The Adelaide Review October 2013 by The Adelaide Review

THE ADELAIDE

REVIEW ISSUE 404 OCTOBER 2013

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CLOSER PRODUCTIONS Local film collective Closer Productions are set to impress Adelaide Film Festival audiences with two premieres

NEW CANCER THEORY

THE PRINCE

DARK WORLDS

A proper understanding of cancer remains elusive writes Professor Paul Davies

David Marr investigates the early life of Cardinal George Pell with the latest Quarterly Essay

Jane Llewellyn previews next yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two premium art events, the Adelaide International and the Biennial

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4 The Adelaide Review October 2013

WELCOME

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ISSUE 404

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

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The Force of Destiny

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

Graham Strahle previews the State Opera’s upcoming production, Verdi’s La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny)

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INSIDE Features 05 Politics 10 Business 14

MANAGING DIRECTOR Manuel Ortigosa

Columnists 20 Fashion 23

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THE ADELAIDE

review

Books 24

Travel 47

Bill Nighy

Magill Estate

Food. Wine. Coffee 48

The English actor discusses books, the art of procrastination, as well as his latest role

Leanne Amodeo takes a look at Pascale GomesMcNabb’s refurbishment of Magill Estate

Performing Arts 26 Visual Arts 37

FORM 57

COVER CREDIT: Closer Productions at Adelaide Studios, Jonathan van der Knaap

Contributors. Leanne Amodeo, D.M. Bradley, John Bridgland, Michael Browne, William Charles, Derek Crozier, Amanda Daniel, Paul Davies, Alexander Downer, Robert Dunstan, Stephen Forbes, Andrea Frost, Charles Gent, Andrew Hunter, Ashleigh Knott, Stephen Koukoulas, Tali Lavi, Kiera Lindsey, Jane Llewellyn, Kris Lloyd, David Marr, Grant Mills, John Neylon, Fiona O’Brien, Stephen Orr, Nigel Randall, Avni Sali, Christopher Sanders, Margaret Simons, David Sly, David Sornig, John Spoehr, Shirley Stott Despoja, Graham Strahle, Rebecca Sullivan, Ilona Wallace. Photographer. Jonathan van der Knaap

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Under the Gawler Place Canopy

The Adelaide Review October 2013 5

FEATURE

OFF TOPIC:

Geordie Brookman Off Topic and on the record, as South Australian identities talk about whatever they want... except their day job. Geordie Brookman, the State Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, grew up in a Utopian-like hobby farm community of artists in Kangarilla, a place that continues to play an important role in his life. by David Knight

“

Well, I started life in a shed,” Brookman begins. “A shed called the Jade Palace. I started life in the Jade Palace because my parents, Rob [Brookman, State Theatre CEO] and Verity [Laughton, writer], were one of three couples that bought this rural property out in Kangarilla, near McLaren Vale. They bought it in the late 70s and had this Utopian dream of creating a perfect community there and then proceeded to build the whole thing themselves, pretty much. By the time my older brother and myself came along they’d only got around to building the shed. We spent our first few years in a green corrugated iron shed. The house on the property slowly grew from that. “Out of the three couples there were three visual artists, an arts administrator, a writer and a businessman – he was the odd one out. It was an amazing mix of people with this very open,

creative environment. All three couples ended up having three kids. I grew up with this set of surrogate siblings and we’ve all stayed incredibly close through the rest of our lives, even as we’ve spread out all over Australia. It’s a very special property in a way. And over the years lots of our dearest friends have become intrinsically linked to this property as well. It’s got the silliest name in the world, for some reason they called it Hunny Humm Farm, which is completely daggy. But it’s a beautiful spot in the dividing line between the McLaren Vale region and the Adelaide Hills region, just this little country town. Most people around there were either running cattle or sheep, very much a country community, and for a number of years we were gently known as the hippies on the hill. “It was a beautiful and warm loving place to grow up. A place I’ve returned to over the years. When my parents relocated to Sydney I took

over the place from them when I was at uni and lived there with a bunch of mates. Eventually I left and went to Sydney as well and then when I came back to Adelaide in late 2007 with my partner Nicki, we moved back in and took it over again for another four or five years until my parents came back. It’s this kind of place that I continued to return to throughout my life. “It’s a place that plays an important part in my life and will continue to do so. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old Ted who refers to the place as Teddy’s Farm. As far as he’s concerned it’s built for him. So there’s this beautiful ownership through the generations. It’s funny, that sense of community is something that, to me, is really important in my work. I think that’s where it’s flowed from.” Brookman believes his parents and their friends decided to move to Hunny Humm Farm because they wanted to live in a “connected and sustainable way before the word ‘sustainable’ was out there and a fashionable term”. “They didn’t really know what they were doing or even quite why. But I think they worked it out as they went along. Somehow they managed to scrape it all together to make it work. There are beautiful bits of history up there because half of the houses were built from recycled materials from demolition sites. There’s this beautiful old church door in our house that remains one of my father’s regrets. When they came upon this demolition site, where they were taking down this old church, there were two of these doors for sale, and back then in the late 70s they were $10 each. One of his greatest regrets is that he didn’t buy both. “Even now they couldn’t pin down a single reason it ended up being that group of people or that place [that set up the farm] but that’s just life. It takes you down certain paths sometimes.”

Geordie Brookman

When Brookman and his partner moved back to the farm in 2007 they discovered a book while cleaning. “We were cleaning out the cellar and we found this book called How to Build Your Own Stonehouse. I rang my dad, ‘I just found this book in the cellar?’ He said, ‘Oh yeah that’s what I used when I was building the house’.”

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6 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

FEATURE

CLOSER PRODUCTIONS With two films premiering at the Adelaide Film Festival, local collective Closer Productions will continue their hybrid documentary style while expanding into the realm of feature drama. BY DAVID KNIGHT

he last Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) was a breakthrough event for Closer Productions, the Adelaide Studios based film collective that are making some of the most exciting films in this country. Closer showcased the critically acclaimed festival documentary favourites Shut Up Little Man! and Life in Movement, as well as the short Stunt Love at the 2011 AFF. Shut Up..., which premiered at Sundance, recently screened on ABC1 and continues to find an online audience via Netflix. The slow burn of Life in Movement is still in effect some two years after its AFF premiere, as the documentary, about the late dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke,

is about to enjoy a theatre run in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This year’s AFF could be even more of a landmark event for Closer than 2011. Their highlight ﬁlm isn’t a documentary but a feature drama – the experimental 52 Tuesdays, which they’ll premiere along with the 28-minute documentary I Want to Dance Better at Parties. The Closer Productions team

Director Sophie Hyde and producer/director Bryan Mason began Closer Productions in 2004. The couple joined forces with fellow director Matthew Bate in 2010. Bate had another company, Plexus Films. After simultaneously

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working on separate FilmLab projects they decided to join forces soon after Bate released his cult short The Mystery of Flying Kicks.

to complete projects for institutions such as the Adelaide Festival and the Art Gallery of South Australia.

“I remember turning up to their door and saying, ‘We should do something together’,” Bate remembers. “It just made sense to amalgamate.” The results were immediate. The ﬁrst two ﬁlms under the new relationship were critical and festival hits with Bate labelled a “punk rock Errol Morris” for Shut Up while Hyde and Mason’s Life in Movement won numerous festival awards.

Aside from Hyde, Bate and Mason, the company’s other major player is producer Rebecca Summerton, who joined shortly after they merged. Then there are the other talented staff members: writer Matthew Cormack, visual effects and editor Raynor Pettge and filmmaker Matt Vesely. While the crew have their own projects, all members are involved with each other’s films; for example, Mason was a cameraman on Bate’s Shut Up Little Man! while Hyde was the film’s editor.

“Since we’ve come together there’s been this huge momentum that’s kept us going,” says Hyde. “We’re always in development, production and releasing something.” This includes a services arm, which allows Closer

52 Tuesdays is an important ﬁlm for Closer. Written by Matthew Cormack and Sophie Hyde, their ﬁrst feature drama will demonstrate that the company is more than a cult doco collective. Directed by Hyde, the film was shot every

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FEATURE documentary-like realism to the low budget film. “We were interested in two things,” Hyde explains, “one was the passage of time and the idea of authentic change in time. We were also interested in how you make films, slightly shifting away from that industrial model to see if there’s another way to explore how to create a film that felt different than stopping everything to shoot a film in six weeks, as you’re trying to tell this gentle or big story in this intense timeframe. With not much money we were interested in how we could do this in another way. It certainly is an experiment in filmmaking and narrative.”

Photo: Jonathan van der Knaap

The experiment brings to mind various photography projects where the subjects photograph themselves over the course of many years.

Tuesday for a year – no exception – and is about a mother and daughter who meet every Tuesday afternoon and their relationship is magnified by the mother’s decision to change her gender.

“I think we’re all slightly inspired by those photography projects and there are a few that are fascinating to me,” Hyde says. “But in the end it’s not so much about physical change. It’s about the investigation into the characters and the stories over that time and how it organically comes out that is really interesting.” An upcoming Bate project called Sam Klemke’s Time Machine (due for release in 2015) also explores similar themes about the passing of time.

“It’s hard to think of it as a departure because we’ve been making it for so long now,” she explains. “I think, like everything we make, it always shifts and changes, I don’t think we’ve got a set form that we work in. Every time something comes out it feels like a bit of a leap and we enjoy that. We make docs and dance films and I’ve made some short dramas before. It is a leap jumping up to a feature drama and certainly one we made over a whole year is a huge commitment. It took over our lives for that time.”

“Sam filmed his entire life for 35 years,” explains Bate, whose hybrid doco I Want to Dance Better at Parties will premiere at the AFF. “He posted this film called 35 Years Backwards Thru Time where he grows young. You see him devolve into a young man. The film is very much about time, like 52 in a way, about what it means to be human. How we evolve, grow up, fall in love and lose people. It’s like the history of the late 20th and early 21st century through the lens of this one guy, this everyday guy who’s obsessively filmed his entire life. Every year he does a status update. He reviews the year. It’s like Facebook. I see him as the original Facebooker, the original vlogger [video blogger]. He was narcisisstically status updating from a very early age to a Super 8 camera.”

Shooting over the course of a year added a

Bate will juxtapose Klemke’s life with the

“I see Sam’s life as a time capsule. He began his project with a sort of status update in 1977, which was the year that Voyager launched. The Voyager is the parallel story. It’s got this intergalactic story about this information about what it is to be human; the stuff on the disc launched to this alien audience and then it intercuts with the story of Sam and his parallel journey through time.” Bate, whose ABC1 three-part directed documentary series Hannah Gadsby’s Oz will screen in the first quarter of next year, admits he is “pulling his hair out” in regards to how he is going to tell the story.

“If you’re not scared maybe there’s something wrong because it’s got to be a dice roll,” continues Bate. “This [Sam Klemke’s Time Machine] could be a total failure or it could be amazing. I think that knife-edge is a good place to be.” When a director is on that knife’s edge, that’s when the rest of the Closer team comes in handy. “There are times in every project where you feel like you’re in hell and you’ve lost it and we certainly rely on each other,” says Hyde. “One of the best things about Closer is that those are the moments where everyone walks in and is either really brutal, which can be a great thing, and/or they will throw a lot of ideas around and are probing and questioning what you’re making. It’s a safety net.”

“This always happens. I have these total meltdowns and think I’m a piece of shit and a worthless human being and a terrible filmmaker. That’s where I’m at right now.” “To be honest, all of us work in a certain way where we like to explore ideas while we’re making something instead of coming up with the answer and then telling the story,” Hyde says. “I think all of the films we’ve made are like that. We need to be engaged with the idea the whole way through and you never know what it completely is until it’s finished. Which is difficult at times.”

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»»52 Tuesdays screens on Tuesday, October 15 (7pm) at Piccadilly and Saturday, October 19 (9.30pm) at Palace 7. I Want to Dance Better at Parties screens at Palace 1 on Sunday, October 13 (2.15pm) and Palace 6 on Friday, October 18 (5pm). adelaidefilmfestival.org closerproductions.com.au

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8 The Adelaide Review October 2013

FEATURE

A New Theory of Cancer

Cancer is one of the most intensively studied phenomena in biology, with over a million published papers, yet a proper understanding remains elusive, writes Professor Paul Davies, the keynote speaker at this year’s Adelaide Festival of Ideas. by Paul Davies

tandard cancer therapy – a mix of surgery, radiation and chemical toxins – has changed little in decades. Survival rates overall have improved only modestly or not at all. Life extension through therapy is mostly a rearguard action against the inevitable, measured in weeks or months rather than years, confounding the incessant media hype about ‘cancer breakthroughs’.

several distinctive hallmarks, including uncontrolled proliferation and a tendency to spread round the body and colonise remote organs. The theory assumes that the same hallmarks of cancer are reinvented de novo in each host by a sort of fast-paced Darwinian process of natural selection.

This dismal state of affairs can’t be blamed on lack of funding. The US government alone has spent 100 billion dollars on cancer research, while charities and drug companies have poured in billions more. Perhaps the lack of progress is because scientists are looking at the problem the wrong way?

Though entrenched, the somatic mutation theory has almost no predictive power, its explanations amounting to little more than justso stories on a case-by-case basis. Crucially, it fails to explain how random mutations confer so many fitness-improving gains of function together. It seems paradoxical that increasingly damaged and defective genomes should enable a neoplasm to acquire such powerfully functional and predictable hallmarks.

The conventional explanation for cancer is the somatic mutation theory, according to which genetic damage accumulates in cells as a result of aging, radiation or carcinogenic chemicals, causing the cells to misbehave and embark on their own agenda. This ‘neoplasm’, or population of new cells, rapidly develops

Over the past two years, Charles Lineweaver of the Australian National University and I have developed a radically alternative account of cancer. We started by noting that cancer is not confined to humans, but is widespread among mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, suggesting it has deep evolutionary roots, probably

Cancer Council SA As part of Cancer Council SA’s Beat Cancer Project, researchers are investigating how breast cancer cells mimic the normal development process of blood vessels. The project is led by Dr Claudine Bonder, who hopes the research will lead to new treatment options for breast cancer patients. “My aim is to identify new insights in to how cancer grows and how to apply this knowledge to cure cancer patients,” Dr Bonder said. Cancer Council SA is also committed to a variety of prevention programs to help South Australians cut their cancer risk, while support services assist

people affected by cancer, their families and friends. Some important facts to keep in mind are: • Breast cancer is estimated to be the most common cancer (apart from nonmelanoma skin cancer) diagnosed in women in Australia. • A woman has one chance in eight of being diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime • Less than five percent of breast cancers are familial (due to inherited genetic mutations) • Rates of breast cancer have increased over the past two decades. Most of this increase has occurred since the introduction of mammography in the early 1990s. At the same time death rates from breast cancer

stretching back to the dawn of multicellular life. We were also struck by the fact that cancer almost never invents anything new. Instead, it merely appropriates already existing properties of the host organism, many of them very basic and ancient. Limitless proliferation, for example, has been a fundamental feature of unicellular life for 3.5 billion years. Metastasis – the process whereby normally sedentary cells become mobile, leave a tumour and spread around the body – mimics what happens during embryogenesis, when immature cells surge in organized patterns to designated locations. And the propensity of circulating cancer cells to invade other organs closely parallels what the immune system does to heal wounds. These facts, which cancer biologists know well, combined with the predictable and efficient way that the cancer progresses through its various stages of malignancy, convinced us that cancer is not a case of damaged rogue cells running amok, but a well-organised and efficient survival response to a threatening cellular micro-environment. To use a computer analogy, we think all cells come pre-loaded with a powerful ancient ‘cancer subroutine’. It is normally quiescent, but it can be triggered in many ways – by faulty tissue architecture, lack of oxygen, or chemicals. Crucially, the various distinctive hallmarks of cancer are not stumbled across by accident – as the orthodox theory maintains – but are systematically deployed as part of the neoplasm’s survival response. An analogy is a genie in a bottle. Many assaults can smash the bottle, but once released, the genie executes its function with ruthless efficiency. The mainstream cancer community, in a massive effort to sequence any cancer cells they can get their hands on for signs of telltale mutations, is fixated with scrutinising the shards of glass from the shattered bottle, believing the answer lies in enigmatic patterns of change. But this is to conflate trigger with cause. The true villain is the (undamaged) genie, not the damaged confinement. In practice, the subroutine driving the cancer genie is unlikely to be a simple set of genes, but

have declined over this period. • Five year survival rates (2010) 89 percent, however many live beyond five years. The exact cause of breast cancer is not known but certain factors increase the risk: •Being a women •Getting older •Inheriting a faulty gene (called gene mutation) •Having a long family history of breast cancer •Having a previous diagnosis of breast cancer •Being overweight, drinking alcohol and other lifestyle and environmental factors. Some of these factors are beyond your control, but there are other things you can change within your lifestyle. Having some of these risk factors does not necessarily

Paul Davies

more likely a sophisticated regulatory network with complex pathways. In biology, an efficient complex process usually implies an extended period of evolution. Lineweaver and I believe that most of the cancer subroutine evolved gradually over a period between 1.5 billion and 600 million years ago, when primitive multicellular life first emerged. If we are right, then cancer is a sort of throwback or default to such an ancestral form; in technical jargon, it is an atavistic phenotype. Do we have any evidence for this? We do. It has been known since the work of the German Nobel prizewinner Otto Warburg in the 1920s that cancer flips to an ancient mode of metabolism called fermentation, adapted to

mean that you will develop breast cancer. Most women with breast cancer have no known risk factors aside from getting older. Cancer Council SA provides information and support to people affected by cancer, this includes breast cancer. The Cancer Helpline is on 13 11 20. Cancer Council’s Pink Ribbon campaign, which aims to support women with breast and gynaecological cancers, is being held throughout October. Throughout October you can show your support by registering to host a fundraiser, to sell merchandise or to become a volunteer.

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The Adelaide Review October 2013 9

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FEATURE / BUSINESS very low oxygen conditions. Intriguingly, early multi-celled organisms evolved at a time when oxygen levels on the Earth were still very low. Why did evolution not eliminate the scourge of cancer over the many millions of years since it emerged? The answer is clear. Parts of the ‘cancer subroutine’ play a critical role in embryo development, wound healing and the immune system. It has been known for decades that cancer-associated ‘oncogenes’ are active during embryo development, but are normally switched off thereafter. If these ancient genes that guide the organism’s basic body plan (also in low-oxygen conditions) are re-awakened and re-expressed in the adult form, cancer results. Our theory incorporates many known facts and ideas from mainstream cancer biology, but we have connected the dots in a novel way. The theory makes several testable predictions, and it also has sweeping implications for therapy. We think the search for a general-purpose ‘cure’ for cancer is an expensive diversion, and that cancer, being so deeply embedded in the nature of multicellular life itself, is best managed and controlled (not eliminated) by challenging the cancer with physical conditions inimical to its ancient atavistic lifestyle. Only by fully understanding the place of cancer in the great sweep of evolutionary history will a serious impact be made on mortality rates.

»»Professor Paul Davies is Principal Investigator in the Center for Convergence of Physical Science and Cancer Biology at Arizona State University. The Center is supported by a substantial grant from the US National Cancer Institute. Paul Davies is the Adelaide Festival of Ideas (Thursday, October 17 to Sunday, October 20) keynote speaker. adelaidefestivalofideas.com.au

Future Proofing – One Campaign Ends, Another Begins

agree that states and territories have been starved of the revenue they need to fund core health, infrastructure and other services.

by John Spoehr

remier Jay Weatherill is first out of the election campaign starting blocks, flagging that Labor will make a series of major policy announcements well before the March state election is called. Early indications suggest that Labor’s campaign will focus on economic transformation and jobs. Labor is setting the pace by announcing the establishment of a ‘Future Fund’, an idea first set out in the Government’s March Economic Statement. Funds like this are commonly used to capture revenue from major resource extraction projects for macro-economic stabilisation and future strategic use, sometimes to offset the negative impacts of mining on the exchange rate – something we know a great deal about in Australia with the persistently high dollar continuing to do harm to our manufacturing and tourism sectors. Future funds normally operate at a national level, capturing mining and energy resource extraction royalties for strategic investments in productivity enhancing infrastructure, particularly roads, ports, communication, education and skills. They are widely regarded as smart public policy tools, designed to help ensure that communities experience enduring benefits from mineral and energy resource exploitation. The present system of levying royalties on companies helps to achieve this but it falls short of directing some of the benefit towards transformative projects that help to reduce our dependence on the fluctuating fortunes of the mineral and energy resource sectors. Great riches were accumulated at the height of the commodity boom but not enough of this flows back to the wider citizenry or to those sectors of the economy harmed by mining booms. Establishing a Future Fund can help channel

some of the income generated from mineral and energy resource extraction into productivity enhancing investments that respond to long, rather than short-term, industry and social development objectives. While the proposed Future Fund will take a decade to mature as a significant investment vehicle, it is worth the wait if it helps to drive a faster pace of economic and industrial diversification in South Australia.

While the proposed Future Fund will take a decade to mature as a significant investment vehicle, it is worth the wait if it helps to drive a faster pace of economic and industrial diversification in South Australia. The trigger for accumulating income in the proposed Fund is the achievement of a surplus. During periods of economic stability this is normally straightforward. Not so in recent times. The problem has been the impact of the GFC on state and national revenue, particularly through the GST – the reason why Western Australian Liberal Premier Colin Barnett has recently been pushing Prime Minister Abbott to increase the GST or remove some exemptions. State politicians across the political divide

Looking to the future, the State Government rightly anticipates a return to solid rates of economic growth, picking up as high demand for mineral and energy resources from China and India resumes. While commodity prices may not reach the stratospheric levels reached during the recent boom they will deliver windfall profits to investors. The key policy challenge for government going forward is to create an institutional environment in which it is clear that royalties from mineral and energy resource extraction must be directed towards productivity enhancing infrastructure investments and industrial diversification – a form of economic insurance when mining booms inevitably end and we rely on other sectors to drive growth. The establishment of a Future Fund can help with this if it is given the mandate and the authority to invest wisely for the longer term. While prudent public sector borrowing should remain the major source of revenue to fund infrastructure investment, the proposed Future Fund could complement and guide this, helping governments and communities to identify what forms of investment are likely to be the best drivers of employment and economic growth this century. In this digital age where South Australian industry faces the challenge of modernisation or decline, the choices can be stark – move up the value chain or be overwhelmed by the rise of low cost manufacturing and services. A Future Fund won’t solve this, and nor is it intended to do so, but it can play an important role in helping to move beyond the short-termism that so often compromises the quality of Australian political and corporate decision making. It would be a novel start to campaign 2014 if there was bi-partisan support for establishment of the Future Fund. There are plenty of other policy issues to fight over.

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

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10 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

POLITICS MODERN TIMES The Language of Modern Politics BY ANDREW HUNTER

he degeneration of our political language over the course of the last parliament will be its strongest and most enduring legacy to the nation. Historic reforms such as DisabilityCare and better schools education funding will be judged against several poor pieces of public policy but the great rhetorical losses incurred over this period will be difficult to reverse. Paul Keating once famously asserted that when the government changes, so does the nation. Public policy exerts a real and direct influence on our lives, and the great prize of government is the opportunity to define the public policy agenda. The tenor of political discourse in a democracy is, however, influenced by all of its participants – not only by those serving in cabinet or in government. The language employed by those in government cannot be viewed in isolation from the influence the opposition exerts on our political language.

Albert Camus once wrote that there is always progress when a political problem becomes a human problem. If that is true, it could be reﬂexively argued that Australia has regressed markedly over the life of this previous parliament. Political problems, often neatly dressed in an economic language, dominate our public conversation today. Human problems have no place in modern political discourse. The political problem of having a budget in deﬁcit – even as a result of a necessary stimulus measure – becomes a human problem when services are unnecessarily cut to hasten a return to surplus. Our contribution as global citizens through foreign aid or our humanitarian migration program – that exist to address real human problems – is now considered to be a political problem.

The language used in our public conversation speaks of an increasingly insular people. Anyone who is influenced by political discourse in Australia would be excused for thinking that the world divided into ‘illegals’ who threaten our way of life and ‘the rising middle classes of Asia’ who will enhance it through their consumption patterns. People arriving by boat in Australia to seek asylum are a human problem. Misleading language repeatedly used in our public conversation has rendered asylum seekers a political problem. We have dehumanised the issue. Once such language is legitimised, all propriety soon evaporates. Shortly after the Christmas Island tragedy, in December 2010, Sydney radio personality Chris Smith offered prizes to the first caller who could correctly answer, “How many asylum seekers killed in the December tragedy will be buried in Sydney this week?” The language of our elected leaders sets the tone and boundaries of other voices in our public conversations. Dehumanising those who seek asylum indicates a spirit that is far from generous. Dehumanising language, particularly when used in a public forum, is exceptionally dangerous. Before the genocide in Rwanda commenced, a people were encouraged to embrace a “final war” to “exterminate the cockroaches”. The language used stripped the Tutsis of their human condition. The violent imagery used in our political discourse also reflects an anxious, abrasive modern Australian society. During an interview on Lateline earlier this year, Federal parliamentarian Steve Ciobo claimed that members of Labor’s caucus were waiting to “slit Julia Gillard’s throat.” Is the violent language used by our elected representatives designed to speak to an increasingly violent society, or does it help to normalise violence? Or does it reflect a culture that is more comfortable with violence? The language used by a politician often indicates the character that will inform their

Albert Camus

decisions, including policy decisions. Did anyone consider that the language used in political discourse could be more important than the policy that ﬂows from it? The nature of our political discourse not only affects the way we talk about society, but also how we act in it. Did the political discourse of the 43rd parliament also normalise sexism in our society, or does it reﬂect a problem that still pervades Australian society? The soft sexism of the parliament took a far less subtle form outside the chamber. The dinner menu circulated at a fundraiser for Mal Brough offered a range of plates bearing names designed to offend. References to the Prime Minister were particularly offensive. What effect will such language have on sexual harassment in the workplace? When Joe Hockey, who attended the fundraiser, was asked about the incident, he retorted by asking if it were actually “the biggest issue on the table.” Hockey saw a human problem as a political one, and he was intent on returning the conversation to political problems with which he was more comfortable. This is one of the men who now hold the nation in their hands.

The lack of generosity of our political language reflects an increasingly selfish society. When one considers some of the arguments constructed by those who live in relative affluence, one recalls the words of Adam Smith who believed that the vile maxim “…all for ourselves, and nothing for other people” transcends the ages. Too many people have been conditioned to think that they face difficult circumstances when clearly they do not. Most Australians would be relieved that the 43rd Federal Parliament is no longer. In the future, the coalition will seek to define this period as chaotic – an example of Labor incompetence. Labor will point to a legacy of historic reforms such as DisabilityCare, education funding reform and action on climate change that will put it on the right side of history. The governing coalition will, we hope, naturally adjust their language to reflect their new status as leaders of our nation. Will those now in opposition, in spite of a constitutional obligation to hold the government to account, play their part to help refocus our language on human, rather than political, problems?

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POLITICS

ELECTIONS, FAIRNESS AND COMMUNITY

sheet of paper. For the winners, there was no careful brieﬁng from the heads of government departments, no incoming government’s brief based on campaign promises. The successful candidates – particularly for the Egyptian presidency – had to write a new constitution and hire new heads of just about all of the country’s major institutions.

Image courtesy Ahmed Abd El-fatah, flickr.com

BY ALEXANDER DOWNER

n Election Day I couldn’t help but feel the strong sense of community at our local polling booth. It’s at the Bridgewater primary school in the Adelaide Hills. Bridgewater usually votes Labor and it did this time, just. But independent Senate candidate Nick Xenephon won a swag of votes and there were plenty of Green and other voters.

There were three things which were impressive about the Bridgewater polling booth. For a start, voting took place without emotion or rancour. The voters streamed in quietly, some taking How to Vote Cards, some not. Secondly, the partisans handing out How to Vote cards all chatted away amiably with each other. Labor and Liberal, Green and National. They had mutual friends and experiences. Divided as they were by politics, they were more united by bonds of community. And thirdly, the little school itself, like so many around Australia, used this great act of democracy to sell sausages. But why no coffee? That was a mistake! I spent an hour at the polling booth and this year it made me think of how democracy is about so much more than the right to vote. For a start, there has to be a broad consensus that the electoral system is fair. No one at

the Bridgewater polling booth would have even imagined that the Australian Electoral Commission officials working there would be stuffing the ballot boxes with fake ballot papers. Nor would anyone think it appropriate to interfere with a person as they voted. In other so-called democracies that’s always a possibility. Then there is the perception amongst the voters of the institutions of government themselves. The Australian public, whoever they voted for, accept the result as fair. Defeat is depressing in politics particularly as you travel to Canberra the week after the election and pack up your fancy ministerial office, say goodbye to your officials who served you loyally in government and have now turned their attention to others. But Kevin Rudd and his ministerial colleagues glumly accepted defeat and moved out just as the Howard government had done six years earlier. Not so in many emerging democracies. In Australia the prime minister and the ministers all change when a government

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changes. But remember, a lot doesn’t change. The judiciary remains in place, most senior public servants keep their jobs, the police and other law enforcement agencies stay put, the army stays in its barracks, the generals and admirals stay in their jobs. These are the struts which hold up our society even as political leadership changes. All this helps to explain why our democracy works so well. But it helps explain why, by contrast, the Arab Spring has been such a catastrophic failure. The Tunisians, the Egyptians, the Libyans – they’ve all been able to vote in the last two years. But too many in the West have proclaimed that fact to be sufﬁcient to herald a new era of peace and democracy. It isn’t. The Arab Spring has taken the Arab world from dictatorship to anarchy in two short years. It wasn’t that the elections were undemocratic, although there were plenty of claims of vote rigging and ballot box fraud. The greatest single problem was that the winning politicians ended up with a blank

Imagine if the Abbott government had to do that! It would be a huge task. And imagine if they did what Egypt’s president Morsi did: Abbott appointed Liberal Party members to all the major institutions from the High Court to heads of government departments, from the Australian Federal Police to the ABC’s managing director. That’s what president Morsi did. He put people from his Muslim Brotherhood party in charge of everything he could. And worse. He wrote a constitution which entrenched the Islamic ideology of the Brotherhood. The result was disaster. The political system lacked legitimacy with around 60 percent of voters who hadn’t voted for president Morsi and were now alienated from the whole political system. And look at Syria. The institutions are run by and in the interests of 10 percent of the population – the Alawites. But if the rebels win the civil war, will they build new institutions which exclude their opponents? I’m sure they will. The result will be endless instability. The thing about Australia is it has a sense of community. We know we have differing political views but we know partisanship shouldn’t be taken too far. Losers in elections are as much part of our community as the winners. They can’t expect to run the place but nor should they be alienated from the heart of the system by non-partisan institutions being turned into the playthings of the winners.

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12 The Adelaide Review October 2013

POLITICS

Rolled Gold Vs Tin Foil Reviewing the 2013 election by Stephen Koukoulas

he old saying that opposition parties don’t win elections, but governments lose them, showed up yet again with the emphatic loss of the Labor Party and win of the Coalition in the September 7 election. The Labor Party loss was based on an upside-down campaign where many of those formulating the strategy for re-election were blind-sided on a range of issues, especially in the area of economic management and the inconsistencies in the alternatives being offered by Mr Abbott and the Coalition.

The ‘cut, cut, cut’ and ‘cut to the bone’ mantra that Mr Rudd used when discussing the risks from the election of Mr Abbott’s Coalition was 180 degrees wrong. The bulk of Mr Abbott’s policies were spend, spend, spend. Paid parental leave, Direct Action, defence and infrastructure are going to see the Coalition spend at a pace much like the Howard government did for the bulk of its time in office. With the budget deficit and government debt being the high profile problems for the Labor Party in the eyes of the electorate, the electorate was probably pleased to see one side of politics ‘cut, cut, cutting’ because it was a sign that the budget deficit would be ‘fixed’ more effectively with a Coalition government. Labor would have done much better with a campaign of highlighting big spending policies that were unfunded and that would push interest rates up from the current record low levels. The fact that the futures markets are pricing in rate hikes at the moment would have only added to their case. Labor could have followed through with the fact that since at least 1970-71, Coalition government has never delivered a single year when government spending was cut in real terms. Never under the Fraser or Howard

Tony Abbott

governments. For the record, Labor have delivered annual cuts in real government spending on five occasions over that time. What if Labor had campaigned on the Coalition’s reckless spending, where each promise of an oval, PPL, a defence splurge, Direct Action on climate change, roads to nowhere or medical research were basically unfunded and in doing so, cited the fact that a Liberal government never had cut spending in real terms? What if they had linked this to the current low interest rate environment, which is delivering annual savings of $70 billion for mortgage holders and $50 billion a year for businesses compared to where interest rates were around five years ago? For Mr Rudd, there were the distracting and unnecessary proposals on Northern Australia and moving the navy from Sydney to Queensland. Un-costed and pie in the sky stuff. These were off message and cost votes. On the positive side, the Labor Party could have also used demographics and articulated a target for the unemployment rate of, say four percent. Mr Abbott’s aspiration to create one million jobs in the first five years of a Coalition government is a corn-ball promise – it merely reflects population growth and no more. On not unrealistic assumptions about the participation rate, one million new jobs is likely to be consistent with an unemployment rate above 6.5 percent!

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This is sloppy maths from Mr Abbott that could have been exploited by Labor for what it is, but also turned into a positive if Labor articulated a plan to cut the unemployment rate to four percent by 2018. Then there was underplaying of the massive achievements with DisabilityCare, the transformation of the education system and the carbon price. Whilst a little quirky, most of Australia just had the warmest winter ever recorded which might resonate with the need for a carbon price and the sheer absurdity of the Coalition’s Direct Action carbon plan. Of course, for a person like Kevin Rudd, any

emphasis and magnification of the successes of DisabilityCare and education reform would have been an acknowledgement of the legacy of Julia Gillard as Prime Minister. Mr Rudd’s DNA meant that that was never going to happen. Labor’s campaign strategy was like a mad woman’s breakfast. It highlighted many of the wrong things and assumed a level of ignorance in the electorate that Hawke, Keating and even Gillard would never have done. Mr Abbott’s win was built on policy flotsam and jetsam that Labor failed to sift through and recycle. The messaging was the wrong way around, especially feeding into the electorate’s perception that Labor was a poor economic manager who had blown the budget. Fixing the budget required cuts, cuts, cuts, which is actually what Labor generally managed to do since 2009-10 with spending to GDP down from 26.1 percent in that year to 24.3 percent in 2012-13. The Australian economy did not need a ‘new way’, it needed to stay on the path to steady low inflationary growth that was sending the budget on a trajectory to a budget surplus and debt reduction. Economic growth needs to lift a little to get the unemployment lower. Treasury should have been taken to task, by the Treasurer, prior to the Government’s economic statement, for not having at least one year with a GDP growth forecast of 3.5 percent. This is inevitable after an extended period where growth has been below trend. This would have delivered a couple of billions dollars of revenue in the forward estimates and held the small surplus in 2015-16. There was so much rolled-gold material that Labor could have used, but it chose the tin foil when trying to win the 2013 election.

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

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14 The Adelaide Review October 2013

Business The Need For Debate Around Tax Reform by Michael Browne

or the first time in a generation, the Australian community faces the prospect that real per person income may fall. In PwC’s recent report, ‘Protecting Prosperity: Why We Need To Talk About Tax’, some compelling observations concluded that, without a change of direction, if government spending, low productivity growth and workforce participation maintain existing trends, combined government debt could reach 80 percent of GDP by the middle of the century. Australia could face a six-fold rise in deficits across a similar period. Without expenditure restraint and comprehensive tax reform any surplus will be short-lived and deficits will grow strongly for at least a generation. The country’s future prosperity depends on a functional, efficient, equitable tax system that provides the fiscal muscle needed for government to provide the

services and support our society needs. Without tax reform, the future will likely be one of reduced living standards and poorer community services. As a nation we need to have a serious debate about what this growing fiscal gap means for our future prosperity. Governments are committed in the long term to growing expenditure to address important community needs, but are failing to address the revenue side of the equation. If Australia is to have meaningful tax reform, what might it mean for privately owned business? Tax reform might come in the form of a reduction in compliance activity, which would bring a real benefit to business. Less time and effort on compliance means more time to work on the business and a reduced cost burden, leading to increased productivity.

In any business, the tax consequences associated with any decision play a big part. An example is the reaction to the abandoned proposed change to Fringe Benefit Tax. Ignoring any increased compliance burden that may have come from the proposed changes, the immediate reaction of business was to alter car purchasing plans. This had an immediate and direct impact on many businesses. Stamp Duty also plays a large role in a business’ decision-making process. A challenge with Stamp Duty is that the rules differ between states, influencing the way in which transactions are undertaken. Stamp Duty as well as Payroll Tax, which plays a role in hiring decisions, are both State taxes and are critical to states delivering services to the community. They can also act as a potential brake on investment and economic growth. Arguably there is no better example of tinkering with the tax system than superannuation. Australia’s narrow taxation base, coupled with the government struggling to meet its obligations, has seen superannuation become an almost constant target. Despite the recent announcement to freeze changes to superannuation it’s still the case that baby boomers have, for many years, been hit with almost continual changes to the system. Constant changes have made decision making

about retirement planning difficult, with many now questioning whether superannuation is the best vehicle to achieve their financial goals. The recently announced changes to tax pension payments, and the proposed “tax” on deposits, are just two changes that have a direct impact on superannuation. FBT and superannuation changes, as well as Stamp Duty and Payroll Tax, are four areas where private businesses’ decision making is directly impacted by taxation. Addressing the debate around tax reform is important, particularly as the mining boom transitions to a new phase and the windfalls it provided fade. We now need to look to other sectors of the economy to deliver growth. A good, comprehensive tax system needs to be equitable. Any reform will need to include carefully targeted compensation packages and an examination of personal tax, company tax rates and concessions, retirement funding, retirement age, and welfare transfers for the benefit of all Australians.

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

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BUSINESS

Venus of the Beautiful Buttocks by Stephen Forbes

f you’ve been a faithful reader of this column you’d have seen the quince, the fig and the banana all proposed as candidates for the forbidden fruit of the ‘Tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ in the Garden of Eden. There are others but perhaps my favourite is General Gordon’s proposal. Gordon visited the Seychelles in 1881 and believed that the Vallée de Mai on the island of Praslin was the original Garden of Eden, and that the Coco de Mer was the forbidden fruit, ‘… externally the coco-de-mer represents the belly and thighs, the true seat of carnal desires.’ The fruit is indeed remarkable and encloses the largest of all seeds (for the curious the largest of all fruits is, perhaps obviously if you come to think about it, the pumpkin). The fruits and the floating seeds are certainly suggestive of the archaic Latin specific name Lodoicea callipyge – callipyge translating as beautiful buttocks and likely alluding to the Callipygian Venus, Venus of the beautiful buttocks – an ancient Roman marble statue now in Naples based on a lost Greek bronze, Aphrodite Kallipygos. (The current Latin name Lodoicea maldivica seems rather pedestrian in comparison to the allusion in the archaic one). Coco de mer seeds were known washed up on the shores of the Maldives and seen floating by early sailors – who either believed the seeds grew on trees at the bottom of the Indian Ocean or that they were witnessing the derriere of a floating mermaid – it defies credulity that they could have believed both. The seeds were certainly valued for their curious morphology, rarity and unknown provenance allowing rich speculation in regard to their source. The coco de mer palm tree that was the source of the seeds was only discovered in 1743 allowing the establishment of another myth. That the beautiful buttocks on the female palm and the phallic catkins on the male palm were actually involved in love-making with male

trees uprooting themselves on stormy nights and approaching female trees (apparently the love-making trees are rather shy and there’s no record of the courtship ritual). A coco de mer seed was an essential exhibit in Adelaide Botanic Gardens’ Museum of Economic Botany. A seed was sent from Kew Gardens in London by director Sir Joseph Hooker in 1879 during the construction of the Museum and has been on display since the opening of the Museum in 1881. In addition to the seed’s sensuality and size – 40 to 50cm in diameter and weighing up 20kg (with fruits totalling twice that weight), the palm is quite beautiful, endangered and extremely restricted geographically. The tree reaches 30m with fan-shaped leaves seven to 10m long and 4.5m wide on a four-metre long leaf stalk (or petiole). Perhaps then it’s no surprise that one could fall in love with the coco de mer (as viewers of the Callipygian Venus have succumbed to her charms). Mauritianborn, Sydney-based artist Jacques Charoux grew up in a country where the seeds provided curious doorstops that seemed unremarkable during his childhood. Moving away from Mauritius the seed reasserted itself at an exhibition of tantric art at the Hayward Gallery in London eventually resulting in Charoux’s pilgrimage to General Gordon’s Garden of Eden – the Vallée de Mai on the island of Praslin in the 1990s. An artist’s obsession has resulted in an exhibition exploring the coco de mer that opens in the Santos Museum of Economic Botany this month.

Exhibition 4 Oct – 24 Nov 2013 South Australian Museum Andrew Peacock, Anyone seen a dentist? (detail).Canon EOS 5D MkIII, Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM lens at 420mm + 1.4x, 1/1250, f5.6, ISO 200, handheld

»»Jacques Charoux’s exhibition Coco de Mer: an artist’s obsession will be on display in the Santos Museum of Economic Botany in Adelaide Botanic Garden from October 19 to March 16.

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16 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

EXTRACT

THE PRINCE

As a teenager, probably in 1955, I ﬁrst heard him talk to a packed cathedral hall in Ballarat on the menace of communism. He set out to identify the mighty forces under the swirl of events. He often appealed to history. We felt we too belonged to the forces of good ﬁghting the new faces of evil, as saints and heroes had done for thousands of years. He placed us in a grand tradition of worthy struggle and combat, where we felt we could do our bit. Some of us never completely lost this conviction.

BY DAVID MARR

he presbytery of St Alipius is a redbrick gothic bungalow built when gold money was still washing through Ballarat. It sits in a Catholic compound of brick and granite schools and convents where the road from Melbourne reaches town. White crosses stand on the gables of the house as if to ward off evil from all points of the compass. The plan, if that was indeed the plan, failed spectacularly. When young Father George Pell moved his things into the presbytery in 1973, that corner of Ballarat was one of the most dangerous places in Australia for children. Already living in the presbytery was Father Gerald Ridsdale, chaplain at the little primary school standing on the other side of the church. He was raping the children. All four members of the staff, all Christian Brothers, were abusing the children in the school. They would not be exposed for twenty years. George Pell, back from his studies in Rome and Oxford, noticed nothing. Ballarat was his town. His parents owned the Royal Oak. George Sr was huge, down-to-earth and Protestant. Lil was ﬁerce, gentle and made all the decisions that mattered in her son’s

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life. She was devoted to the Catholic Church. A portrait of old Daniel Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne since 1917, hung in her kitchen. Her son would one day write: “She was a woman of great strength and faith: a faith I suspect that was very Irish, and probably in particular a faith typical of the west of Ireland in its certainties and in its impatience with theological subtleties.” The pub was workingclass but not rough. George Sr ran an SP bookmaking operation out of the front bar and hid the books under his children’s beds. He enforced the rules. Children brought up in a pub learn to tolerate all sorts and to value rules. Once they were teenagers, young George and his sister Margaret helped out in the bar in the school holidays but their mother was preparing her children for a life that would take them a long way from the Royal Oak. Though raised Catholic from birth – tribal Catholic in a town where priests, nuns and brothers ruled the Catholic roost – Lil’s big, conﬁdent boy had a conversion in adolescence that determined the course of his spiritual life and the trajectory of his career. At the age of fourteen he fell under the spell of B.A. Santamaria:

It was the time of the great Labor Split, the height of the Cold War. Santamaria was at his most mesmerising as he recruited young warriors for the Movement to defend the bulwark of civilisation, the Catholic Church. Communism seemed the enemy when Pell was a boy. Later, when that curse was defeated, it transpired that something just as sinister lay behind its mask: secular liberalism, which had been allowed to take root not only in the world, but in the church. Others might see nothing particularly troubling in the swirl of events, but Santamaria instilled in his followers a habit of discovering everywhere in the world around them a contest between the forces of good and evil. The boy was “reasonably bright” according to the historian John Molony, who was one of his teachers at St Patrick’s, Ballarat. “Unquestionably an unusual human being. Enormously talented in sport. He was a leader, president of every possible organisation in the college.” He was big and used his size to get his way. He debated and acted. The grand Pooh-Bah in The Mikado was a role he played more than once in his early years. He ran, rowed and played football with such skill that Richmond offered him a contract in his ﬁnal year. He signed but had other ideas. St Patrick’s was a great recruiting ground for the priesthood. Pell had shown a religiosity – saying the rosary in the back of the car on the way to football – that was not out of place in the school. Nor was the ambition to have a priest in the family surprising in the pub trade or the Irish tribe from which his mother sprang. Pell says he fought his calling for a long time: “I feared and suspected and eventually became convinced that God wanted me to do his work, and I was never able to successfully escape that conviction.”

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Award-winning author David Marr’s latest work, released this week, is Quarterly Essay 51, The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell. Marr will also investigate the life and career of Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic at the upcoming Adelaide Festival of Ideas. Below is an edited extract from Marr’s third Quarterly Essay.

The Adelaide Review October 2013 17

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EXTRACT In late 1959 he told his parents he was going to be a priest. His father was hostile. His mother was overjoyed. So many young men were training for the priesthood that Werribee Park had burst at the seams. These were years of triumphalist high confidence in the mission of the church. Pell found himself among 115 young men living, studying and praying at the direction of the Jesuits in the Italianate pile that housed Corpus Christi College. The place was demanding and inflexible. The saying at Werribee was: “You keep the rules and the rules will keep you.” Pell thrived. He liked this life and Werribee has remained, ever since, his model for the proper training of young men for the priesthood. Roughhouse antics were not unknown. Sport and amateur theatricals were part of the program. But Werribee demanded prayer, lots of prayer. Pell’s superiors admired the young man’s forthright ways and eagerness for responsibility. In his third year he was put in charge of the discipline of new arrivals. There were those among the underlings who found him harsh, formal and unforgiving. Pell’s reputation as a bully dates back to Werribee. But those closer to him remember more vividly how certain he was of his faith. He never criticised. He never doubted. “He is a guy for whom it has always been very clear,” recalled Brian Scarlett some forty years after their time together in the seminary. “He was exactly the same as he is now.”

»»This is an edited extract from Quarterly Essay 51, The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell by David Marr, available now. RRP $19.99

The Facts of Life by Stephen Orr

t 3.30 pm on Tuesday, August 1, 1944, Detective Jacobus Andries Vogelsang and Police Constable Smith approached poet Max Harris in the Brookman Buildings, Grenfell Street, Adelaide. Harris was one of a committee of four (including John Reed, Sunday Reed and Sid Nolan) responsible for Angry Penguins magazine. This publication contained new Australian writing, as well as work from the likes of Dylan Thomas and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Harris was in his early 20s, but he was `coltchered’, aware of what was going on nationally and internationally in the Yartz. Detective Vogelsang (who, it seems, has come back to life in the form of a letter-writing detective) asked Harris about certain poems he had published. They’d been written by the late Ern Malley (poets Harold Stewart and James McAuley, determined to bring down `Maxy’) and submitted by his sister, Ethel. The whole affair has been widely written about, dramatised and mythologised, but it’s Vogelsang I’m interested in now. Among other poems, Vogelsang asked about `Boult to Marina’. Vogelsang: Do you think the poem is suggestive of indecency? Harris: No more than Chaucer or Shakespeare or others. After discussing a few (what now seem harmless) lines, Harris said, `If you’re looking for that sort of thing I can refer you to plenty of books and cheaper publications.’

»»David Marr’s Adelaide Festival of Ideas talk on Sunday, October 20 at Bonython Hall, 1.30pm is titled ‘George Pell: Can He Keep the Faith (and the Faithful)?’.

We all know what `that sort of thing’ means. Thirty years later Benny Hill was parading it around the telly for a laugh. Looking back, it seems the only obscenity was in Vogelsang’s head. Having decided, he acted.

quarterlyessay.com adelaidefestivalofideas.com.au

Harris told him, `I can’t help the interpretation some people might place on it [the poem].’

And here we are, nearly 70 years later, watching history repeat. The excellent photographer Bill Henson agrees to participate at the 2014 Adelaide Biennial and a concerned detective writes, in a private capacity, to the Premier. Jay Weatherill does the right thing and states, emphatically, he’s not into censorship, but by then the damage is done. Henson decides against exhibiting his landscape photographs. Vogelsang would be happy. Decency is preserved. Henson’s images of pre-pubescent children (nearly as bad as Malley’s use of the word genitals) won’t be bothering anyone in Village Adelaide. Well, they wouldn’t have anyway, but that’s beside the point. It was the same guy. Detective Vogelsang’s reincarnation was obviously correct in saying many paedophiles have taken a healthy interest in Henson’s images. He’s asked them all, and they’ve told him. The same probably goes for the hundreds of thousands of people who have seen any of Henson’s photographs. Dirties, the lot of them. The UK’s Royal Academy too, full of smutty types wanting to spread moral corruption. When Vogelsang asked Harris if he thought the use of the word `bugger’ was immoral, Harris said, `It is not immoral to me.’ The crux of the matter. Still is. Everyone’s allowed an opinion, but that doesn’t mean one is superior to another. Censorship is the act of thinking we know better. Policeman or not. If the issue was that critical (and we can’t claim to know what this officer has seen) then why was he only acting in a private capacity? Yes, free speech does come with certain obligations, but no one was breaking any moral contract. Reading the court transcript of Vogelsang’s evidence (Harris was charged with indecency, dragged through the courts and eventually fined five quid), I can’t believe we haven’t learnt. Harris had had enough. Referring to an anatomy text he stocked, he said, `You might as well say they are indecent.’ Vogelsang replied, `I am of the opinion that [they are] immoral.’ `Not to people who are prepared to take the facts of life as they are.’

18 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

FEATURE

Portside View The stars are changing for the often-maligned Port Adelaide, with an arts and culture revival already underway. BY GRANT MILLS

’ve just stepped off Port Adelaide’s main shopping street and into someone else’s imagination. The colours are more vivid, the mood buoyant, and its owner, Ned Bajic, is grinning at me amidst the ordered clutter of his own personnel wonderland. I’m standing in Remake/Remodel, Ned’s one-man business making handmade furniture, home wares and artworks, all out of recycled and salvaged materials. “I grew up with parents who basically said ‘When you need a kitchen, you build the kitchen’,” Bajic laughs. “You’ve got something that’s a one-off, and that’s basically the concept of the shop. I never said speciﬁcally that I make custom work, but I think that philosophy is why people have naturally started ordering what they want.” By combining colour, art and craftsmanship, he builds one-off furnishings from second-hand materials ranging from fence-posts to hubcaps. “I keep in contact with the people I’m making something for, and use Facebook to send them little pictures while I’m doing things so that they can keep up with the process. I try to make it personal. Sometimes people send me pictures back, showing what they are doing with the piece.”

Yet Remake/Remodel is more than just a shopfront for Bajic’s prodigious talents; it’s a symptom of a change slowly gaining momentum around the portside. Only a year ago the space that Ned’s shop now occupies was vacant, like so many of Port Adelaide’s

storefronts. It was then that local renewal initiative, Renew Adelaide, was commissioned by the State Government to spearhead a revival of the Port by opening up some of the area’s empty shops to creative entrepreneurs. Opening alongside Remake/Remodel were two other Renew Adelaide supported shops – Film Buff Central, a DVD rental store that is a ﬁlm-lover’s paradise, and My Modern Nest, selling retro homewares and local artworks. All three stores have been so successful that Renew Adelaide has continued to grow the number of Port Adelaide projects. Recently open is Everything Coconut – a health and organics store that lives up to its name – while children’s clothing store, Lily and Tulip, and photography gallery, The Forge, are set to cut the ribbon on their premises soon. “Before Renew Adelaide, all I remember is places closing down around here. They couldn’t survive any more. I’ve had so many friends who have left to go elsewhere and you lose their knowledge, you lose their skills, their ideas, but we seem to be going the other way now,” Bajic said. Renew Adelaide has over the last year of working in Port Adelaide succeeded in bring activity back to a streetscape that had long been dwindling. “Creativity is really important to street life and the character of an area. It attracts people and over the longer term it ultimately attracts business,” claims Renew Adelaide General Manager, Lily Jacobs. “We want to encourage

creative small businesses to enable young entrepreneurs to give things a go in Adelaide or Port Adelaide.” By negotiating with the landowners of vacant buildings, Renew Adelaide offers budding businesspeople spaces or shopfronts to work from, significantly reducing the start-up costs and difficulties associated with establishing a small business. In return the property is occupied and maintained while the landowner continues to look for a long-term tenant. The Renew Adelaide initiatives in Port Adelaide are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, one part of an initial $8 million investment by the State Government’s Renewal SA office in the first stages of its Port masterplan.

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“The Port has great bones, what we need is to build on those bones and re-establish it as one of the key areas within the Greater Adelaide area,” said Dr Fred Hansen, Chief Executive of Renewal SA and former Adelaide Thinker in Residence. “Our goal is to be able to encourage new development and new investment in the area,” Dr Hansen said. “As part of this, the Premier has announced that he would like to see a certain number of government employees reassigned to the Port, which starts to create more of an employment base.”

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The Adelaide Review October 2013 19

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20 The Adelaide Review October 2013

COLUMNISTS DR K’S CURIOUS CHRONICLES A Plea for Pure Democracy BY Kiera Lindsey

W Six Square Metres Going to Seed BY Margaret Simons

hings are going to seed. I don’t mean in a bad way. There are none of the musty smells and nasty stains that we imagine when we talk of people and buildings that are past their best. Instead, there are yellow broccoli flowers bobbing in my front garden, the rocket has grown higher than the balcony balustrade and the cos lettuce have taken on the look of greenshelled rockets, their central tubes of furled leaves pushing higher every day. The flower heads will pop out any hour now, the tight roll of leaves will collapse and grow bitter, and it will all be over for those plants this season. Now is the time for the hurried making of salads and for planting new seedlings before the year tips over into heat. In the meantime, I have been dealing with the fruits of winter: to be specific, lemons. I have no room for a decent lemon tree – the gall-wasp infected specimen I keep in a pot graces us with only half a dozen fruit a year, despite doses of potash and muttered threats. But a good friend of mine is moving house and the tree in the backyard is laden with fruit, some the size of grapefruit. I have been taking the opportunity to harvest as many as I can before I lose access. Yesterday I took the shopping trolley round and loaded it up. Now my fridge and my three fruit bowls are full and the whole house smells of citrus. The family thinks I am mad. Why take more than you can use? Perhaps I am greedy. I love the bounty, the getting of lots of stuff for free, and my head is full of thoughts of lemons. And I can use them. I have made three tubs of lemon curd. Tonight, we will have lemon

meringue pie. I squeezed lemon juice over potatoes and baked them in the oven. I have squeezed another dozen or so, and frozen the juice in ice-cube trays to grace gin and tonics in the summer months to come. I found a recipe for preserved lemons that seems deceptive in its simplicity. Cut the lemons in quarters, freeze overnight, thaw, pack with salt and bay leaves and peppercorns and cover with more lemon juice. Then let it steep, and use the peel in summer pastas and tagines. So we carry winter into summer. Already it seems warm enough to plant beans and peas. One of my gardening books advises that the way to judge this is by sitting bare-buttocked on the ground. If your bum doesn’t get cold, it is time to plant. Given that my back verandah is visible from the McDonald’s drive through, and the little strip of land at the front faces the post office, I won’t be trying this method. An index finger in the soil will have to suffice. Am I imagining that the seasons are coming faster now? Usually, it is October before I lose the winter brassicas to flower. Normally gardening relaxes me, but the possibility that the seasons are changing – that the climate change we all fear is already upon us, means that my trips into the garden are tinged with anxiety. Not already, surely. Not here, in my garden. Please. It was Voltaire who, contemplating the broken nature of the world and our powerlessness in putting it to rights, declared that “we must cultivate our garden”. He meant, I guess, that we should look after the things closest to us, and the things that we know. I have cut the broccoli flowers and put them in a vase, and I will use a shovel to hack the plants into compost-friendly sections.

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hen I think of Light Square in the summer of 1839, I envisage a baking dust bowl that is far from the shaded park which now punctuates Morphett Street and grants respite to the city stroller of contemporary Adelaide. Sketches of the makeshift colony during its first decade reveal an improvised world that must have been bleak to the European immigrants who decided to chance their fortunes there. This raw reality temporarily broke the spirit of Catherine Helen Spence, the celebrated ‘Great Old Woman’ of Australia, who was so confronted by the wretched reality of her new life as a 14-year old immigrant who had only just arrived from Scotland, that she sat down on a log in Light Square and ‘had a good cry’. The red-haired Spence was not, however, one to be beaten. Within years she was sleeves-up and bent to the task of becoming ‘a teacher first and a great writer second’. By 17 she was earning an income as a governess and publishing newspaper articles under her brother’s name. Soon she had written a number of novels, opened her own school and secured a regular newspaper column in her own name. Contrary to the statue in Light Square, which recalls a bookish matron, Spence made her most enduring contribution not through literature, but as a social and political reformer. Although she never married, nor had children of her own, Spence cared for the children of three different families. Such experiences brought her into close contact with destitute women and children and inspired the establishment of the colony’s first kindergartens, the Boarding Out Society and the Children’s Courts. This work complemented her role on the board of the Destitute Institute and the establishment of the Advanced School for Girls, which became the first government secondary school for girls in Australia, and eventually resulted in women being admitted to teacher training colleges and universities. At the age of 26, Spence made her first foray into political debate, writing a pamphlet entitled ‘A Plea for Pure Democracy’, which proposed significant reforms to the electoral system. While she remained closely involved in this work throughout her life, as the Vice President of the Women’s Suffrage League of South Australia, she also dedicated considerable energy to helping South Australian women win the vote in 1895, then becoming the first female political candidate in the British Empire to stand for parliament, when she ran (unsuccessfully) for the Federation Convention in 1897. A persuasive and charismatic speaker, Spence was celebrated for her ‘clear

firm voice’ and continued to travel and speak throughout Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America well into her 70s. I suspect that she enjoyed a highly resilient personality that was grounded in a lively curiosity that allowed her to become captivated by new ideas. Neither a conformist, nor a confrontationist, Spence was nonetheless excited by the changes occurring within women’s lives. At her 80th birthday celebrations she provocatively described herself as ‘a new woman’, referring to those who were sporting the outrageous new fashion and manners of the age. The elderly spinster playfully contrasted herself to these wayward figures, explaining, ‘I mean an awakened woman … awakened to a sense of capacity and responsibility, not merely to the family and the household, but to the State’. Spence well understood that her years of public service had challenged attitudes to gender and made ‘it easier for any woman who felt she had something to say to stand up and say it’. Her life recalls another red-haired South Australian who also migrated from the British Isles as a child, and who shares with Spence a passion for education, child welfare and the role of women in public life. As Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard travelled the paths blazed by Spence and blazed some of her own. Defying the fraught conditions of a minority government, she endorsed the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, encouraged investigation of the treatment of women in the Australian Defence Force and, on the last day of her leadership, pushed through the Gonski education reforms. Gillard attracted international acclaim for her speech condemning misogyny during which she demanded that the Opposition Leader explain why he condoned the genderbased hostility that assailed her leadership. Was it acceptable, she demanded, for the Opposition Leader to address media next to a sign that read ‘Ditch the Witch?’ Following the return of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister in late June, Gillard gave a dignified resignation speech that reflected upon the intersections between gender and politics in contemporary Australia. Like Spence, Gillard hoped that her leadership would make it ‘easier for the next woman and the woman after that.’ Unwilling to frame her experience entirely in terms of gender, she nonetheless suggested that ‘the nation’ might benefit from a ‘sophisticated’ consideration of ‘the shades of grey’, associated with gender. In her campaign to win Australian women the vote, Catherine Spence enjoyed the support of men and women who believed that female enfranchisement was vital to creating a more just society. Today, we are proud that South Australia led the way in making Australia was one of the most progressive 19th-century societies in the world. South Australia achieved this because women like Spence privileged policy over personality and politics, — justice, over gender. And, while they did so in different contexts, both Spence and Gillard might now be remembered as two South Australians who made their own distinctive and impassioned pleas for ‘a purer democracy’.

The Adelaide Review October 2013 21

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COLUMNISTS

Third Age It’s Time: For a New Party BY Shirley Stott Despoja

n the rare occasions that politicians mentioned “The Aged” in the recent election, it was clear that they didn’t have a clue beyond mentioning a granny in a nursing home (politician pulls long, sad face) or the “ageing population,” which to them meant hordes of old people about to suck up the nation’s resources (politician shows worried, put-upon face). I detected an occasional hesitation before a politician kissed a baby. In the UK, political writers are suggesting that politicians forget about kissing babies, who don’t vote, and “sidle up” instead to old people who do. Sidle up? Sidle off, I say. Let’s have a Party. We need The Old People’s Party. No “grey power” nonsense: if you start with a cutesy hair stereotype or a genteelism you won’t get the feisty old people we need to get this country moving on the increasing numbers of old people who are about to

make a bigger than ever contribution to our nation. Old People’s Party is strong and uncompromising. Old People’s Action Party might be better. It’s just the time to bring this up. People are moaning about the proliferation of small political parties, but it’s the ballot papers and the preference system that may need reform. The last thing we want is to quash the efforts of people in our lively democracy to express their needs by forming a political party. How about that political pundit fellow on Meet the Press on September 15, who was shocked that parties he’d “never even heard of” were on the ballot paper? Since when did you have to pass his test of acquaintance to stand for parliament? It sounded suspiciously like parliament is for “our sort of people”. The Old People’s Action Party should knock some sense into those who think the old are either a burden or taking up jobs that belong to the young. It is often thought that only volunteer work is appropriate to Third Agers. Think again. I was interviewed recently by a university researcher who is finding that old people can and do have jobs into their 90s. They just fly below the radar. If everyone were not obsessed with Alzheimer’s (which the young assume that you have the first time you forget their boring names), job-seeking by the old and fit would be common.

In July, The New York Times reported on studies in the UK and Denmark that showed that dementia rates among people aged 65 and older are falling – “sharply”. Experts claim the studies confirm what they had suspected but had had difficulty proving: “That dementia rates would fall and mental acuity improve as the population grew healthier and better educated. “The incidence of dementia is lower among those better educated, as well as among those who control their blood pressure and cholesterol… So as populations controlled cardiovascular risk factors better and had more years of schooling, it made sense that the risk of dementia might decrease.” And this, it is claimed, is now proven. It meant, said one Alzheimer’s researcher at Duke University, that the common assumption that every successive generation would have the same risk for dementia did not hold true. So society is going to have a whole lot of bright old things on its hands. And we learn this just when governments have not solved the problem of stashing hordes of mentally impaired old people away in suitable ghettos. Just when they were starting to work out how little they could get away with doing for the aged demented.

If everyone were not obsessed with Alzheimer’s (which the young assume that you have the first time you forget their boring names), job-seeking by the old and fit would be common.”

Dr Dallas Anderson, of the US National Institute on Aging said, “…we are beginning to see that more and more of us will have a chance to reach old age cognitively intact, postponing dementia or avoiding it altogether. That is a happy prospect.” But what are all these cognitively intact old people going to do with their days? Create and join their own political parties perhaps. Advocating jobs for all. Quotas of old people on boards and in universities and the cabinet... for a start. Sidle up, it’s going to be fun.

22 The Adelaide Review October 2013

WIN / MONTEFIORE

bullfighter. Directed and written by Pablo Berger. Stars Maribel Verdú, Emilio Gavira and Daniel Giménez Cacho.

SA Readers’ and Writers’ Festival 2013 Friday, October 25 to Sunday, November 3 Fear and Trembling

Circus Royale

The City of Onkaparinga is proud to present the seventh biennial South Australian Readers’ and Writers’ Festival 2013. The festival is a celebration of writing as a valuable form of cultural expression and seeks to remind us all of the simple pleasure of reading. Win one of two $50 vouchers thanks to Shakespeare’s Book and Coffee Shop in Port Noarlunga.

Bonython Park Friday, September 27 to Sunday, October 20

Transitions Film Festival

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

Candyfloss, a snow cone and a ringside seat... enjoy a best of British and Irish show with Circus Royale. From the genteel display of ponies, llamas and dogs to the thrilling fast juggling, fabulous acrobatics and motorbike acts – this show will have your kids sitting open-mouthed in wonder. No bullies and no bullwhips, just animals that are loved and responsibly kept.

Mercury Cinema Friday, November 1 to Sunday, 10

Fear and Trembling

The Transitions Film Festival is Australia’s largest solutions-focused sustainability film festival and is being held in Adelaide for the second time this year. The festival showcases powerful, inspiring and groundbreaking films, forums and events about the world’s transition to a sustainable culture.

Scott Theatre, University of Adelaide Saturday, October 19, 7.30pm

Monologue of a Deaf Woman

French actress Layla Metssitane presents her theatrical version of Amélie Nothomb’s bestselling novel Fear and Trembling in an exquisitely perverse and hilarious one-off performance at the Scott Theatre. The autobiographical story of young Amélie Nothomb as she embarks on a life-changing journey to Japan. In French with English surtitles.

A Story of Children and Film

Feast Festival, Queer Nexus Monday, November 11, 8pm Following on from their success at the Melbourne Midsumma Festival, director Medina Sumovic and performer Stephanie Linder present to you this powerful, awe-inspiring piece about life, love and the universe from a deaf gay woman’s perspective. Be moved and entertained by this theatre performance created for deaf and hearing audiences.

Piccadilly Cinemas  Sunday, October 20, 7pm A passionate, poetic portrait of the adventures of childhood. The Australian premiere of Mark Cousins’ A Story of Children and Film will close the 2013 Adelaide Film Festival, alongside the winners’ announcement of the Foxtel Movies International Award and the Flinders University Documentary Award.

South Australian Prize

GIVEAWAY

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

Blancanieves Selected cinemas From Thursday, October 24

This month’s prize is a carton of cider and an ice-bucket filled with goodies from Aussie Cider, worth over $200! Enter now at www.buysouthaustralian.com.au

A twist on the Snow White fairy tale set in 1920s Seville and centered on a female

MONTEFIORE The history of most of Adelaide’s ‘big buildings’ usually emerges in hindsight, but in the case of the currently expanding Adelaide Convention Centre, an already acknowledged dog of a design is rising from the ground.

BY Sir Montefiore Scuttlebutt

hen is a rock really a dog? When it’s the government’s newly expanded monolith – and that’s expert advice. In mid-winter when everyone was hunkered down in footy land, Town Hall planning experts quietly assessed a revision of the Convention Centre’s expansion plans. It’s Stage 1 of the government’s grand Riverbank proposal, and the assessment might even now be seen to be a harbinger of things to come. There are significant reservations, but by the time it gets into the rarefied atmosphere of highlevel approval, that won’t be a hurdle. Most big government plans get little criticism by government-nominated assessors. The $139.97 million Convention Centre plan will feature more exhibition and prefunction space and a new ballroom, and replace the existing Plenary building with a 3500-seat auditorium. It also will create a landscaped plaza. Capacity will rise to 6000 and meeting room numbers to 28, enough to squeeze in 3150 visitors – or 1000 delegates in one big party room if an event demands it. Big is beautiful? Actually, fear of failure is the driving force. “The Adelaide Convention Centre is now the smallest and most limited of the major Australian venues, and without expansion is at risk of losing major events and as such the state is at risk of losing the associated economic benefit of hosting those events,” says the plan’s executive summary. It explains why a broke government has opened the wallet and is splurging. But the expansion is fraught with poor design ideas. This is despite the original brief, which demanded “appropriate scale; community ownership; changeable public uses [that are] authentic. Locals must want to go there.” Town Hall assessors’ comments were scathing, describing the concept as ‘largely solid and rock like’. They listed: Built form harmony with other local buildings: “Questionable”. Ground floor ‘activation’: “There is much room for improvement.” Utility: “Open spaces should be more responsive to human scale and comfort.”

Microclimate: “Substantial areas of hard surfaces and lack of shelter may result in ... no refuge from rain. ... There may be significant wind tunnel effects, not being addressed. Landscaping proposed will not provide areas of shade and shelter for users. ... Although the plaza space will be capable of use for entertainment, does not allow unrestricted public access ... the Plenary building will not provide a sense of address and image to the public spaces that is interactive or welcoming to pedestrians ... the current pedestrian connection from North Terrace through to the river is not readily legible visually or physically. ... The amended design will not improve the current situation. ... The Plenary building does not complement the adjacent buildings. ... It will present as a monolithic structure on the plaza landscape without the human scale called for in the development plan. ... the removal of glazed areas has had the effect of increasing the rock-like appearance ... and will present to pedestrians ... as a solid monolithic form. [The amended plan’s] success relies on pedestrians perceiving that they have ‘permission’ to walk through the building [to get to the river] and not seeing the closed doors as a barrier.” In summary, it was a damning assessment. And the icing on the cake? The development application was ‘Category 1’. It meant no public notification was required, allowing no public input. It meant that no-one within government had the slightest interest in what South Australian taxpayers thought. And they’re the ones paying for it. It’s an ominous sign for the future of the ‘Riverbank vision’, because if a development of that cost, size and design is exempt from public comment, every other proposed building – including a mooted 30-storey casino building on the Festival Centre plaza – will be classified the same. It means that the government’s much vaunted billion-dollar redesign of Adelaide’s Riverbank is a hands-off game for the people paying for it – the owners of the park lands on which this building sits. That’s a deeply symbolic gesture as the state election looms.

The Adelaide Review October 2013 23

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Norwood Place Parades on Norwood Parade

GILLES STREET MARKET Sunday, October 20 10am to 4pm 91 Gilles Street, Adelaide gillesstreetmarket.com.au For fab vintage and pre-loved fashion including the latest from local emerging designers, check out the Gilles Street Market. DJs spin the tunes alongside delicious food vendors and over 90 stalls of fashion and accessories.

A Night of Fashion Adelaide’s premiere fashion event, Honda Presents A Night of Fashion, dazzled a soldout crowd at the Art Gallery of South Australia on Saturday, September 7. With new season designs from renowned Australian designers including Carla Zampatti and Akira, a stunning array of dresses and accessories were paraded through the art gallery’s historic Elder Wing. For a unique look at the event, photographer James Hartley shot some behind the scenes action of one of the most important dates in the Adelaide fashion calendar.

Presented by the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters, sponsored by Norwood Place Sunday, October 20 (10-4pm) The Parade, Norwood (George Street to Edward Street) The Parade, Norwood is home to some of Adelaide’s best fashion retailers and independent boutiques, which will come together to showcase the latest spring/summer trends for 2013. A great day out for all to enjoy, Norwood Place Parades on Norwood Parade will feature fashion parades, competitions, a catwalk side high tea (tickets $45), live entertainment and much more! Go to adelaidefashionfestival.com.au to buy tickets for the high tea.

Rundle Mall Spring/ Summer 2013 Fashion Parades Friday, October 25 (12.30, 1.30, 5 and 7pm) Saturday, October 26 (12, 1 and 2pm) Gawler Place Canopy, Rundle Mall rundlemall.com Rundle Mall – The revival of cool. With over 175 fashion boutiques, 15 arcades and centres, four leading department stores and unique laneways, Rundle Mall has fashion covered. Race into Rundle Mall for free fashion parades featuring new season looks including 60s Mod, beautiful boho and sporty chic, exclusively from Rundle Mall retailers.

SPRING EDITION OUT NOW

F A C E B O O K . C O M . A U /A T T I T U D E F A S H I O N M A G A Z I N E

Fashion Rendezvous

FASHION

24 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

BOOKS recently-dead aunt’s Fitzroy apartment, located in the real-life Nicholson Street block named Cairo, is entry to a bohemian world of artists and outsiders that centres on his neighbours, the strangely intense musician Max Cheever, his wife Sally and their part in the plot to steal the painting. It’s a world that is slightly, even dangerously, off its hinges. Not everyone is exactly what they claim to be. Somewhere between his youthful arrival and the greyer mood of his middle-aged present as an author, Tom picks up a formality of voice that colours his ‘memoir’ with the tint of pomposity. He remembers, for example, that he ‘quells’ his embarrassment, ‘discerns’ the identities of the voices outside his door, and ﬁnds potting herbs to be an ‘arduous labour’.

CAIRO Chris Womersley / Scribe

BY DAVID SORNIG

Given Chris Womersley’s attachment in his first two novels, The Low Road and Bereft, to the criminal end of Australian literary fiction (or is it the literary end of Australian crime fiction?) it seems only natural that his third, Cairo, should take on the story of the most artful crime in this country’s history: the stillunsolved 1986 theft and return of Picasso’s Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria.

These exaggerations set me to worry that Womersley had fallen short in ﬁnding the right note for the older, knowing Tom as he tells the story of his naïve past. Exaggeration suggests a mask, and here the device sometimes bars the reader’s access to Tom’s deeper emotional places. For some part of the novel, while Tom is a participant in the events at Cairo, he seems not to be invested in them. The double distance tends to render the events as interesting rather than moving.

While Cairo isn’t the ﬁrst novel to deal with the heist (Anson Cameron’s Stealing Picasso beat it to the post back in 2009), it has great fun riding on the back of a not-exactly hardboiled, but still intrigue-ﬁlled plot that plugs the gaps that remain between the publicallyknown facts of the story.

But what really lifts the novel is its plot, which, even in its more unlikely moments (and there are a couple) is the clear winner over its style, and by the end of the story Tom comes to learn some hard lessons about love and trust. It’s these that drive him to come out with some classic hardboiled, and ﬁnally revealing one liners. ‘Sally Cheever:’ he remembers, plaintively, ‘I loved her from the time I ﬁrst saw her, and for the rest of my life, but I loved her most intensely on that afternoon.’

Seventeen year old Tom Button escapes to Melbourne from country town Victoria (with its ‘beer-swilling, ute-driving football players called Macca and Robbo’) looking for a bigger world he can belong to. What he ﬁnds, in his

It’s a good hint that Womersley is much more in control of Tom Button’s voice than I had ﬁrst given him credit for. After all, like Tom, he’s an author making the most of the tall tale he has to tell.

Friends of the University of Adelaide Library

Hannah Kent Burial rites

In this talk, Hannah Kent will discuss her debut novel Burial Rites, and the true events surrounding Agnes Magnusdottir (the last person to be executed in Iceland), on whose story the novel is based. Hannah will share how she first came to hear about Agnes and the crime of which she was convicted, and why Hannah felt compelled to write her story. She will also speak about Iceland, and discuss how this extraordinary country continues to provide creative inspiration. Hannah is the co-founder and publishing director of the Australian literary journal Kill Your Darlings, and is completing her PhD at Flinders University. In 2011 she won the inaugural Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award. Thursday 31 October 2013 at 6.00 for 6.30pm Ira Raymond Exhibition Room, Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide Bookings by Tuesday 29 October 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

TSUNAMI AND THE SINGLE GIRL

THE SWAN SONG OF DOCTOR MALLOY

Krissy Nicholson / Allen & Unwin

Robert Power / Transit Lounge

BY FIONA O’BRIEN

BY WILLIAM CHARLES

At 29, Krissy Nicholson is no stranger to overseas travel, having spent three years backpacking to over 40 countries. Nothing however, could have prepared her for the next stage of her journey, when she recognises her calling as an aid worker in the developing world. After a year working for the Melbourne branch of Oxfam, she desperately wants to work in the ﬁeld, but wonders whether the nomadic lifestyle will mean losing hope of her other dream of meeting “Mr Right”. Arriving in Bangladesh, Krissy is quickly initiated into her new life of extremes, and love affairs, and for the next six years she searches for love (in what seems like all the wrong places) against the backdrop of adrenalin-fuelled emergency response in disaster zones spanning New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Uganda. As she confronts the myriad of physical, emotional and spiritual challenges thrown her way, she draws strength from the resilience of the human spirit she encounters each day, and rests her hope in the fact that by devoting herself wholeheartedly to her work, her love life just might fall into place when she least expects it.

Robert Power has returned, after his successful 2011 novel In Search of the Blue Tiger, with another finely calibrated novel that talks to the very concerns Power confronts himself, in his day job as Head of the Centre for International Health at Melbourne’s Burnet Institute. Here is the murky world of pharmaceutical research and the uses and abuses that spring from the very real ability to change lives that comes from specialised medical knowledge. But protagonist Anthony Malloy is more finely drawn – not just the cipher through which contemporary issues around drug use and preventative medicine are played, but also developed as a flesh and blood, vulnerable, anxious man, with a failing marriage, a complex child and troubled siblings. Power takes us, and Malloy, from London to south-east Asia, the USA and South America – a kind of Lonely Planet journey through drug and disease hotspots, without the voyeurism. This is another success not just for Power, but importantly too for small local publisher Transit Lounge, doing exceptional things with a very high quality list.

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THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 25

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BOOKS

A New Philosophy BY STEPHANIE HESTER

his year’s South Australian Readers’ and Writers’ Festival has had a subtle, but signiﬁcant, name change. According to SA Writers’ Centre director Sarah Tooth, the addition of the term ‘readers’ to the festival’s title reﬂects a shift in the event’s philosophy. Tooth, who has played an advisory role in the design of the festival, suggests its organisers have worked to “create an event that is as much about readers as writers. They’ve created a festival that offers a more community-based form of engagement, where there is an emphasis on not so much writing craft and workshops as on bringing writers and readers together.” Tooth sees the new focus of the festival providing all its participants – panellists and audience members – with a way to engage equally in important conversations about “how we read and why we read and what we think about those texts”. The compellingly-titled panel Tooth is chairing, ‘Dirty Little Secrets: Books Authors Don’t Want You to Know They Read’, certainly promises to

provide its audiences with revealing insights into the reading habits of some of South Australia’s and Australia’s most acclaimed authors, including David Cornish, Mark Dapin, Nick Earls, Victoria Purman, Tim Sinclair and Ruth Starke. While some writers might baulk at a request to air their dirty reading habits in public, Tooth is confident the panelists will enjoy the session as much as the audience will; she anticipates, for example, that Earls, who “can be very serious but also very light and engaging”, will set a “good tone” for the session, while Dapin, whose uncut interview with Gordon Ramsey remains defiantly posted on his website, will have a great deal to contribute on the subject of secrets. Tooth, who has previously served as the Artistic Director for the prestigious Ubud Writers’ and Readers’ Festival in Bali, has witnessed first-hand how liberating a panel session that focuses on reading can be for writers: “Authors at Ubud often told me they loved the fact they were participating in a Writers’ and Readers’ festival, because it felt less like they were just writers talking to writers about writing. It created a shift towards something that felt more inclusive.”

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN READERS’ & WRITERS’ FESTIVAL 2013 25 October – 3 November

This year’s South Australian Readers’ and Writers’ Festival offers a range of events designed to allow its audiences new and different ways to connect with writers and writing practice, ranging from the construction of an “exquisite corpse” to getting tips from social media experts about Twitter. Tooth sees such events as providing writers with alternative ‘spaces’ in which they can connect with audiences. She suggests writing festivals can put a kind of “pressure” on writers that artists working in other media may not encounter “because a writer is not like a dancer who is plying their craft or a visual artist who is drinking champagne while people are looking at their work. Your work is not with you when you’re a writer; it’s just you. This can be difﬁcult and confronting for authors, and they can struggle to engage with audiences. So people putting on writing events need to look at other ways to make that engagement work.” The level of success and recognition Tooth has achieved during her distinguished career can perhaps be attributed to her ability to navigate ever-changing arts and literary landscapes and consistently ﬁnd “other ways” to facilitate connections between writers and readers, practitioners and audiences. She is clearly an innovator who is also passionate about inclusivity and collaboration, and eager to encourage writers to consider how they “can engage in different ways around community

Authors at Ubud often told me they loved the fact they were participating in a Writers’ and Readers’ festival, because it felt less like they were just writers talking to writers about writing.”

stories and story sharing”. If her role in informing the innovative format of this year’s SA Writers’ and Readers’ Festival is anything to go by, we are heading towards an exciting new era of collaborative writing and cross-artform events in South Australia.

» The Adelaide Review is proud to be a Bronze Sponsor of the South Australian Readers’ and Writers’ Festival Friday, October 25 to Sunday, November 3 onkaparingacity.com/readwritefest

WHET YOUR LITERARY APPETITE! FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS Friday 25 October – Festival Launch, the Arts Centre, Port Noarlunga Saturday 2 November – Fun for families at Thalassa Park including the unveiling of The Magic Pudding public art work for Storybook Walk Sunday 3 November – Main festival day People’s Choice Award presentation Dirty Little Secrets panel discussion Nick Earls keynote address The Great Debate That everyone has a book in them Visit www.onkaparingacity.com/readwritefest for bookings & event details

STAY CONNECTED & JOIN THE FESTIVAL CONVERSATION

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26 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

VERDI AND THE HAND OF FATE BY GRAHAM STRAHLE

erdi may have been wrestling with his conscience when he wrote his darkest opera, La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny). The avowed, outspoken freethinker was paying for his sins, said the Church fathers, when he lost his beloved ﬁrst wife Margherita and their two children in quick succession. Then his second wife, the singer Guiseppina Strepponi, found out about a secret affair he was having with another soprano 20 years his junior, Teresa Stolz. That liaison in turn destroyed Verdi’s lifelong friendship with conductor Angelo Mariani, who had romantic claims on Stolz at the time. Embittered, Verdi was intent on breaking up their relationship until Mariani died 11 years later from cancer.

“I am the one who has sinned and I am condemned to live.” These could have been Verdi’s own words – he typically took all the blame and wore ‘survivor guilt’. But instead they are the ﬁnal utterances of Don Alvaro in Forza when, in the quiet of a monastery, he looks over his dying lover Leonora and her mortally wounded brother, Don Carlo, whom he has just fought in a duel. Out of despair he takes his own life. The messiest episode of Verdi’s life is thus re-enacted on stage with Alvaro, this ‘man of conscience’, serving as his alter ego. The message seems clear. Whether people are driven by love, loyalty, faith, jealousy or revenge, ultimately it makes no difference. Doom awaits us all. Forza certainly also seems to be one of the ﬁrst openly irreligious operas.

Verdi famously remark that religious people are “all mad”, and in the picture he paints, prayer and monastic seclusion are useless against the cruel, irrational hand of fate. So offended were Catholic sensibilities by this new opera that when it was staged in Milan in 1869, Verdi was forced to change the ending. Instead of killing himself, Alvaro falls to his knees and pleas for reconciliation with God.

REHEARSING FOR HEAVEN a cappella workshops

Black gospel and related styles for the beginner and the experienced singer with Tony Backhouse Singer and choir director

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North Adelaide Baptist Church Hall, 154 Tynte Street Sat Nov 2 Sun Nov 3

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The German Club, 223 Flinders Street, Adelaide Weekend pass (inc Fri) $160/$140 Bookings: Sandra 8336 4114 sandramyrtho@internode.on.net

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The Adelaide Review October 2013 27

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PERFORMING ARTS a crucifix create strong Christian iconography. Most audacious is their decision to lift one of the opera’s minor characters, the Gypsy fortune-teller Preziosilla, into central prominence. Normally she makes just two fleeting appearances, but in this production she is omnipresent, forever bobbing around the characters, mocking them and casting knowing looks. “She is the force of destiny,” says Yashchin. “The force has a body and she is it. She shows that we can’t escape our destiny. We may think we are choosing things, but actually we are not.”

Adelaide is in for a rougher ride of Forza del Destino than is usual. In this bicentenary year of his birth we get to see the original, raw version premiered in St Petersburg in 1862. Netta Yashchin, assistant director for State Opera of SA’s production in October, explains: “Verdi lost his family – his wife and children. The church blamed him for his sins and got him to change the ending. But we decided to

leave it as it was and stay with the St Petersburg ending. It says God doesn’t help anyone”. Yashchin is restaging for the Festival Theatre a new Opera Conference production by Tama Matheson that has already won much praise for its opulent staging and interpretative clarity. An enormous skull and death masks symbolise fate, while a towering statue of the Virgin and

This apparently insignificant fortuneteller links up the whole opera. In a complex, confusedly non-linear plot, “she explains everything that happens” says Yashchin. Preziosilla even changes the course of events. In the original story, as penned by the Spanish writer Ángel de Saavedra in his play Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino, Alvaro throws his pistol down in submission to Leonora’s father, Marquis of Calatrava, but it accidentally fires and mortally wounds the Marquis. In this production, the fortune-teller fires it. “The pistol shot is actually from her. We can visually see it,” says Yashchin. “Call it fate. Verdi certainly did.” “Some things we can control,” she says. “Leonora forgot that her brother Carlo was

out to kill her, not just Alvaro, after they ran off together. She runs to him when he’s injured, but he stabs her. Had she remembered, she might have been alright. How much we realise depends on our ability to reflect.” Do the characters deserve their miserable demise? Are they being punished for their misdeeds? No, thinks Yashchin. “Verdi thought they didn’t deserve their fate any more than his wife and children didn’t deserve to die. In the end, it is about Karma and human cruelty, which is around us in every society. Verdi is telling of how tragic this is. You can hear it in the music. There is so much reflection in his music, such deep melancholy running through it. It is almost Russian, like Dostoevsky – really emotional.” For this production, the much-admired Nicole Youl takes the role of Leonora, Rosario La Spina is Alvaro, and Michael Lewis is Carlo. Andrea Licata is conductor and Timothy Sexton chorus master.

»»La Forza del Destino Festival Theatre October 12, 15, 17, 19 (7.30pm) saopera.sa.gov.au

International Concert Season 2013 Don’t miss enchanting soprano Sara Macliver and the finest period instrument orchestra in the world perform glorious baroque and classical music by Handel and Purcell.

WedneSday 6 november 7.30pm adelaide Town Hall To book tickets call 131 246 or visit bass.net.au | musicaviva.com.au/AAM

28 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

The music never stops

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BY LACHLAN AIRD

keitH creLLin conDUctor A riveting finale to a year of extraordinary concerts and music-making! including Wagner’s Prelude to tristan and isolde, Britten’s Les illuminations, and in three dramatic movements Lutoslawki’s masterpiece concerto for orchestra.

Monologue of a Deaf Woman

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fter a successful run at Melbourne’s MidSumma Festival, Monologue Of A Deaf Woman comes to Adelaide for a run at November’s FEAST Festival. The Adelaide Review interviewed the director, deaf artist Medina Sumovic, to discover more about the production. Monologue Of A Deaf Woman gives an insight into the world of a deaf, gay woman through its sole performer, Stephanie Linder. The production aims to convey an “awe-inspiring piece about life, love and the universe from a deaf woman’s perspective”. Sumovic is confident that Linder’s personal experience makes her perfect for the role. “She is not only deaf, but is deaf!” Sumovic explains. “Stef is from a deaf family and has deaf siblings. She attended an (integrated) deaf school and is a proud and conﬁdent lesbian as well.” The production allows for both deaf and hearing communities to understand the importance of sexuality within the deaf community, which Linder has had to personally overcome. The production tracks from when Linder’s character ﬁrst discovered her sexuality and follows

through to when she ﬁrst came out to her family. “Within the deaf community everyone knows everyone and for Stef, coming out was not an easy thing to do. Her ‘hearing’ grandmother found out [about her sexuality] from teachers and other people who see the work.” The production came after Sumovic directed Linder in last year’s Silent Monologues, which created a new format for performing to both deaf and hearing audiences. This was achieved by the four deaf women using Auslan – the language of the deaf community – along with interpreters for the hearing audience. After this concept proved successful, Linder and Sumovic tackled Monologue Of A Deaf Woman, with Linder performing in Auslan along with a shadow interpreter. Despite this, Sumovic, who is also deaf, is still worried about whether the work will translate for hearing audiences. “I think that is my biggest fear, because I want to try and entertain everybody equally – it’s not easy to present a ‘deaf’ show to a hearing audience. Sometimes you have to

be deaf to understand, but hearing audiences will be able to ‘get’ it.” Sumovic became a director just two years ago and admits she is still “very new to it”. This comes off the back of working for 15 years with the Australian Theatre Of The Deaf and other theatre companies in Sydney and Melbourne as an actor. Bringing the show to Adelaide for FEAST is an exciting prospect for Sumovic. “[I am most looking forward to] meeting other artists in Adelaide and showing this work to the community. The deaf community rarely get access to deaf theatre, seeing deaf performers and directing with deaf understanding, rather than via the interpreters.” Following Silent Monologues and Monologue Of A Deaf Woman, you can expect a continuing working relationship between Sumovic and Linders. “Stef has many hidden skills that she is not aware of! Once she is on stage she has an amazing presence and performs so naturally. I will deﬁnitely continue to work with her. Her ﬂexibility and input is always wonderful.”

» Monologue Of A Deaf Woman Queer Nexus Monday, November 11 and Tuesday, November 12 feast.org.au

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ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

PERFORMING ARTS

Barossa Blues

plays with The Eagles. Blues in the Barossa, which will have on-site camping, food, beer and wine stalls, family entertainment, a craft market and a pop-up art gallery, will also have a stage for up and coming blues performers.

The inaugural Blues in the Barossa will take place at the historic Seppeltsfield Winery in Tanunda across three days from Friday, November 8. Over 40 acts will take part from across Australia as well as American guitarist John Earl Walker.

BY ROBERT DUNSTAN

“

I guess some local players must have put in a good word for me,” Walker laughs from home in New York where he is a member of that city’s Blues Hall of Fame. “I was coming down [to Australia] in November anyway for my ﬁfth tour so it also made sense to play the festival. I have a few friends who live in the Barossa and know the area.” Walker, who ﬁrst picked up a guitar back in the early 60s, had a taste of fame in the late 60s and early 70s when he was guitar player with

John Earl Walker

the band Plum Nelly which performed with artists such as Bo Diddley, BB King, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, Savoy Brown, John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, The Faces, Joe Cocker, Dr John, Muddy Waters and Terry Reid at the now defunct New York City club Ungano’s. Plum Nelly was quickly signed to Capitol Records for whom they recorded one album, the six-song Deceptive Lines, and which featured Elvis’ vocal group The Sweet Inspirations, although success did not come easily. “We’d been signed by Capitol’s president but he soon moved on and they didn’t quite know what

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to do with us,” Walker recalls without any hint of bitterness. “So we did the album but then didn’t get any tour support. And we were a blues-based band but the producer, Ken Cooper, wanted to turn us into a progressive rock group. “But we did have some good experiences. We went to lots of parties and met some really interesting people – most who are still playing these days and reaping the rewards, although a few did fall by the wayside. And we had some interesting times because Plum Nelly played with a lot of great people including The James Gang at Carnegie Hall,” the guitarist says of the group that had featured Joe Walsh who now

“I think Australian players have a different take on the blues,” Walker reasons, “and the really good players have quite a unique sound. Maybe that comes from learning from records as the English players like Eric Clapton did. You can pick it pretty quickly, but it’s a nice thing that there are a lot of different Australian blues groups doing different things.” Walker, who has just issued a new recording, Go Wild!, concludes by hinting it’s likely he’ll jam with Adelaide guitarist Chris Finnen during the festival. “Oh, I’m pretty sure that’ll happen,” he laughs, “because I’ve played with Chris before.”

» Blues in the Barossa Seppeltsfield (Tanunda) Friday, November 8 until Sunday, November 10 bluesinthebarossa.com

state theatre company of South Australia

2014 season tickets on sale now statetheatrecompany.com.au

30 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Adelaide Festival Centre present

Britten 300 MUSICIANS ON STAGE TWO ORCHESTRAS THREE SOLOISTS MASSED CHOIR War Requiem is Benjamin Britten’s hugely powerful response to the horrors of war. “My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. All a poet can do today is warn…” Wilfred Owen Inscribed on the title page of War Requiem

Benjamin Britten

Arvo Volmer CONDUCTOR Dina Kuznetsova SOPRANO Andrew Staples TENOR Marcus Farnsworth BARITONE Adelaide Symphony Chorus Young Adelaide Voices

Saturday 2 November

Sons And Mothers.

Sons And Mothers No Strings Attached, a contemporary, Adelaide-based theatre company that creates work through the perspectives of its disabled performers, enjoyed a successful Adelaide Fringe season in 2012 with Sons and Mothers.

8pm FESTIVAL THEATRE

THE PIANO BAR WILL REMAIN OPEN AFTER THE PERFORMANCE – JOIN US FOR A DRINK AND POST SHOW ENTERTAINMENT.

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

Artists and program subject to change without notice

BY ROBERT DUNSTAN

he play, which has been written, devised and directed by Alirio Zavarce, picked up three Fringe awards during its 2012 premiere and is now returning to the stage. “It’s a real thrill to be putting it on again,” No Strings Attached’s Artistic Director PJ

Rose says. “We have also added a new cast member, Joshua Campton, an Aboriginal Chinese fella from Darwin. He’ll just be part of the ensemble, but it’s a lovely way to introduce him to a professional stage experience. And it’s such a lovely piece of theatre because it makes people very happy yet they often leave the theatre crying.” Sons and Mothers is an entertaining yet poignant look at six men and the relationship with their mothers, who are shown on ﬁlm. The seeds of the play were sown when Zavarce returned to Adelaide after visiting his mother in his homeland of Venezuela. “That was in 2005,” Rose explains, “and it was such an emotional experience for him. Alirio has an older brother who has been blind since infancy due to a horrible accident, so that has really affected his attitude and understanding of working with No Strings Attached. Alirio was also very moved by the company’s actors’ understanding of his own situation. “But it did take a while for the play to become a reality and was then in development for two years after that,” she adds. Sons and Mothers, which will likely tour interstate in 2014, had its premiere season at the Old Queen’s Theatre, but its forthcoming run will take place at Adelaide Festival Centre’s Space Theatre.

“We had built the show for the environment of Old Queen’s Theatre which, in itself, is so full of memories with its crumbling old walls,” Rose says, “but it will now be good to restage it in a more conventional theatre. We won’t be replicating exactly what we did for the premiere season and will drape the walls so it will be a more theatrical production.” A feature film of Sons and Mothers using the same title has also been made by Adelaide’s POP Pictures and will premiere as part of Adelaide Film Festival in October. “Chris Houghton (filmmaker) had approached No Strings in about 2004 to say he would really like to do something with us,” Rose says. “But it wasn’t until 2009 when we did one of the very first workshops for Sons and Mothers and from where a lot of the ideas came, that it happened. From 2010, using two cameras, everything we did was filmed. But the finished film hasn’t turned out like we thought it would. We thought it would be a documentary about the making of the play. It’s actually become a film about the sons themselves so you really get to know them. It’s very beautiful.”

» Sons and Mothers Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre Thursday, October 17 until Saturday, October 26

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PERFORMING ARTS

The Dames The Dames are a Melbourne-based group featuring Clare Moore on drums and vocals, Kaye-Louise Patterson on piano, vocals and flute and Rosie Westbrook on bass, augmented for live performances by Dave Graney on guitar and Will Hindmarsh on synthesiser.

BY ROBERT DUNSTAN

hey have just released a self-titled album and are in touring mode that will bring them to Adelaide in early November.

Clare Moore, who hails from Adelaide and who worked with Sister Janet Mead in the early 70s – she has some fond and interesting memories of that time – says The Dames came about when she worked on a solo album by Patterson and loved the way it sounded with two female voices. “I’d started playing drums with Kaye when she put out an album called International Traveller and we had the idea I could do some of my songs in her band. So The Dames came about that way because we liked the idea of having two vocalists to give it a different focus. And we originally had Adele Pickvance on bass but she moved up to Sydney. But we knew Rosie, who’s a bit of a gun for hire around Melbourne, due to her working with Mick Harvey. “While Kaye’s songs and mine are quite different, they do seem to complement each other really well,” Moore adds. English musician Barry Adamson, who is again playing with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, mixed the album, which boasts such guests as Ash Naylor of Even as well as guitarists Matt Walker and Craig Pilkington. “I knew Barry from his days with (UK band) Magazine and he’d also played with one of the original Bad Seeds’ line-ups which Dave

The Dames

(Graney) and I had supported a few times as The Moodists,” Moore reveals. “He’s a pretty friendly chap and he did some production for Dave Graney & The Coral Snakes many years ago and then asked Dave to do the liner notes for his ﬁrst solo album, Moss Side Story. “So The Dames got to support Barry when he last toured Australia and after seeing us, he asked if he could work with us. He loved it and was side of stage all night with a big smile on his face. So we were pretty happy about that. We did the modern thing by sending the ﬁles to him by Dropbox. “It all happened just before Barry was asked to rejoin The Bad Seeds, so it was good because otherwise it may not have worked. And I don’t think Barry has actually re-surfaced again since playing with them.” The Dames’ 10-song album includes a cover of the John and Beverly Martyn song Auntie Aviator. “It’s from their early 70s album Road to Ruin, and I’d started doing it a while ago but it always goes down well,” Moore says. “There’s also another song from that same album, Primrose Hill, that we do as well.”

» The Dames Wheatsheaf Hotel (Thebarton) Sunday, November 3 from 4pm

32 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

Songs by the Seaside

If your weekend is already booked out, there are special events that give a taste of the festival. At midday on Sunday, Wheatsheaf regulars the Adelaide Ukulele Society will kickstart the free concert on the Foreshore Reserve. Rockabilly Mayhem on Monday afternoon, featuring The Lincolns, The Villenettes and more, promises to be a party. The four-day event does more than just offer stages to local acoustic acts though: workshops help artists meet and work with each other too.

BY ILONA WALLACE

he Semaphore Music Festival is ready to launch into its ninth year. The beachside event spans four days over the October long weekend and the program is crammed with local acts.

A ukulele workshop (from 2.30pm on Sunday, October 6 at The Fed) will be directed by the Adelaide Ukulele Appreciation Society. If their midday performance impresses, then this is a good way to get some handson instruction. There’s also the Semaphore Songwriters Session, which last year resulted in a compilation CD.

Creative Producer Debra Thorsen explains the origins of the festival, and says that it is a great way to support Adelaide’s live music scene. “The Semaphore Music Festival began as an original alternative country, roots and blues music festival,” she begins. “It has always been eclectic, inclusive, hybrid and diverse, reﬂecting the state of the SA contemporary live music sector. The nu-folk, acoustic direction developed through community consultation with artists and music lovers.”

Max Savage

Doing their best to showcase as many alternative country, folk, blues and roots musicians from the state, Semaphore Music Festival has ended up with an impressive 60 performers from right here in SA. Some acts, like The Satellites and Glenn Skuthorpe, played at the inaugural event and have come back

for more. Old favourites the Milky Bar Kids and The Saucermen will make a one-night appearance, with new talents (Max Savage & The False Idols, The Timbers, Sam Brittain and Lily & The Drum) adding youthful ﬂair to the weekend.

“Acoustic singer-songwriters and folk artists tend to embrace this type of project even though it can be a challenge,” Thorsen says. “Working to a deadline, then performing the original composition and - on top of that - talking about the song to a live audience, can be daunting to some. None the less, amazing songs have come out of the project and the performances are emotive and cathartic. Audiences really appreciate the up close and personal factor.” Community radio has also taken the chance to touch base with their loyal audience; 3D Radio 93.7FM will close out the event with a live broadcast of their Monday night open-mic show, the Hillbilly Hoot. The west end of town has really embraced the event, with venues spanning the Foreshore Reserve, the Palais Hotel, the Semaphore Workers Club and even the local RSL. “Many of the venues hosting events over the weekend say it’s the biggest revenue raiser of the year,” Thorsen says. “Many visitors return because they have enjoyed the atmosphere and event.” Thorsen leaves us with a message to not forget the western suburbs when we think about the live music scene. Semaphore, ‘the St Kilda of Adelaide’, is encouragement to head outside the CBD when seeking live entertainment. “I believe the live music talent and scene here is potentially as good as anywhere,” Thorsen says. “It’s the cultural cringe factor and inferiority complex that needs to shift. Some people in high places seem to think music from the eastern states and elsewhere must be better than homegrown. It ain’t necessarily so.”

» Semaphore Music Festival Friday, October 4 to Monday, October 7 semaphoremusicfestival.com

The Adelaide Review October 2013 33

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PERFORMING ARTS

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

Angela Hewitt

Mark Gasser

Vere (Faith)

Italian Film Festival

Adelaide Town Hall Thursday, October 10 musicaviva.com.au

Elder Hall Friday, October 11 recitalsaustralia.org.au

Dunstan Playhouse Saturday, October 12 to Saturday, November 2

Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas Tuesday, October 22 to Monday, November 11 italianfilmfestival.com.au

The greatest Bach pianist of our time will perform Bach’s infamous The Art of Fugue as well as Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 31 for a special celebration of Hewitt’s skill in performing the German master composers.

Perth-residing English pianist Mark Gasser takes on French composer Olivier Messiaen’s 20 Contemplations on the Infant Jesus for Recitals Australia.

The State Theatre Company presents a world premiere of John Doyle’s (Two Men and a Tinnie, Changi) latest, Vere, in this co-production with the Sydney Theatre Company, which tackles the big questions with humour.

The annual celebration of Italian film returns to the Palace with a remarkable program featuring the latest from Il Divo and This Must be the Place director Paolo Sorrentino, The Great Beauty, as the opening night film and which closes with Fellini’s classic Roma.

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34 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

Foxtel Movies International Award for Best Feature Film — bold storytelling, innovative ways of engaging audiences, distinctive uses of the medium and courage in creative risk-taking.

HOW I LIVE NOW AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE Directed by Kevin Macdonald Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void) elicits fine, restrained performances from his cast (including Saoirse Ronan, one of the hottest young actors in the world right now) in a moving story of a young woman’s attempt to reclaim the space of youthful hope in a world gone suddenly wrong.

BAS TA R D S Directed by Claire Denis “Claire Denis at the height of her

STILL BILL At 63, dapper journeyman English actor Bill Nighy is in more demand than ever with 11 films in two years including About Time, which features his latest scenestealing performance for Richard Curtis.

powers.” Hollywood Reporter BY DAVID KNIGHT

“one of the leading chroniclers of 21st-century France.” The Guardian

The brother of a woman whose family has been destroyed by a corrupt loan shark begins a cold-blooded seduction of the villain’s wife.

THE SELFISH GIANT Directed by Clio Barnard “Heartfelt and passionate… this is a heart-wrenching movie.” The Guardian Winner, Best European Film – Cannes

This loose adaptation reimagines Oscar Wilde’s famous fairy story in Ken Loach country – a northern England housing estate. Hailed as a triumph at Cannes, this major work of intensely observed realism has critics singling out Barnard as a the most important new talent in British cinema

FULL PROGRAM ONLINE AND ON SALE NOW adelaidefilmfestival.org

1 0 — 2 0 O CTO B E R

“

It seems that way,” Nighy comments on being in more demand than ever. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate throughout my working life that I’ve mostly had a gig. I’ve been accused of being a workaholic, which I always get very defensive about, which almost certainly means they’re right. My defence, not that I need a defence, is that most people go to work every day. Love Actually did change everything. It changed the whole nature of my career. I owe Richard Curtis [Love Actually’s writer and director] an enormous debt but prior to that I generally did go to work all the time.”

Play). About Time is Nighy’s third cinematic collaboration with Curtis, the writer of Blackadder, Notting Hill and The Boat That Rocked. It is another very Curtis English romantic comedy in the Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill vein. The early-revealed twist that separates it from the rom com norm is that all the men in Nighy’s family can time travel.

Before starring as the aging rocker in Curtis’ Love Actually, Nighy was best known to international audiences for a similar role in Still Crazy, a comedy about ex-rockers who decide to get the band back together. His career in theatre and English television stretches back to the late 70s. A good friend of playwright Sir David Hare, Nighy was a Hare regular, as well as generating acclaim for his National Theatre and West End performances and for his role in BBC’s The Men’s Room.

“I liked the simplicity of the basic suggestion, which is something we all struggle with, which is how to get the most out of your day without regretting yesterday or worrying about tomorrow,” Nighy says. “It sounds like a simple thing but it’s actually incredibly hard to pull off. As I’ve been getting older, I think I’m more aware of time and you want to make the most out of every day.”

Since Love Actually, Nighy has made a career out of playing the most memorable character in a ﬁlm no matter how small the role, whether it’s comedy (Shaun of the Dead, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), drama (Valkyrie, Notes on a Scandal) as well as television (State of

About Time, which also stars Rachel McAdams and Domhnall Gleeson, celebrates the simple joy of spending time productively with family and loved ones.

Nighy connected with his character, a man who retired at 50 to spend more time with his family, and who used his time travelling power for seemingly humdrum activities: to read books and hang out with his son. “I love books. It’s my major hobby, well not

The Adelaide Review October 2013 35

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PERFORMING ARTS

I’m not one of those people who have to paint the garage. Not that I’ve ever painted the garage to be honest with you. I actually haven’t got a garage. But if I had a garage I wouldn’t paint it. I would get someone else to paint it.”

hobby; it’s my reward for everything else. It’s what I do. It’s my great pleasure. “I think it’s a radical thing, my character retiring at 50, to play more table tennis with his son. You don’t get prizes for it. You don’t get paid for it obviously and there’s no award ceremony for that. I think it’s radical and admirable. So I was drawn to that.”

“I think most actors are picky if they are in a position to be. I’m incredibly fortunate that I get to work with David Hare, Richard Curtis, Stephen Poliakoff and Tom Stoppard, what more do you want? They are some of the greatest writers currently working. I’ve been very fortunate. But I try and keep a certain level of quality control in place.” Given Nighy’s appreciation for quality writing, is there a book in him? “I procrastinate at an Olympic level. Nobody does it better than me. I have arranged not to put pen to paper for the whole of my life. That’s pretty good going – every day I get up and don’t write. It’s because it’s [writing] so dear to me. “You get to a certain point where you are encouraged by people to write a so-called story of your life. I’m not particularly interested in that kind of book really, if I could remember it, which I can’t. I wouldn’t feel quite comfortable, talking about myself to that degree. If you could make it funny, then that’s the only excuse you’ve got. I have no plans.” Would he collaborate with a writer on an authorised biography of his life?

“I’m quite good at just hanging around being unproductive. I don’t get guilty anymore if I get up late or if I do nothing but go to the bookshop or the coffee shop, I call that a day well spent. I’m not one of those people who have to paint the garage. Not that I’ve ever painted the garage to be honest with you. I actually haven’t got a garage. But if I had a garage I wouldn’t paint it. I would get someone else to paint it.”

“No. I don’t see the point of that. I know the point of that, which is to make some money. If there’s going to be a book it’s going to have to be as written by me, I think. I don’t know whether I’ve got it in me to sit down for that long and concentrate my mind. Who knows? When I get very old I might do that. I don’t want to write a book which starts, ‘I was born under the sign of Sagittarius on December the 12th...’ those books always make me want to lie down and you skip to chapter five to when they start work. The book I admired and really enjoyed was Bob Dylan’s book [Chronicles], which sort of starts nowhere. There are three episodes of his life, with no attempt at chronology and I dug it. It was like being caught on the train with someone very interesting.”

Hare said that Nighy has a nose for great writing, which means that even though the actor is in a lot of films, he is quite selective about the roles he chooses.

»»About Time opens on Thursday, October 17

Even though Nighy has been accused of being a workaholic, he admits he is good at “loafing”.

7.5pt Univers 57 Condensed

Blancanieves (Snow White) by William Charles

As the opening credits roll against a backdrop of the exquisite needlework of a bullfighter’s suit of lights, one senses this new Spanish film may be a treat. And it is, in every way. Director/writer Pablo Berger reworks the tale of Snow White into a starkly filmed, silent black and white tale of 1920s Seville – a Spain still very much divided into haves and a vast mass of desperately poor, illiterate have nots. This dreamy chiaroscuro serves the purpose of illustrating numerous of the hard-edged dualities in Spanish life, and suit the many bullfight scenes beautifully – a sport traditionally played out in light and shadow.

reminiscent of Dickens’ Great Expectations, with her crippled father, who comes to life and teaches her, from his wheelchair, the rudiments of bullfighting and cape work. When the stepmother discovers these secret trysts, she murders the father, and Carmencita flees her own attempted murder, falling in with a troupe of bullfighting dwarves. Carmencita (now re-named Blancanieves) excels at the sport, and the story proceeds until her day of apparent triumph, once again in the plaza where her father had been gored. Berger has taken many stylistic risks here, and one or two scenes fall short – a bad pun is poorly translated, and the apple eating is strangely out of sync with the overall aesthetic and folkloric narrative of the film, yet overall, this is an entertaining triumph and 90 minutes of exquisite filmography. And with its light and shadow, rampant beasts, stately pasodobles, complex social narratives, costumes, gallantry, manners, ambition and defiant choreography, Blancanieves helps to restore – certain contemporary doubters notwithstanding – the art and aesthetic of bullfighting to its rightful place as one of Spain’s great cultural contributions to the world.

When her legendary bullfighter father, Antonio Villalta, is gored in action, young Carmencita is still in her mother’s womb. Her mother dies in childbirth, and the nurse (Maribel Verdú) from the hospital marries her now paraplegic father. The waif goes first to live with her grandmother – Angela Molina playing the vivacious Andalusian grandmother to perfection – but, after she has a heart attack, Carmencita is packed off to live in a dank cellar at her stepmother’s home. Here she reacquaints herself, in scenes »»Rated M.

36 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

PERFORMING ARTS Knees (with Susie Porter), Jonathan auf der Heide’s Fog (with Dean Daley-Jones) and Claire McCarthy’s The Turning, with Rose Byrne, Miranda Otto and semi-bogan religious visions.

THE TURNING BY D.M. BRADLEY

Some have compared this 17-strong collection of intertwining shorts from a small army of Australian ﬁlmmakers to American efforts like Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, but this is even more challenging, loaded, and daring, and despite the darkness, funny (just like life, you might say). And so fearlessly Aussie too, in the best – and the worst – senses of the term.

Characters recur (like Vic and Gail Lang) and are played by (very) different actors as the timeframe sometimes alarmingly shifts, and many of the individual efforts here leave you wondering how they ﬁt together with the others and, occasionally, even what they actually mean. And there are standouts, especially the tales of desperation and regret (Warwick Thornton’s Big World, Jub Clerc’s silent Abbreviation, Robert Connolly’s Aquifier, Tony Ayres’ sadly sexy Cockleshell and Anthony Lucas’ melancholy Damaged Goods) and the entries that deal with characters too stubborn to surrender, including Ashlee Page’s On Her

Shaun Gladwell’s Family doesn’t quite click (could it be due to the improbable plot – or simply as it’s about sport?) and Yaron Lifschitz’s baffling, dance-classlike Immunity tries rather too hard to be enigmatic, but Justin (Snowtown) Kurzel’s semi-mockumentary Boner McPharlin’s Moll is near-perfection, and the Christmasset Reunion, featuring no less than Richard Roxburgh, Cate Blanchett and Robyn Nevin, is irresistibly amusing, while also saying something subtle yet profound about family and forgiveness. This is unusual set against the rest of the mini-epics here, with their protagonists haunted by wrongs they’ve wrought (as in David Wenham’s Commission) to the point that their lives are near-ruined, along with those of many of the people closest to them (as in Ian Meadows’ wrapping-up – or maybe not – Defender, in which the past is always there, and ready to strike).

RUSH BY NIGEL RANDALL

Looking for a great ﬁlm to see? Fan of Formula 1 racing? Not a fan? Doesn’t much matter really for in Rush, Ron Howard’s highly entertaining, virtuosic film, the director offers so much more than just hi-octane thrills and spills. He thankfully spares us from any such clichéd cinematic equivalents also. And while the race sequences are some of the best seen on ﬁlm, it’s the off-track drama that is most compelling.

» Rated MA

I N S P I R E D B Y A T RU E S TO RY

FOREST WHITAKER OPRAH WINFREY JOHN CUSACK JANE FONDA CUBA GOODING, JR. DAVID OYELOWO VANESSA REDGRAVE ROBIN WILLIAMS

“IRRESISTIBLE ENTERTAINMENT” THE NEW YORKER

ONE QUIET VOICE CAN IGNITE A REVOLUTION

COMING TO ADELAIDE THIS NOVEMBER FROM THE ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED DIRECTOR OF PRECIOUS WRITTEN BY DANNY STRONG DIRECTED BY LEE DANIELS

Howard and former screen writing collaborator Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) set an enthralling story of rivalry against the backdrop of the 1976 World Championship season. That year saw British driver James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) taunt and push one another to life threatening extremes in a sport, as Lauda tells us, “25 people start… and each year, two die.” He goes on to ask, “What kind of a person does a job like that?” It’s a statement telling of Lauda’s statistician-like approach and his methodical, disciplined work ethic. He treats driving as a job, a business based on a series of engineering problems and risks to be calculated. Hunt, all open-shirted chest and scruffy blond locks, is every bit his antithesis. His playboy ways were legendary (5000 women!) and although regarded as risky and unreliable by the moneymen, his natural abilities on the track were undeniable. The adversarial bond that begins years earlier in the lower divisions between the men develops over the years into mutual respect, albeit shielded behind constant jibes. The relationship plays out in truly captivating fashion thanks to the perfectly textured performances of both leads and Morgan’s intelligent, elegantly balanced script. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle frames the action beautifully, capturing both the era and inner machinations with wonderfully inventive camera work. Rush doesn’t just look amazing, it feels truly exhilarating in a way rarely sustained in cinema.

IN CINEMAS 31 OCTOBER » Rated MA

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VISUAL ARTS

Daniel Crooks 2009 Static No12.

DANIEL CROOKS BY JANE LLEWELLYN

his month the Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum of Art will be filled with the digital work of Daniel Crooks as part of the Art and the Moving Image program of this year’s Adelaide Film Festival. The main component of the exhibition is a site specific work supported by the Adelaide Film Festival Fund and Samstag. “For me I guess a commission like this is a really great opportunity to try something out and to work on a slightly more ambitious scale,” says Crooks. The work includes five screens, which will appear as one, concertinaed or folded into the space. Curator Gillian Brown: “Through these folds we will be able to get a sense of the real medium. Crooks’ medium is time itself. He is not just looking at the screen as a way of exploring

something. He is really harnessing that and trying to pull something from it.” Crooks adds, “It’s not really a sculptural thing but it has much more physical presence in the space than just being a picture or moving image on the wall.” Occupying a large area downstairs means the audience will be able to walk around the work extending the content of the video beyond the frame. “The real hope is that people will get a much stronger bodily sense of it by being able to move and navigate around the screen. They will get a sense of the actual dimensional boundary that is going on in the work,” explains Crooks. Much of Crooks’ works focuses on time and Brown says the new work “will be following that strand he has been working at where people are slipping in and out of time. Using the fold structure we will be able to follow that ourselves

Daniel Crooks Static No.19 (shibuya rorschach).

and get a real physical sense of time as he handles it.” Crooks adds, “Time is really my main material. I treat it as a physical medium and try to make it tangible and malleable. It’s all very time based and time consuming.” Upstairs will include a number of works by Crooks in what he describes as a little micro mini survey. The exhibition will include early works like Train #1 which has been reconﬁgured. “It is going to be across more screens than it ever has before. It will be quite a long installation. It’s a new rendition of an old work,” says Brown. The exhibition is an opportunity for

audiences to experience video work in the way it was intended. Crooks says, “You will get to see it on a really nice screen with big sound, in a dark space at full resolution, at full playback sound rate, the way it should be experienced an actual art experience as opposed to a laptop/ YouTube experience.”

» Daniel Crooks Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum of Art Thursday, October 10 to Friday, December 20 adelaidefilmfestival.org

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‘Field poppies’ by Gail Kellett

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38 The Adelaide Review October 2013

VISUAL ARTS

Dark Worlds

The premium art events from the Adelaide Festival and Art Gallery of South Australia will captivate and divide opinion during next year’s festival season. by Jane Llewellyn

Richard Grayson, curator of Worlds in Collision: Adelaide International 2014 has brought together a selection of artists from America, UK and Europe who are looking at a modelling of the world and interest that constituted the underground, the counter culture of the 60s and 70s. “There is a lot of interest at the moment in looking back at the last time there was a really optimistic transformative.” While a few details and inclusion of some artists are still being finalised the confirmed list is Benedict Drew (UK), Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige (LEB/FRA) - The Lebanese Rocket Society, Susan Hiller (UK), Paul Laffoley (US), Rä di Martino (ITA), Katie Paterson (UK)

Matthew quick accidental eMpires

and Fred Tomaselli (US). Instead of including a number of artists and only a snippet of their work Grayson has decided to include fewer artists and either a monumental work or a substantial body of work. He is hoping to create another world where people want to spend a lot of time immersing themselves in the work. “I am creating a little cornucopia of weird modellings,” explains Grayson. “All of which are linked by an interest or some sort of association with the underground, psychedelia, that time of experimenting with drugs when other ways of looking at the structures of the world was last a cultural force.” Take Hiller’s work Channels, for instance, made up of around 120 TV screens - the old non-digital, analogue ones. Most of the screens are blue or showing snow and Hiller has built up sound recordings of people talking about near-death experiences. She is looking at this idea of moving from the world of the living to the dead. “What you have is this great big blue glowing thing and all these voices. When it was shown in Matts Gallery in London, people were spending two hours in there,” says Grayson. Another artist, Paul Laffoley, looks at moving beyond the physical world. “It talks about this possibility of describing, understanding and controlling the universe and interacting with

Photo: Jenni Carter

hile the Adelaide Festival has gone annual the visual arts program is continuing a biennial approach to its programming and when you hear what’s in store for the 2014 Adelaide International and Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art you can understand why. Both boast an impressive lineup of artists and are well worth the wait. While the exhibitions will run simultaneously they are not necessarily connected by an overarching theme however both exhibitions take you to the edge - the Adelaide International to the point between worlds and the Biennial the edge before you slip into the dark side.

Caroline Rothwell Cascade (detail), 2013, UV stable structural PVC, 252.0 x 200.0 cm, courtesy the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne.

spinifex country 5 October - 8 December

21 september – 19 October 2013 www.hillsmithgallery.com.au

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

The Adelaide Review October 2013 39

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VISUAL ARTS

“I am saying that at the moment contemporary art is very much about a return to the narrative, a return to figurative art. It’s very much about a return to aesthetics.”

it. He makes these amazingly intense, large, really detailed works - you just go in and in and in,” says Grayson.

The Adelaide International is presented by the Adelaide Festival in collaboration with the Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, the Australian Experimental Art Foundation and South Australian School of Art Gallery (SASA) Gallery. Adelaide Biennial curator and director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Nick Mitzevich has chosen the title Dark Heart for the 13th instalment in what the gallery refers to as its hallmark event. “The Biennial attempts to take the pulse of contemporary art,” says Mitzevich. He purposely chose what he describes as a populist title allowing a broader appeal to audiences and making the exhibition more accessible. “I wanted a show that is very representational, very much about story telling. It is very narrative based so when you step into the exhibition it doesn’t matter what level of art knowledge you have - you might connect on any particular level,” explains Mitzevich. It has taken six months of travelling around Australia visiting artists’ studios for Mitzevich

Photo: Peter White.

The artists are linked by the idea “of pushing to the edge, moving from one world to another,” Grayson continues. “The artists are talking about the known and moving into the unknown.”

Susan Hiller Channels 2013. Courtesy of the artist Timothy Taylor Gallery and Ma.

to compile his list of 25 artists. While it could have been an immense list with the amount of talent out there, he wanted to bring together a group of artists who were storytellers. “I am saying that at the moment contemporary art is very much about a return to the narrative, a return to figurative art. It’s very much about a return to aesthetics. That’s the point I am making by this list.” It’s an impressive list showing the breadth of talent across the country. Some highlights include the collaborative work of Lynette Wallworth, Antony Hegarty (from Antony and the Johnsons) and Martumili Artists. Hegarty’s extraordinary voice combined with Wallworth’s cinematic view of the world and the women of Martumili and their song, their chant and their painting promises to be captivating. Julia Robinson will transform the Studio into what Mitzevich calls a sculptural intervention, which will set the tone for how the Studio will evolve

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in the future. As Mitzevich points out, you can’t have an exhibition titled Dark Heart without the queen of the dark side of life, Patricia Piccinini. Piccinini’s Skywhale, which graced the Canberra skies for their centenary and divided public opinion, will once again take to the skies as it flies over the city of Adelaide on the opening weekend of the Biennial and will be sure to grab everyone’s attention.

»»2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart Art Gallery of South Australia March 1 to May 11, 2014

10 days of art, entertainment and gourmet produce for you to enjoy

MOMENTARY Various South Australian Artists

ECLIPSE BOWLS

ALONE, TOGETHER... IN MEDIA RES Lara Baladi (Egypt)

designed and made in our metal design studio

THE PIXELATED REVOLUTION Rabih Mroue (Lebanon) 13 September – 20 October As part of the Adelaide Film Festival 2013 Contemporary Art Centre SA 14 Porter Street Parkside www.cacsa.org.au

Available online and in-store now! www.jamfactory.com.au

»»Worlds in Collision: Adelaide International 2014 Various venues February 27 to March 30, 2014

10–20 OCTOBER, 2013

40 The Adelaide Review October 2013

VISUAL ARTS Carrick Hill has always had a substantial collection of ‘old’, curiously interesting chairs. When Ursula and Bill Hayward built their house in the late 1930s they furnished it in styles, which broadly reflected the Georgian and Jacobean periods. This was significantly dictated by their decision to make extensive use of timber architectural paneling and fittings, which had been sourced from a demolished 16th century building, Beaudesert Hall in rural Staffordshire. Ursula took on the task of locating appropriate furnishings with enthusiasm and an informed eye.

by John Neylon

At least we have chairs to sit on. Luxury. Medieval hovel-dwellers were lucky to share a three-legged stool. As for a chair with a back! Nobility and gentry only. The lord of the manor invariably hogged the biggest chairs. Chair is not quite the right word. More items of substantial engineering looking as if built by proto-boiler makers. But into vernacular and court furnishing crept subtle touches of refinement; curved arms and legs and richly carved panel insets which lent expression to local artisans’ innate senses of humour and beauty.

ROYAL SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY OF ARTS INC.

T’Arts Collective

Travel Impressions

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

RSASA Members’ Spring Exhibition Till 6 October 2013 From the travels of artists - are a creative mix of paintings, textiles, sculpture, drawings, photographs, mixed media, all from RSASA Members Lidia Groblicka Retrospective (1933 – 2012) 13 October – 3 November An exhibition of Lidia’s prints, paintings & sketches. A well respected RSASA Fellow & Life Member, printmaker & artist. Many works from private collections with some for sale. Where: RSASA Gallery, Level 1, Institute Bldg, Cnr North Tce & Kintore Ave, Adelaide. 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.

carrickhill.sa.gov.au

An exhibition of Botanical Art

Gays Arcade (off Adelaide Arcade)

Apple tree life by Anna Small.

Home, woodblock print, by Lidia Groblicka (1993-2012)

Holiday Spot, Acrylic by Roe Gartelmann

ou’ve read it too. Chairs are killing us. Taking days if not years off our lives, some experts say. Office workers look away now because they are talking about you. Don’t think swapping to a saddle or kneeling chair will help. And please heed health and safety warnings about exercise ball whiplash. In the 80s I once worked in an office environment when really important decisions were made in a beanbag circle. Kicking off a clog was a sign that someone wanted to speak. I don’t remember any back problems then.

»»Are You Sitting Comfortably? Carrick Hill Continues until Sunday, November 24

Are You Sitting Comfortably? spearheads a creative initiative of Carrick Hill to refresh its collections and re-engage with the community. Parallel to this exhibition are two other projects; Looking Glorious which brings together a tight selection of still-lifes from the permanent collection and The Story Room showcasing ongoing research currently being undertaken by Carrick Hill guides and university interns. These are significant steps for Carrick in testing the waters of interpretive display and curation. Comfortably succeeds by focusing attention on the distinctive identity of solid oak furniture to the point where the eye is drawn to the characteristic features of each item and the imagination is stimulated by evident marks of usage to speculate on who once sat on this or that plank of wood. Persons who were inured, one might think, to lack of comfort. Or did their layers of clothing provide some relief?

Liz Wauchope is showing IPad & Mini iPad pouches. Hand photographic images and splendid painted and printed with an hand painted silks inspired by a original Vanessa Murphy Design. month in Rajasthan, India.

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

The result is that many fine individual and sets of furnishings including chairs, tables, sideboards, bookcases and beds became ‘part of the furniture’ at Carrick Hill. There they performed solid service supporting the elbows and backsides of the many luminaries and artists who were drawn into the Haywards’ social scene. As such they became part of Carrick Hill’s supporting cast of artefacts and interiors which conspire today to provide a real sense of life in the mid 20th century for not only the Haywards and their contemporaries but a post-colonial mindset hovering somewhere between a very down-under Adelaide and a ‘mother country’ on the other side of the world.

Looking Glorious is a clever strategy to get visitors who swan around the grounds to become curious enough to come inside. Thus, images of still-life paintings to be found hanging on the walls, are prominently displayed on panels which have been sited at various points in the garden where flowers and trees, depicted in the paintings, are wont to sprout and blossom. In committing to The Story Room, Carrick has joined the company of all kinds of museums, in Australia and elsewhere that have recognised the power of inviting visitors to bring or join in a narrative or two. The memory of the Haywards and their era, John Martins and all that an older generation of Adelaide folk still identify with, will fade in time. But stories if well told capture the imagination and reinvigorate the viewing experience as an engaging transaction between visitors and site rather than a passive and dutiful encounter.

Window display will run from 27th September to 25th October 2013.

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

www.tartscollective.com.au

Framing Nature

FREE ENTRY 10am – 4pm daily 2nd – 17th November 2013 North Lodge, Plane Tree Drive, Adelaide Botanic Gardens All Artworks for Sale The Friends of the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide Botanical Art Group Framing Nature: Natural History and Botanical Art ‘Eucalyptus kingsmillii’ by Sandra Johnston

Botanical art pressv3.indd 1

4/08/13 4:15 PM

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VISUAL ARTS

Veda BY JANE LLEWELLYN

hen Greenhill Galleries closed its doors earlier this year it was the end of an era. The gallery had occupied the location on the corner of Jeffcott Street and Barton Terrace West, North Adelaide since 1974 – initially run by Veda Swain before Russell Starke took over in 1998. Across town Tony Bond had also shut up shop at his Magill Road gallery, headed for the hills and was planning his next move. These events and a few other coincidences are what led Bond and a couple of like-minded individuals to come together to open Veda – a space that combines art and furnishings. Paul Swain, Veda’s son, ran Greenhill Galleries in Perth for 25 years, returning to Adelaide when it too closed its doors. He and

Bond always said they would do something together, whether it was pop up or art fairs, so when the building became vacant they thought - why not give it a crack? Paul Swain and Bond then invited Paul Gerard (who is big on midcentury furniture) and his sister Zoe Elvish, who is an interior designer, to come on board. “We thought we would give it a go as a collaborative. We are not in business together, we are just sharing the space,” says Bond. “It’s a nice bit of diversity and we are having a bit of fun setting it up and seeing where it all heads from there.” The idea of mixing furnishings and art is a trend Bond noticed overseas and is something we might see more of in the future as running a commercial gallery is becoming challenging. For Bond it combines his two great passions and is a return to his beginnings. “It comes from a long background in antiques, almost as long as in art. Antiques and the auction business are what got me interested in art.”

Bond believes that there is a lot of pressure on artists, especially the less established ones, when they hold a solo exhibition in a commercial gallery. He hopes Veda will offer an alternative to this. “I think we have something here where there is a lot less pressure on them. Where they can become part of a thing rather than be the thing.” The Veda team have reinvigorated the space and will continue its legacy as a creative hub. Bond adds, “I would be really proud to achieve here something that was sort of an honour to Veda Swain. She was one of the doyens of the early Adelaide and Australian art world. She was a well respected, brilliant gallerist.”

» Veda 140 Barton Terrace West, North Adelaide veda.net.au

42 The Adelaide Review October 2013

VISUAL ARTS

ANZANG 2013 by Christopher Sanders

ith his stunning photo of an osprey and spoonbill narrowly avoiding a mid-air collision, Western Australian photographer David Rennie won the 2013 Australia Geographic ANZANG Nature Photographer of the Year with his shot Near Miss.

the exhibition tours nationally. This is the fifth year that the South Australian Museum has hosted the popular annual competition and exhibition, which celebrates natural beauty through the eye of a photographer.

Rennie’s photograph, which has caused some debate about its authenticity, will be on display with the other winners (pictured) at the South Australian Museum from Friday, October 4 to Saturday, November 23 before

»»ANZANG South Australian Museum Friday, October 4 to Saturday, November 23 anzang.samuseum.sa.gov.au

Our Impact: Stuart Chape, Shipwreck, Solomon Islands

Interpretive: Julie Fletcher, Milky Way

S E M E S T E R S U N D AY R E C I T A L S An innovative program of Sunday afternoon concerts that brings together diverse cultural activities in a crossover of artistic endeavours.

Sunday 13 October 3:30pm

Chiaroscuro in Vocal Repertoire II Works by composers Mozart, Gounod, Dvorak, Schubert, Liszt et al. EMILY RAVENSCROFT

mezzo-soprano

KATE PRICE

soprano

MONIQUE WATSON

soprano

PENELOPE CASHMAN

piano

CHARLIE KELSO

mezzo-soprano

Adults: $20

U/S/P: $15

Bookings & Payment - trybooking.com Or by cash payment at the door where available 51 Wood Avenue Brompton SA 5007 Ph 08 8346 2600

ART SCHOOL & GALLERY P R O F E S S I O N A L I S M AT L E I S U R E

Art School Term 4 commences 16 October Botanical Subject: Raoul Slater, Fungi in mist

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 43

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

VISUAL ARTS

Animal Behaviour: Peter Lambert, King Penguins and reindeer

Portfolio and Animal Portrait: Andrew Peacock, Anyone seen a dentist?

Wilderness Landscape: Vincent Antony, Reflection of fire Overall Winner: David Rennie, Near miss Threatened Species: Lance Peters, Preening

Underwater Subject: Justin Gilligan, Pelican quarrel

Junior: Oliver Sekulic, Frog patterns

The Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize

Michael Bryant, The Purr Container (detail), acrylic paint on canvas, 100x76cm, photo L Downing

In the Nature of Things Michael Bryant

13 October - 3 November 2013 1 Thomas Street (cnr Main North Road) Nailsworth prospect.sa.gov.au

DON’T FORGET CLOSES 25 NOVEMBER All details: www.parklandsart.com

Black and White: John Van-Den-Broeke, Osprey early morning catch

44 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

VISUAL ARTS

The much-anticipated JamFactory satellite facility opens at Seppeltsfield in the Barossa Valley in November and the significant event will be something well worth celebrating.

BY LEANNE AMODEO

his year has been a suitably impressive one for the JamFactory. The organisation launched its new magazine, held a landmark exhibition, announced a sponsorship partnership with ANZ, continued its series of successful forums and appointed a number of new staff members. That the list could go on is one small measure of its numerous achievements and testament to its 40-year anniversary. Come November and its suite of activities expands exponentially. Next month sees the much-anticipated launch of the JamFactory’s satellite facility at Seppeltsﬁeld in the Barossa Valley. Located

in the former Stables building it will include a retail shop, exhibition gallery, studios and workshop spaces. “It’s the result of some fairly ambitious strategic planning,” says JamFactory CEO Brian Parkes. “We see the new facility as important in terms of reaching new audiences, but also for growing interest and demand in the area we work in.” It is a new opportunity for the JamFactory and Seppeltsfield to jointly explore the synergies between wine, food, cultural tourism and design. Both organisations have a robust heritage of fine craftsmanship and in this respect it seems a match made in heaven. “There is this strong association with quality

The Seppeltsfield village has the potential to become a regional cultural hub recognised at both national and international levels. In the meantime the facility will play a major role in continuing to drive tourism to the area through craft activity. Visitors will be able to walk through the building and see artists and designers at work, which makes for a ‘value-add’ experience. The idea is that people can engage with the artisans; see how a vase is blown, how a leather shoe is made or how a knife maker produces high-end chef knives, in much the same way visitors to Seppeltsfield are given insight into winemaking. They can also visit the gallery, which will present a minimum of four exhibitions in its annual program. The exhibitions will primarily be drawn from the JamFactory’s main program and this includes touring exhibitions from other organisations. As the facility becomes established its activities will grow to include an education and public program, which targets school groups and local audiences. In a strong show of connection with the JamFactory’s Morphett Street premises the architects of the new facility are the same ones who designed the city building. Grieve Gillet has embraced the adaptive re-use project by reclaiming materials, such as old marble slabs and timber, on the Seppeltsfield site and incorporating them into the renovation. This sensitive and respectful approach is befitting a winery whose heritage dates back to 1851 and which, to this day, remains the only winery in the world to release a 100-yearold vintage wine annually.

jamfactory.com.au seppeltsfield.com.au

BEtwEEN thE SEA & ME New works by Suzie Riley

29th Sept - 19th Oct “Observations and drawings made during daily walks, allow reality and reflection to merge, and provide the seeds of my studio work” 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

Antony Gormley, inside Australia 2002–2003. 51 sculptures

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

Go With The Flow by Suzie Riley

JamFactory in the Barossa Valley

and artisanal traditions,” says Parkes. “Activating the Seppeltsﬁeld village was something they had identified in their master-plan and because the JamFactory is interested in regional engagement there was a great meeting of ideas.”

The Adelaide Review October 2013 45

adelaidereview.com.au

A-Z Contemporary Art Co-option Consider co-opting an entire environment to your cause. Take a leaf out of English artist Antony Gormley’s book. This artist sited 51 figurative steel sculptures standing 10 square kilometres apart on a Western Australian salt pan, Lake Ballard. Forget big. This is vast. Just get out here and grab an unused lake or valley. Hint: Don’t forget to fill out the permission forms.

Photo: Ron Rowe 2012

From little things So the idea of making a big lobster or just anything big for that matter, daunts.

sited at Lake Ballard, Western Australia.

BIG Is your career shrinking? Do you feel unnoticed? Then embrace the idea of BIG. You’ll be noticed. Biennale curators will line up up at your studio door because they just love big art works. Gets rid of all those haunting empty spaces. How Big? The answer is, ‘how big to you want to go?’ Christo and Jeanne-Claude looked like the heavyweight champions when they wrapped up Little Bay, Sydney in 1968-69, not to mention Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970) and Dennis Oppenheim’s Cancelled Crop (1969). Small stuff really. The real heavy lifters were people with plenty of time and cheap labour on their hands such as the good folk who brought you the Nazca Lines in Peru. Enter Bardius Golberg. Bardius who? He’s the so-called ‘wild artist’ credited by some for ‘Maree Man’ in central South Australia. At 2600 meters in length it’s possibly the world’s largest figurative geolyph. Hint: You’ll need a grader licence and a bit of satnav savvy to get into this line of work.

Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art University of South Australia

Suggestion: Go forth and multiply. Gormley again. His 1994 Turner Prize winning sculpture Field consisted of thousands of hand-sized clay figurines massed together to stare down passing viewers. Cut to Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s 2010 Sunflower Seeds covering the floor of the Tate Gallery’s Turbine Hall. All it took was a few million handmade ceramic seeds. Too easy. Playing multiplication works with performance art as well. Vanessa Beecroft’s massed nude (and occasionally clothed) female figures stare down viewers in a way which ceramic sunflowers seeds can only dream of. Big Things Long before most contemporary artists and galleries discovered the pulling power of gigantism, our Australian folk artists were toiling away to anoint our highways with big sculptures. Once scorned as kitsch, many are now hailed as icons. Check out artist Reg Mombassa’s comments. ‘Big Things are a way of saying ‘we’re here, this is our place. They are like our pyramids, our temples.’ So, no more scoffing at big guitars, bananas or crocs.

has the potential to spark a populist lust for large creatures. The dinosaurs are on the march from Coolum. Trend spotting: coming soon to a roundabout near you.

like that you just can’t buy so don’t let public opinion get in the way of a big project. Tsereteli, by the way, made of sculpture of Vladimir Putin in a judo outfit.

World’s Most Hated Big Sculpture Right now it looks like contemporary Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli’s Peter the Great statue in Moscow (bigger than The Statue of Liberty). It has been rated as the 10th ugliest building in the world by Trip Advisor and the world’s ugliest statue by Foreign Policy magazine. Now publicity

Desperate to get started? Money not an obstacle. Just inflate something (air is cheap) or surrender to the cheery charms of installation art.

ARTSPEAK Bad Art Yes, of course Virginia, there is such a thing as bad art. But Bad Art? Well proof is to hand. Check out MOBA (Museum of Bad Art). It describes itself as the ‘the world’s only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms. Warning: visitation may lead to addiction. Bad Painting See above re: warning. One strategy to deal with contemporary art’s habit of disappearing into its own navel. Deliberately disrespectful of mainstream styles and fashions - so can’t be all bad. Start with the Hairy Who and go off piste

from there. One critic has commented of this genre ‘these people should never be left alone with a paint brush’. Beauty Use of the term ‘beauty’ should be restricted to extensively footnoted academic papers on neo-Kantian perspectives for the 21st century. Substitute with ‘contemporary sublime’. If ‘transcendent’ can be slipped into the same sentence so much the better. Bricolage Originally (from the French) referred to amateur repair. Useful to remember when looking at any late 20th century art which looks a bit DIY. Bio Just put bio in front of anything. Works every time.

exhibitions gallery shop

27 Sept - 20 Oct 2013

Lesson: Think like an Egyptian. Bragging rights. The earliest ‘big sculpture’ crown in Australia goes to artist Paul Kelly’s ‘Scotty’ the piping Hibernian on Scotty’s Motel Main North Road, Adelaide (1963). Beat the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour by a year. Nice one PK and love your Big Lobster at Kingston S.E. too. Clive-ism Make no mistake. Clive Palmer’s ascendancy

10 October – 20 December 2013

Daniel Crooks

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

Maria Parmenter, softly softly, 2013, earthenware and slip, handbuilt. Photo: Michael Haines

Dare to Differ - 2013

Gallery 1855

An exhibition of contemporary quilts presented by Quilters Guild of South Australia & Brother International

Recently established in Adelaide’s north-east, Gallery 1855 is Adelaide’s newest visual arts facility. Applications are now open from visual artists, craftspeople and designers for our 2015 exhibitions and workshops program. See Hills Edge Clay at Gallery 1855 Opening 2pm, Sunday 3 November 2013 Artists include: Gus Clutterbuck, Lesa Farrant, John Ferguson, Helen Fuller, Phil Hart, Peter Johnson, Marie Littlewood, Wayne McAra, Leo Neuhofer, Maria Parmenter, Merrilyn Stock, Gerry Wedd and more. For further information contact: niki.vouis@cttg.sa.gov.au

55 North Terrace, Adelaide T 8302 0870 Open Tue – Fri 11– 5pm, Sat 2 – 5pm SMA TAR Oct 13.indd 1

Suggestion: Generously scatter items to claim maximum territory.

19/9/13 3:32:26 PM

Gallery 1855, 2 Haines Road, Tea Tree Gully Opening times: Wednesday – Saturday 12-5pm teatreegully.sa.gov/gallery1855 8397 7444

quilts by (clockwise from top) Roxanne Murphy, Jane Rogers & Cathy Boniciolli

EXHIBITION FLOOR TALK ‘What is an Art Quilt?’ 2pm, Sunday 19 October Free entry, all welcome 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 October 2013

VISUAL ARTS

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

Finn Turner, Berri.

Stephen Soeffky.

Domestic Renewal JamFactory Friday, October 11 to Sunday, December 1 jamfactory.com.au Seventeen individuals from fields such as the visual arts, studio crafts, independent design and architecture, have created their own unique objects for a table setting. First displayed at Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre in Canberra, the exhibition presents a blueprint for how we can improve the way in which domestic or urban environments are planned and perceived.

Representations of Modern Life II

The Art of Place: Our Mob A Breakfast Discussion Artspace Gallery for Place SA

The Light Gallery Friday, October 11 to Friday, November 8 lightgallery.ccp.sa.edu.au Artists Leanne McPhee and Jennifer Hofmann respond to our contemporary existence and the pressures of modern life in this richly contemplative exhibition. Their hand-made photographic images represent the invisible and the tangible, the inner and outer realms of human sensory experience.

Adelaide College of the Arts Tuesday, October 22, 8am to 9.30am guildhouse.org.au

(Adelaide Festival Centre) Saturday, October 26 to Sunday, December 15 adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Guildhouse presents a morning of breakfast and conversation with notables from across the arts sector as part of Place SA 2013. Christine Morrow of the AEAF, Adrian Evans of JPE Design Studio and Stan Mahoney of Format Collective will share their thoughts on all things art, design and planning.

In its eighth year, Our Mob celebrates the diversity and vitality of the state’s Indigenous art and culture. The exhibition features Indigenous artists young and old, experienced and new, and offers a unique opportunity to purchase contemporary artworks.

Chloe Hasell, Rosie O’Reilly and Elise Hand.

Ed Douglas, Yasmin Grass and Gloria Goddard.

Pride in Pastels An exhibition of pastels by Pastel Artists of South Australia

4 - 25 October 2013

Ole, Ray Dundon, Pastel

Colleen Strangways, Lake Eyre Woman, (detail), 40cm x 50cm, photograph, 2012

Opens: Friday 4 October at 6pm Opening Speaker: David Parkin, Mayor of Burnside

Free Pastel Artist Demonstrations Anawari Mitchell, The Seven Sisters, (detail), 101cm x 101cm, photograph, 2013

Saturday 5 October 2pm - 4pm Graeme Daish Saturday 12 October 2pm - 4pm Jennifer Hockey Saturday 19 October 2pm - 4pm Kerryn Hocking

Free entry - all welcome! Fiona Elisala - Dharrbow Lag (detail) 535cm x 780cm print, 2013

ARA PALKA MARKING COUNTRY OUR STORIES from OUR PLACE 13 September - 20 October 2013

Tandanya - National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Inc

253 Grenfell Street Adelaide SA 5000 daily 10am - 5pm - www.tandanya.com.au

RED THREADS

Pepper Street Arts Centre Exhibitions, Gift Shop, Art Classes, Coffee Shop. 558 Magill Road, Magill PH: 8364 6154 Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 12 noon - 5pm An arts and cultural initiative funded by the City of Burnside

www.pepperstreetartscentre.com.au

The second Red Threads art exhibition featured a gala champagne opening on Saturday, September 14. The exhibition was held in the beautiful grounds of Lincoln College and Federation House at 45 Brougham Place, North Adelaide and featured around 150 works by artists from SA and students from Lincoln College. This show was supported by the Friends of the South Australian School of Art ( FSASA) and the Royal South Australian Society of the Arts (RSASA) and had a great number of sponsors with prizes to the value of $6000. Proceeds made from the sale of artworks went to Lincoln College’s Indigenous and Country Student Bursaries and Scholarships program. Details: lincoln.edu.au

Jack Condous, Sue Clearihan and Gregor Ramsey.

Taylor Schramm, Vikki Waller and Paul Barnett.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 47

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

TRAVEL

Last of the Headhunters

Once we stop, we ﬁnd that life at Serubah longhouse is slow. The young men have driven in the village 4WD to work in nearby plantations; the old men give blowpipe and cockﬁghting demonstrations, show how to tap rubber trees, then tend to black Sarawak pepper seeds drying in the afternoon sun on the longhouse veranda.

BY DAVID SLY

The era of the headhunter is over. The tribes of north Borneo mostly converted to Christianity just over 100 years ago, when the British white rajahs came and took rule. Now there are altars within the longhouses – gaudy hand-made wooden shrines that fold open like pub dartboards, emblazoned with hand-painted slogans announcing God Is Best. Still, look closely in the gloomy longhouse and you can notice blackened skulls nesting in a woven grass net, high above the entrance doorway. It’s a superstition to ward off evil spirits, explains a guide. Not all the old ways are gone just yet.

a challenge to reach the Serubah longhouse in the highlands close to the border with Indonesian Borneo. Our guide Jaga pushed us off in a long, skinny, carved log longboat from a slippery landing beneath the shabby village of Sebeliau. For an hour, we hunkered down against driving rain, the swollen Lemanak River surging past and the tiny outboard motor with extra long driveshaft straining against ﬁerce currents and eddies. We get occasional glimpses of paddy ﬁelds, rubber and paper plantations and sago palms, but the riverbanks are mostly hemmed in by thick primary forest. It feels like being on an Indiana Jones movie set, and a sense of danger heightens as we pass beneath a partially collapsed box girder bridge. Recent rains had seen the surging river sweep away the foundations; it had been repaired only six months earlier. In the jungle during monsoon season, such torrential rain can fall for weeks, and the Lemanak will rise four metres.

He then sets up a little demonstration: a vicious spring-loaded, spiked stick trap that snaps shut with violent force. They’re illegal now, but he smiles as he shows off the old ways. It’s his gentle reminder that this remains headhunter country.

» Iban Longhouse visits can be booked through Borneo Fairyland Tours. borneofairyland.tripod.com

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The term ‘headhunting’ conjures weird notions of cannibalism and pagan ritual, but the decapitation of enemies killed in battle was a sign of the Iban’s ferocity as warriors. The cut heads were placed in baskets at every jungle access point surrounding their villages, sounding a clear warning to any invaders that a similar fate awaited them.

TY A N D M O

I TY • Q BIL

PR LU EMIE GG R C IA A G E L E L IS T IN AID E

SPE

L I TY D E SI

, DU R A BI

The Iban longhouses concealed in the deepest jungle eluded the Japanese troops, and it remains

< G L O B E -T R O T T E R >

In fact, Tuairumah was the chief who revived the practise of headhunting – brieﬂy, near the end of World War II. After the invading Japanese forces treated the people of Sarawak with extreme violence and cruelty, the mountain tribesmen retaliated by staging guerrilla raids and beheading Japanese troops.

INFO NIGHTS

Domesticated though he may be, Tuairumah remains fiercely proud of his warrior origins. He peels off his shirt to display a wild gallery of faded tribal tattoos across his strong, wiry frame. He has a flowering aubergine to identify his role as tribe leader, hibiscus flowers and facing hornbills represent Sarawak, and a black panther running down his throat to signify he is a warrior – a headhunter.

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e sit with the last of the headhunters. Deep in the mountain jungles of Sarawak in north Borneo, one hour upstream from the nearest township, darkness has fallen and we have just witnessed a warrior dancing demonstration on grass mats inside the Iban tribe’s traditional longhouse which holds 20 families – about 200 people. Tuairumah, the wily 97-year-old chief of this house, beckons me closer, invites me to look inside his private rooms. And what I see shocks me: an overstuffed vinyl lounge suite, modular wall unit ﬁlled with DVDs, and many framed pictures depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The mysterious deep forest holds greater attraction with its teeming vegetation. We investigate, following a sprightly 92-year-old village guide with heavily tattooed legs and an imposing machete. While we crane our necks upwards as we walk, to marvel at the height of the old forest, he is busy scanning the forest ﬂoor for new life, cutting edible roots and sprouting leaves, and stashing them in his woven basket to be used as medicines and cooking agents.

48 The Adelaide Review October 2013

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE Dirty Girl Kitchen Diaries

crisps in my lunch box at recess time, I don’t remember eating an awful lot of processed food, certainly no fish sticks. The worst I can think of was white bread, but in the 80s (or thereabouts) white bread was not yet the ‘devil’s food’. We hover somewhere between ridicule and shame. Seeking hand-made or gluten free bread, ridiculing the white shop-bought stuff. We fiercely seek out heirloom tomatoes and apples while despising the hybrid laboratory birthed tomatoes, while it had been our mothers and grandmothers embracing the creation of canned and frozen foods. We now loathe the symbol of culinary modernism.

Fridge Vs Fire BY Rebecca Sullivan

onsider the impact of the freezer, the supermarket and fast food. How have our tastes changed with the advent of various technologies and institutions? Many moons ago fire was indeed the greatest or, at least, latest thing to change the way we prepared and, in turn, consumed food. Take fishsticks for example; a postwar invention and the bane of all schoolchildren forced to consume it. Considered as pretty much cardboard on a stick, it was a deceptive way of giving the kids ‘protein’ and living proof of modernity. Fishsticks were the result of a boom in housing construction that contained already built kitchens with not just a stove or fire but also a freezer. The fridge was one thing but the freezer would change the way we eat forever.

Fishsticks were not created by a consumer demand, like today’s products, but because of an excess of fish being caught all over the world and the necessity to do something smart with them. Who would have thought that today the

opposite exists and we are experiencing loss of our oceans’ life at a devastating rate. Think back to when you were a child. Growing up, apart from the 25-gram packet of

Like many of my generation, my food style is scathing of industrialised foods. Michael Pollen said it best: “If your great grandmother does not recognise it as food, it is not.” Are we seeking Elizabeth David lifestyles, curing our own bacon, mincing our own meat, skinning our own hares wanting to be connected to our food again or is it a fad? Is this desire to take a step back here to stay? I certainly hope for the sake of the fish stocks the world over it is here to stay. But what food will be next on the stick?

twitter.com/grannyskills dirtygirlkitchen.com

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 49

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FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

A Deeper Appreciation of Home BY MATT WALLACE

was lucky enough this September to be one of the judges for The Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines. In addition to tasting a truckload of wines we were also immersed in SA culture, food and music. I definitely came away with a deeper appreciation of the place that is my home. The lineup of judges was great too, with winemakers, sellers, bloggers and restaurateurs reflecting the broadest possible spectrum of the industry. A good portion of them were from interstate and while we had a barrel of laughs, to their credit not one of them mentioned Snowtown. Judges were clearly able to articulate what they liked and disliked about a wine in everyday language. I reckon the wine notes in the Hot 100 book will reflect that. The Hot 100 is somewhat different to traditional wine shows with Chairman James Erskine promoting emotional tasting and embracing those wines stimulating the greatest pleasure at the time they traverse tonsils. The

wine doesn’t have to be clinically perfect or made using only techniques from the ‘canon’. Natural wines are rightly celebrated for offering a valuable point of difference. There’s no reward for a wine that might be an absolute belter in five years’ time, unless it offers the same pleasant thrashing right now. Fair call given most wine is necessarily cast loose quickly for cash flow then considered or chugged within 24 hours of disgorging our coin. It’s an ethos which works counterpoint to the big company marketing missive of medals/ massive/mawkish/maudlin/mediocre and munted yet speaks directly to the punters that ultimately enjoy their fruits. It also offers a very considered reworking of the traditional notion of terroir... acknowledging that wine may represent the place and people that formed it and can be respected, even revered for that. It also gently contends that terroir runs deepest in the personal and oft privately tended gardens of the imbiber. We bring our emotional, cultural and educational consciousness (plus our shared, cultural unconscious) to any experience where sensory pleasure might be sexily wallpapered with an intellectual lick or two. What else should we bring? Nuttin. That why I love this show. In asking judges to bring themselves to the tasting bench, the outcomes for the show are implicitly fluid. Everyone’s sense memory is different, and ultimately the memory of aromas is a big part of assessing wine. Everyone can delineate salt, sweetness, bitterness, sour and

Umami. We experience these daily and can do so in the absence of a sense of smell. Recognition of specific aromas and flavour involves the complex interaction of the olfactory nerve which ends respectively in the nose and brain, and ones memory of having experienced said aroma or aromas previously in a context where it could be given a name. At its most basic the originating experience might have been, ‘I am eating a blackberry, its smell is a blackberry smell’. Of course you might have been eating them off the top of a piece of pav at a friends birthday and enjoying a glass of something tasty at the time, both of which will be recalled as part of your sense memory when experiencing this aroma and it flavours later on. So every time you are trying to identify an aroma you are recalling previous experience and the emotions surrounding and that is powerful stuff. The most striking resonance of this during judging for me was smelling a wine (Riesling) that reminded me immediately of my grandies front yard, left hand side of the driveway, with my brothers jostling past the Camira (Pop, couldn’t you have owned something cool or funny like an EJ or a Torana) and gorging ourselves on the Feijoa tree every summer. It was a shared childhood memory speaking to place and people, delight, family and fraternity simultaneously, cemented by the granular pear like flesh, tart acidity and aromas recalling pineapple, banana, guava and strawberries. Such a beautiful aroma

memory recalling so much. It seems that as the show rolls from year to year it learns from itself and the wines, which is pretty spesh. I reckon next stop could be the development of a lexicon, which underpins and informs the concept of emotional tasting. Then again it might stiﬂe the energy, and ﬂuidity of what is already something very special.

» Matt Wallace is the Buyer and Sales Manager of WineDirect winedirect.com.au

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50 The Adelaide Review October 2013

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE White Chocolate and Raspberry Mille-feuille Serves 6 Ingredients • 3 Sheets puff pastry • 70g Frozen raspberries – defrosted • Icing sugar for dusting • 150ml Cream • 1 Vanilla pod • 1 Gold gelatin leaf (2g) • 100g White cooking chocolate • 200ml Chilled cream

Today, cooking has never been more popular

Marie-Antoine Carême left this world at 49, leaving behind numerous published books, the chef hat, Napoleon (Mille Feuille), béchamel and the famous Charlotte cake. The title of the ‘first celebrity chef’ was well deserved and his influence on food and the way we cook is still evident today. Somehow I doubt that today’s ‘celebrity chefs’ will leave a legacy as great!

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F I N E W I N E of A U S T R A L I A

bandoned as a child during the French Revolution, Marie-Antoine Carême would go on to be one of the most influential chefs in history and is now dubbed the ‘first celebrity chef’. Antoine, as he was called, due to the fact he was given a girl’s name at birth, came from very humble beginnings and hardship, rumoured to be one of 25 children. Alone on the streets of Paris in 1794, he found refuge in the very

The revolution would eventually end and Antoine found himself under the watchful eye of Sylvain Bailly, a famous Parisian pastry chef. Antoine was encouraged to learn to read and write and he started to appreciate architecture. This would lead to one the most influential periods in cooking. Antoine would create elaborate masterpieces, completely constructed from food, often several feet high. News travelled fast and he was commissioned to work for Russian Emperors, Kings, Queens and everyone in between.

and the influence of the modern day celebrity chef has never been greater. Maggie Beer, Stephanie Alexander and Elizabeth David, if we go abroad, are who I consider to be modern day food idols. Their influence on the way we eat, cook and source our food has been extraordinary but I have to wonder if we will ever see a food revolution like the one Antoine brought to the 19th century.

2013

BY Annabelle Baker

basic Fricassée de Lapin, a tavern in Paris at the time. In exchange for food and board he washed pans but would soon progress to commence an apprenticeship.

18 - 20 October

Food For Thought

Method 1. Preheat oven to 180C 2. Using a ruler, cut 18 identical rectangles or desired shapes from the puff pastry sheets (I like 4cm x 2cm). 3. Place the puff pastry in between two baking trays lined with baking paper. 4. Bake in a 180 degree preheated oven until golden and cooked all the way through, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. 5. Place the cooled pastry back onto a baking tray and dust with icing sugar, completely covering the surface. 6. Return to the oven. Cook until the icing sugar has dissolved and glazed the top of the puff pastry. 7. Heat 150ml of cream with a vanilla pod and bring to the boil. 8. Remove from the heat and leave to sit for two minutes. 9. Soak the gelatin leaf in room temperature water until soft. 10. Stir the gelatin leaf into the warm cream until completely dissolved. 11. Pour the hot cream mixture over the white chocolate and stir until completely melted. Leave to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. 12. Add the chilled cream to the chocolate and place in the fridge for at least an hour. 13. Remove from the fridge and whisk vigorously until medium peaks form. 14. Fold through the frozen raspberries and return to the fridge until needed. 15. Pipe the white chocolate mousse onto 12 puff pastry rectangles. 16. Place one on top of each other, giving you six two-story pastry bases. 17. Finish with a puff pastry lid.

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Prix Fixe Lunch Menu 1 course $27 Photos: Josie Withers josiewithersphotography.com

2 courses $35 with a glass of wine

SaMPLe Menu entree Confit chicken terrine with zucchini and fat hen Pissaladiere with parsley salad

Nordburger BY REBECCA SULLIVAN

am tempted to leave Nordburger straight away. Not because I am disappointed or disturbed, but the bloody queue to order my nosh at the Peter Deering-designed Norwood burger joint is so long and, upon entering, I am already salivating at the mere smell of the beef fat and melted cheese smoking off the metre-long grill. When I arrive, Michael Weldon, one of the creators of Nordburger, is behind that very grill ﬂipping burgers at a ﬁerce pace. He sees me, gives a brief ‘holy crap, I am so busy’ smile and puts his head back down into the cloud of smoke, which surrounds him.

Weldon, who found his way to the grill post his runner-up prize on Channel Ten’s

MasterChef, has since been working on many a venture including pop-up restaurants, creating menus, catering and the required celebrity appearances all TV contestants are required to fulﬁll if they are a household favourite like he is. James and Victoria Hillier, the owners of Nordburger, have smartly collaborated with Weldon. This is his ﬁrst big permanent venture and knowing Weldon, I cannot wait to see what comes next as he has a reputation of being quite a big picture, creative type. Nordburger has a relatively simple menu to choose from which makes it only marginally easier to decide what to eat. Dishes include the signature cheeseburger with premium Angus beef mince supplied and made especially for Nordburger by

Richard Gunner of Feast! Fine Foods.

•

Main I know this blend took them months to perfect and I am relieved that they took their time, as at only $7.80 a burger it has my vote as the best cheeseburger in Adelaide. I topped it off with a Chicago style hot dog and tater tots gulped down with my highlight of the visit, a peanut butter and jam milkshake. If the sound of peanut butter and jam together does not take your fancy why not try a cornﬂake milkshake for a dose of childhood nostalgia or perhaps even a salted pretzel one? If you don’t fancy going milkshake off piste, you can stick to a chocolate or vanilla, but who wants a life of just vanilla?

Steak frites Confit Muscovy duck leg with wilted greens and wild plums •

Dessert Selection of French cheese Wild blackberry shortcake with Meyer lemon curd

“Hottest restaurant In SA” and Hot 50 in Australia 2013 The Australian

» Nordburger 168 The Parade, Norwood Tuesdays to Sundays, 11.30am to 10pm 8331 9923 nordburger.com

AB WAU GH J & VIGNERONS

VINEYARD & CELLARS Radford Road Seppeltsfield We advise that our 2011 wines, along with the 2008 Roennfeldt Road range, will be available from Saturday, 14 September 2013 Cellar Door is open daily (except Tuesdays) from 11am to 5pm. Do call in for a visit.

For details: Phone (08) 8562 8103 greenockcreekwines.com.au

BiSTrO DOM P 8231 7000 24 Waymouth St, Adelaide www.bistrodom.com.au

52 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

CHEESE MATTERS

CheeseFest – Australia’s Biggest Cheese Festival

ine exp d W er

BY KRIS LLOYD

r h

Regency gastRonomic adventuRes

ymill Park (Murlawirrapurka) will again come alive with the aroma of cheese, as we celebrate the eighth annual CheeseFest. Two days of gastronomic goodness where cheese lovers can stuff themselves full of all the different styles of cheese on offer.

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. 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  Kids Day Out program  Corporate kitchen, developing work team bonding sessions  Food and wine degustation including ‘luxury wine and cheese matching’  Festive Cheer - Christmas cooking at its best

For Bookings: www.eventopia.co/tafesaregency Other inquiries: 08 8348 4446 or email regencyhospitality@tafesa.edu.au

tafesa.edu.au

Some 60 stalls will assemble in the picturesque city park. Earning a reputation not only with cheese lovers, but foodies in general, CheeseFest promises to deliver a gastronomic buzz with cheese at its very core. As Director and Founder of the event it has been an incredible journey to watch this entertaining, positive and wholesome festival grow over the years. As a South Australian Ambassador of Premium Food and Wine from our Clean Environment, this festival allows me to engage in all things South Australian by bringing the regions into the city. Cheese makers, wine makers, brewers, restaurants chefs and the community all come together – primarily for the cheese. A selection of cheese makers from across Australia will present cheeses made from cow, goat, sheep and buffalo milk during the two-day festival. The cheese makers will be on hand to talk about the different styles, how they are made and how to serve them. Whether it is a stinky washed rind, oozy Brie or Camembert, pungent blue or soft, creamy mozzarella you will be sure to find them all at CheeseFest. We are very excited to announce several new features this year. A five-course degustation lunch will be served in The Premium Pavilion, proudly brought to you by major sponsor Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA), in support of the State Government’s strategic priority Premium Food and Wine from our Clean Environment. Chefs Nigel Rich (The Elbow Room) and Brendan Bell (The Kings Hotel) will be preparing dishes using South Australian produce. Bell will serve poached local prawns on shaved fennel with lemon zest, chilli, apple and mint as one of the courses. Rich, on the other hand, fancies Knickerbocker glory as his irresistible dessert, featuring honeycomb, roasted rhubarb, vanilla goat milk ice cream, chocolate brownie, fresh berries, blood orange sorbet and caramelised yoghurt. One of the courses will be a selection of South Australian cheeses chosen by Premier Jay Weatherill, who will officially open CheeseFest on Saturday, October 26. Those of you who remember the ‘fondue party’ years will take some delight in our Foodland Funky Fondue Lounge. Themed

in that delightful fondue era, we offer three sessions each day. Designed for pairs, you can choose from cheese or chocolate fondue and a range of delicious dunking delights, including Spring Gully gherkins, locally grown fruit and veggies and Beerenberg strawberries for the chocolate fondue. The Indian Paciﬁc Cheese Train offers a selection of cheese from participating cheese makers. Forget the sushi train – this is the real deal. Each cheese maker has chosen one cheese from their range to be offered exclusively on the cheese train to be paired with their favourite accompaniment. Blue cheese and honey, fresh ricotta with basil and tomato, and manchego with sticky ﬁgs just to name a few. Our very impressive locomotive will be on track to bring you cheese in a unique way. Talk of the Town Pavilion will host cheese maker talks free for all to attend. Listen to the stories of these talented producers as they guide you through their journey of cheese making; how to match cheese with wine (or beer), how to serve, store and buy cheese, among other insights. They will also be taking questions – a great opportunity to learn from the experts themselves.

Just in case I haven’t convinced you here is a word from our patron, celebrity chef and fellow South Australian Food Ambassador, Simon Bryant: “What a long way we have come in a short time. Thanks to a passionate mob of producers, a strong influence of migratory skills and expertise, great pasture for our cows, goats and sheep under the care of fantastic dairy farmers. We have become world-class cheese producers here in South Australia. CheeseFest is a celebration of just how fantastic our little patch of the world really is, whether you like it soft, hard, stinky, blue... or in my case all of the above.”

» Kris Lloyd is Woodside Cheese Wrights’ Head Cheese Maker CheeseFest Saturday, October 26 to Sunday, October 27 cheesefest.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 53

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Adelaide Farmers’ Market Celebrates Seven Years

Association invests in its constitutional goal, driving the organisation to build a market that is an institution beyond fad and trend. The goal of the Adelaide Farmers’ Market is to support South Australian farmers and food makers. The market incubates food businesses while providing a socially vibrant alternative shopping experience for one and all. Farmers’ markets are for everyone. Long gone are the days when it was only the well heeled at the farmers’ markets looking for organic produce. Now you see many young families, students and seniors shopping at the market at a variety of price points, from a diverse offering of organic and biodynamic produce to small-farm, more conventionally produced stock.

Are farmers’ markets a fad or are they proving to be a vital contributor to the wellbeing of this state?

Adelaide Farmers’ Market has a strict application process that strives to ensure that all the food sold at the market is grown and produced in South Australia. This means that you will not see any bananas or mangoes at the market. Selection criteria, and the fact you have to be the grower or maker of the food to sell it, ensure that when you talk to a stallholder you are talking to the person who produced that food. This is the retail point of difference and what makes farmers’ markets beneﬁcial for the community. The relationships built over time between city dwellers and regional producers have formed an educationally fulﬁlling role in people’s lives. Adelaideans are enriched with knowledge of how and where their food is

BY AMANDA DANIEL

he not-for-proﬁt Adelaide Farmers’ Market in Wayville is celebrating its seventh birthday this month. Seven years of hosting and promoting South Australian farmers and food producers at the Adelaide Showground, which has built a community of 120 SA food businesses, with nearly 3000 members and 5000 regular Sunday shoppers. The Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market

grown. Media prompts health and food security questions and many market customers ask food producers questions regarding how their food was produced: Was it ethically produced? Was it sprayed? Where is it from? Every stallholder has a story and farmers can only bring what they grow, so sometimes they run out of stock. This is another way farmers’ markets deviate from conventional retail. Farmers can only bring what they have grown and that is decided by their farm size and the season, or if they have glasshouses to extend the season. You may hear farmers explaining that red capsicums are not available due to the season, or the new season broccoli is not in yet. Farmers’ markets provide the home cook with seasonal inspiration and a direct insight into what the local climate can produce. There are many ways farmers’ markets have an impact. For example, when you buy from a stallholder all your money goes to that producer and they invest in a region in this state. You are often supporting a family-owned business. Many of the farms are diverse in their production, which is deemed more sustainable. Parcels of South Australian arable land are being preserved and kept viable. Over the last seven years the market farmers have adapted their growing to ﬁt the market’s demands. The consumer has had a direct impact on the small business.

Supplying the finest local meats & poultry since 2001

All farmers’ markets in South Australia are important. They serve as a community hub for their region and offer opportunities to their local producer businesses. The Adelaide Farmers’ Market works with and supports the Alliance of South Australian Farmers’ Markets and invests time and resources to develop systems that will enhance all markets. To prove farmers’ markets are not a fad but an institution, the Adelaide Farmers’ Market has worked with Prospect Council to open a new branch of the market in Prospect. The Prospect farmers’ market will open in late October. The village-style market will feature 30 sites and will be open from 3pm to 7pm every Thursday. The Adelaide Farmers’ Market is holding its seventh birthday party on Sunday, October 6. You are all invited. Take the opportunity to talk to the producers and ﬁnd out more about your food, climate and community.

» Amanda Daniel is the CEO of the Adelaide Farmers’ Market adelaidefarmersmarket.com.au

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FINE FOOD SHOW

8 years Beef 6 years lamb 31 entries 5 Championships 7 Gold 8 silver 10 Bronze

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54 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

WINE

Meeting Your Heroes BY ANDREA FROST

2013 GROSSET POLISH HILL RIESLING

2011 BROKENWOOD GRAVEYARD SHIRAZ

2011 CULLEN DIANA MADELINE

2010 MOUNT MARY QUINTET

Clare Valley RRP $52 grosset.com.au

Hunter Valley RRP $115 brokenwood.com.au

Margaret River RRP $115 cullenwines.com.au

Yarra Valley RRP $145 mountmary.com.au

This wine shows that a hero is as much about the alchemy that arises from the component pieces, as the component pieces themselves. It is a symphonic combination of site, variety, viticulture and pristine winemaking. Winemaker Jeffrey Grosset is known to many as a perfectionist. His wines are often described as precise, perfect, pure, sublime and brilliant. In addition to his pristine winemaking practices, Grosset runs certified organic vineyards and a holistic approach to place. Change one aspect even slightly and you change the magic. Grosset produces seven wines including two red wines but it is the Rieslings for which he is famed. The Polish Hill Riesling is the benchmark and is a fragrant, lively, zesty wine with precision and length that’s crafted to last. One of Australia’s heroic white wines.

Lean into a glass of Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz and you can almost hear the whispers of legends, stories and lore that have infused into this hero of the Hunter Valley. There are the founders including James Halliday, who, along with friends including the lauded winemaking personality Len Evans, made the first vintage of Brokenwood in 1973. There’s the influence of winemaker Iain Riggs and the 30 vintages of Graveyard Shiraz crafted into the Hunter Valley symbol it is today. And, if you lean in and listen very closely, maybe, just maybe, you can almost hear the ghosts who would have been laid to rest had the graveyard actually been put there, as was the plan before the vineyard was planted. A wonderfully complex, yet medium-bodied wine that melds savoury notes with dark fruit and gentle tannins. A delectable hero of the Hunter Valley.

Being a hero is not just about what you achieve but how you achieve it as well. This wine, an Australian hero from the Margaret River, is a fitting tribute to the late Diana Madeline Cullen, who helped to pioneer the Margaret River wine region, was founder of Cullen Wines and winemaker until 1989 when her daughter Vanya Cullen took over. It is said that Diana Madeline, who became a Member of the Order of Australia for her contribution to viticulture and wine, was famed for her graceful and generous manner. This wine and its winemaking is all that and more; certified biodynamic, carbon neutral and from a naturally powered estate, it is a wine of as much grace and elegance as its namesake. Brimming with attractive Cabernet complexity of dark berry fruit, herbal and floral notes and fine velvety tannins. A fitting tribute to a graceful hero.

Like true heroes, this wine has a mythical status among wine lovers. The Yarra Valley winery is not a wine name that’s brash or flash, but spoken about quietly. This makes sense given founder Dr John Middleton’s disdain for selfpromotion and attention seeking, an attitude he passed on to his son Dr David Middleton who now runs the winery. As if only to add to the mystical nature of it all, I was at a literary do in Bendigo recently when a friend and colleague walked in with a bottle of this hidden in his bag: “Get into it”. Looking briefly both ways, I did. The wine is a blend of the classic Bordeaux varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec. It was startling and beautiful, subtle and elegant and sat with us the whole night, even if it was in secret. A quiet hero of the Yarra Valley.

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SOUTH AUSTRALIAN

Atlas Shoulders the World of Riesling by Charles Gent

hen you’re making one of the classics – a Coonawarra Cabernet, say, or a Clare Valley Riesling – there’s a sneaking temptation to buck the benchmark style and take the winemaking “off-piste”. In making his 2012 Atlas 172° Riesling, an Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines Top 10 wine, Adam Barton resisted any such iconaclastic urge. A devout admirer of the type of Riesling that has made the Clare Valley famous, Barton says while he is willing to contemplate evolving the style, he has no intention of “turning it upside down”. He is less than impressed by avante-garde approaches to Riesling making that have seen some winemakers institute incremental leaps in residual sugar, employ fermentation on skins, and indulge in flirtations with maturation in oak barrels. Nor does he see the need to leave the finished product unfined and unfiltered, as advocated by the natural winemakers. “The tempation is to try to be cool and follow the trend, but I’m the most uncool guy you’re ever likely to meet,” Barton says. If you’re looking for an Atlas manifesto, Barton has this to offer: “We’re trying to make the best wines that we can with the fruit that we’ve got in styles that we like to drink.”

It’s got good rhythm. “First and foremost I try to be true to what the Valley has done, and what it has a reputation for, as core business, and then play around the edges a little bit.” His most recent departure from tradition has been the 2013 release of Clare’s first Vermentino, the Italian white variety that is beginning to find its feet, and some fans, in Australia. Back on the Riesling front though, Barton’s own minor variations on time-honoured winemaking methods involve taking some of the grape solids into the ferment and then later allowing the Riesling to sit in the tanks on its lees for a time, with an occcasional stir, “to try and build a bit of texture and mouthfeel through the mid-palate”.

Hot 100 Judges Dinner

But in the end, Barton says, Riesling is all about the purity of the fruit source, and here he is doing very nicely indeed. It is proverbially an ill wind that blows no good, and Barton says the exodus of some big companies from the Valley a few years ago freed up some very fine vineyard resources: “I’ve been lucky to pick up a grower who formerly supplied grapes for some of the great wines to come out of the Valley.” Most of the corporates have since jumped back in, but Barton says the growers are preferring to spread their risk by dealing with varied clients “rather than tipping all their fruit into the one bin every year”. His own vineyards – comprising eight hectares, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz – are in a subregion at the northern end of the Clare Valley known as White Hut, and its relative obscurity is something Barton has serious ambitions to change. (The Atlas wines already make a veiled reference to their location by featuring their originating vineyards’ GPS co-ordinates in their names.) Barton believes that Clare’s big subregional reputations, such as Watervale’s, rest as much

OPEN FOR BREAKFAST DAILY AND DINNER MONDAY - SATURDAY

Adelaide Central Market Kitchen Monday, September 16 The Hot 100 judges were treated to a dinner at the Adelaide Central Market Kitchen. It included slow cooked harissa lamb cooked by Intercontinental Adelaide’s Tony Hart (with thanks to Feast! Fine foods), fresh sashimi (with thanks to Sam and Clive from Samtass Seafood), a cheese spread and baguettes with thanks to Valerie and Dianna from Smelly Cheese and Dough. on corporate investment as on quality, and that with promotion from its producers the White Hut name will become just as well known. White Hut grapes are the source for some wines made by high-profile stalwarts such as Mitchells and Tim Adams, so the pedigree of the terroir is already there, and Barton is itching to take on the role of spruiker. “The sites and soil types and topography of Clare are incredibly diverse,” he says. “At the end of the day, the top award for Best Riesling in the World at the International Riesling Challenge in Canberra has gone to companies whose fruit has been grown in the north of Clare, and grown in the south of Clare. “The reality is that we grow good Riesling all over.”

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

56 The Adelaide Review October 2013

COFFEE

Pleased to be Pleased by Derek Crozier

ith their location Please Say Please is a coffee boutique that has bridged the gap between the average coffee consumer and high quality coffee. With different brewing methods on offer, and the use of Proud Mary coffee, no city folk need walk too far to taste good product. The espresso the barista suggested was a single origin bean called Honduras. It was obvious the barista was well informed when he explained to me who the farmer was (Nelson Ramirez) and that the coffee was milled and dried at the farm. It came out with a beautiful golden crema on top and smelt like peaches. It was an extremely well balanced espresso with levels of acidity and bitterness that almost cancelled each other out.

The latte was made from their house blend called Angel Wings, which was made of beans from Guatemala and El Salvador. The first taste was butterscotch but as I continued, the toffee notes came through as well. They use locally produced Tweedvale milk, which was just right for the coffee I tasted.

Please Say Please is here for everyone. They seem to have a diverse range of clientele being in the city centre. I saw business people, backpackers and a couple of hipsters from a nearby art studio come through and enjoy a coffee. The venue is small but you get a big serve of passion when interacting with the baristas.

A Fair Go by Derek Crozier

Rundle Place, GRenFell ST, ciTy and 123 KinG William Rd, Hyde PaRK WWW.colinandco.com.au

A greAt new CAfe ConCept WITH EVERY MEAL PURCHASED YOU WILL RECEIVE A free BEVERAGE* VALID UNTIL OCTOBER 31ST 2013 * CONDITIONS APPLY – MUST MENTION THE ADELAIDE REVIEW AND THIS AD TO REDEEM THIS OFFER.

he name Fair Espresso says it all. Fair Espresso is an espresso bar based in James Place that meets consumers’ demands for good quality Fairtrade organic coffee. They use organic milk, oat milk, rice milk, almond milk and offer a range of Fairtrade teas and foods to suit everyone. Fairtrade guarantees Third World farmers an honest price for their product, and therefore helps to reduce global poverty. It was great to see a female barista behind the machine. Unfortunately you don’t see that enough in the industry. For my espresso she suggested I try the coffee of the week, which was a single origin bean from Mexico El Retiro. It was full of flavour that had a big impact upon

»»Please Say Please City Centre Shop 2, 50 Grenfell St facebook.com/PleaseSayPlease

my first sip, cherry notes were predominant but cocoa came through at the end. The latte was a house blend that has beans from Honduras and Peru. It was presented with the latte art of a perfect swan (which you have to see to believe). Although the flavour was bright and complex, the acidity was well rounded and suited the organic milk (Paris Creek). Fair Espresso supplies you with coffee that not only tastes great but also makes you feel good for drinking it. They have found a way of showing the public that Fairtrade organic coffee doesn’t have to cost the earth. Literally.

»»Fair Espresso 20 James Place, Adelaide 5000 fairespresso.com.au

THE ADELAIDE R EVIEW OCT OBER 2013

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

PARK(ING) DAY

AILA AWARDS

MAGILL ESTATE

Adelaide’s city car parks were once again transformed into vibrant public spaces for the annual PARK(ing) Day

The SA Australian Institute of Landscape Architect Awards were held last month

Acclaimed Melbourne-based interior architect Pascale GomesMcNabb renovated the new-look Magill Estate restaurant

58 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

FORM

PARK(ING) DAY 2013 The highs, the greening and the comfy chairs BY JANELLE ARBON

he fourth annual Adelaide PARK(ing) Day on Friday, September 20 celebrated the transformation of 31 car parking spaces by 31 teams with 31 different interpretations of what public space could be, encouraging us to use our imagination and think beyond the standard use of city space. The annual PARK(ing) Day event continues to grow in Adelaide and internationally, not only in terms of the numbers of car park spaces transformed, but in terms of those who engage with the parks, and experience their cities in a different way for a brief moment.

This year’s teams created experiences for people that were thought-provoking, entertaining and interactive. From photo booths, art galleries, gardens, outdoor ﬁtness, parkour, libraries, lounge rooms, games, soap boxes and bocce to balloons, plants and comfy chairs. With so many unique and creative concepts the PARK(ing) jurors, including former Adelaide Thinker in Residence, Charles Landry and former Integrated Design Commission leader Tim Horton, along with

their fellow jurors, had the tough decision of awarding the overall winner.

STYLECRAFT/WALTER BROOKE – ‘ROPED IN GREENHOUSE’

That honour went to the team of Stylecraft and Walter Brooke with their mix of live music and breakdancing, drawing the attention of a multi-generational crowd who were captivated and transﬁxed, something you don’t often see on Waymouth Street on a regular Friday afternoon. In addition, for the third year running, Woods Bagot took out the People’s Choice Award achieved through their use of physical and virtual space.

The installation ‘Roped in Greenhouse’ was the brainchild of design companies Stylecraft and Walter Brooke. The Waymouth St space showcased local talent such as breakdancers and musicians. Through talking to Emma Dodson from Walter Brooke and Elise Fimeri and Natasha Ugrinic from Stylecraft, their PARK(ing) Day belief is that it’s about the Adelaide cultural and design scene coming out of the woodwork and expressing themselves in a more urban context. Their goal was to provide a platform for artists and talented

If the reimagining of car park spaces on PARK(ing) Day is something you loved and want to see more of, the Adelaide City Council currently has a Parklet Program that could see the public beneﬁts extend to a 12-month timeframe.

individuals to self-promote and to carve up the pavement, which is normally not a usual occurrence throughout the day. There was a large, exciting public interest within this installation, as it was demographically diverse with the different acts.

Janelle Arbon, PARK(ing) Day Committee

For more information on how you can be involved visit adelaidecitycouncil.com/parklets

Congratulations to Walter Brooke and Stylecraft for winning the 2013 Overall Award

The Adelaide Review October 2013 59

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CBD Gets Creative by Raquel Gazzola, Rashelle Caddles and Rocco Cavuto

f you made it to the CBD on Friday, September 20, you would have witnessed something out of the ordinary, PARK(ing) Day. Instead of finding metered car spaces, you might have seen a table tennis match, a wishing tree or even bocce. PARK(ing) Day is an international annual celebration of turning urban city car spaces into urban city parks. Adelaide is one of the most participated PARK(ing) Day cities in the world along with Paris and San Francisco.

ENOKI – ‘BOCCHED PARK’ Interior design company Enoki created their installation ‘Bocched Park’ in Leigh St. With this excellent location, Enoki created a grassed laneway for a game of bocce allowing community involvement. Their aim was to create community interaction and increase awareness of how

The installations took on all forms and shapes from the arts to interactive street performances, all with the underlying focus on community and design.

PARK(ing) day changes the atmosphere of the streets.

PARKING DAY 2013 We wanted to provide a spectacle which would generate conversation and interaction between the performers, the community and the temporarily altered urban fabric.

DESIGN INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA – ‘THE WISHING TREE’ The DIA created their ‘Wishing Tree’ on Waymouth St. The community could stop and embrace their inner child by creating their own masterpiece with

pop-sticks, strings of wool and other crafty items at this space. The goal of the DIA’s installation was to increase the creativity of the community and give people the opportunity to express their creative spirit.

49 greenhill road wayville sa 5034 telephone 8 8272 4166 - email wba@walterbrooke.com.au www.walterbrooke.com.au

60 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013

FORM

Photo: Ben Wrigley

Photo: Andy Rasheed

Photo: Don Brice

2013 AILA AWARDS

Photo: Ben Wrigley

JURY CHAIR’S REPORT 2013 AILA SOUTH AUSTRALIA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AWARDS BY CATHERIN BULL

he Jury thanks the profession in the state for the opportunity to consider such a ﬁne body of work and congratulates all those involved on the high standard achieved. It was a pleasure for us to be so excited by what we saw and to be forced to debate at such a high level. We were excited by the diverse entries across all categories and unanimous in our belief that with the energy, commitment, creativity and innovation demonstrated here, not only will the profession continue to develop – it will continue to lead. We were assessing real quality. Overall, the jury considers this year’s submissions comprise a very solid body of work,

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not only in terms of planning and design, but in terms of product, much of which exhibits high levels of craft in detailing and construction. We have also been impressed by the expanding array of innovative project processes, innovations led by landscape architects in their roles both as clients and as consulting professionals. With the ever-expanding range of challenges that typify the contemporary environment, this bodes well for the profession’s future. These innovative processes include programs to coordinate key stakeholder involvement and decision-making, trans-disciplinary interactions and community engagement.

They include innovative and client-targeted reporting and communication methods, real-time scenario testing, monitoring, benchmarking and research.

period of development for the profession. The landscapes and communities of South Australia are better for your contributions.

Best of all, such innovation could be observed across the project spectrum and from the inner city through the suburbs and the urban fringe to the remotest of sites. Planning and design have been used as they should, as investigatory methods to deﬁne and solve the many problems that typify our landscapes, whatever they are and wherever they occur.

Catherin Bull, Jury Chair, AILA SA Awards 2013 AM FAILA Professor Emeritus, Landscape Architecture, University of Melbourne

Congratulations again to all entrants and especially the winners in this exceptional

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THE ADELAIDE REVIEW OCTOBER 2013 61

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FORM 5

2013 AILA AWARDS LIST

Photo: Oxigen

1. 2013 South Australian Medal for Landscape Architecture North Terrace Redevelopment, Stage 2 and Stage 3, Taylor Cullity Lethlean (pictured 1)

Photo: Dan Schultz

2013 AILA SA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AWARDS PHOTOS JEREMY GRYST

2. Design in Landscape Architecture Award – Meningie Lakefront Habitat Restoration Project, Aspect Studios (The Adelaide Review People’s Choice winner, pictured 2) Award -- Port Noarlunga and Witton Centre, Taylor Cullity Lethlean Award – M2 and the Plasso, Swanbury Penglase Award of Excellence – Adelaide Zoo People Project, HASSELL (pictured 4) 3. Urban Design in Landscape Architecture Award – Hindley Street Activation, HASSELL Award -- Bank Street, Taylor Cullity Lethlean Award of Excellence – Kingston Foreshore Master Plan and Kingston

Foreshore Bridge, Oxigen (pictured 5) 4. Planning in Landscape Architecture Award – City of Marion Walking and Cycling Strategy, Oxigen Award of Excellence – Tonsley Urban Design Protocol, Oxige7 5. Land Management in Landscape Architecture Award of Excellence – Water Proofing the South, City of Onkaparinga and Outerspace Landscape Architects 6. Research and Communications in Landscape Architecture Award – Random Art Project, WAX Design (with SPUD) (pictured 6) Award of Excellence – Living Architecture: Where Science Meets Design, Fifth Creek Studio 7. Residential Design in Landscape Architecture Award of Excellence – North Adelaide and Adelaide Villa Gardens, Taylor Cullity Lethlean (pictured 3) 8 Future Leaders Awards Award – Aylwen Dennis, Aspect Studios; Award – Alex Game, Oxigen; and Award – Matt Baida, WAX Design.

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62 The Adelaide Review October 2013

FORM

A Light Touch A sense of artistry characterises the highly anticipated renovation of Magill Estate restaurant by Pascale Gomes-McNabb, one of the country’s most exciting interior architects. by Leanne Amodeo

or many of the country’s newest hospitality fit-outs the emphasis is on minimal, pared-back design. The trend is particularly evident in Adelaide where bars and eateries such as Udaberri and Nordburger are making a strong impression. These interiors forego excessive styling and over-the-top embellishment in favour of a robust material palette, precise joinery and an unquestionable attention to

fit-out and bespoke detailing gives Magill Estate restaurant its resounding design expression. The light fittings are delicate handblown glass, the joinery a sumptuous mix of copper, brass, timber and blackened steel and the seating is upholstered in a range of differently textured fabrics. “It is exceedingly eclectic,” says Lockwood. “The risk was that all these unusual shapes, lines and dimensions wouldn’t work together, but they do. They all elegantly dovetail into each other so that it looks like no other offering in Adelaide.” detail. The end result may look simple but each design element possesses a complexity that is intentionally unapparent. When Penfolds re-opened their Magill Estate restaurant in late August they too revealed a new fit-out that was breathtaking in its simplicity. The much-anticipated renovation may be minimalist, but the level of craftsmanship and high quality details and finishes is anything but ordinary. Penfolds was smart to call in arguably one of the country’s top designers for the job, Pascale Gomes-McNabb. The contracts team at Schiavello’s South Australian branch was also engaged as construction managers to translate the Melbourne-based interior architect’s vision. This renovation was always going to be a challenge because of the building’s ‘glass box’ typology. What Gomes-McNabb had to work with was essentially an elevated floor, a ceiling and lots of glass walls. The outside would figure prominently in the interior design, but this is not necessarily a bad thing, considering the winery’s picturesque location and impressive views. What was important, according to Steve Lockwood, Schiavello’s State Director, is that “Penfolds found a synergy between their wine, their food and the interior design so that it spoke as one to the market”. Gomes-McNabb was incredibly respectful of the building’s existing architecture and her final design has a light touch. Rationalised insertions and minimal interruptions characterise the new

The design’s most apparent point of difference is the kitchen’s segregation from the dining area. Gomes-McNabb has bucked the current fashion for visible kitchens and kept this one well and truly hidden behind glass panelling printed with an aerial view of the vineyard. The ‘theatre’ has been taken out of the design equation so that the emphasis is on a fine dining experience. Placing the food preparation in full view would have created unnecessary visual clutter and changed the intended ambience. The spectacular views already offer so much to look at and Gomes-McNabb’s design must be commended for holding its own, even in harsh daylight. When the sun floods the interior it’s the individual bespoke elements that stand out and as soon as the sun goes down the interior is at its most attractive. The glass light fittings echo the lights of the city and their soft glow adds to the restaurant’s refined ambience. “It’s a different room in the evening,” says Lockwood. “The design comes alive and works so well with the building’s surrounding aspects.” Gomes-McNabb’s uncompromisingly bespoke vision lends the restaurant a sense of artistry that reflects the excellence of Magill Estate’s food and wine. It is a vibrant synergy befitting one of Australia’s finest restaurants.

pascalegomesmcnabb.com.au penfolds.com schiavello.com

Penfoldsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; showcase restaurant, Magill Estate, reopens and takes South Australian dining to a new level. With a thrilling, contemporary interior created by Pascale GomesMcNabb, the space reflects a sense of place, and creates a synergy between the interior, wine, food and ambience. From the beautiful black metal heritage wine cellar wall to the installation of glass sphere ceiling feature lights and locally crafted furniture, Schiavello delivered a refurbishment brimming with bespoke craftsmanship and detail. We are pleased to partner with Penfolds, who shares our passion for uncompromised service and quality. Contact Zane Betterman zbetterman@schiavello.com telephone 08 8112 2300 schiavello.com/penfolds

We search for familiar flavours, to make you feel at home. A warm welcome. It’s that special feeling of sipping your favourite tea, served just the way you like it. It comes from the thought that goes into everything you taste and touch. Because we understand that there’s nothing as comforting as enjoying the things you love, without having to ask. It’s just one of the lengths we go to, to make you feel at home.