have been British films, like The King’s Speech and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” The festival is a mix bag of films. “There’s something for everybody in this festival,”

Petalas states. The program includes big name dramas like the closing night film Philomena, with Judi Dench and directed by Stephen Frears. Audiences will also get the chance to preview the highly anticipated adaptation of the young adult book How I Live Now featuring rising starlet Saoirse Ronan in a return to her native Ireland.

Jump.

There is a selection of independent films that may never otherwise have crossed the ocean to Australian audiences. One of these is Mission to Lars, an engaging and moving independent documentary made by three siblings as they try to help one of their brothers, who is severely autistic, to follow his dream and meet his hero, Lars Ulrich of Metallica.

“AN EXPRESSIVE, JAZZY AND AMBITIOUS MOVIE. SEXUALLY ALIVE AND YEARNING.”

Le Week End.

-ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY WEEKLY -ENTERTAINMENT

DANIEL RADCLIFFE DANE DeHAAN BEN FOSTER MICHAEL C. HALL JACK HUSTON JENNIFER JASON LEIGH ELIZABETH OLSEN

A TRUE STORY OF OBSESSION AND MURDER

KILL YOUR DARLINGS Strong sex Medium Level scenes and Violence drug use

COMMENCES DECEMBER 5 EXCLUSIVE TO PALACE NOVA EASTEND

A highlight of the festival is Good Vibrations. A personal favourite of Patalas – who loved “the energy behind the film; it’s infectious. It really took me by surprise,” and set during The Troubles in 1970s Belfast, the film relates the true story of chaotic and passionate Terri Hooley, who decides to open a record store in the midst of the mayhem. His store evolves into a record label as his passion for an alternative voice against the violence turns him into the ‘godfather of punk’. Funny, poignant and altogether charming, this is a cinema event not to be missed. As well as a great assortment of Australian premieres, there is also a traditional element to the program. “We’ve always had a classic element to our film festivals,” says Patalas, “and the British Film Festival takes this to the next step. One of the initial ideas about putting together a British film festival was the absolute treasure trove of classics that we can tap into. There really was an embarrassment of riches and we felt that the best way to introduce our British Film Festival was to bring the top five films as voted as BFI professionals and showcase them in our inaugural year.”

»»The British Film Festival runs from Friday, November 22 to Sunday, December 1 at Palace Nova East End.

The top five classics are The Third Man, Brief Encounter, Lawrence of Arabia, The 39 Steps and Great Expectations.

britishfilmfestival.com.au twitter.com/BritFilmFestAUS facebook.com/britishfilmfest

Closed Circuit.

The Adelaide Review November 2013 37

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PERFORMING ARTS

Make Your Transition

“Billionaires in the US will unashamedly throw their money behind a message. It’s good for their brand, and good for the issue.” To Adams, this is the “double bottom line”, a precious combination of paying forward the success of the company, and improving that company’s standing in the public eye. “It just doesn’t happen here,” he says, hinting at the potential conflict of interest in Australia’s mining billionaires financing films critical of their own industries, “and it’s a damn shame”.

Part social activist, part media executive, Chris Adams wants people to think, and he knows how to make them do it.

by John Dexter

James Balog installs “Cliff” camera AK-03 at Columbia Glacier, Alaska.

is CV is impressive, which makes nailing him to one profession an impossible task. Web industry consultant for the likes of Amazon and Facebook, filmmaker and producer, children’s author, technological entrepreneur. You name it, he may well have done it. He’s a fast talking ex-pat American. He’s an ideas man. He wants to “leverage” the power of social media to improve the world. He wants you to make a difference, because he knows you can.

achieved. Using the star power of figures like Al Gore and George Clooney, Participant Media was able to tell captivating stories with strong social messages at their core. He notes that prior to An Inconvenient Truth, terms like “global warming” and “climate change” were ignored in American politics. Yet after the film gained such notoriety and acclaim, President Bush used them in his State of the Union address and in doing so acknowledged the idea more in a way that had never been done before.

The upcoming Transitions Film Festival is billed as a “visionary film program dedicated to showcasing ground-breaking documentaries about our global culture in transition towards a sustainable future”. As a guest of the festival, Adams will be a natural fit in the forum, taking part in panel discussions and speaking about his involvement in film and activism. After all it was Adams, along with eBay billionaire Jeff Skoll, who set up Participant Media, a production house focussed on creating politically relevant and engaging films like An Inconvenient Truth and Syriana.

“The movie forced the President of the United States of America to say the words, and brought them into the larger vernacular.”

Adams is proud of what these films have

Likewise, in Syriana, Adams saw the opportunity to tell an important story about the political and economic realities of the West’s reliance on oil. Participant media brought George Clooney and Matt Damon into the project, giving it such instant notoriety that it could not be ignored. I ask Adams if activist causes always need to be backed up by these kinds of marketing.

Can a film be successful off the back of the message alone? Does a cause need charisma to succeed? Reflecting on history, Adams notes that charismatic people carried out the greatest and worst things ever wrought. Without the charm of trusted figures, these issues will never be normalised in regular society, he says. “Imagine a ragged, bug-eyed hippie with a conspiracy theory. He might be right, he might be wrong, but if he’s screaming at you, you’ll change the channel. When a man or a woman becomes the message, the world can change. In An Inconvenient Truth, we put a man with the message, and that man was Al.” I press Adams as to whether he thinks this kind of change is possible here in his adopted home of Australia. Lamenting, he tells me that Americans and Australians are very similar people: “The ideas in Adelaide are just as good as the ideas in San Francisco or Silicon Valley,” but the greatest difference between our countries is that Australians are grossly underserved by their billionaires.

Now the conversation takes an unexpected turn. “If the Australian people moved toward social change like Australian sports teams moved toward victory, things would be different.” What might have been a passing quip turns out to be a genuine, possibly effective idea from Adams. To achieve that double bottom line Australian companies could frame themselves more like sports teams, he says. Instead of only pursuing profit, why not pursue fiscal and moral victories? Get the public to back you like a football team when you’re kicking goals on important social issues. Put Gina Rinehart in the ruck, Rupert Murdoch at full forward and James Packer in the back pocket, and then see what happens. Summing up, Adams quotes the eBay billionaire, Jeff Skoll, from when they were setting up Participant Media in 2003, “I want people around the world to replicate what we are doing. If it takes a billionaire to show people that they can do it, so be it.”

»»Transitions Film Festival Mercury Cinema Friday, November 1 to Sunday, November 10 transitionsfilmfestival.com

38 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

PERFORMING ARTS FRUITVALE STATION BY NIGEL RANDALL

THE BUTLER BY D.M. BRADLEY

Producer/director Lee Daniels’ followup to The Paperboy is a considerably less dangerous film than his Precious, with wobbly handling, a fair whack of fictionalisation, moments of grating heavy-handedness and

HHHH

WATTS AND WRIGHT ARE MAGNIFICENT TIME OUT

HHHH

A FASCINATING FILM. A RARE EXPLORATION OF THE FEMALE PSYCHE THE GUARDIAN

some cringing worthiness – and yet, somehow, it still works! Drawn from an article by Will Haygood, this tells the life story of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), who rose from a youth as a slave on a Southern plantation in the 1920s to become a ‘house nigger’ (with help from Vanessa Redgrave’s Annabeth Westfall and, later, Maynard, as played by Clarence Williams III), before being noticed during his employment as a butler in the 50s and starting work as a member of The White House staff. Gaines’ longsuffering wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) is happy, at first, about his appointment, and yet as the years pass, times change, the Civil Rights struggle continues, the war in Vietnam drags on and she worries about their eldest son Louis (David Oyelowo), she grows to resent the way that Cecil is always on call, while he has a habit of walking into the Oval Office at the very moment that one of a series of Presidents is grappling with some weighty social issue. And what a bunch they are: there’s Robin Williams as a thoughtful Eisenhower; James Marsden as a movie-star-like JFK; Liev Schreiber as a constipated Johnson; and, in what must be an in-joke, Paperboy villain and famed leftie John Cusack as a glowering Nixon and no less than Alan Rickman and Jane Fonda as the showboating Ronald and Nancy Reagan! Spectacularly cast (with small roles for Alex Pettyfer, Precious’ Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz, Terrence Howard as the Gaines’ sleazy pal and True Blood’s Nelsan Ellis as Martin Luther King), this has ﬂaws galore (including Precious’ weird tendency to stage domestic scenes as if they were onstage improv classes) but, nevertheless, somehow survives as a wholeheartedly earnest and thoroughly unembarrassed epic.

IN CINEMAS NOVEMBER 21 PALACE NOVA EASTEND, EVENT MARION, TRAK, WALLIS MITCHAM

» Rated M.

I hadn’t heard of Oscar Grant before seeing Fruitvale Station. Or perhaps I didn’t remember hearing of him. After seeing Ryan Cooglar’s debut ﬁlm, I doubt I’ll forget him any time soon. It’s not that Grant’s life was remarkable, in fact far from it. Sadly it was possibly all too similar to countless other young African American males. At the point at which we meet Grant (Michael B. Jordan), he’s at something of a crossroads. Having just lost his grocery store job for repeated lateness, Oscar reluctantly takes to dealing drugs again to meet the ﬁnancial demands of everyday life. He’s done time before, which prompts him in a crucial moment to dump the drugs and resolve to be a better partner to Sophina (Melonie Diaz) and father to their four-year-old daughter Tatiana, whom he clearly adores. There is nothing in his story that is particularly ‘heroic’ or ‘inspirational’ other than what exists in the day-to-day moments of his life and Fruitvale Station is all the more profound for it. What we see in Cooglar’s sensitively captured observations and in Jordan’s subtle, captivating performance is a fully rounded human experience. There is no

MYSTERY ROAD BY D.M. BRADLEY

This latest effort from Ivan (Toomelah) Sen, Australian writer, director, cinematographer, editor, music scorer and more, is one of those rather sneaky pics that can be seen two different ways: it’s either a broodingly entertaining dramatic thriller about lies and corruption in a small town or it’s a bravely harsh study of Indigenous themes and the most vicious Aussie racism and hatred (or, then again, is it maybe both?). ‘Cowboy detective’ Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) returns home from some success in ‘the big smoke’ to investigate a murder and ﬁnds the dusty outback hamlet he grew up in full of secrets. Although the Sarge (Tony Barry)

need to heighten or reduce Oscar into anything more than who he was on the last few days of his tragically shortened life. The temptation to push Oscar’s redeeming traits to the fore or to render the character with political symbolism might have been strong, but Cooglar resists. He lets scenes play out naturally and ﬁnds warmth, passion, grief and anger without contrivance or force. By allowing his camera to linger a little longer on his actors and by not cutting too tightly around the ‘action’, Cooglar creates a sense of unpredictability despite the ever-

assigns him the case, he doesn’t help with the investigation, and an old-school detective (Hugo Weaving) also might be friend or foe, as Jay searches for truths that many would prefer were kept hidden. Not all the performances here quite click, and not all of the guest stars are at their best (Barry, Weaving and, surprisingly, a cameoing Jack Thompson are ﬁne, but David Field and Zoe Carides overact slightly). This is nevertheless most compelling, with Pedersen’s quietly powerful performance more than making up for the problems. While some will take issue with the supposedly unanswered questions, well, with a title like that what did they expect?

» Rated M.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013 39

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PERFORMING ARTS ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL The festival’s opening night was held on Tuesday, October 22 at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas and featured the ﬁlm La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) followed by the ofﬁcial after party featuring Italian food, wine and entertainment. The festival continues until Monday, November 11.

PHOTOS ANDREAS HEUER

Naomi Lucas and Sue Fuller-Lucas.

Patricia Montanaro and Robert Menz.

Stacy Anderson and Jamie Brows.

Bernie McVeigh and Fay Thornton.

present inevitability of the story’s outcome. It also demonstrates an underlying respect for every single minute of Oscar’s life up until its devastating end.

» Rated M. » Fruitvale Station opens on Thursday, November 7

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

Karen Bray and Deborah Cramer.

“AN OUTSTANDING FILM BY ANY STANDARD” Los Angeles Times

«««« THE GUARDIAN

«««« WASHINGTON POST

«««« USA TODAY

“A rare thing: an emotional, funny romance, James Gandolfini is poignant and noble” W MAGAZINE

“AN UNSTOPPABLE CINEMATIC FORCE”

“A small miracle of a movie”

NEW YORK TIMES

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

★ ★ ★ ★ ...PROFOUNDLY COMPELLING” “

USA Today

PRODUCED BY ACADEMY AWARD ® WINNER FOREST WHITAKER

MICHAEL B. JORDAN

MELANIE DIAZ

AND

OCTAVIA SPENCER

EVERY STEP BRINGS YOU CLOSER TO THE EDGE

Violence, coarse language and drug use

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

James Gandolfini

Catherine Keener

Toni Collette

IN CINEMAS NOVEMBER 7 PALACE NOVA EASTEND CINEMAS

Infrequent coarse language and sexual references

IN CINEMAS NOVEMBER 14

40 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

VISUAL ARTS

RAINBOW MACHINE BY JANE LLEWELLYN

“I wanted to make something a little more organic with forms that would evolve through the process rather than having to follow a pattern,” explains Watson. The result is four new sculptures, which are materially experimental and have a rainbow palette running through them. The works are both organic in process and in their subject. “They are organic in that they are referencing natural forms like icebergs and rock formations. I particularly like the ice reference, thinking about how ice or glass can reﬂect rainbows,” Watson says. “They are very much invented things even though they are kind of referencing natural forms. They become something entirely new and maybe they could be from some other strange place.” There is usually a sense of playfulness in Watson’s work, tapping into a childlike imagination and the use of the rainbow palette in this body of work certainly suggests that. “I kind of like that rainbows can be a bit naff and that the whole mystical, unicorn world can attach itself,” she says. This exhibition sees Watson work with several different materials such as plaster,

papier-mâché and sand. She says: “A lot of my work is about the material and material investigation.” One of the works is a two-piece sculpture experimenting with plaster cast. “I was thinking it would feel like a rainbow tap where the top is the source of the rainbow stack beneath.” In another piece, Watson has created a clear form out of plastic, which she will ﬁll with layers of different coloured sand. Watson’s work from Heartland will be showing at Dianne Tanzer Gallery + Projects (who represent her in Melbourne) in March next year and in May 2014 she will begin a residency at the Australia Council studio in Tokyo. Watson was attracted to Japan because she is particularly interested in origami and other materials used in Japanese crafts. She also plans to delve further into the rainbow and sparkling aesthetic looking to Japanese pop culture for inspiration. In Rainbow Machine Watson invites the viewer into her rainbow world, while it sounds like this is a bright and sparkly world, Watson is conscious of not making the rainbow theme too tacky. Instead by presenting works of muted tones she has struck a ﬁne balance between the mystical and the real.

» Amy Joy Watson Rainbow Machine Hugo Michell Gallery Thursday, November 14 to Saturday, December 14

Sparkle berg, 2013, balsa wood, watercolour, lurex thread, 70 x 90 x 50cm.

Photo: Andy Nowell.

f you visited the Art Gallery of South Australia’s recent survey show Heartland then you no doubt would have been struck by Amy Joy Watson’s installation piece. The work was a series of geometric sculptures suspended by very large helium balloons suggesting a preoccupation with ideas around gravity. Her new work on display this month at Hugo Michell Gallery will be less geometric and more organic.

amyjoywatson.com

Light Square Gallery

Adelaide College of the Arts

The Adelaide Review November 2013 41

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VISUAL ARTS

Power Plant

Polly Jackson’s Emu are remarkable for their wit, shape play and inventive use of materials. The woven, sculptural vessels of Queensland artist Shirley Macnamara communicate intent to make objects which transcend utility to make statements about depth of feeling and knowledge.

by John Neylon

The case is compelling. Spinifex covers around a quarter of Australia’s landmass. It visually and physically dominates the quintessential landscapes of the inland and its mighty deserts. Without it these same deserts would become footloose Saharan dunes bearing down on the golf courses, marinas, shopping malls and tidy streets of eastern Australia. As not only a survivor but a thriver, in the harshest of conditions, it is the ultimate symbol of national character. How it manages to live in the most arid of environments is one facet of its amazing powers of adaptation. The secret lies in its capacity to find and retain water and nutrients. At this point it should be noted that we are talking about the spiky, hard, tussocky, Triodia species, not the coastal kind. Its leaves are flat

Christmas Exhibition

Shirley McNamara.

when young but heat causes the leaves to curl into cylinders or tubes. This has the effect of reducing transpiration activated by the sun and wind. So our little prickly friend grows, sending its shoots down to a depth of up to three metres. Termites and small creatures, snakes, lizards and birds, find refuge and food. Its relatively cool heart offers respite on the hottest of days. It hunts its own food. Survives on the smell of an oily rag. Doesn’t mind being burnt and thrives on climatic change. It has the cachet of possibly being a Gondwanan ancestral grass. Some plant. Curators Heidi Pitman and Fiona Salmon obviously thought so when committing to an exhibition based on spinifex as a cultural defining agent within primarily Aboriginal societies. The research driving this collaborative project between Flinders University and South Australian Museum is ethnobotanical in that it explores relationships with people and plants. Most people would be aware to varying degrees of the Indigenous significance and usage of spinifex. What makes this cross-site exhibition worth spending real time with is not just the usage factor (which in the SA Museum presentation does offer fresh information about spinifex-based technologies) but the centrality of the plant, in physical or symbolic forms, within expressions of identity and connection with Country.

•

The most forthright of these can be found in the work of Pila Nguru (Spinifex People) artists of the Great Victoria Desert. Roy Underwood’s visually compelling Miramiratjara is a richly creative conception of spinifex country as defined by the interlocking patterns of radiating grass clumps. The Tjanpi Desert Weavers, established in 1995, have developed distinctive ways of working with spinifex and ‘imported’ materials such as wool and raffia, to depict traditional lands. Woven creatures such as

Lasting Impressions

Some artworks are for sale.

A Retrospective of WEA Artists Celebrating 100 years of Tutoring 10 November – 1 December 2013 The WEA was formed in 1913 offering classes to improve education. Many of the art tutors over the years have been members of the Royal SA Society of Arts. Artists include, Glen Ash, John Baily, Charles Bannon, Malcolm Bartsh, Jo Caddy, Marjorie Hann, Sophie Hann, Harrison Drew, Jackie Hick, Anton Holzner, Wendy Jennings, Betty Jew, Gary Lee Gaston, John Patchett, Brian Seidel, Mervyn Smith, Ruth Tuck, Wlad Dutkiewicz, Walter Wotzke. All together & more in the RSASA Gallery.

RSASA Members’ Summer Exhibition: Summer Daze 5 Dec – 12 Jan 2014. Art Market will be held Sun 8 Dec till Christmas. Where: RSASA Gallery, Level 1, Institute Bldg, Cnr North Tce & Kintore Ave, Adelaide. Mon – Friday 10.30 – 4.00pm, Sat & Sun 11 – 4.00pm. Closed public holidays & over Christmas break 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.

Andrea Fiebig, Sweet Apples, hand blown glass, 22cm high, $180 each

adam nudelman when all the worlds’ asleep 9 – 23 November 2013 www.hillsmithgallery.com.au

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

flinders.edu.au/artmuseum samuseum.sa.gov.au

ROYAL SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY OF ARTS INC.

15 Nov – 24 Dec

...it’s apples!

»»Spinifex Country shows at the Flinders University City Gallery and South Australian Museum until Sunday, December 8.

Nimboya 83, Oil on canvas by Malcolm Carbins

hey got it wrong. Australia’s Coat of Arms that is. The Golden Wattle blots the escutcheon. It’s a newcomer anyway. It wasn’t formally adopted as The Floral Emblem of Australia until 1988. Its patchy electorate is restricted to south-eastern Australia and bits of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and its flashy representation on the Coat of Arms takes too many liberties. Its only real claim to fame was as a prop in a Monty Python sketch in which Eric Idle (with a stick in his hand) proclaims ‘This is the Wattle, the emblem of our land. You can stick it in a bottle or hold it in your hand.’ Could have been worse though. Cardiganshire has the Bog Rosemary. I’m hoping that the Palmer Party will get their priorities in order after July 2014 and hold the Coalition to ransom on this matter. Top of the agenda should be to replace the Wattle on the Coat of Arms with the Spinifex.

Similar attributes are evident in many other works where visual familiarity with spinifexlinked landscapes has been internalised and reformulated as art. Emily Kngwarreye’s My Country, for example, expresses this duality of describing and celebrating. The presence of work by four non-Indigenous artists, Sandy Elverd, Jenny Sages, Ilka White and the late Elsje Keppel, maintains this subtle pressure on the viewer to recognise that intuition, aesthetics and a personal sense of dialogue with country can give authenticity to any artist’s (Indigenous or non-Indigenous) desire to share insights and knowledge.

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EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT… BY JEMIMA KEMP

n Heidi Kenyon’s evocative installations things have been, in her words, messed with. Her arrays of objects have been shifted, skewed, undone, disrupted, unravelled and altered. Still recognisable and bearing the marks of previous incarnations, they are quite indubitably not what they once were. Vinyl LPs unscroll down a wall in shiny liquorice spirals (Everything You Can Think of Is True, 2008), a meticulously unwound LP is rewound and fused into a giant unplayable monster (Mixtape, 2008), a chair back becomes a soft hairlike braid (at CACSA 2013) while a teacup cradles a photographic image within (Objectiﬁed, 2012). Kenyon deploys her materials as a director utilises cinematic effects and her installations,

whether discrete groupings in gallery settings or immersive site-specific environments, become stages on which enigmatic narratives are enacted. These poised alliances of objects inhabit their spaces with chutzpah, and seem on the verge of speech or temporarily stilled from some ceaseless activity. In work seen at CACSA this year, a group of battered school chairs stand caught in dramatic Chekhovian tableau, while in The Air Finds it Hard to Breathe (FELTspace, 2009), a piano pauses almost sheepishly halfway through a wall. There’s a strong streak of mischief in all this, of worlds shifted to one side. Like fairy tales, these worlds have their own self-contained logic where the surreal is normal and things are fundamentally unstable. And fishes make wishes on you, 2008, hand cut vinyl records and avocado leaves.

ww w. fe lts pa ce .or g sp ac e fa ce bo ok .co m/ FE LT

F E LT n a t u r a l Opening: 7—10 PM 22 November 23 —24 November 2013 Torrens River foreshore

(Behind University of Adelaide)

SITE SPECIFIC EXHIBITION ARTIST TOURS

FELT Natural has been supported by the South Australian Government through Arts SA

Kenyon’s practice springs from the specific and material but the immaterial: traces, shadows and the invisible relations between things are at the core of her work. These glimpses and intimations are in the cast of a carved leaf, the relations forged between like and unlike things, the light and shadow of the photograph or the live projection of a camera obscura. In Everything You Can Think of Is True (2007) precisely carved avocado leaves cast shadows of a sleeping child, a bed and wolves in a play of fairytale archetypes. In its second telling (2008), awarded the Constance Gordon Johnston Sculpture Prize, carved leaves again cast their shadows of eyes and faces inside a spiralling forest of unwound vinyl records. Alchemically transformed through copper electroplating, these leaves reappear in Of

Things Past (2010) and I’m Still Here (2012) incised with apples, a woman’s face, human fingerprints, set amongst real trees. Vivid yet insubstantial, these ‘disappearing objects’ sit at the edge of perception, inviting entry into the work. Kenyon’s use of the camera obscura in Of Things Past and Turn Back the River (2013) inverts and re-presents the world. Turned upside down, transformed into a live flickering projection and cast back into an interior the world is made entrancingly strange and an invitation to reverie. Driven by the ‘curious complexity of everyday things’, Kenyon’s process is equally complex. A natural fossicker, she seeks out provisional objects, ones on the cusp of

Maxwell Wines “Fleurio” by Brian O’Malley

Rebecca hastings scold 9 – 23 November 2013 www.hillsmithgallery.com.au

MAXWELL OF McLAREN VALE Winery, Vineyards, Cellar Door & Restaurant corner of Olivers & Chalk Hill Roads McLaren Vale Cellar Door open 10am - 5pm daily P: (08) 8323 8200 F: (08) 8323 8900 E: info@maxwellwines.com.au W: www.maxwellwines.com.au F: www.facebook.com/maxwellofmclarenvale

becoming something else or bearing the marks of their histories. She us drawn to those objects close to the body and that we physically and psychically inhabit: chairs, boxes, teacups, cassettes, cameras, selected not by form but by the resonance that each offers. Her process is deeply intuitive, a ‘messing about’ with objects as a kind of materialised wondering and constant ‘what if’ that brings these startling transformations. She unravels, unpicks, undoes and unwinds objects, teasing out their essence, inherent characteristics, and memories. As things are remade consonances and connections are accentuated and memories liberated; a leaf is engraved with a fingerprint, the relations between human and natural world made

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Photo: Corey Roberts.

‘memory work’. Her concern with memory is not with memory as retrieval but as an act of creation intimately linked to identity, knowledge and as a dynamic recuperation of time. For Kenyon, this creative memory work can be ‘an anchoring space’ in the relentless simultaneity of the informational age and the narratives created a means to explore new forms of knowledge and engagement with the world.

Frai Frai and Father, 2012, pinhole camera photograph

Photo: Steve Wilson

inside teacup, saucer, 16 x 16 x 8 cm.

apparent, a chair becomes a body. Through this unmaking and remaking her objects are vivified becoming ‘subjects not just materials’, and actors in these tableaux. The transformation of significant objects (a box carved by her great grand uncle, a tobacco tin) into pinhole cameras in Objectified (2012) produced images within domestic items making object and image inseparable, as if the object had spontaneously generated images from its own inhering memories. Recording technologies are deeply connected to Kenyon’s practice as a form of

These enigmatic narratives that her installations are engaged in are holey stories, mysterious to the core where each element, material and immaterial is necessary and held in poised relation to every other. The absences are invitations to entry and reverie as objects trigger memory and associations. They are in a way loose knit story machines inveigling viewers to engage with memory as act of dynamic becoming. Each body of work appears as an organic outgrowth of an evolving, deepening line of thought rather than an end point and shows an increasing refinement and sophistication. Her career to date evidences a self-propelling drive and determination with numerous solo shows locally and nationally and group shows in London and Colombia. Kenyon was awarded the Ruth Tuck scholarship (2010), the MF &MH Joyner Scholarship (2012) and the Qantas Foundation Encouragement of

Australian Contemporary Art Award (2012). Recent work has taken a liquid turn with Turn Back to the River (2013), a sitespecific project as part of the national One River art program. Railway carriages on the edge of Murray Bridge have become camera obscuras, transforming the town’s daily life into a mesmerising live film. A further carriage, too delicate to enter, is filled with postcards close-stacked like leaves recording residents’ riverine memories. Watery cast ice ‘phantom limbs’ will repair salvaged chairs for work in progress for a FELTspace group show in October this year and a residency in December will take her to Venice’s Scuola Grafica. With a sure eye and a storyteller’s art, Kenyon conjures these shapeshifting objects and live spaces where, like all good stories, the ending is never certain.

» All quotes from the artist in conversation with the writer or from the artist’s writing. Article courtesy of Guildhouse. heidikenyon.com guildhouse.org.au

Realms of WondeR Jain, Hindu and Islamic art of India

Now showing until 27 January 2014 immerse yourself in art inspired by the three great spiritual traditions of india. See more than 200 paintings, sculptures and decorative arts objects dating from the eighth century to the present day.

Free admission Tours daily, 11am and 2pm

Art GAllery of South AuStrAliA N o r t h t e r r A c e , A d e l A i d e artgallery.sa.gov.au PreSeNted By

fAMily ProGrAM PArtNerS

MediA PArtNerS

detail: The Festival of Cattle (Gopāshtamī), 20th century, Nathdwara, Rajasthan, India, opaque pigment and gold on cotton, 150 x 100 cm; Bequest of HugoVan Dam 2012

44 The Adelaide Review November 2013

VISUAL ARTS

Australia According to London Australia is the first major survey of Australian art in the UK for 50 years by Peter Drew

here are arguments against the tradition of sending our cultural report card for assessment at the Royal Academy, especially when reaching out to Beijing would have achieved so much more. At the very least Australia the exhibition offers the opportunity to see ourselves in summary, as others would like to see us. “I wanted the visitor to be placed right in the centre of Australia, to get that sense of texture and depth, to get that feeling of that long, endless straight road,” says Kathleen Soriano, Director of Exhibitions at the Royal Academy of London. In this way the exhibition employs 200 artworks to reinforce the cliché that Australia is essentially a landscape, full of mystery and adventure. The truth is, most Australians live in cities and if we do confront Australia’s centre with any honesty, we encounter a severity that outstrips the sentiments of most art. Those endless straight roads are more often a test of endurance than a theatre of romance. But don’t let that distract you from the tired myth of spiritual redemption waiting just over the shimmering horizon. Australian art is built upon that myth, upon Britain’s appetite for

believing it and upon our own willingness to dish it up. Shaun Gladwell knows how it’s done. His film showing a Christlike motorcyclist hurtling through the outback makes an appropriate introduction to the exhibition. Following this is a room filled with enormous paintings by Indigenous artists, all created in the contemporary era but immune to contemporary critique. The reason for this is spelled out on the wall text that speaks of “spiritual resources” that are “often imperceptible to foreign eyes”. After that the exhibition unfolds in chronological order from settlement to present day. British press coverage of the exhibition has confessed ignorance towards the big names in Australian contemporary art but it’s hard to blame them. Without the media spectacle of the Turner Prize, Australian contemporary art has no trick to disguise its subjugation to mass culture and no mechanism for propelling Australian artists to the status of celebrity. Patricia Piccinini comes close but you only have to see a flying boob whale once to wonder whether we really need celebrity artists the way that Britain seems to. Rather than attack the Royal Academy’s landscape fixation, Australian critics have

Shaun Gladwell, Approach to Mundi Mundi, 2007. Production still from two-channel HD video.

lined up to take the bait from British hacks like Waldemar Januszczak of The Sunday Times who treated the exhibition with the kind of lazy ridicule reserved for topics of little consequence. John Olsen’s painting earned the delicate phrase “a cascade of diarrhea” which seems fair, even if Januszczak is just trolling for a reaction. When inflated turkeys like Olsen get shot down by foreign critics it’s doubly embarrassing because we’re the one’s who have let Olsen fly around for decades in a haze of uncritical praise. The same goes for the exhibition’s contingent of Indigenous art, which Januszczak dismissed with a similar degree of sensitivity. While Rachel Campbell-Johnston of The Times saw nothing problematic in describing this racially defined category of art as somehow possessing it’s own ‘magic’, Januszczak seemed less willing to surrender his critical faculties, focusing on the work’s canny commercialism.

What Januszczak easily recognises, whether we admit it or not, is that the category of Aboriginal art has become an industry that permits non-Aboriginal people to indulge in the belief that 40,000 years of connection to the land can somehow be repaired and purchased in a canvas that’s hung on a wall. If that’s ‘magic’ it’s a spell for atonement. Perhaps our hunger for redemption is as satiable as our cultural filiation to Britain is temporary? As Australian art orientates itself away from Europe and towards Asia we might expect British institutions like the Royal Academy to cling to the old narratives that tacitly support their own role as narrator but we need not listen. For a little perspective, the Royal Academy is the same institution that in 2011 appointed Tracey Emin its professor of drawing. Would we respect an orchestra that appointed Miley Cyrus its conductor? If that isn’t a fair analogy,

BMGART have relocated to 444 South Road, Marleston, SA 5033

NICHOLAS UHLMANN DREAM VOYAGERS TODD HUNTER SWAY 2 Thursday 31 October – Saturday 23 November 2013 444 South Road, Marleston, SA 5033 | T +61 08 8297 2440 | M 0421 311 680 art @bmgart.com.au | www.bmgart.com.au

Gallery hours Tuesday to Friday 11am to 5pm Saturday 2pm to 5pm TODD HUNTER, Voodoo Lady 2013. Oil on canvas 183 x 163cms

NICHOLAS UHLMANN, Dream Voyager 2011. Perforated steel, mild steel, corten steel, timber 90 x 40 x 35cms

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VISUAL ARTS

THIS MONTH The Adelaide Review’s guide to NOVEMBER’s highlight VISUAL ARTS events

Lois Turner (detail)

Kim Buck (detail)

RHYTHM TREE

Photo by Josh Raymond

Angove McLaren Vale Vineyards & Cellar Door Sunday, October 27 to Monday, November 25 (08) 8323 6900

allow me to soothe the insult by adding that the catalogue to Australia features a touching foreword by the Prince of Wales, presumably an authority on Australian art. Survey exhibitions generally aren’t supposed to point the way forward and, considering its context, this one would be particularly ill equipped. Considering that Australia is more a work in progress than most nations, I was mostly left wondering whether art will follow change or will change be made to follow art.

‘Walking Artist’ Lois Turner uses a GPS as her medium to study the rhythms produced by walking. The maps that emerge from her wanderings are then realised in oils and complemented by trees, sticks and directions for her walks.

Rebecca Hastings (detail)

KIM BUCK

FRAMING NATURE

Peter Walker Fine Art Thursday, November 28 to Saturday, December 14 peterwalker.com.au

North Lodge (Adelaide Botanic Gardens) Saturday, November 2 to Sunday, November 17 friendsbgadelaide.com

Kim Buck emerges from Heartland at the Art Gallery of South Australia with another extraordinary charcoal collection. Emotionally charged and technically brilliant, Buck presents realistic drawings of people—women with arms locked around their curled bodies; hands pressed against glass.

LITTLE TREASURES Handmade art and craft at affordable prices for Christmas

24 November - 21 December 2013

SCOLD

Every Saturday for the last decade, the Botanical Art Group has met, discussing and creating artwork inspired by the diverse plantlife at the Botanic Gardens. This November Framing Nature will exhibit members’ work in a special tenth anniversary exhibition.

exhibitions gallery shop

25 Oct - 15 Nov 2013 TWO EXHIBITIONS

Cross Culture paintings by Ian Willding

Hill Smith Gallery Saturday, November 9 to Saturday, November 23 hillsmithgallery.com.au

»»Australia Continues until Sunday, December 8 Royal Academy of Arts, London royalacademy.org.uk

Beautiful but unsettling, Rebecca Hastings’ oil paintings of children play with the theme of concealment. Realism is jarred by Hastings’ use of unnatural light and bizarre props—an icy blue parka with half a child’s face peering accusingly outwards.

Community Launch Event: Sunday 24 November 2 pm – 4 pm Woodturning Demonstration by Ron Allen Silk Painting Demonstration by Helen Moon Felting Demonstration by Phyllis Williams Jewellery Making Demonstration by Rachel Hare Christmas Sweet Treats for Sale Christmas Carols by Dolce Recorder Group

Free Artist Demonstrations throughout the exhibition:

CACSA CONTEMPORARY 2013: PROVISIONAL STATE

Saturdays 30 November, 7 and 14 December 2 pm – 4 pm

Part 2

Light Connections artwork in various media by artists associated with Grow (SA)

Free entry - all welcome!

Johnny DADY James DODD KAB101

8 November – 15 December

Pepper Street Arts Centre Exhibitions, Gift Shop, Art Classes, Coffee Shop. 558 Magill Road, Magill PH: 8364 6154

Contemporary Art Centre SA 14 Porter Street Parkside

Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 12 noon - 5 pm

www.cacsa.org.au

An arts and cultural initiative funded by the City of Burnside

www.pepperstreetartscentre.com.au Adelaide Review.indd 1

22/10/13 3:18 PM

artwork by: (above) Teresa Schmucker (above right) Paul Barratt (right) Shelley Bass

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

www.gallerym.net.au

46 The Adelaide Review November 2013

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FELTspace: Five Years by Jane Llewellyn

ive years is a long time in ARI (Artist Run Initiative) years. They are often temporary projects lasting a few years at the most before the founders move on to other things. FELTspace has defied the odds and this year is celebrating its fifth birthday. There are no plans to slow down and wind things up; in fact it’s quite the opposite with expansive plans to take it through the next five years. While the ARIs trend has been big interstate – particularly in Melbourne and Sydney with an ARI almost on every corner – Adelaide has been slow to catch up. FELTspace has enjoyed a dominance but they are no longer the only ones in town. So what sets FELTspace apart from other ARIs and where is it headed? “The strongest difference between our space and other spaces is that the art we show is quite experimental and non-traditional, definitely not commercial space work. It’s very uncommon to walk in and just find commercial paintings on the wall and that’s it,” explains co-director Jemimah Davis. Established in 2008, part of the key to FELTspace’s longevity is its focus on providing a

platform for contemporary art that falls outside of the commercial gallery structure. “They [the founding members] obviously saw a need for a unique space where artists could show work without being tied to a commercial gallery, and also experiment with art – especially performance and video,” says Davis. The founding members created a platform on which future committees could build, allowing FELTspace to grow and prosper. There are seven co-directors currently on the committee: Ray Harris, Meg Wilson, Eleanor Scicchitano, Steph English, Derek Sargent, Jess Miley and Davis. Ryoko Takahashi

FELTspace has a long association with the University of South Australia because the founding members went through art school there and so it has remained on the radar of current students. FELTspace wants to broaden this, with Davis being the first committee member from the Adelaide Central School of Art. “We are trying to spread it out a little bit more. There is more happening out there and we need to keep building with the growth happening around us,” explains Davis. Since its inception FELTspace has operated

RED POLES licensed cafe-gallery-b&b Landscape of our Dreaming Aboriginal art from Central Australia featuring some of the most respected artists from the Eastern and Western deserts and their oneness with country. Opens Sunday November 10 @ 3pm until December 14. A Fleurieu Art Prize community event

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Image left: Susan Pitjara Hunter Right: Walala Tjapaltjarri.

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a small exhibition space on Compton Street in the bustling Central Markets district. “It’s quite a challenge to work in such a small space. We can use it as a benefit rather than a restraint because people really think about how they can use the scale of the space,” says Davis. “It’s such a blank canvas you can completely make it your own. It’s your month and your time you can do whatever you want with the space.” The fifth year has already been busy with FELTspace participating in Sydney Contemporary in September. Along with CACSA Broadsheet they were the only representatives from South Australia. An auction was also held at the end of October to raise funds for the gallery and included works by artists such as Christian Lock, Nicholas Folland, James Dodd and Julia Robinson. There are more celebrations to come with the De-versions festival at the end of this month.

Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art University of South Australia

The festival covers a whole range of art forms and will kick off with FELTnatural on the River Torrens. FELTnatural is an event supported by Splash Adelaide and will include around 20 artists. FELTspace recently secured Unexpected Port funding through Renewal SA and the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, to host, FELTmaps, in Port Adelaide in March 2014. These offsite projects are something you can expect to see more of in the future. “Our focus is broadening what we do so instead of just having 12 exhibitions a year in the gallery space we are trying to do more off-site and make people become more aware and give artists more exciting opportunities as well,” explains Davis. For FELTspace to survive another five years it’s important it expands its appeal and develops a more extensive network in South Australia and interstate. The gallery also

10 October – 20 December 2013

Daniel Crooks

Premiering an Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund and Samstag Museum of Art site-specific commission

Bachelor of Visual Art (Hons) • 34 week academic year • Dedicated studios for BVA and Honours students

Applications for Semester 1 2014 close 6 January 2014 Graduate Exhibition 14 December 2013 - 10 January 2014 View work by the BVA and BVA (Hons) graduates in the Gallery and throughout the Teaching & Studio Building.

55 North Terrace, Adelaide T 8302 0870 Open Tue – Fri 11– 5pm, Sat 2 – 5pm

New Glenside campus opened in May 2013 info@acsa.sa.edu.au www.acsa.sa.edu.au

SMA TAR Oct 13.indd 1

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VISUAL ARTS THE ART OF PLACE Place SA hosted a breakfast discussion at AC Arts on Tuesday, October 22 featuring Christine Morrow (AEAF), Adrian Evans (JPE Design Studio) and Stan Mahoney (Format) to share their thoughts about the arts making places great.

PHOTOS ANDREAS HEUER

Jodie Chetcuti and Michelle Wigg.

Adrian Evans, Nicholas Rosshirt, Robert Callisto and George Ochota.

hopes to be more ﬁnancially progressive and is working on plans to become incorporated. Over the last five years FELTspace has enriched Adelaide’s visual arts community by pushing boundaries and presenting art that may not have been shown otherwise. It looks set to continue its commitment to showing contemporary art and providing a platform for artists to showcase their work for many years to come.

Susan Long and Leisbeth Pockett.

The Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize Angela Salomon, Trish Hansen, Christie Anthony and Penny Griggs.

DON’T FORGET

» De-versions Festival at FELTspace, 12 Compton Street, Adelaide from November 22 to December 3. FELTnatural, Torrens River foreshore, from November 22 – 24. feltspace.org

CLOSES 25 NOVEMBER All details: www.parklandsart.com Vic Waclawik and John Blines.

Kristi Cook and Amy Pheiffer.

Willem Versteegh, Against the Sky (detail), digital image.

Rainshadow Michal Kluvanek, Peter Lindon, Bill Morrow, Sandra Starkey Simon, Willem Versteegh Curator Ian Hamilton 10 November to 1 December 2013 1 Thomas Street (cnr Main North Road) Nailsworth prospect.sa.gov.au

48 The Adelaide Review November 2013

A-Z Contemporary Art

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

CUTE Warning Getting cute has its own rewards and risks. Rewards = everyone will love your work and want to coddle it. Risks = people will think your brain has turned to fairy floss in 14 shades of pastel. Background briefing Blame it on the 19th century Victorians. Look for popular, sentimental paintings of dewy-eyed dogs and woeful waifs. Cut to early 20th century animation cartoons such as Gertie the Dinosaur, Felix the Cat, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and of course Disney’s 1928 Steamboat Willie starring one Mickey Mouse. And don’t forget Betty Boop. The novelist Frederick Kohner wrote The Little Girl with Big Ideas (1957), which created the blueprint for Gidget (‘girl’ + ‘midget’) the Columbia Pictures movie. Now Sandra Dee, cast as Gidget in the 1959 movies, was cute, cuter maybe than Sally Field who starred in the 1965 TV series. But not as cute as Elizabeth Montgomery’s (Bewitched) nose. Cute – it’s got form.

CANON A much-contested (see contested) cultural construct involving pedagogies at 10 paces. Briefly: if a Rembrandt can’t be proven to be better than chewing gum art (see Chewing Gum Art) then the canon concept is totally spiked. A compromise may be that all art is good is some fluffy kind of way but some art is definitely better than others. Photo: John Neylon

ARTSPEAK

Dead Mickey, Disneyland Tokyo, 2012

Contemporary cute Start with Jeff Koons. Outsized balloon elephants, monkeys and flower power puppies show how it’s done. Tip. You’ll need a rationale. Koons again, “Art is really communicating something and the more archetypal it is the more communicative it is”. Wow, like the Pink Panther is archetypal. By the way, Lady Gaga is Koons’ biggest fan. Not so Robert Hughes who once described Koons as having the “gross patter” of a “blow-dried Baptist selling swamp acres in Florida”. Deep cute But you want your work to have edge and irony. To be deep as well as fun. More niche than pastiche. Look no further than the work of American artist Mike Kelley or Australian artist Kathy Temin. Lots of transgressive narratives, which apparently is a Good Thing. Engage with the disturbing work of Patricia Piccinini. Check out the way this artist plays on the emotions, challenging anyone not to like her cuddly and oh so vulnerable mutants. Tip. Toughen up your act with some grindhouse patois. Try a little Russian like ‘poshlost’ (a combo of obscenity and bad taste) as in ‘ I find the calculated vulgarism of Jeff Koons to be totally poshlost’. Cute. It’s not all sugar and spice. Kawaii power When it comes to cute with a capital ‘K’, kawaii rules. Any serious student of the genre has to be on smirking terms with Miss Kitty White (weight

THE GIFT by It Hao Pheh

East End Markets, Adelaide

Malaysian born, It Hao Pheh’s first solo exhibition in Adelaide. An excellent display of new, bright and vibrant, “stained art” watercolours from natural and architectural inspirations.

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

five apples), the lip-smacking Peko-chan, Kiki and Lala Twinstars and others. Warning. ‘Kawaii’ is Japanese for ‘cute’ but ‘kowai’ means scary. Enunciate clearly or brace for strange looks. Note. Only little girls say everything is cute. My, you are looking neoteric Dress up your shameless exploitation of cute with some posh terminology. Neoteric covers wide territory (the retention of juvenile attributes in adult life). Can include: flattened face, hairless body, small upper jaw, large eyes and small teeth. One Direction we love you. Tip. To really impress, contextualise everything in terms of bio evolutionary nurturing impulses. If this ploy fails resort to Teletubbies gibberish. Too easy Don’t stress about subject selection. Stick to creatures (the paedomorphically enhanced ones of course). Bambi is on top of this totem pole. Not far below is a menagerie of creatures including Siberian Flying Squirrels, the Red Eyed Tree Frog, Chihuahuas, Nemo, Dumbo the Elephant, the Piano Playing Kitten, all Pandas and the Snow Monkeys of Jigokudani (insanely cute). Cuddleability guaranteed. Trainer wheels Try chibi. It’s all about drawing characters with small bodies and enlarged heads and eyes. Once you master the art the world of viewer seduction

CHEWING GUM ART A thank you to Adelaide artist James Dodd for drawing attention to the chewing gummediated practice of American artist Dan Colen (preferred brands Orbit, Trident, Juicy Fruit and Big Red). The English artist Ben Wilson paints onto pre-loved chewing gum collected from the pavement. There are others. Warning: Research indicates that chewing gum may increase neuroplasticity but could cause lapses in memory. CONTESTED The world apparently is full of contested zones (read territories or fields). Contemporary curators and art writers are trained to recognise them and point then out to others. What happens from that point on is uncertain. CURATOR The increase in global numbers of curators since the 1970s has coincided with a fall in numbers of people taking up religious vocations. All prefer to wear black.

is at your feet. Discrete Manga riffs are okay. Warning. High likelihood of disappearing into the otaku red zone of geek fandom. Still interested? Get a cheap flight and head to Tokyo’s Shibuya for some Lolita meets Little Bo Peep meets My Little Pony fusion (Fairy Kei for real gamers). All pastel, Mary Jane shoes, ruffled petticoats and socks, Liz Lisa bloomer skirts and faux pearl Ugg boots. In Japan cute is never off limits, has no limits. Trend spotting Large pink rabbits with permanently aroused ears. Currently breeding in Brisbane (courtesy Perth-based artist Stormie Mills) but on the march. Cute gone viral can be very kowai.

spinifex country 5 October - 8 December

Flinders University City Gallery State Library of South Australia | www.flinders.edu.au/artmuseum Tue - Fri 11 - 4pm, Sat & Sun 12 - 4pm Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery (Special Exhibitions) South Australian Museum | www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/explore/exhibitions Daily 10am - 5pm

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VISUAL ARTS are both artists whose practice she aspires to. “I’m very chuffed,” says Bycroft. “I’m not too sure about schools yet. At the moment I think it will end up being in London but I’m also quite interested in a school in Rotterdam, Piet Zwart, and also the Glasgow School of Art.” Bycroft is a sculptor, performance artist and video artist. While her sculpture work has been a more recent development, she has already received recognition for it, being awarded the Fleurieu Youth Sculpture Commission 2013. “The video work was the thing that got me engaged in the theoretical, sculpture came later,” she says. Her practice has taken what she describes as a sequential journey with one thing leading onto the next. Initially Bycroft was a little hesitant about making the move into sculptural practice. “I didn’t like the idea of creating more stuff in the world. I feel like there is so much around so as much as possible I like to use found materials or reclaimed materials,” she explains. Everything in its Proper Place, 2013, bamboo, wood, enamel, choral, stones

Profile: Madison Bycroft

In both her sculpture and video work Bycroft mainly focuses on ideas surrounding animism. “I am interested in ideas concerning the animal and I guess that has extended over the last couple of years to include the `other’.” She describes her video works as little

experiments where she sets about exploring her own relationship to the `other’. “They are about how I can undo my own humanity in order to understand otherness.” Bycroft is attracted to the performance element of working with video. She isn’t focused on the medium itself but instead sees it as the most direct way of capturing intuitive performance. “It’s not really me doing video for the sake of video, its kind of performance to camera.” Only a few days into the New York residency when we spoke, Bycroft isn’t really sure what work will come out of the experience and is approaching it with an open mind. With a keen interest in philosophy, no doubt Bycroft will continue to expand the theory behind her practice. Next year Bycroft will take part in Safari 2014 (the unofficial fringe event to the Biennale of Sydney) and she will also present a collaborative work with Melbourne based artist Elvis Richardson at a group show at Fontanelle. Bycroft’s work for the Fleurieu Youth Sculpture Commission will show at Wirra Wirra Winery until Monday, November 25.

madisonbycroft.com

BY JANE LLEWELLYN

he recent announcement of Adelaidebased artist Madison Bycroft as one of the 2014 Samstag Scholars rounds out what has already been a successful year. And 2014 is shaping up to be just as impressive. Bycroft spoke to me from New York, where she is completing a threemonth residency, about the latest award and what lies ahead. “I’m so excited about it,” Bycroft says.

“Honestly the news was a really big surprise. I put a lot of time into the application and I really care about it. I was really invested in it but at the same time I was not expecting it.”

design + craftsmanship

The Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship is awarded to artists to complete one year of study overseas in visual arts. When Bycroft discovered that artists Mikala Dwyer and Louise Haselton were on the selection panel, she felt honoured as they

T’Arts Collective Gays Arcade (off Adelaide Arcade)

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

Window display will run from November 1 to November 30

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50 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

TRAVEL

COMFORTABLE CAMPING provides an opportunity to get up close with the sights, sounds and smells of a place. Of course, injecting some comfort into the experience just brings you the best of both worlds. The best camping is all about realising what you don’t really need and doing without it for the duration of the trip. An authentic camping experience means no trafﬁc, no noise, no telephones, no internet and no deadlines. The lack of ringing phones means you’re free to hear the birdcalls, the buzz

snacks before you go – and their storage, ease of preparation and cleanup. A wonderful part of camping is enjoying delicious fresh food around a campﬁre and planning is critical. It’s often a great way to rediscover natural food. While the kids will relish going without a shower for a few days, feeling fresh and clean has become a luxury many of us can’t do without. The vast majority of camping holidays will give you an opportunity to bathe or swim. Embrace it! While it’s wonderful to be spontaneous and do whatever you feel like, it’s also great to know about nearby attractions. Imagine returning from a beach holiday to ﬁnd there was a nearby snorkelling spot or a great coastal walk you

WORLD EXPEDITIONS On the Larapinta trail, in the West MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs, there’s a new development that epitomises comfortable camping. The new World Expeditions’ campsites provide a new level of comfort for trekkers on the famous walking trail with a huge canopy providing welcome shade after a day on the trail. As well as a comfortable area to relax and enjoy the spectacular surrounds, there’s a hot shower to rinse off the dust of the day. Guides prepare delicious food while trekkers relax and, of course, there’s plenty of

SLOUCH IS DESIGNED IN AUSTRALIA FOR WOMEN EVERYWHERE WHO LOVE SUBSTANCE AND STYLE. THESE TRAVEL PRODUCTS REFLECT OUR CONTEMPORARY LIFESTYLE WITHOUT SACRIFICING LUXURY AND ELEGANCE.

Photoshoot taken at Leigh Street Luggage.

amping is a wonderful way of experiencing a destination in a way that is simply not possible in a hotel or resort. There are often no alternatives when you’re beside a thundering waterfall, on a mountain ridge or in the remote outback – and that’s great news for campers. The whole idea of camping is to reconnect with the natural environment and, more than any other type of accommodation, camping

of crickets and the rustling of the breeze in the trees – it’s the ultimate escape. To enjoy it, you need to be open to the idea of being disconnected for while. You do however need to be comfortable, so the right gear is important. Hopefully, you’ve chosen a place that’s likely to be pleasant at the time you’ll be there, so you shouldn’t need gear for temperature and weather extremes. Be prepared for the conditions you’re likely to experience – with protection from hot and cold, sun, rain, wind and insect protection. You need to be selective because space is at a premium, so pack for maximum comfort. There won’t be a supermarket on the next corner but you don’t need to take your entire pantry either. Think about your meals and

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013 51

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ADVERTISING FEATURE THE R.M.WILLIAMS SPRING/SUMMER 2014 COLLECTION IS NOW IN-STORE.

missed. Of course, it’s up to you whether you just sit and read a book or venture out but best to know the options before you decide. Just a little research before departure can make a big difference. The idea that camping is “going without” is part of what makes it so fantastic. There are many dedicated campers who keep very quiet about the wonderful experience they have getting away from it all. Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone a little and you’ll see so many more options to explore. ESTABLISHED UPON THE PRINCIPLES OF QUALITY, AUTHENTICITY AND DURABILITY; R.M.WILLIAMS IS WORLD RENOWNED FOR ITS PREMIUM HANDCRAFTED FOOTWEAR AND ACCESSORIES.

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52 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Wine exp er nd

BY ANNABELLE BAKER

Regency gastRonomic adventuRes

rowing up, the roast chicken played a big part in our family life. It would comfort us in stressful times, bring us together on Sundays and graced the table midweek, when a nourishing home cooked meal was in desperate need. I would say that everyone has given the roast chicken a go at home and every family has their unique twist.

Who

The Regency Gastronomic Adventures is an exciting new food program showcasing TAFE SA’s finest food lecturers and South Australia’s culinary talents offering gourmet short courses. Classes are run at TAFE SA’s Regency International Centre, a world-class facility that delivers training in cookery, hospitality management, patisserie, bakery, butchery, tourism and food processing.

Now, all grown up, I too practice the art of roast chicken. So much so that when moving to France the ﬁrst thing I purchased was an esteemed Bresse Chicken from the local boucherie – it cost me 45 euros and it was worth every cent! A very proud butcher held the yellow tinted bird up for me to acknowledge, all of the paperwork my chicken would come endowed with. He then spent ﬁve to ten minutes preparing the bird; the giblets and neck were carefully removed and wrapped neatly, the bird was blowtorched to remove any remaining feathers and then perfectly trussed, ready for my roasting pan. I very proudly strolled home, ready to bring my family’s rendition of the roast chicken to Paris. Back in Australia, choosing the right chicken is just as important and with a handful of small

producers rearing free range or even organic birds, the quality of the chicken we can get our hands on is starting to rival the standards of the French Bresse. In fact, right here in SA we are leading the way with our chicken farming and produce some the country’s best. For me it has to be organic, free range and maybe more importantly, I only purchase if the name of the farm is on display. Choosing the right chicken is not only supporting more humane farming practices; you are also guaranteeing a more ﬂavoursome end result. I have always loved the saying, chicken soup is like Jewish penicillin; there is something extremely healing about a bowl of glistening gold chicken stock. Placing a whole chicken in a stock pot with cold water spiked with carrots, leeks, celery, garlic and bay and allowing it to gently poach for one hour gives you one of the most nourishing dishes ever conceived. Place pieces of the poached chicken in a bowl, top with the cooked vegetables and ladle over the stock, possibly the original ‘one pot wonder’! Poaching, roasting, stufﬁng, steaming and braising, chicken lends itself to just about every method of cooking. The classic roast chicken is what keeps me coming back for more and although the roast of my childhood is very fondly remembered, I now have my own version and it will be the one dish that I hope never stops being a family favourite.

The Centre has a state-of-theart brewery, an Artisan Cheese Academy, coffee academy and a winery. Some of these courses include:  Cheese, beer, artisan bread, smallgoods production  Interactive ‘master’ cooking / patisserie class demonstrations  Corporate kitchen, developing work team bonding sessions  Food and wine degustation including ‘luxury wine and cheese matching’  Festive Cheer - Christmas cooking at its best

COLIN & CO On Thursday, October 10, Colin Baldock hosted the grand opening of his King William Road store, now called the Colin & Co Bistro.

For Bookings: www.eventopia.co/tafesaregency

Invited guests were treated to champagne, live music and hand-crafted canapés prepared by head chef Richard Roberts.

Other inquiries: 08 8348 4446 or email regencyhospitality@tafesa.edu.au

tafesa.edu.au

Amy Graham and Matt Graham.

PHOTOS BRENTON GOWLAND

Sherry Farsah.

The Adelaide Review November 2013 53

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FOOD.WINE.COFFEE Roast Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic Serves 4 No need to count the garlic cloves, three heads of garlic will be more than enough. You can serve the garlic cloves whole and use your knife and fork to ooze the garlic from their skins.

Discover the surprises inside

• 1 organic free-range chicken • Thyme • Rosemary • 1 lemon • 3 bay leaves • 30g butter • 6 slices of smoked bacon • 40 cloves of garlic (skin on) • 1/2 cup water • Salt and pepper • Clarified butter – melt 100g of butter and leave to cool, gently pour off the pure butter and discarded the milk solids • 4 slices white bread Method 1. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the herbs, bay leaves and a lemon cut into two. 2. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine. Rub the butter all over the skin of the chicken and season with salt and pepper. 3. Place into heavy based roasting pan and cover the breasts with the smoked bacon slices. Surround the chicken with the 40 cloves of garlic and add the water to the pan. 4. Bake in a 190-degree oven for 50 – 60 minutes or until the juices run clear from behind the leg. 5. Leave the chicken to rest for 15 minutes, loosely covered with foil. 6. Squeeze the garlic from their skins using a fork, stir to create a smooth paste and season with salt to taste. 7. Cut each slice of bread into two even rectangles. Fry the bread in clarified butter until golden brown on both sides. 8. Serve the fried bread with the garlic paste, carved chicken with a green salad or roasted vegetables.

ADELAIDE’S GOURMET PUB For those seeking the finest food, beverage and service in the comfort of a pub.

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Email: info@danieloconnell.com.au Opening Hours: Open Daily 11:00am - close Dining menu: Mon - Thurs 12 - 3 pm 5 - 9pm | Friday - Sunday | All Day Dining

“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” Oscar Wilde

Richard Peake, Grace Ryan and Judy Barton.

Sarah Shinn, Anne Baldock, Tony Zilio and Paola Garcia.

54 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

REVIEW:

PEEL ST BY REBECCA SULLIVAN

ntering the new eatery tucked away on the almost undetectable Peel Street, we are warned of the falling roof by our host who greets us warmly at the door. In unison we all duck and look up hesitantly thinking we are about to die without even having our last supper. A very quickly re-phrased, “Sorry, I just mean there are workers upstairs and every now and then a small amount of dust or particles may fall”, she explains hesitantly. I am certain by now that work will have ﬁnished at 9 Peel Street, but just to be on the safe side, maybe take your hard hat. The modish one room eatery has minimal dressing. Exposed brick, reclaimed wood, a concrete bar and a big back wall painted in blackboard paint sets the scene with the only natural light shining in from a huge window situated at the front looking onto Peel Street. You can sit at the bar in the window and watch

the bustle on the street. Mind you the only bustle right now is hard hats and high visibility vests, a vision of productivity and curiosity as the near entirety of the street’s windows are covered in black curtains and ‘opening soon’ signs. Peel Street is set to be the next Leigh Street with many bars and eats. We are greeted by Lisa, our rather delightful waitress for the duration of our meal, who points out the menu scrawled (daily of course) in white chalk on the back wall. To be as sustainable as possible there are no printed menus. The menu looks inviting and I struggle to choose one dish. Fortunately I am dining with my three compadres Girl About Town, Mr Market and DC. I suggest we should just get one of everything? They all pause, look at the super big blackboard and ask if I am being serious? At that moment Lisa overhears my suggestion and politely interrupts suggesting perhaps we not get that much food, even if

we are ravenous. That is enough food for the small construction site of hungry builders who reside outside. We stick to four dishes to share. I am relieved. They are very big plates.

Their motto for all food, whether from the concrete (the bar) at breakfast or the board, is ‘fresh simple delicious’. The ingredients are fantastic: colourful, fresh and light with a Middle Eastern twist, of which I am very

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The Adelaide Review November 2013 55

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FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Photos: Andre Castellucci, andrec.net

Milano Cucina offers casual, friendly contemporary Italian cuisine.

fond and don’t find as often as I would like in Adelaide. My only concern (apart from the ceiling falling in) was that two of the elements were a little similar, as each dish finished with a substantial hit of coriander and chilli. If we

had not shared those four dishes, the same finishing flavour would not have been so obvious. I recommend having one plate each. You won’t be disappointed, as the meals are robust without leaving you feeling sluggish due to the fabulous array of produce. The dishes were executed in a nonchalant manner that was perfectly apt for the menu. I have since been back twice and to my relief the roof is no longer falling in and the herb and spice police must have paid a visit as that same-same feeling I had last time did not at all pay me a mouth kick during either visit. I

made friends with some utterly fabulous fried spatchcock and fried chicken, southern style, served at room temperature with not a morsel of coriander or chilli in sight.

»»Peel St 9 Peel St Monday to Friday (7.30am to 5pm), dinners Thursday to Saturday from 6.30pm peelst.com.au

$24 dinner special Choice of chargrilled 250g black angus scotch fillet with salad or Milano Scallopini prosciutto, provolone cheese, asparagus and potato puree with a glass of Bolla cabernet sauvignon or Bolla chardonnay

Feast! Fine Foods Readers’ Event

Functions including business meetings, Christmas parties and special celebrations comprising birthdays, baptisms, anniversaries and weddings are fully catered for.

he Adelaide Review and Feast! Fine Foods are hosting a special event for Adelaide Review readers - the Christmas Cooking Class: Roasting With a Difference.

Following on from July’s sold out Introduction to Sausage Making class, the Christmas Cooking Class will teach you the trade secrets to prepare the perfect Christmas lunch or dinner with Feast!’s Richard Gunner at the helm for this special class. Held on Wednesday, December 4, at 5.30pm in the Central Market Kitchen, the class will allow its participants to master the following: • Glazed ham on the bone and carving  • Roasting a whole goose

With its Euro-hip style this clever Italian kitchen and diner offers an extensive menu range including a large selection of coffee, home-made biscuits and cakes.

• Perfect pork crackling/rolled pork loin • Roasting turkey breast rolls Tickets are $85. The ticket price includes: • Handout folder including recipes  • Christmas meat and smallgood tastings

• Bremerton Wine tastings  • $10 Feast! gift voucher Bookings are essential as the class is limited to a maximum of 30 attendees. To register, visit a Feast! store or go to feastfinefoods.com.au

56 The Adelaide Review November 2013

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A Walk Before Dinner in San Sebastian by David Sly

edieval pilgrim trails across northern Spain took devout Christians to the town of Santiago de Compostela, to worship before what are believed to be the remains of St James. Modern travellers have different intentions for taking the two surviving Camino routes (as they are known), either through the hilly heart of the Basque region, or skirting a high ridge beside the Atlantic Ocean. Many walkers now cherry-pick only favourite sections of the epic walks for their scenic beauty or access to famed gastronomic indulgences, and it’s hard to argue with such logic. Indeed, my walking destination is a specific modern shrine – Arzak Restaurant in San Sebastian, ranked number seven in San Pellegrino’s world best 50 restaurants.

It required diligent effort to reach this destination in time for dinner. Ridiculous amounts of spring rain forced us to juggle our walking plans, but we were not thwarted. We set off west from the surfing town of Zarautz, across the hills to Zamaia, then Deba. When the walk was done, we planned to board an eastbound train to San Sebastian (Donostia, as the Basques call it), then quickly check into our hotel and refresh ourselves before arriving in splendour at the restaurant. It should have all run like clockwork. Of course, it didn’t. Torrential rains turned much of the undulating Camino trail into a muddy bog, hemmed in by wild clumps of brambles and stout stone walls that prevented us from

cheating by scampering through adjacent properties to evade the most treacherous sections. In the distance, the cool blue water in the Bay of Biscay looked gorgeous; the panoramic views were majestic. Then I looked down and understood the true definition of Bay of Biscay soil, with great clods of heavy, sticky gray clay adhered to my boots, thick like lumps of concrete. The walking was slow, slippery and laborious. As the rain returned with serious purpose, we deviated down the wrong muddy path, found ourselves sliding down especially steep embankments, then quit the romantic trail for a sensible bitumen roadway, which took us many kilometres further than we expect. Time was running against us. So were the train timetables. We eventually jogged through the streets of San Sebastian hauling soggy backpacks, anxious that our dream dinner, booked six months earlier, was teetering on the verge of ruin. I dragged out crumpled clothes, failed to procure a hotel iron, and wrapped my sorry attire beneath a heavy coat. We urged a taxi driver to speed us across town. We need not have worried, for nobody else in Donostia worries. Dining is revered as a celebration, to be enjoyed above everything else. Even among the waiting staff, the mood is festive, in eager anticipation of what is headed for the table. The Arzak degustation meal unfolds as a procession of 16 tastes of surreal splendour; pigeon with pineapple and black pine nuts,

anchovy with strawberry. Fish and chips comprises a fillet of gin-marinated sea bass and brilliantly coloured crisps of potato on a glass plate, footage of the ocean surf rolling in beneath thanks to a video tablet specifically designed by Phillips. It highlights a culinary journey of delight that sears into your memory. We meet the creator, Elena Arzak – voted world’s best female chef in 2012 – but rather than bask in the glory of her three-star Michelin restaurant, she insists that there are other aspects of the proud Basque food culture that we must also taste, so she busily writes a list of essential pintxos bars to visit. Pintxos is the Basque region’s particular take on tapas, more outlandish and ambitious than elsewhere in Spain: foie gras with caramelised cheese and mustard reduction; cod toast with piquillo pepper, peach and sweet foie gras; mushroom, cheese mousse filled with ham and garlic mayonnaise. “This is our celebration of life,” explains Elena of the extravagant Basque food culture. She is especially delighted to hear that Adelaide has its own interpretation of a Basque pintxos bar: Udaberri, in Leigh St, opened by Rob Dinnan in 2012 after he returned from a year working in San Sebastian. Elena remembers him asking a lot of specific questions. “Yes, yes – the Australian,” she recalls, nodding and

smiling. “And the people in Adelaide, they like the pintxos?” Elena is thrilled that an important appreciation of Basque culture is spreading. Mindful that the Basque Separatist movement tried through violent political means from the 1970s to underscore the region’s fierce independent spirit, the power of what is served on the plate makes a more telling impression. Basque food is traversing the world, identifying a culture that is proudly worth celebrating and preserving.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013 57

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The Brewing Nomads New craft brewing company mismatch recently launched their first batch, Archie’s Red Ale, already found on taps around town. A self-described nomadic company, mismatch utilises the equipment of other breweries to craft their ales.

BY DAVID KNIGHT

“

I guess it’s another way of calling ourselves Gypsy brewers,” explains mismatch’s Ewan Brewerton on the nomad tag.

“We’d love to have our own brewery but the capital outlay is extremely high. We want to spend the ﬁrst phase of the company’s life cycle testing the market, to see whether our company has the legs to make it in a difﬁcult South Australian market. But believe me, I would love my own brewery. But it’s going to take a while to grow our capital and prove ourselves in the market. Once we achieve this, I’ll be ordering the brewery in the blink of an eye.”

Co, Brewerton ran the Salopian Inn before deciding to study brewing in the UK in 2011. He got a job with Little Creatures upon his return where he learnt about the brewing world and made enough contacts to go out on his own. “Fortunately a couple of mates in the industry were talking about starting a brewery at that time. Over a few months the stars aligned and we formed mismatch brewing company.” The company is a “mishmash” of craft beer lovers and aside from Brewerton involves Tobias Kline, Steve Dorman and Simon Tscharke. Brewerton is the only full-time employee. Mismatch recently launched its ﬁrst batch – Archie’s Red Ale, named in honour of a friend of Brewerton’s who recently beat cancer. “The beer was named after Archie as a reminder that the more we discover about diseases, the more chance we have at beating them. Archie is the life of the party, a genuinely nice bloke and someone we’re proud to have named this beer after. It’s a tribute to beating disease.” Red Ale is not a traditional ale to launch with, however, which is why they chose it. “It was a point of difference and very limited in the market. When looking at putting this brand together, I was tired of companies always releasing a pale ale. Don’t get me wrong, I love a ‘good’ pale ale, but too many ‘brand-based companies’ were releasing pale ale, because that was deemed the norm and what people wanted (or told they wanted).

“To us, product is number one. We’re not paying big dollars for marketing ﬁrms to create our brand. We’d prefer the brand to be organically grown through time as we ultimately ﬁnd our identity.”

“This particular ale is special to me because it’s my first commercial beer. It’s a scary concept to go to the market with a product that you’ve created. To make it a reality is really exciting! I’ve been testing brews for months on my small-scaled kit and had my family by my side trying each batch and seeing the improvements over time. This brew has had a lot of love put into it and will be special every time it’s brewed. We won’t be releasing it as a permanent line, but will save it for seasonal releases, keeping it special.”

A former employee of McLaren Vale Beer

The red ale was brewed at Brewpack in New

The company formed with a minimal budget but Brewerton says they have enough capital to make the best product possible.

OPEN FOR BREAKFAST DAILY AND DINNER MONDAY - SATURDAY

South Wales, as they couldn’t complete this locally. “I explored many options in South Australia but found that although the breweries had a brew-house we could use, they didn’t have the tank space available. There’s a new contract brewery opening in the next month or so called Big Shed Brewing, that’ll be filling this role of a much needed contract brewer in South Australia. Moving forward, we’ll be working with Big Shed to brew our keg products and Brewpack. We would love to move our pack production to SA when we find the right space. “The craft beer community is a small group but SA is experiencing significant growth this year. Generally, we come from a common love of craft beer, competing in a highly competitive market. We try and work together to encourage venues to try different beer and rotate them to change the drinking patterns of beer drinks. A simple philosophy of drinking less but better. This is a business model adopted by The Wheatsheaf in Thebarton. They have 12 beer taps rotating every day, with beers from all around the world and Australia. They pay full price for all their products and don’t bastardise brands by offering discount deals and happy hour. People go to the Wheaty to try something different, creative and delicious.

HAPPY HOUR 5-6PM MONDAY - SATURDAY MAJESTIC ROOF GARDEN HOTEL | 55 FROME STREET, ADELAIDE (08) 8100 4495 majestichotels.com.au

Mismatch is currently in the development phase of its next release, a session ale. “It’s an easy drinking ale, light yellow appearance with a slight cloud, a nice malt character balanced with enough bitterness to make this beer drinkable and moreish.”

mismatchbrewing.com.au

58 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Drink, Dine, Design Swedish born ceramic artist Ulrica Trulsson won JamFactory’s drink+dine+design South Australian Emerging Designer competition, which encourages artists to connect with this state’s food and wine culture. BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

he second-year JamFactory Associate was one of 11 shortlisted finalists for the second year of JamFactory’s unique competition. All finalists are currently showing at the

Barossa is passion. Passionate people with a passion for great food and wine. Handcrafted foods of provenance. Great wines of the world. And they all

drink+dine+design exhibition, which runs until Sunday, December 1. Trulsson says her winning work Jug with Beakers focuses on celebrating and appreciating the materials used. “I enjoy using different clay bodies and exploring the effects I can achieve in the firing, where colours are enhanced and the iron in the clay forms speckles to give an interesting surface. I gave the jug a narrowed neck to invite the hand to grasp it, and the gentle curve of the form references the way that water shapes within its path. I hope this will in turn form a dialogue with food and drink, where the use of fresh quality produce is enhanced by the objects used when presenting it.” JamFactory CEO Brian Parkes, who was one of the competition’s judges along with The Adelaide Review’s design writer Leanne Amodeo and the University of South Australia’s Joanne Cys, says Jug with Beakers feels as good as it looks in reference to its ergonomic function and the quality of its glaze surface. “We all felt that this work captured the fine balance between fine contemporary lines and the prevailing craft aesthetic – we could easily imagine them in use at any number of leading South Australian restaurants that take an artisanal approach to their meal offerings.” Parkes is pleased with how the

Ulrica Trulsson, Jug with Beakers.

drink+dine+design competition is progressing. “After just two years we’re thrilled with the quality of the work and the way it collectively points to new ideas and opportunities for crosspollination between gastronomy and design – two areas where South Australia genuinely excels. Our job with the current exhibition, and over the next few years, is to bring more of the state’s leading food and wine producers into the tent to explore how they might work more closely with the great design talent pool that exists here.”

stemming from the aesthetic that I grew up with that is apparent in my work. Sometimes it is more picked up on by others that see it as speciﬁcally Scandinavian, and that makes me realise it too. To me it is how I naturally see things and express myself. I feel that my aesthetics carry a reference to my native Sweden, which is my point of origin, but that I have also picked up many other references along the way after living in Scotland for a length of time, and now several years here in Australia.”

come from the dirt.

Trulsson, who began exploring the medium of ceramics after moving to Melbourne, says there is a Scandinavian design aesthetic present in her work. “I believe there is a pared back simplicity

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» drink+dine+design JamFactory, GalleryTwo Continues until Sunday, December 1 jamfactory.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013 59

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BY KRIS LLOYD

y bi-annual pilgrimage to Piedmote, Italy, was as spectacular as ever this year. Bra, Cuneo is the home of slow food and the international event known as Cheese. Coffee, food, wine, weather, people, fashion and, of course, cheese are all part of the impressive package on offer. More than 4000 cheeses, from around the globe, all in the one location could be referred to as cheese heaven. Cheeses from around the world are on show in this quaint little town south of Turin in the Piedmonte region. The event is held in the historical part of Bra, which has a population of around 117,000. The entire old town is transformed to host this event, which is uniquely about cheese. The locals support and embrace it, as the cobblestone streets are lined with pointy-topped marquees, each one home for a cheese maker for around four days. They offer tastings, discussions and education to a keen audience. Upon arriving at Piazza Roma, which has now become quite familiar, my senses are shocked into action by the sweet pungent cheesey aroma, which is like a thick cloud wafting above the tiny town. The word on everyone’s lips walking into the event is Formaggio. Much of the cheese on offer is made using raw milk. The length on the palate makes me smile and the sweetness left in my mouth at the ﬁnish is what I have grown to expect. These cheeses have been crafted with little heat treatment allowing the natural enzymes and cultures to do their job. My mind and palate simply run wild. In my half Greek, half Italian (which includes serious use of hands): “How is this made? Is it cow, goat, sheep or buffalo milk? Is it raw milk or pasteurised? How old is the cheese? Is it seasonal? How big is the production, is it matured by an afﬁneur, is this a DOC cheese?” The willingness from the cheese

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makers to talk about their cheeses and share their knowledge is inspirational. The answers allow me to get a better understanding about what has been created, why the cheese is sharp, mild, herbaceous, ﬁrm or soft and I am richer for the experience. One of the unique offerings I stumbled upon was a Romanian fresh curd cheese. This cheese is made in the skin of a baby goat. No rennet or starter culture is used. Only fresh raw goat milk, which was placed in the skin and hung for several days. The milk sours and thickens. When I tasted the cheese I was pleasantly surprised by the pure milkiness and sweetness. My mind needed some adjustment around milk sitting in what appeared to be a newly culled goat skin, which was presented, bloated with cheese, full and hairy. I explained the sensitivity this may have in Australia to the young lady who offered me the tasting. “Perfectly clean inside,” she told me, as it is a tradition dating back hundreds of years. This is what I love about cheese making – the history and the limitless forms cheese can take. There were several standout cheeses but in particular the Gorgonzola styles were superb. One producer presented an immense wheel of Gorgonzola Dolce (sweet) that was perfectly ripened through, with gentle veining of blue mould. The cheese maker was scooping the cheese into small wooden cups as one would gelato or ice cream. Hundreds of people queued to buy a taste. No bread or crackers - just a little wooden spatula and plenty of smiling faces. Taste workshops are held in beautiful churches and halls full of history, with their ornate ceilings and wall murals. The cheese makers conduct carefully orchestrated workshops where they discuss the history, nuances and techniques particular to their cheeses, often matching them with wines from the same region and at times introducing the local winemaker. Much discussion happens, and you realise the Italians know how to talk, the occasional argument and then afﬁrmation of a job well done as they all agree in the end, I think... Cheeses are matched with beverages often

from the regions where the cheeses are made – reds, whites, sparkling, cider, grappa, whiskey and, more recently, beers. I have had the opportunity to present my cheeses at these workshops over the years with translations into Italian and French. My offerings have been scrutinised by the Italian experts while I nervously await their response. I discuss our milk quality, our vast land and the type of grazing our husbandry allows. There is always keen interest in Australian cheese makers. I presented our native lemon myrtle herb chevre this year. Along with the lemon myrtle cheese I decided to also take some of the rich aromatic herb neat to give the workshop an experience of this truly magniﬁcent native plant. At the conclusion of the workshop participants were queuing to take away a small sample of the crushed dried herb and to discuss the peculiarities of this amazing product. It taught me the importance of innovation and not to take things in my backyard for granted. The gastronomic experience in Bra is simple, traditional, historic and ﬂavoursome. I discovered that the Salsiccia di Bra is a

traditional product of braidese charcuterie. Salsiccia di Bra is a raw sausage, which is made in a continuous wheel. It is normally eaten raw and is just splendid with a seasoning of cinnamon, cloves, coriander, pimento, nutmeg, mace and caraway. The mixture obtained is obligatorily packed in natural lamb gut. The utilisation of synthetic gut is forbidden. The product must be sold fresh and can be stored for a period of five days at the most in a cold store at zero to four degrees. I bumped into Will Studd, a good cheese mate, and shared a risotto dinner with him, with some freshly shaved white truffle from Alba (Tartufo di Alba), a town famous for truffles nearby. We also grated a small amount of locally produced Parmigiano Reggiano over our risotto and pondered the joys of cheese.

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

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN

2 0 1 3 / 2 0 1 4

OUT FRIDAY NOVEMBER 8 A D E L A I D E R E V I E W . C O M . A U

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CHEESE MATTERS

60 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

WINES BY ANDREA FROST / CHEESE PAIRED BY VALERIE HENBEST FROM SMELLY CHEESE

LUIGI GUFFANTI GORGONZOLA DOLCE DOP

HARVÉ MONS BRILLAT SAVARIN The style of cheese was the creation of the celebrated 18th century Gastronome, Brillat Savarin. He married full fat cow’s milk with fresh cream, creating a rich, smooth cheese with a melt-in-mouth texture.

The Classic Italian blue cheese, Gorgonzola, comes in two varieties, Dolce and Piccante. Dolce is a creamy, sweet version of the traditional Piccante. After four weeks of maturation, they are pierced to allow the ‘oxygen loving’ blue mould to grow. Once spiked, the cheeses are wrapped in foil to retain moisture.

This smaller white mould was created in the 1930’s by Henri Androuet and named after Brillat-Savarin who claimed ‘A meal without some cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye’.

Luigi Guffanti Formaggi selects the best cheeses and takes them to their restored sixteenth century cellar for maturation.

The cheese is mild in flavour when young but as it matures it will develop rich, complex flavours that meld beautifully together.

Its pale white to straw coloured interior is marbled with streaks of blue-green mould and the degree of piquant flavour increases as the cheese ages.

WIRRA WIRRA MRS WIGLEY MOSCATO 2013

The texture is soft and creamy with little wells of moisture. The flavour is smooth with a slight tang balanced with a little saltiness.

The white velvety mould encases a soft and creamy interior. During maturation the rind may develop small patches of orange mould.

DAL ZOTTO PUCINI PROSECCO NV

McLaren Vale RRP $18 wirrawirra.com

King Valley RRP $22 dalzotto.com.au

Moscato is a top sparkling option for those with a sweet tooth. Good versions of Moscato are slightly sweet but still present a lick of acid, are lower in alcohol and yet delightfully refreshing to drink. This wine is all that and more – brimming with attractive aromas of watermelon and Turkish delight, it’s as pretty to look at as it is to drink. It’s the perfect wine to serve when racing carnival activities start early. Serve with fresh fruit, ice-cream and pancakes. And Mrs Wigley? That’s the name of the cat that once neighboured the rustic Wirra Wirra winery in McLaren Vale.

Prosecco is the Italian sparkling wine that has been embraced by Australian drinkers and winemakers alike. The King Valley in Victoria has championed local versions of the sparkling wine style – so dedicated, they have even created the ‘Prosecco Road’, a self-guided tour of the local wineries that make Prosecco. This wine from Dal Zotto is a wildly approachable wine with aromas of fresh apple, pear and white flowers followed with a fresh and lively palate. If you’d like to dress it up a little, add a dash of peach puree and have yourself a Bellini, the cocktail made famous at Harry’s Bar in Venice.

The Adelaide Review November 2013 61

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WINE / CHEESE

Hervé Mons Comté Tunnel Aged

Langres AOP This traditional cheese is made on the high plains near the town of Langres in the Champagne-Ardenne region in North Eastern France.

The Mons family, have been affineurs for three generations. They selected only 11 of the 160 Comté producers with which to work. Together with the cheese makers, they regularly taste each batch before selecting wheels for maturation.

It has a distinctive sunken centre in the top of the cheese called the ‘fontaine’, which forms because the cheese is never turned. This depression in its surface grows deeper as the cheese ages.

These wheels of Comté arrive at Mons at about six months of age. They are then kept in the Mons maturing tunnel where each week they are checked, turned and brushed by hand until they reach eighteen months of age.

Langres has a shiny, slightly damp surface and a rich creamy texture with plenty of lingering flavour. As this cheese matures, its pale orange rind turns reddish brown and it may develop a slight white patina of mould.

When these wheels arrive in Australia they go into the Cheese Culture maturing room where the same level of care is given weekly until they are sold. The final product has a firm texture and exquisite nutty characters.

Champagne or Burgundy Brandy poured into the ‘fontaine’ is the traditional way of enjoying this cheese.

Bay of Fires Tasmania Cuvee Rose NV

NV Bollinger Special Cuvee

Tasmania RRP $30 bayoffireswines.com.au

Champagne RRP $80 champagne-bollinger.com

Tasmania is one of Australia’s best sparkling wine regions. Thanks to its position as the most southerly wine-producing region in Australia, the cool climate produces wines of high acidity and freshness, both essential qualities for making great sparkling wine. Bay of Fires is one of the leading producers of sparkling wine and this, their sparkling Rosé, is a lovely salmon colour and brims with aromas of strawberry and red berry fruits before a rich palate of toasty characters and lovely acidity. Typically, sparkling Rosé is a little richer than the ‘traditional’ or ‘blanc de blanc’ styles so it is a great wine to serve with richer canapés or lighter dishes.

Champagne is one of the greatest wines of all time and Bollinger is one of the great houses of Champagne. The Special Cuvee is the Bollinger house style which is famed for its richness and complexity due to the dominance of pinot noir. Toasty and complex aromas marry with ripe stone fruits and a hint of spice. A delightful wine that may have been the inspiration for Lily Bollinger to remark, “I only drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not in a hurry and drink it when I am; otherwise I never touch the stuff unless I am thirsty.”

BRING SOMETHING EXTRA SPECIAL TO YOUR FESTIVE TABLE Available at The Smelly Cheese Shop Shop 44, Adelaide Central Market, Gouger Street, Adelaide smellycheese.com.au TheSmellyCheeseShop @thesmellycheeseshop P: 8231 5867

62 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE body but the fruity brightness came through with the first taste. For the latte I sampled the house blend called ‘Forza Blend’ which was has won multiple awards. The milk (Fleurieu) was silky smooth and creamy with an eight leaf tulip on top as the latte art. The first taste had very rich buttery notes coming through but towards the end I tasted caramelised orange which lingered in the mouth. The staff are all happy and it’s definitely noticeable upon entry that it’s a fun place to work and talk coffee. With the transparent layout and an overall suave feel, First Pour is a boutique that stands out in bringing specialty coffee to North Adelaide with every single pour.

First Pour

I ordered an espresso which was a single origin bean called Sidamo Guji Berta. It came from a mill in South Oromia, Ethiopia that’s been operating for eleven years and you can imagine the perfection they’ve achieved after all this time. It smelt very ﬂoral and had a velvety

» First Pour 111 Melbourne Street North Adelaide

BY DEREK CROZIER

hen you enter First Pour you’re greeted by a large chandelier and a set up that’s a little different to your mainstream cafés. By having the bar set up in the middle of the room (like a square), it ensures that

the customer has full view of what’s going on behind the espresso machine and brewing stations. It has a funky atmosphere inside and relaxing feel outside. They take coffee seriously by offering multiple brewing methods and using a solid coffee brand called Veneziano.

A Mother’s Milk BY DEREK CROZIER

SPRING IS HERE AND FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER COLIN & CO ARE PUTTING ON CHAMPAGNE BREAKFAST PURCHASE ANY BREAKFAST AT COLIN AND CO AND RECEIVE A FREE GLASS OF THE LANE, LOIS SPARKLING BLANC DE BLANCS

RUNDLE PLACE, GRENFELL ST, CITY AND 123 KING WILLIAM RD, HYDE PARK WWW.COLINANDCO.COM.AU THIS OFFER WILL ONLY APPLY TO THE KING WILLIAM ROAD STORE

always needed Mum to wake me up for school and this morning A Mother’s Milk woke me up for work. It’s a simple boutique that offers great food and locally roasted specialty coffee from The Coffee Barun Roastery. The simplistic aspect of the coffee side is that they only use single origin beans instead of offering a blend. This ensures a unique coffee taste across all the coffee options and brewing methods. After having a good chat with the Barista about his views and theories on coffee, he suggested I start with an Espresso of Columbian. The ﬁrst taste produced an almond

sweetness but as I continued, it had a crisp acidity come through and an excellent mouth feel throughout. I ordered an Ethiopian Harrar for my latte. It was presented with a symmetrical rosetta on top as the latte art. The taste of the Harrar was very clean and bright with a hint of tart sweet fruit. The Tweedvale milk was textured beautifully and complemented the coffee well. Both coffees were produced by a barista happy to have a quick chat while making my order. A Mother’s Milk has a rustic, urban feel to it that seems to fit nice and snugly in the area. It’s been quite popular ever since it first opened in February 2012 and it’s not always that easy to find a seat. I suggest keeping this place a secret all for yourself – Mum’s the word with this one.

» A Mother’s Milk 105 Unley Rd Unley

THE ADELAIDE R EVIEW NOVEMBER 2013

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

DESIGN AWARDS 2013

The Adelaide Review is proud to launch the 2013 Design Institute of Australia (SA Branch) awards season.

Spirostool Byrachel Pargeter (Unisa).

AUSTRALIAN DESIGN STORY

BE FRIENDLY

GREEN EDGE

Aptos Cruz Galleries will host three of Australia’s finest designers for an intimate event

Matt Stuckey’s newly formed design studio Be Friendly is making all the right moves, including the ambitious Minima project

Green Edge Commercial Interiors recently launched a new showroom, strengthening its reputation as an industry leader

64 The Adelaide Review November 2013

FORM Ross Didier Elenberg Fraser’s Vue De Monde fit out was one of the most widely awarded new hospitality interiors of 2012. It is an exceptional project, but what makes it extraordinary is the restaurant’s bespoke VDM chairs. Designed by Ross Didier they are ‘head-turners’ that always get people talking. The well-respected Melbourne-based designer used kangaroo leather and pelts that would otherwise have been wasted to upholster the bucket-shaped dining chairs. Unsurprisingly they have become iconic in expressing a specific Australian design identity; not that Didier deliberately set about doing so. “I just try to par back the design as best as possible while retaining a unique character; that’s what I enjoy doing and it’s what I ultimately aim for,” he says. Didier is currently reconfiguring his Felix chair for the Royal Adelaide Hospital development. Adapting an existing design to suit the very specific functions needed for a hospital environment will involve reimagining a range of comprehensively different seating for patients and visitors. It’s a challenge, but one Didier enthusiastically welcomes. Having recently returned from London where he was an exhibitor in 100% Design the fine art-trained Didier is still marvelling at Australia’s presence at the event. “It gave me a real sense of pride,” he says. “To think that the epicentre of the

Susanna Bilardo As the co-director of Enoki design studio Susanna Bilardo is responsible for some of Adelaide’s most stunning residential interiors. Her relaxed, contemporary aesthetic lends itself to the home environment and is what makes her a popular choice amongst clients. It’s also what makes her furniture designs so instantly appealing. “I like to design fun, unpredictable pieces that don’t take themselves too seriously, but are still very functional,” says Bilardo. Her recent Bean stool is based on the concept of origami and features a single sheet of metal folded and then powder-coated in a choice of bright colours. The ‘folding’ process itself is simple and involves no fixings or welds resulting in a durable product that is clean and compact. Bean stool is the perfect accompaniment to Bilardo’s Ben + Flo table, which also utilises an origami-inspired form. The same colour palette is used to great effect in the graphic designs of her Broth cushions, and the designer often incorporates these furniture pieces and soft furnishings into her interiors. Unley-based Bilardo is proud that all her work is designed and manufactured in South Australia. “I try to work with manufacturers that are based as close to Unley as possible so that we reduce the carbon footprint,” she says. “Most of our products are flat packed as well, which is a lot more cost effective and environmentally friendly.” No doubt Bilardo’s fresh design approach and commitment to sustainability will see her client base continue to expand.

enoki.com.au

Australian Design Stories In celebration of contemporary Australian design we take a closer look at the work of Kate Stokes, Susanna Bilardo and Ross Didier. by Leanne Amodeo

design identity; thanks in no small part to the designers whose contribution is essential in the establishment of a distinct character. In the meantime their personal stories and successes are well worth celebrating.

Local entrepreneurship and innovation is nothing new, but with the international spotlight shining brightly on Australia any developments are highlighted. Not only are new products attracting attention but kudos is being given to the inventive approach taken by Australian designers to manufacturing, production and marketing.

As champions of Australian design, Aptos Cruz Galleries co-directors Steve and Pat Ronayne realise the importance of supporting our home-grown talent. Their Stirling showroom not only features the best international design brands, such as Magis and Fritz Hansen, it also showcases work by some of Australia’s finest contemporary designers. Kate Stokes, Susanna Bilardo and Ross Didier are just some of the names synonymous with inspired Australian design.

We are quite possibly as close as we’ve ever been to articulating an ‘authentic’ Australian

aptoscruz.com

any contemporary Australian designers are becoming recognised at an international level with an increasingly strong presence at both the Milan Furniture Fair and London Design Festival. It’s cause to celebrate and time to appreciate what this country’s thriving design industry has to offer.

The Adelaide Review November 2013 65

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FORM

Kate Stokes When Kate Stokes’ Coco pendant was released in 2010 it caused quite the frenzy; it also signalled the arrival of an exceptional new talent. The light pendant characterises the Melbourne-based designer’s elegant, refined aesthetic and meticulously thoughtful design approach. Foregoing prodigious output works in her favour because each of the three products she has released since then are simply right in every way. Her recent Bucket coffee table possesses the same refined aesthetic as well as being an exceptional exploration of materiality. “I was really interested in exploring the contrast between brass and concrete and so this product is much more material driven,” says Stokes. The resulting form is an arresting design expression that references Australian Modernist architecture from the 1950s. Stokes released Puku ottoman at the same world has moved from Europe to south east Asia; I think it’s going to be a pretty exciting time within Australia in the next ten years.” Didier’s elegantly sculptural designs will undoubtedly continue to play a role in this country’s burgeoning design industry.

rossdidier.com.au

time as Bucket coffee table and the response to this incredibly appealing product has been just as favourable. Puku – Maori for ‘chubby belly’ – is her first foray into working with upholstery and its form is strongly influenced by the designer’s love of Japan. “It’s safe to say Puku came out of my travels through that country,” she says. “It’s a big thing in Japan to incorporate real personality into an object.” Stokes regularly draws inspiration from overseas travel and her recent trip to Iceland promises to give rise to a new body of work. “I’d love to do a range inspired by Iceland, although I’m not sure what form it will take yet,” she says. “The country is absolutely incredible and like nothing I’ve ever seen before; the colours and landscape are phenomenal.” It may take a while for these new products to come to fruition but rest assured they will be well worth the wait.

Australian Design Story cocoflip.com.au Wednesday, November, 20, 6:30pm Aptos Cruz Galleries: 147 Mt Barker Road, Stirling Aptos Cruz Galleries and The Adelaide Review are pleased to present Australian Design Story. An intimate evening with Ross Didier, Kate Stokes and Susanna Bilardo who share with us their design journey in establishing successful design practices. Numbers are limited. Please RSVP to airlie@aptoscruz.com or 08 8370 9011 by Monday, November 18.

66 The Adelaide Review November 2013

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Design Awards 2013 The Adelaide Review is proud to launch the 2013 Design Institute of Australia (SA Branch) awards season.

he Laminex Group Design Awards 2013 attracts an outstanding collection of the fruits of South Australia’s energetic design community each year. The DIA brings together designers from multiple disciplines and encourages a healthy cross fertilisation of ideas and interdisciplinary collaboration. The awards aim to evaluate, recognise and celebrate outstanding projects designed by South Australian designers. Its purpose is to illustrate and define today’s design standards and promote the work of members of the Design Institute of Australia and affiliated

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organisations to the public. And that’s where you come in. Every year The Adelaide Review assigns the Adelaide public the role of juror. If you were a judge and had to choose the best overall design in any of the three categories (Communication, Object and Built Environment) what would it be? You get to vote for your favourite design with The People’s Choice Award.

Built Environment Boris TheCuttery / Mash by Dom Roberts

We offer a taste of this year’s entries on these pages, with all entries available for viewing and voting at sa-dia-awards.com. We encourage you to vote and make your voice heard, as the winner of the People’s Choice Award will be featured in the January edition of The Adelaide Review. All winners and the winning designer will be presented with an award at the official awards night on Saturday, November 30.

»»Entries open on Monday, November 4 (midday) and close Monday, November 25 at 5pm. sa-dia-awards.com

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All 2013 People’s Choice Award entries will be in the running to win an original EAMES chair valued at $800 thanks to Innerspace SA. To vote go to sa-dia-awards.com

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Designer Saturday 2013 The latest furniture, accessories, fixtures, finishes, art and talented creators will be on show at Designers Saturday 2013 (DS13).

BY BRENDON HARSLETT

eld on Saturday, November 23, the event lets the Adelaide design community and exhibitors come together and share new innovations and ideas in a way that is different from other events. DS13 works by letting you into showrooms across the CBD and see new products, build their business connections, and discover emerging talent. Building on the success of DS11, you will be able to check in at the Queen’s Theatre, collecting a daypack with your itinerary, and follow the map to each exhibitor. Each showroom offers something a little different; some have new product launches,

OBJECT Uraba Lamp by George Criollo

others reconfigure and reinterpret their space into something new, and you might even win a giveaway or a door prize. Some exhibitors collaborate to give you a total look; for example, bespoke accessory makers might team up with a furniture and ﬂooring supplier. The results are stunning and may make you see a combination of elements in a new light. Building on the success of DS11, the Queen’s Theatre will double as a vibrant exhibition space with a concentration of furniture, accessories and more, all under one roof. I am proud to launch Local by Design, an exhibition of the best works from local design students and recent graduates in disciplines including interior, industrial and graphics. The show promises to inspire you with what our brightest emerging minds are able to create. The DIA is proud to again be hosting this event, unique in its approach to be an informative and accessible day for both participants and exhibitors. Be part of the ongoing exhibition that is Adelaide design. To ﬁnd out more and register for the event, visit designersaturday.com.au.

» Brendon Harslett is the Co-President of The Design Institute of Australia (SA Branch) designersaturday.com.au

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68 The Adelaide Review November 2013

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Multi Talented

Be Friendly design studio is a name to watch as its founder Matt Stuckey becomes increasingly involved with the design of new local interiors. His Minima Art Rooms in North Adelaide is the studio’s most ambitious project to date. by Leanne Amodeo

uring a backpacking holiday eight years ago Matt Stuckey was giving out bumper stickers to everyone he met. They read ‘Be friendly’ and it was only a matter of time before it became his nickname. Fast forward a few years and the happy slogan was Stuckey’s obvious choice when deciding on a name for his business. The newly formed Be Friendly design studio is the Adelaide-based illustrator’s multi-disciplinary practice, recognised for its creative flair and prodigious output. Stuckey’s portfolio is broad and varied and

encompasses everything from art direction and custom typography to illustration and public art. He has also designed small-scale interventions for retail interiors and identifies this area of his practice as one he would like to expand. Interestingly it was through his organisation of the hugely successful Oi You! Urban Art Festival that led to his most ambitious interior project to date – the Minima Art Rooms in North Adelaide. “I had a meeting with Arts SA’s manager of public art and design regarding Oi You! and she also let me know about the Minima Hotel’s new

marketing strategy to align their brand with local creatives,” says Stuckey. “And I thought excellent, because I’ve wanted to paint an entire hotel for a few years now.” A meeting was organised with the hotel’s marketing manager Finn Miller and Stuckey’s dream was soon a reality. The project’s initial stages involved some guerrilla tactics on the part of both Miller and Stuckey. Painting the first two rooms in secret was intended as proof of concept and luckily

it worked because once the owner saw them he green-lit the project. The hotel’s ensuring makeover involved all 46 rooms receiving a different painted – and sometimes sculpted – wall mural. In his role as curator Stuckey invited 43 South Australian artists, designers and illustrators to participate in the year-long project. With an outcome that is as visually dynamic as it is stylistically eclectic the makeover newly positions the family-owned Minima Hotel with

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FORM NAG + AILA QUIZ NIGHT NAG + AILA teamed up to once again host one of the largest quiz nights in South Australia targeting young architects, interior designers, landscape architects and allied professions. More than 180 people turned up to the event on October 11 at the Schiavello showroom.

PHOTOS JONATHAN VAN DER KNAAP

a strong point of difference; just as Miller hoped. But the project’s greatest success is the impressive snapshot it provides of the State’s diverse creative talent. “Some artists came on board for the thrill of it, but a lot wanted to be involved because they saw the potential in the project,” says Stuckey. Grafﬁti artist Vans the Omega is represented as is illustrator Kate Gagliard. Although the launch of the Minima Art Rooms only took place in August of this year

Stuckey already has plans to paint over each room. The intention is to keep the hotel fresh, seeing as it has so many return guests. Stuckey will be kept busy, but this won’t be his only ongoing project. He is constantly seeking out new design opportunities and is masterful at managing more than one project at once. Be Friendly continues to be a name to watch.

befriendly.net

SATURDAY November 23 2013

DESIGN AWARDS 2013

GET AMONGST THE ACTION! If you love a good SA design hunt then look no further! SA’s biannual event will see Australia’s premier furniture, ﬁnishes and ﬁxtures showrooms open their doors to design lovers for one special day in Adelaide.

30. 11. 2013 www.sa-dia-awards.com.au

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Office Creatives With the recent launch of their new showroom Green Edge Commercial Interiors enters an exciting phase in their stellar history. BY LEANNE AMODEO

he move to a lighter, brighter showroom has strengthened Green Edge Commercial Interiors’ reputation as an industry leader. Supplying both national and international ofﬁce furniture brands to the South Australian market has been their business for over 20 years; and they’re good at it. But this recent relocation has reinvigorated the small family-owned business and given them increased visibility in an increasingly competitive marketplace. “Our new Pulteney Street showroom has more foot trafﬁc and a better street prospect,” says design consultant Betty Milner. “We’re not shielded by trees and tinted windows like we were in our Carrington Street location; people can see the products.” It’s a point that should not be underestimated. Part of the value in buying high-end designer furniture is the showroom experience and the products must be displayed in a way that does them justice.

The Green Edge range is extensive and includes everything from workstations to statement chairs and lounges to soft

furnishings. Their mix of international and national brands is broad and a recent partnership with Melbourne-based supplier Interstudio has meant access to even more products. Where possible Green Edge supports local designers and so a large proportion of its workstations are designed in South Australia. This serves the Adelaide market well because people want to buy local. As Milner explains: “Adelaide is a very loyal market that likes to support its designers; it has a strong artistic culture that appreciates beautiful design too.” The bright, airy showroom has been designed to suit an Adelaide sensibility. Pressed metal ceilings, polished floors and a skylight that runs the full length of the space provides an elegantly relaxed environment in which to shop. So what new products will Green Edge be introducing to its already comprehensive selection? The current trend for office furniture sees a break away from the

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traditional separate workstations featuring partition screening. There’s a greater emphasis on collaboration and comfort in the workplace with an aim towards increased productivity. New products are beginning to reflect this and Green Edge will stock more timber furniture, lounges with in-built laptop chargers and tables large enough for group sharing.

The ofﬁce of the future may very well come to resemble our own home. In the meantime Green Edge’s new showroom hints at what the perfect ofﬁce environment could look like. It makes the thought of going to work seem that little less daunting.

greenedge.net.au

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