The Adelaide Review June 2013

THE Adelaide

REVIEW Issue 400 June 2013

adelaidereview.com.au

the end We explore the food, art and design of the refurbished Mile End Hotel

The Tokyo Quartet

Heartland

The admired ensemble is calling it a day after more than four decades

The Art Gallery’s upcoming exhibition is a celebration of contemporary South Australian art

24

36

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4 The Adelaide Review June 2013

welcome

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ISSUE 400

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Editor David Knight davidknight@adelaidereview.com.au Associate Editor Nina Bertok ninabertok@adelaidereview.com.au

59

Art Director Sabas Renteria sabas@adelaidereview.com.au Graphic Design Michelle Kox michellekox@adelaidereview.com.au Suzanne Karagiannis suzanne@adelaidereview.com.au

Genesin

National Sales and Marketing Manager Tamrah Petruzzelli tamrah@adelaidereview.com.au

Ryan Genesin, of Genesin Studio, explains the interior architecture studio’s recent success, which includes two residencies shortlisted for the Australian Interior Design Awards

Advertising Executives Tiffany Venning Franca Martino Michelle Pavelic advertising@adelaidereview.com.au

INSIDE

Managing Director Manuel Ortigosa General Manager Publishing & Editorial Luke Stegemann luke@adelaidereview.com.au

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

GPO Box 651, Adelaide SA 5001.

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

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

Features

05

Science

14

Business

15

Fashion

23

Performing Arts

24

Visual Arts

36

Books

46

Travel

47

Food. Wine. Coffee

48

FORM

57

34

43

James Cromwell

Ankles

The legendary character actor discusses his first leading role in the wonderful Still Mine

Although local street artist and graphic designer Ankles is on gallery walls he still keeps it street

THE ADELAIDE

review

Contributors. Leanne Amodeo, Annabelle Baker, David Bradley, John Bridgland, Michael Browne, Derek Crozier, Helen Dinmore, Alexander Downer, Robert Dunstan, Stephen Forbes, Andrea Frost, Charles Gent, Andrew Hunter, Stephanie Johnston, Stephen Koukoulas, Kiera Lindsey, Jane Llewellyn, Kris Lloyd, John McGrath, John Neylon, Nigel Randall, Margaret Simons, Robert Spillane, John Spoehr, Shirley Stott Despoja, Paul Willis, Jock Zonfrillo Photographer. Jonathan van der Knaap

DAVID SIEVERS PHOTOGRAPHY Accredited AIPP Master Photographer Top 10 Architectural Photographers in Australia (Capture Magazine 2010) National multi-award winning davidsievers.com

South Australia Police Headquarters Commercial & General / Woodhead / Isis

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 5

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FEATURE

OFF TOPIC: CHRISTOPHER ORCHARD

Off Topic and on the record as South Australian identities talk about whatever they want... as long as it’s not their day job. Artist Christopher Orchard (former head of drawing at Adelaide Central School of Art and creator of the famous Bald Man series of works) has had an itch for adventure since he was young.

BY DAVID KNIGHT

“

I took off from home with my sister’s pusher with a whole bunch of gear in it when I was five or six,” Orchard reminisces. “I was heading for who knows where and tried getting on a bus, but being a local neighbourhood – as they were back in the 50s – the bus driver stopped the bus and said, `I know you, son.

I know where your family lives and you can’t get on the bus.’ He alerted my mum and the whole thing was resolved. I had an inkling that I wanted to go somewhere but I wasn’t sure where. There was a second occasion where I was sitting in a truck with my father, who was a truck driver. He parked, got out and told me he wouldn’t be long. I jumped out of the truck and started heading for somewhere and they alerted the police and all sorts of people were involved.

I didn’t know it at the time but that was an inherent part of my character that was going to emerge.”

Orchard admits he is not a great traveller but his wife Julie is an adventurous trekker.

Julie was setting up a drama department in Nairobi during the 80s while Christopher lived in London working at the Camden Lock Market selling army surplus clothes to skinheads in order to pay his art studio’s rent.

“The Camden Lock Market was an interesting place at that time. I found I had a bit of a skill for it [selling army surplus clothes], so the people who owned the stall kept me on and promoted me after a week. We were clearing enormous amounts of money – cash only – and we’d evidently send bales of stuff, I wasn’t in control of this, off to dyers in North England who would dye everything black. Everything in the stall was black and knocked down in price and troops would come through on Saturday mornings. I’d sell a motza to all these guys and gals who had piercings like you wouldn’t believe. One morning was really interesting. Do you remember A Clockwork Orange? A whole bunch of guys turned up at the market in braces, white T-shirts, black trousers, steel cap boots and bowler hats with little scarves around their necks and so forth. They were looking for someone in particular. They found him and dragged this poor guy out into the High Street and turned him into mincemeat. It was awful. It was literally like watching A Clockwork Orange right there in front of my eyes. But I was doing all of this to pay the rent for the studio. It introduced me to a whole cross section of London that I wouldn’t have got to see otherwise.”

Christopher caught James Ivory’s film Heat and Dust while in London. He promptly organised a trip to Kashmir with his wife, Julie, who was still living in Nairobi.

“We decided we’d go to Kashmir and she would come from Nairobi via Bombay to New Delhi and then from there we would bus it up to Kashmir.

I would come from London via Air France to

Christopher Orchard

New Delhi and then we’d meet in New Delhi at a point that we’d forgotten to predetermine. This got more complicated because I slept in on the day I was meant to fly out of London. I woke up and the flight had already left and I just threw everything in a case. It was 30 degrees in London, humid and down in the tube it was even worse. I was running, dripping with sweat, trying to get to Heathrow Airport.

“I eventually got to Heathrow and I just go off telling them that I’ve missed my flight and I don’t know what to do and I’ve got to meet my wife in New Delhi. They put me on another flight ASAP, because they just wanted me out of the place. By this time I was already 10 hours late. Unbeknownst to me, Julie was flying international into Bombay and was then going international to New Delhi,

thereby landing at the international terminal in New Delhi. There were huge thunderstorms over Bombay and her flight was delayed and couldn’t land, so she’s now pushed back by six to eight hours. Her flight then had to be transferred to domestic. She didn’t know I was already late.

In New Delhi I ran into town and found a little hotel, jumped on a little rickshaw to go back to the airport. It just so happened that when the rickshaw pulled up outside the domestic terminal, the electronic doors opened and Julie walked out of the terminal. That’s been the story of our lives. That little trip that I was going to take on the bus back when I was six years old was kind of a precedent event.”

christopherorchard.com.au

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6 The Adelaide Review June 2013

Photo: Tony Lewis

tribute

Howard Twelftree

Vale Howard Twelftree Adelaide’s food and wine scene has lost one of its greatest characters.

T

he Adelaide Review’s much-loved and respected food writer Howard Twelftree (aka John McGrath) recently passed away. These pages were originally going to celebrate The Adelaide Review’s feat of reaching the 400-issue

milestone. But this is no time to brag. Instead we will celebrate the life of Howard, whose unique wit and wisdom appeared in almost every one of those 400 issues.

Howard was the doyen of food writing. No

A John McGrath review from June 1986, which showcases his unique wit and style

one reviewed restaurants like him. He was this city’s finest. Away from the page he had a wicked sense of humour, was a brilliant storyteller and an extremely generous and humble man. I only knew Howard for a couple of years, his support and advice (as well as to The Adelaide Review’s Tamrah Petruzzelli) was invaluable.

Even though Howard always handed his copy in well after deadline, you instantly forgave him after you read his magical words. His left-ofcentre reviews, which would lead you through a maze of the most thrilling tangents, were unique, insightful and, at times, pure poetry.

He was so good for so long that we took him for granted. He is irreplaceable. The Adelaide Review won’t be the same with John McGrath’s byline absent from its pages. And Adelaide will be less vibrant minus Howard’s gopher parked out the front of one of the many city south bars.

This issue’s cover story on The End was Howard’s idea. He was going to pen the feature celebrating The Adelaide Review’s 400th issue (he was the first and only choice to write this feature). Instead, The Adelaide Review will celebrate Howard. His final food review, completed by his friends and dining companions, is on page 48. Adjacent are tributes from friends and peers who knew him well.

Howard Twelftree was 68.

On behalf of myself and The Adelaide Review, we express our sorrow at his loss and deeply appreciate everything Howard added to the publication over the years.

David Knight, Editor

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 7

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TRIBUTE

When Howard attended our wine tasting events we’d often send ourselves away with a shot of a 10-year old Strega (aged or reserve). Howard’s expression was of genuine excitement, like a baby in a candy shop. A true gentleman.

John Caporaso

Howard Twelftree

A true gentleman, a heart of gold and just the right measure of wicked spice!

Lambchop (aka Karyn Foster) So, mild mannered restaurant-reporter John McGrath and super man-about-town Howard Twelftree were the same person. Who knew. In a recent review he unwittingly wrote his own memorial: “I sifted through the super-skilled chefs I know and respect - not an arsehole among them.” Someone please find something wicked and scandalous to say about him. He wouldn't be happy with a hagiography. So long, Howard. We wish you could have stayed.

Brian Miller It was the greatest pleasure to know Howard. He was hilarious, wicked, dearly loved and highly respected by so many. His experience and tastes were eclectic, his knowledge of food was encyclopaedic, and he wrote like an angel. It was a privilege to work with him. He’ll be hugely missed.

Tony Lewis Howard was the rarest of writers - delightful to read, wickedly amusing and witty, polished and deliberate, and always generous to the reader, imparting deep knowledge and perspective on any subject he wrote. It was a pleasure to handle his copy as editor of The Adelaide Review for two years, but better still it gave me the chance to befriend a truly lovely man and share a sinful amount of good food, booze and conversations with him. His passing is a great loss, and I regret that we won't be able to read any more naughty reports from John McGrath, nor share any more good times with the lovely Howard Twelftree.

With affection, David Sly I read John McGrath for the writing first, the information second. No one will write with such ease and wit about food and restaurants ever again.

Lance Campbell Howard is loved for many things, his wit, encyclopaedic food and wine knowledge, his wonderful writing and perhaps most of all his unlimited capacity for naughtiness.

Ann Oliver Food writer, bon vivant, mad punter and best of all, my dearest friend. God bless you Howard, you have given me so many great memories, filled with joy and laughter... so many plates filled with good food, and so many glasses filled with great drink. You have seen me through some dark times and offered help without judgement.

You also taught me about horses with ‘parrot mouth’ and that it is best not to feed a trotter a beef and pickle sandwich before a race... invaluable information I will use wisely.

I love you as a brother, and you know that is true.

There is a piece of my heart that has gone missing, but there is always a place at the table for you.

You will be missed more than words can say.

Goodbye my friend, I love you... thank you for everything, for always.

Timothy John Howard, the platter is full, I have little appetite.

Our Christmas table will never be the same.

We will always have your psychedelic electric flowers... until we meet again.

With love Lorraine Lorraine Nelson

Photo: Tony Lewis

I guess it will sink in eventually. We’ve lost a gentle bon viveur who quietly loved the small treasures of life - a good slice of cheese, an old perfume, the love of cats, books, a quirky vodka, sitting at table with friends, women.

Cath Kerry He was the best food writer and restaurant reviewer in the country and will be missed by his devoted readers. Howard has been a great inspirer of cooks and a godfather to the hospitality industries. We all loved him for his encouragement and friendship and good humour, and the extraordinary stories he came out with.

His mum had a mixed deli in Goodwood and Howard would help out after school and when she sold and moved to the old King William St hotel to cook, the kitchen staff would spoil him. I’m sure this started him on the food road. It was his guidance and inspiration that encouraged me to contribute to his food pages in The Adelaide Review for five years. We cooked, tasted, talked and photographed dishes at Cheong’s Kitchen in Unley. I’ll miss his gentle nature, Van Gogh-like looks and his wicked humour at our regular lunches and conversation on Gouger St. Cheong Liew

What a loss on so many levels; as a friend, as a combatant, as a food writer beyond all.

Howard’s humour, his wit, his knowledge, his prose made him so unique among writers that I never understood why his influence didn’t extend outside our borders; except he never did like deadlines! Howard loved food, wine, women and friends, so there are so many of us who will miss him beyond measure. I strongly feel he will always be with us.

Maggie Beer The master has gone. No more witty commentary, cunningly disguised as reviews, on the ebb and flow of Adelaide’s food scene.

No more skillful use of language to point fun at our sillier dining foibles while offending no-one, nor to emphatically congratulate those few who manage to stand out from the average crowd of victualers. Howard was both an editor’s dream and nightmare. My heart would leap when his email finally pinged into my inbox. Of course, there was little I could do to improve his words.

The pain came in trying to work out which bits to leave out if his enthusiasm for a new joint led him to overstep his word count. Sharing his table was always an adventure - childlike in his curiosity to see what a new kitchen would do to a recipe that no doubt he had sampled in many forms already, delighted when he discovered that someone could still surprise him. Vale Howard! I hope that wherever you are they are serving the best Cognac – in fact, just leave the bottle on the table eh?

Amanda Pepe

Howard was never very good at meeting deadlines. In fact, for him they didn’t seem to exist. And so we lived in hope that this final deadline would be long delayed, as with all the others. Very sadly it was not to be. His knowledge, wit and sly humour will be much missed by all of us who loved and valued him.

Nigel Hopkins Even as the best and dearest friend, one always knew his reviews could be danger, never sparing if he found a weak spot, a short cut, a typo, misinformation or bullshit. The only joy was to revel in the rapier wit and the rich narrative while gently being put to the sword. May we remain true.

Timothy Gregg It’s the twinkle in the eye and the bon mots I will always remember. Also the ability to order the most appallingly rare, mysterious and frequently indigestible dishes at the many restaurants we visited.

Lunch will just be lunch from now on.

Adam Wynn Howard Twelftree. A truly peerless man. An unusual man. A rare bird. To me, he always showed a touching tenderness which I treasured. For the world, he was the important writer for whom food criticism was a vocation. He was a rare bird interesting, generous - spirited, fun, warm, and ever refreshing to read. Vale.

Samela Harris I will miss him but more so I will remember the twinkle in Howard’s eyes on greeting, a wit beyond all wits, a chance to have a drink whenever and whatever for!... Not him so much, but when I wanted one I would go looking for him around Adelaide town... I am better for having known and laughed with Howard.

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8 The Adelaide Review June 2013

feature Echoes that inhabit the garden Has South Australia Given up on Heritage?

by Stephanie Johnston

A

ccording to the South Australian Tourism Commission’s brand framework, one of the stronger consumer perceptions about South Australia to emerge from a wide body of tourism research is our heritage ambience, particularly that of Adelaide itself. Utilising that heritage, infusing it with contemporary expression, and telling our story in memorable ways can bring South Australia’s unique settlement history, and enviable status as a premier food and wine destination alive to visitors and to ourselves. Our origins as a free settled state where tolerance, civil liberty and opportunity have always been valued imbue us with a certain ‘free thinking’ culture and personality that make us an attractive place to live, visit and hopefully invest.

Heritage is not only about buildings and architecture, but about the fact that stories live in a place, according to federal environment minister Tony Burke, who opened the 2013

Australian Heritage Conference at Rymill House with a line from TS Eliot’s Burnt Norton: ‘Other echoes / Inhabit the garden.’

The theme of storytelling echoed throughout the conference, which started with the premise that simply preventing the destruction of heritage is not enough to sustain it. Topics included the enrichment of built heritage through brilliant storytelling and effective branding, adapting and repurposing old buildings to give them new life, and understanding and unlocking the economic and cultural value of heritage assets.

Cultural economist Professor David Throsby explained how heritage assets generate economic value through their direct use by individuals, as well as through a variety of intangible benefits that do not require a person to ever actually visit the place. These include (i) option values, where a person values the option to visit a heritage place, even though they may not have immediate plans

to do so; (ii) existence values, where the simple existence of the place means that people would feel a quantifiable loss if it were destroyed; and (iii) other non-use values, such as the value generated by the chance to bequeath a heritage place to future generations, as part of a shared cultural legacy.

In addition to these economic values, heritage assets also represent cultural value through their

contribution to the cultural identity, or ‘cultural capital’ of a city and its inhabitants.

Property valuer Kel Spencer explored the impact that heritage legislation has on the market value of property. His examination of 40 local, national and international studies demonstrated that the impact of heritage listing has without exception been neutral or

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feature Norman Etherington chaired the debate and posed a number of questions. Is it true that the preservation of heritage buildings stands in the way of creating a vibrant, livable city? Will it prevent us from reaching our city residential population target of 46,000 people, and has heritage listing been a major obstacle to the planning and realisation of major building projects in the city in the past? A powerpoint tour of his ‘boulevard of broken dreams’ pointed to numerous city and North Adelaide sites where working buildings have been demolished to become long term car parks, or worse, degraded vacant sites, all created by development approvals that have never been realised.

Images from City Streets, Wakefield Press

So why has the South Australian government effectively abandoned the heritage agenda, and why do media commentators continue to perpetuate myths and stereotypes around heritage ‘zealots’ and NIMBY ‘naysayers’ inhibiting Adelaide’s progress? In short, why is heritage such a dirty word?

remove buildings from heritage lists and to significantly constrain Adelaide City Council’s heritage listing processes, along with last year’s axing of the State Heritage Advisory Service were some of the issues highlighted at a lively Hawke Centre forum entitled Has South Australia Given up on Heritage?

Recent state government interventions to

National Trust SA Chapter President, Professor

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positive, thus rebutting common perceptions fueled by property developers through the media. Spencer’s presentation supported the view that it is the collective heritage ambience of a neighbourhood or city, enhanced by a systematic listing strategy, that creates real estate value, rather than the benefits created by the protection of a specific residential or commercial place.

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Media commentators and property developers who link heritage legislation with resistance to change are out of touch with how heritage listing now works throughout the world. Clever cities, like Edinburgh, Barcelona, Bordeaux and Prague, treat their historic built heritage as a major asset.

They are using UNESCO heritage listing, and the global branding that it brings as a tool for economic development and catalyst for change.

The new small bar legislation is intended to encourage young entrepreneurs to transform the city’s old buildings and unique layout into something even more special. If we don’t actively protect, promote and celebrate those 19th century assets and the stories behind them, Adelaide will predictably and monotonously evolve to look like every other place in the world.

10 The Adelaide Review June 2013

columnists THIRD AGE

six square metres

We are old, and we are many

Nature green in tooth and claw

BY SHIRLEY STOTT DESPOJA

H

ow do old people vote?

I know the easy answer is “how they’ve voted all their lives”. But that is tommyrot. Old people are well aware that they have choices their parents did not have and which they did not have in their earlier lives, and can swing with the best. Perhaps they are even secretive voters. My mother (born 1900) and father voted differently. Dad was a red ragger who had no respect for the upper class after his experiences at Gallipoli, and Mum, from a cosier family background, was a feminist with a small penchant for educated voices. I can remember rows when Dad said, “We cancel out each other’s vote! It’s a waste,” but my mother was smart enough and feminist enough to know that she was entitled to place her democratic vote where she wished, and that was her triumph. Dad was not entitled to her vote as well as his own no matter how tight the marital knot.

Who knows for sure how anyone votes? We are not talking about the Facebook generations here, as likely to photograph their ballot papers as their latest meal, if they had a chance. Alone in our

voting booth we can say what we choose. I am sure there are couples deluded about how each votes.

BY Margaret Simons

And long live that freedom. It was hard won.

I sometimes wonder if the old express their wishes for themselves or for the future they will not perhaps share. There are so many precedents of older generations making sacrifices for their young, which is one of the reasons I am wary of legalised euthanasia. Does it extend to voting against their own needs? Convinced that they faced a choice of a rise in their pension and jobs for their kids and grandkids, I have a feeling many old people would forgo the pension increase and embrace bread and cheese three nights a week rather than feel they were prejudicing their kids’ chances.

But here’s a warning to politicians: don’t take advantage of this. It may not be the way of the future. The breath of the Me generation is on our receding backs.

How are older voters wooed or lost then? I cannot see concerted attempts to enchant the third agers of our present day by personalities

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and presentation. I do not think old people are delighted by Tony Abbott’s winsome ways, suspiciously hearty laugh (reminds me of Popeye’s “arf, arf”) and much less by his sportswear. Some of them are turned off by his swaggering walk (“as though he has the crown jewels between his legs,” one old soul confided to me) and they do not find it impossible that a loving father of daughters might make policies that did not suit all women.

On the other hand, I can tell you for certain from discussion among my peer group that many old people detest the way Julia Gillard dealt with the ALP Senator for the NT, Trish Crossin. Even those with a huge investment in a female prime minister – Emily’s List, for example – became tongue-tied after that particular dismissal was known.

The behaviour of our local government officials, to whose election we often pay too little attention until our neighbourhood suddenly changes for the worse because of them, will likely affect our response to the referendum too, short-sighted as it might seem to political sophisticates. Policies will be in our minds too; but we are emotional beings and, so far as I know, people do not shed their feelings of fairness, decency and appropriateness when they go into the voting booth.

Old-fashioned values still count with third age voters, so watch what you are at, politicians. It is not backward thinking to long for and respect, decency, decorum, due process, and even proper speech (as my mother did). Quaint, you think?

Well, we are old and we are many. Get used to it.

Don’t forget that if you think ahead that you might not feel up to it on the day, you can apply for a postal vote. We are past the age of queuing, some of us, but not past the age of having our say. Not by a long way.

with

attitude magazine

Reaching 60 has been a shock to The Thick of It writer Ian Martin who describes in The Guardian ‘60 Things about Turning 60’. He says he distrusts people who use the word “vile” a lot (so do I) and abhors violence because it solves nothing. In what must be the same breath he writes that he wants to punch Iain Duncan Smith (British Conservative politician) in the face. Are we allowed to be contradictory in old age? I would say that declaring the contradictions in our beliefs is old-age-honesty.

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He also says, “Leave the euthanasia law alone.

We all know how it works. A smudge, a nudge, a slipping away.” And the scarier the world becomes the more important it is to focus on the correct use of less and fewer (cheers from me). The Guardian has deemed it necessary to offer (for under 60s) an internet reference to what the correct use is.

I

am not a fan of the notion that on our deathbeds we will regret spending so much time at the office. I know I think too much and am generally far too serious, but surely this attitude underestimates the importance of work in most of our lives?

There is a dignity to labour, including the labour of ideas and administration that keeps most of us deskbound. Having said that, I suspect that on my deathbed I will regret the time I took away from squashing caterpillars.

This has been a more than usually frantic month at my work, which means that my morning “walking the grounds” has become more of a flypast and a quick and guilty glance out of the window than the slow and considered vermin eradication, weed pulling and harvesting that usually begins my day.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens, says the Bible, and autumn is the time for brassicas and caterpillar squashing.

Anything one plants during the downswing of the year will go to seed in spring. Therefore the vegetables to cultivate through winter are those of which we eat the immature flowers and seed heads. That means brassicas – broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts.

No creature is more rapacious and efficient than the cabbage white. On a sunny day in autumn the weather is still warm enough for the garden to be full of fluttering white butterflies. Within hours, the underside of brassica leaves are speckled with the tiny green ovoids of their eggs.

If left unattended the eggs hatch very quickly.

It can be hard to spot the tiny green caterpillars at first. They are no thicker than a cotton thread, and align themselves with the veins on the leaves – an effective form of camouflage.

Leave them for a day, and your broccoli

The Adelaide Review June 2013 11

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columnists that Wakefield had perpetrated a ‘violent, foul and diabolic conspiracy’, characterised by both ‘artful wickedness’, and ‘a vulgar and sordid … love of lucre’. It took minutes for the jury to find the Wakefields guilty and for both men to receive three years prison sentences. It could have been worse, the Counsel for the Prosecution, asserted, if, the events had occurred entirely on English ground, (not partly in Scotland), Wakefield and his brother would have been executed upon the walls of Lancaster castle or worse, transported to Australia.

leaf resembles a worn out pair of underpants, with thin places and tiny holes. It looks innocuous at first.

Leave it another day, and the caterpillars are long and fat and plentiful, now arrogant enough to loll on the upper side of the remainder of the leaf, and the plant is all but doomed.

Normally at this time of year I spend some time each morning on prevention. Still in my dressing gown, I examine the underneath of the leaves on the half dozen broccoli plants that nestle behind the geraniums at the front of the house.

I lift each leaf and brush the eggs off, and squish the baby caterpillars. I return to my morning coffee and paper with caterpillar blood under my nails.

Some still get away from me, even when I am vigilant. This last week my normal ritual has been abandoned in favour of rushing to the office. As a result the leaves in the front yard have come to resemble lace doilies.

There are meant to be alternatives to squishing the caterpillars. I read somewhere that if you sprinkle broken white eggshells between the brassicas, the cabbage whites think they see compatriots, conclude that their population is already too high, and desist from egg-laying, or go elsewhere.

I tried it. Perhaps it slowed the ravishing of the broccoli, but it did not halt it. There are no shortcuts.

So this morning I decided the email inbox could overflow a few minutes longer, and the world of journalism and academia could do without my attentions for a few more minutes.

I hunkered down behind the geraniums and squished and shook and brushed those brassica leaves.

Nature green in tooth and claw. The office is so civilised. Only a few things at work reach crisis point as quickly as unattended caterpillars on broccoli.

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dr k’s curious chronicles To pick a father’s pocket: the story of Wakefield St.

BY Kiera Lindsey

I

n the winter of 1826 the mastermind of South Australia, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, was an elegantly disheveled member of England’s middle-class with a dead wife, two young children and no fixed income. Within months he was to commit the ‘great scandal’ of that year and be confined to London’s Newgate gaol. In a desolate prison cell, his fortunes and future dashed, a vision of South Australia transformed Wakefield from a reviled gentleman abductor to a celebrated coloniser.

The seeds of Wakefield’s downfall were sewn as his family sought a solution to his straitened circumstances, which might also leverage his political ambitions. The name of 15-year-old Ellen Turner, England’s wealthiest heiress, was discussed.

The rewards of such a union would be ‘money beyond their expectations, Parliament within the year … the social and political fortunes of them all’.

Within weeks, Wakefield sent the heiress a letter to her boarding school, ostensibly from her mother’s doctor, informing the schoolgirl that a coach had been organised to rush her to her ailing mother. The carriage had scarcely travelled a hundred yards, when a well-dressed stranger stopped its passage, and introduced himself as the Captain and a friend of her family. He explained that the letter was a ruse – it was not her mother’s health, but her father’s fortune that was in danger. Wakefield cited names associated with the Turners and convinced Ellen that a deal had been struck; the only way to save her family’s reputation was for her to marry him.

For over a week Wakefield and his brother, William, kept Miss Turner hostage as they traipsed the countryside, allegedly in search of her father who, they claimed, was dodging debtors and police. Exhausted and overwhelmed, Ellen finally consented to marry her ‘father’s rescuer’, which she did before a drunken blacksmith in the infamous village of Gretna

Green, where couples married without parental consent according to Scottish marriage law.

The first William Turner heard of his daughter’s marriage was a newspaper announcement placed

by Wakefield, whose best chance of avoiding a capital sentence now lay in persuading the new Mrs Wakefield that it was ‘her charms’, ‘society and beauty’, rather than her money, that ‘smote his heart’. This Wakefield strived to do for another week, while simultaneously outrunning a party in pursuit of their stolen heiress. This charade reached its climax at Calais, when the Turners finally caught up with them just as the couple was preparing to travel onto Paris. When Ellen discovered the depth of his deception, she condemned Wakefield as a brute who had entirely deceived her and leapt into her uncle’s arms.

Suddenly, the last traces of Wakefield’s irrational daring ‘drained away’ and he surrendered to legal charges for this capital offence.

The abduction of Ellen Turner became the lifeblood of the English newspapers, which fumed

In London’s Newgate Gaol, Wakefield enjoyed few visits, other than from the radical journalist, Robert Gouger, who brought him reading material, including the publications of Charles Sturt’s recent expedition along the Murray, in which he solved ‘the riddle of the rivers’ and charted the littleknown region of South Australia. Sturt’s accounts emboldened the beleaguered bride thief, who developed a radical solution to over population in England and unemployment in the colonies.

Gouger organised to have this work published anonymously in the newspapers, and shortly afterwards Wakefield’s theory of Systematic Colonisation was adopted by parliament.

Although Wakefield enjoyed episodic success as a colonist, he never married again and never visited South Australia. For him, both women and land were tabula rasa; empty pages upon which to build a ‘social and political fortune’.

Curiously, Adelaide’s Wakefield St was not named after Edward Gibbon, but his younger brother Daniel Bell, a lawyer of dubious repute, who was sensible enough to distance himself from his older brother’s marital misfortunes, and clever enough to draft the Act, which legitimised South Australia’s colonisation. And so, although the colony of South Australia was without the convict stain, Wakefield St nonetheless recalls a family of ‘cold-blooded adventurers’ who dabbled in ‘artful wickedness’.

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

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THE ADELAIDE

REVIEW

12 The Adelaide Review June 2013

opinion LETTER FROM shanghai

BY ALEXANDER DOWNER

T

here are around 10 cities in the world you ought to see before you die. One of them is Shanghai. It’s a fascinating monument to wealth creation between the late nineteenth century and today.

On the one side of the river, which carves its way through the centre of the metropolis, is the Bund, an elegant collection of stone clad banking buildings and hotels built predominantly by the British in the first three or so decades of the last century. They are magnificent edifices in the extravagant late colonial style when grandeur and prestige could be bought for a farthing on the back of a coolie’s labour.

On the other side of the river is Pudong. If the Bund is redolent of European imperial capitalism, then Pudong is a symbol of the new, aggressive quasi-capitalist China, ambitious to be modern and technologically savvy. Huge skyscrapers spear the air while at ground level Western style coffee shops, restaurants and boutiques line the streetscape.

The whole city – with an estimated population as great as the population of Australia – is, in a word, astonishing.

Yet the further you are from China, the less you understand it. We owe it to ourselves to try to learn about this country which is now the world’s second largest economy and our biggest trading partner.

To understand diplomacy and international politics you need to understand two things: geography and history. It’s those two things which drive modern societies and help explain their security and economic policies. China isn’t like Burkina Faso: everyone knows where it is and roughly what it looks like. So it’s clear that a defining issue for China is its coastline. That’s its access to the outside world, not land borders.

China is hemmed in by deserts and mountains.

It’s cheaper and easier to trade by sea.

This is where history and geography come together. When the colonial powers came to China in the nineteenth century they did so to trade. They therefore approached by sea. Even the Russians, with their long common land border with China, seized coastal regions. The great coastal cities of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Canton (now Guangzhou) and others sprang up and generated huge wealth – for the imperialists.

So these days, not surprisingly, the wealth of China is still generated along the Eastern and Southern seaboards. China’s economic miracle over the last three decades has been driven by trade and the coastal cities have flourished.

This helps to explain a couple of things about Chinese security and social policy. For one, to prosper, China needs to keep its ports open.

That means having the military capacity to defeat any adversary who may wish to blockade its ports or even occupy them. China has built quite an arsenal of missiles including ballistic missiles which it could use to keep the Americans a great distance from China’s shore.

And secondly, China needs to balance the natural economic growth of these coastal regions with the grinding poverty of the interior. China’s modern leaders know that above all, Mao’s revolution was bred in the interior, a seething bed of resentment against the plutocracy of the coast. So while on the one hand they’ve decided to deregulate the economy so the coastal regions can thrive, the government is investing heavily in inland cities and regions so that the fruits of the Chinese economic miracle are shared equitably. The regime in Beijing regards this as an existential issue.

All this makes pretty good sense if you are Chinese. But for some reason, plenty of outsiders see modern China as a threat. Well, remember the old aphorism: if you call someone your enemy, he

will become your enemy. So before we conclude China is at least a putative enemy, we should ask why we would come to that conclusion.

Well, some will say it’s because it is a communist country. The governing party is indeed the communist party but do we know, in the Chinese context, what this means? Strolling through the streets of highly capitalist Shanghai or driving along the freeways of Shenzhen past miles of private local and international factories it is hard to reconcile that with Karl Marx’s gloomy and oppressive ideology.

The truth is, China is run by an autocratic party but not a party which is communist in the sense the Soviet Union was during Stalin’s time.

Importantly, the Chinese Communist Party, unlike its old Soviet counterpart, is not trying to spread revolution. It isn’t trying to convert any country to its system of government.

Some may fear China will soon start invading its neighbours. Well, that’s a huge claim to make. China doesn’t have the history of colonial expansion of Japan and the European powers.

It has enough land and enough people to look after without getting into that perilous game.

No, China is not a threat. Not if you understand it. So add Shanghai to your bucket list, jump on a plane and have a look. Then you’ll start to realise a lot of half-informed scaremongers are having you on about the “China threat”.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 13

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OPINION

MODERN TIMES The Architecture of Civilisation

BY ANDREW HUNTER

T

he gradual return of traditional residential architecture to South Korea’s urban landscape reflects a deeper renewal of timeless cultural values. The classically designed Korean house, the hanok, has returned to favour. Rapid post-war urbanisation led to the proliferation of architecturally banal, modernist buildings but over the past decade, beauty and sustainability are values that once again influence urban design in South Korea.

Environmental sustainability is not the only compelling reason to reconsider our residential architecture. Marie-Henri Beyle once asserted that “beauty is the promise of happiness” - a phrase notably reprised in The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton. In Australia, little intellectual energy has been devoted to the development of beautiful residential areas. The companies that build our new houses have never promised to help develop happier communities.

The social and environmental impact of unrestrained market forces has become clear even in countries like Australia where loyalty to market forces has bordered on the fanatical. Subtle shifts in public discourse, market choices, and lifestyle changes, are evidence that seeds of resistance have been planted in popular consciousness. `Sustainability’ and `well-being’ will soon compete with `economic growth’ and `building investment portfolios’ in private and public conversations.

This change will radically influence attitudes to architecture and urban planning.

Will the market speak, or will society speak through its elected representatives? It is likely that the proliferation of architecture and urban design conducive to the development of sustainable, uplifting environments will need to be initially encouraged by the government, rather than led by the market. Will government lead a reluctant public to necessary change or will an informed public demand it?

The tension between economic orthodoxy and ecological sustainability has been stretched as far as reality permits. Soon, the needs of the environment will pervade both our immediate decisions and our future plans. The Korean hanok was designed to attract heat in summer and warmth in winter, and uses materials that minimise environmental impact. The contemporary hanok now includes modern conveniences but its design still reduces the reliance on energy consumption through the natural provision of a stable residential temperature.

For centuries in Korea, architecture and planning have together been considered critical to social wellbeing. A monk named Doseon in the 9th century first articulated a philosophy focussed on the geographic organisation of residential homes, pungsu-jiri, in Korea. Pungsu-jiri became so influential that it inspired a revolution three centuries later when another monk, Myocheong, tried to overthrow the Koryo Dynasty in order to establish a new capital. Pyongyang was believed to be a better location for the seat of government.

Few civilisations have been taken to the edge of revolution because of geomancy.

In 1999, the Korean Government offered generous subsidies for the redevelopment of

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hanoks. Older suburbs in Seoul have been transformed. Modern hanoks have appeared – larger versions of the classical design that also accommodate modern comforts such as en suites and air conditioners. The government intervened to create a pleasing counter-balance to market forces that had created an urban landscape dominated by ugly apartment buildings.

The traditionally active Australian lifestyle, even in its diminished modern form, will help build popular acceptance for urban planning that favours walking and cycling as principal modes of transport. Could we also draw upon the heritage of our Indigenous people and their timeless commitment to the perpetual protection of the environment to help shape a distinctly Australian form of sustainable, residential architecture?

Australia may not have an ancient architectural traditional to return to, but surely the need for environmental sustainability and the promise for happiness also have an Australian resonance?

The principal values that influence the modern Australian mind may, unfortunately, be more limiting than helpful. Architecture must always speak to the local vernacular and in Australia today, `wealth creation’ is a phrase more often spoken than `beauty’ and its `promise of happiness’. Too often, volume trumps quality and the immediate is preferred to the sustainable.

The hanok has returned to favour in the People’s Republic of Korea because it reflected civilisational values that were briefly overlooked during the period of rapid but prolonged transformation that followed the Korean War. Which identifiably Australian values can be drawn upon to develop a uniquely Australian urban landscape with a distinct residential architecture?

Myocheong’s attempted revolt against the Koryo Dynasty occurred after ideas about appropriate urban organisation and design had fermented for centuries. The debate that took place in the Koryo Kingdom had a popular implication but also adsorbed the intellectual and official leaders of the day. It is time for such a debate in Australia.

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14 The Adelaide Review June 2013

science A time for ageing This is supposed to be one of those significant years for me – I turn 50.

by Paul Willis

R

ecently my son (Mr 7) and his grandmother were chatting. He asked, “How old are you?” and she joked “50” to which he responded “Oh, half way there then!” But half way to where? A question that resonated with me and my impending 50th birthday.

For most of human history, I would have been dead by my age, but today I’m most probably only halfway there. Well, two-thirds if I get the average life span for an Australian male of around 75 years.

That remarkable increase in life expectancy has been made possible through a variety of advances.

Agricultural science has provided a richer and more stable food supply, public health and hygiene has seen the eradication of many fatal illnesses as has our extensive vaccination programs, and the environment we live in has been made safer by reducing or eliminating dangers from roaming wild animals through to safer cars.

But here’s the thing: while more people are living longer, the maximum age hasn’t changed much. Throughout history there have always been individuals living up to around 100.

True, there are more centenarians today than ever before and some of them are going on to see their second teens, but that 100 year milepost has remained pretty much fixed as the maximum human life span.

I remember this being pointed out to me in first year biology and our lecturer, the famous Charles Birch, quipped that if these trends continued, if we kept moving the average lifespan further and further but the maximum remains fixed at 100, then one day we will all expect to live to see our centenary, to be quickly followed by our funeral.

Over the years I’ve hosted several discussions about the science behind living longer and the resounding take-home message is not how do we get everyone to live as long as possible but how do we provide quality of life for as long as we can.

There’s no favour for seeing in the century if the last 20 years of your life are spent incapacitated.

People I’ve spoken with in the aged care sector talk about how important it is to be active and engaged in old age. These people live out their final years happy and content whereas those who are incapacitated are more likely to be depressed or morose about the prospect of living longer. The question of growing old is not one of quantity but one of quality.

So I’m middle-aged. I have another couple of decades of productive working life ahead of me and questions of growing old, growing really old, need not trouble me for many years to come. But isn’t growing old a poor deal? I still have the mindset and outlook on life I had when I was a young adult. My curiosity about the world around me and my love of exploring that world are as fresh as when I was in high school and it’s what keeps me going. I love life, I relish life but this vessel that carries me through it is showing the signs of wear and tear. Sore and aching joints slow me down and prevent me from doing the things I used to love doing. I have to keep an eye on my diet because of high cholesterol acquired from enjoying too many fine foods. My delight in food has to be tempered because of my increasing weight.

My liver is complaining about the beer and wine that I enjoy (not that I’m alcoholic but my

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moderate consumption has still taken its toll).

I’m living proof that humans were not designed to live a healthy life in our modern society.

Life for each one of us is, and will always be, a personal journey with its own unique set of pathways and destinations. Life is a balance between internal aspirations and external physical forces. Life is what we can achieve with what we are provided. Life is a sexually transmitted, terminal condition.

Recently I watched a performance of the current RiAus play The Clock by Emily Steel. It’s all about ageing as the ride through life. A series of vignettes of different people confronting different challenges on their passage through life. All sounded both unique and common place. Only I can face this challenge in my life but it is a challenge that everybody must face sooner or later. The Clock is a reaffirmation of life as an individual’s path made meaningful through interactions with others. And that’s the wonderful thing about ageing; although it is an individual’s journey, it’s measured by our interactions with others: the birth of our kids, the death of loved ones, the shared times of joy and happiness.

So, what do I have to look forward to as I turn 50? Hopefully many happy years watching my son grow up and seeing him dealing with the same problems in life that I’ve had to deal with. Being by his side when he needs me and having him by my side when I need him. Sure, there are careers and property and all the other paraphernalia that we clutter our lives with. But when it comes down to it, quality of life is derived from how we share our times with the lives of loved ones.

»»Dr Paul Willis is the Director of RiAus

WHAT'S ON IN SCIENCE Bringing science to people and people to science

THE CLOCK Friday, June 7, 6.30-7.30pm – extra session The Science Exchange Free, booking required Age is just a number isn’t it? Find out in award-winning writer, Emily Steel’s latest play The Clock. RiAus Free Range Science and ActNow Theatre present this new piece of interactive theatre.

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The Adelaide Review June 2013 15

adelaidereview.com.au

business Political Groundhog Day – Fear as an Electoral Weapon

by John Spoehr

G

enerating fear in the electorate about the policies of your political opponents is a national pre-election past time. The latest is Tony Abbott’s claim that Australia faces a “budget emergency”. The problem, he claims, is not that revenue has fallen dramatically but rather spending has been excessive. For this reason he indicated that the Coalition would support the Government’s proposed budget cuts. In his Budget reply speech the Opposition Leader confirmed that he would establish a Commission of Audit to undertake a major budget review if elected on September 14.

The Coalition’s script is a familiar one. It goes something like this.

Labor has mismanaged the Budget and has been spending like a drunken sailor. That’s why we backed the cuts in the Federal Budget.

Much more will need to be done to bring the Budget back into balance. We will appoint a Commission of Audit to advise how to cut our cloth to wear when elected. Government waste will be eliminated. There are 20,000 more public servants now than there were 10 years ago. We are committed to smaller government, less taxes and individual reward for individual effort.

What we are about to watch is a political Groundhog Day – days that are uncannily like

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the ones that preceded them, where the mistakes of the past are frustratingly repeated. The script has been written, the scenes look familiar and the end is predictable. It is a story about debt and surpluses, a tragic comedy of errors built on economic fallacies, fantasies and folly.

Scene one sets out to portray government budgets like household budgets – all must live within their means or suffer the consequences of imprudence. Conveniently ignored are minor matters like the fact that households, unlike sovereign states, are not able to levy taxes, fees and fines on their neighbors. It is of no real consequence that governments have the capacity to create debt and amortise the cost of repayments over generations. The productivity enhancing benefits of public debt as a source of investment in infrastructure are largely overlooked.

Scene two is high drama – public debt is out of control and sharp expenditure cuts are necessary to save us from calamity. Austerity measures are required to regain control of the crisis.

Back in the real world austerity measures are fuelling rather than solving the devastating impacts of the GFC. More frustrating for the scriptwriters is the fact that stimulus spending has proved to be a successful part of the policy solution in countries like Australia, which have avoided plunging into a generalised recession. What must the scaremongers make of the fact that public debt remains very low in Australia?

Don’t let facts get in the way of a scary political story.

The Australian Parliamentary Library often reminds honourable members of inconvenient truths. One of the most unpalatable for budgetary dooms day merchants is that public debt in Australia was just six percent of GDP in 2012-13. In other words Australia has one of the lowest government debt levels of any nation. The average for the G7 group of nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, UK and USA) is projected to reach 94 percent of GDP by 2015. Tellingly the International Monetary Fund has recommended a benchmark of 60 percent of GDP.

Still from Groundhog Day

Auto industry crisis – domino effects The announcement that Ford Australia will cease manufacturing cars in Australia from 2016 is a devastating blow for those who work in the Geelong and Broadmeadows plants. It will be very difficult for the 1200 workers who lose their jobs to find good alternative jobs and many will become unemployed. Manufacturing employment has been hit hard by the rise of low cost automotive manufacturing in Asia and a persistently high Australian dollar. Around 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Australia since the GFC, with around 30,000 of these in SA. Ford was not well positioned to withstand the pressures confronting the automotive sector in Australia, having failed to establish a robust export platform for its Australian made vehicles. Sales of the Falcon plummeted over recent years and the rest is history.

Ford’s decision will have negative impacts on the South Australian automotive components

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sector over the short term. It might also generate some positive impacts with some consumers moving their loyalty to Holden in response.

While Holden in South Australia is in a much stronger position than Ford, it is also vulnerable to closure, particularly if the Coalition were to withdraw financial support from the carmaker upon being elected to Government. Bi-partisan political support for the auto industry is essential if it is to have a future in Australia.

Beyond this are big questions about what a sustainable automotive industry in Australia might look like. A national automotive industry transformation plan is needed, along with a much lower Australian dollar.

»»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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16 The Adelaide Review June 2013

business

Macroeconomic Policy is Not About You

by Stephen Koukoulas

M

any individuals and businesses either forget or chose to ignore the fact that macroeconomic policy management is not about them.

It is about getting the framework for overall economic growth, job creation, ongoing low inflation, rising productivity and strong national income all heading in the right direction.

Most of these things, like solid GDP growth and rising productivity, do not directly show up in your everyday living and therefore your perception of well-being. They do, nonetheless.

Without sustained economic growth and favourable macroeconomic settings, it is difficult, if not impossible to deliver the microeconomic issues that do impact on us

more directly in our day-to-day lives.

It is those macroeconomic settings where the Gillard government has delivered – and delivered in spades.

The real economy continues to grow at an annual rate around three percent which is what the economics profession would consider to be the sustainable, non-inflationary rate of expansion. The proof of the sustainability of the current settings comes from the fact that inflation is currently around 2.5 percent and has been within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s two to three percent target band for three years.

This solid growth with the inflation rate on target has meant that the unemployment rate,

which is both a macro and microeconomic indicator, is around 5.5 percent and has been in a broader four to six percent range for the past decade.

All of this fits with a near perfect performance of the macroeconomy. In terms of the issues that impact on you and me, this sustained economic expansion has seen a range of desirable personal issues flow through.

Health spending continues to increase, which ensures the medical system in Australia is one of the best in the world.

Given the solid economy, the government has the ability to fund disability support, education, income tax cuts and generous retirement incomes policy, all with the government having trivial level of debt and a budget that remains close to balance.

These benefits to society, often overlooked as ugly partisan politics creates the proverbial mountain out of a mole hill on issues such as government debt, result from macroeconomic policy delivered by the RBA and the government.

GDP growth of three percent, with unemployment around 5.5 percent, with inflation at 2.5 percent and with Australia having worldbest budget settings are a dream that an Abbott government, should there be one after the September 14 election, would settle for in every

The real economy continues to grow at an annual rate around three percent which is what the economics profession would consider to be the sustainable, noninflationary rate of expansion.”

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quarter and every year over its term of government.

The RBA’s handling of monetary policy has been constructive, with three distinct phases in recent years. There was the global financial crisis easing phase which saw the RBA cut the official interest rate from 7.25 percent in August 2008 to a low of three percent in April 2009; then there was the recovery tightening cycle which saw interest rates move back up to 4.75 percent

by November 2010; and now there is the current monetary easing cycle which earlier this month saw interest rates fall back to 2.75 percent.

In other words, the RBA adjusted interest rates on 22 occasions both up and down as it tried to set the conditions for sustained growth.

It has been successful.

The government played a pivotal role in sustaining a decent rate of economic growth with its handling of budget settings. When the global crisis hit, the government ramped up spending, moved the budget to deficit and in the process ensured the economy avoided recession. Now it is on a path of fiscal consolidation which will, in time, see the budget return to surplus and all of this with net government debt remaining below 12 percent of GDP. It is from this position of economic strength where those complaining about the current economic position of Australia are misguided.

Some individuals and some businesses are not doing well, despite the near perfect macroeconomic settings. This will always be the case. Even in the strongest of economic times, some sectors do poorly, just as in the deepest of recessions, some sectors do exceptionally well.

The picture remains the same. Without a strong macroeconomic framework, the ability for you to get access to health care would be eroded as would the ability of your children to access education. In weak economies, disability and aged support would be difficult to fund, road building postponed and the number of medicines subsidised by the generous pharmaceutical benefits scheme would be limited.

The next time you hear someone complain about the level of government debt or some other ephemeral economic issue, consider how the Greeks or Spanish are fairing with over 25 percent unemployment, with wages being slashed, with health services severely curtailed, with suicide rates rising and with access to education being cut.

These economies, plus many others, are paying the price for poor macroeconomic settings and weak macroeconomic settings. Australia is light years away from that and I for one am very grateful to the work of the Reserve Bank and the government for keeping it that way.

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

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 17

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BUSINESS

Privately Owned Business – the Model for Success

BY MICHAEL BROWNE

P

rivately owned business is often described as the backbone of the state’s economy. According to PwC’s recently released Private Business Barometer, indications are that a significant portion of privately owned businesses remain resilient and continue to thrive by doing things differently and adapting to the changing environment they are operating in.

Overall the Barometer indicated a sense of cautious optimism, but not bullishness.

The current view signals it might be the right time to innovate, look for growth and position business to take advantage of potential opportunities.

Results were mixed with not all businesses reflecting optimism. So what are the differentiators between optimistic privately owned businesses who are meeting targets and those who aren’t?

capital and the Barometer indicates that privately owned business is not seeing access to funding as a major issue; the banks are now being genuinely seen as “open for business”.

One area that stands out is the businesses approach to dealing with competition. Whilst the majority of businesses surveyed highlight that the main driver of competition is price, those hitting their targets have a different focus. They are seeking to differentiate through product innovation, improving customer experience and looking at ways to develop and reinvent their business.

The belief is that by taking this approach, rather than a focus on price, margins will be protected.

Successful businesses are also highlighting the importance of being attuned to the market and quickly adapting to change. They are focusing on the need to make decisions and act quickly, but stress the importance of keeping a close watch to ensure that the business remains on track and does not get distracted.

Optimistic businesses shine when it comes to investment, innovation and planning. This often means taking risks, increasing expenditure and maybe even taking on additional debt in order to achieve these outcomes. These businesses are also not frightened to adapt and change their business model. It seems that sitting back and waiting for opportunities to come their way doesn’t seem to be driving success.

Businesses that are making inroads are also expressing a willingness to invest in the next 12 months. Investment requires

Interestingly, and perhaps contradictory to current thinking, success is often being attained by those businesses not so focussed on China. In fact a significant majority of businesses surveyed are not operating in Asia at all. A reasonable question to ask is whether the lack of focus on Asia and in particular China is a sustainable long-term strategy? It may be recognition that privately owned business simply does not have the capital to sustain the investment required to be active long term in these markets?

Time will tell, with the Asian region seen as the engine room of the world’s economy, a lack of focus on the region may need to be reassessed in the long-term.

Businesses that are performing well are

actively looking at ways to drive growth and optimise their business model, but they join other respondents in seeing the greatest impediment to growth as weak consumer confidence. They are less focussed on the high Aussie dollar and cutbacks in government spending.

Privately owned business has limited hiring intentions and is taking a cautious stance on wage growth. Businesses are seeking productivity improvements through creating a more agile and adaptable workforce.

Experience tells us that employees who are engaged and valued by the business are more satisfied and productive.

It seems that the message is clear, those businesses making progress in this challenging environment are innovating, and making productivity improvements whilst also ensuring their marketing strategy is relevant to achieve future success.

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

The basic project of art is…to close the gap between you and everything that is not you Robert Hughes

S T u dy a rT h i S To ry with the arT GaLLEry oF SouTh auSTraLia

2013 mid-year postgraduate courses: Curatorial and Museum Studies, Modern Australian Art and Indigenous Art online courses: Australian Art and European Art Scan to watch video

For more information visit www.arthistory.adelaide.edu.au, phone 08 8313 5746 or email catherine.speck@adelaide.edu.au Installation view Deep Space: New acquisitions from the Australian contemporary art collection featuring Gemma Smith, Boulder #6 (radiant), 2010; South Australian Government Grant 2010, Art Gallery of South Australia.

18 The Adelaide Review June 2013

business ‘intelligence’). Its leading proponent was Abraham Maslow, whose ‘hierarchy of needs’ is still widely taught in management courses.

The widespread use of personality tests and the fashion of speaking of diverse abilities – emotional, moral, spiritual – as ‘intelligence’ which can be measured by tests, supports my contention that we have embraced soft-skill management in Australia.

A survey of Australian HRM managers found that 69 percent agreed that personality tests are valuable management tools, despite the fact that they cannot predict work performance. A survey of 8000 Australians found that 44 percent regarded personality tests as ‘too invasive’, which they are. They are also discriminatory, invalid, unreliable and easily faked. Yet, each year, 2.5 million people worldwide take the MBTI which is used by 89 of the Fortune 100 companies. That about three quarters of people achieve a different personality type when tested a second time seems not to bother those who use them.

THE RISE OF THE PSYCHOMANAGER

by Robert Spillane

T

raditionally, the ultimate test of management was performance – the achievement of actual results.

A famous proponent of this view was Peter Drucker who consulted with the legendary CEO of General Motors, Alfred P. Sloan. It is the duty of CEOs to be objective, impersonal and impartial, Sloan famously said. They must pay no attention to whether they like their colleagues or not. The only criterion must be performance. Drucker called this perspective ‘management by objectives’ which is grounded on ‘hard-skills’ – rational, analytic, role-based, argumentative. If people

perform, Drucker said, they earn the right to argue with their boss.

Today, Australian workplaces are dominated by ‘management by subjectives’ which is based on ‘soft-skills’ – intuitive, synthetic, relationship-based, empathic. According to this perspective, people who argue lack ‘softskills’; in some cases they are considered to be suffering from a personality disorder.

Management by subjectives is based on performance and personality (including motivational needs and various forms of

The popularity of soft-skill management has created psychomanagers who have welcomed those psychologists I call ‘personologists’ into their organisations.

Some personologists work with managers to encourage them to master themselves; others work for managers to help them to master others. Broadly, personologists aim to identify people with ‘personality disorders’ at one extreme and ‘leadership qualities’ at the other. This is often achieved through courses in which personologists, influenced by new age fantasies, postmodern preciousness, political correctness and feminism, have turned management training into a joke for those who want to be judged on actual results and not on their, often difficult, personalities.

The problem is that psychomanagement requires knowledge that managers don’t have.

Psychomanagers have to understand various personality theories, tests and therapies. Failing this, they yield their authority to counsellors, consultants or coaches who cannot agree on the fundamentals of human behaviour. And when they attempt to apply psychomanagement, they undermine their authority because the

roles of manager and psychologist are mutually exclusive. Each has its own authority.

Maslow argued that managers should adapt their style according to different levels of employee motivation. Drucker disagreed. He quipped: “We know nothing about motivation: all we can do is write books about it.” He argued that there is one style of managing: to make strength productive and weakness irrelevant.

Managers who pretend that the psychological needs of subordinates, rather than the objective needs of the task, determine what they do destroy the integrity of their role.

American psychiatrist, Thomas Szasz, agrees. In acting honestly, the aim of managers is to master relevant tasks; in acting dishonestly their aim is to control people. The former task requires knowledge and skills; the latter information about personalities. In such situations, managers not only tolerate but often subtly encourage inadequate task performance; what they want is not competent employees but people they can control and ‘treat’. These managers have replaced the task of doing their job competently with the task of managing their colleagues ‘compassionately’.

Once Australian managers open their doors to personologists they enter a world in which Alice would be at home because psychomanagement leads inexorably to the psychologising of the workplace. When they are confronted with stress, personality and mental disorders, some realise that being a manager in Australia is a challenging business.

»»Robert Spillane is Professor of Management at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney and the author of The Rise of Psychomanagement in Australia. The AIM Business School will host Professor Spillane for a breakfast seminar on modern management practices at the National Wine Centre of Australia on Thursday, July 11. aimsa.com.au

Making History Almost at the 5,000,000 mark.

Will you be the 5 millionth guest to stay at The Windsor in its 130 year history?

Reserve your room at www.thehotelwindsor.com.au and stay from now until 31st August 2013 for your chance to be rewarded with 5 nights in the Royal Suite, butler service and a private dinner party for six.

The 5 millionth guest must directly book and stay between 1st of April and 31st of August 2013 via The Hotel Windsor website only, third party website bookings are not applicable.

The winner will be decided by The Hotel Windsor Management and will be notified on check-in. Competition prize is valid up until 31st August 2014.

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02/04/2013 15:56

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 19

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

OPINION

Ginkgo: The Tree that Remembers Time

BY STEPHEN FORBES

E

Ginkgo’s striking beauty is resident in every leaf - the tree’s common name reflects the similarity of the elegant fan-shaped leaves to the maidenhair fern. The meaning of the leaves and their pattern of diverging raised veins are both beautiful and memorable. The leaves are meditated on and celebrated by artists from Goethe’s poetry to Hossein & Angela Valamanesh’s beautiful Ginkgo Gates at the western entry to Adelaide’s Botanic Gardens. Confucius is even supposed to have taught beneath a ginkgo, and ginkgos are commonly associated with temples in China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The butter yellow autumn foliage and the synchronous fall of the leaves are celebrated and in Sewanee in the USA are sown to make devotional Advent yellow roses - a rather beautiful craft and an apt symbol for everlasting life Ginkgo is the most exquisite example of a living fossil. Ginkgo dates back to Jurassic (and of course the contemporaneous dinosaurs) and yet survives to represent one of the five lineages of seed plants extant today. Curiously while ginkgo has been in cultivation for at least 1000 years and is represented by a rich fossil record there are only two wild populations of ginkgo persisting and even the origins of these populations are disputed by botanists.

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very plant has a story to tell. The story of the maidenhair tree or ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is an enthralling epic that resonates through 200 million years of history.

Ginkgo’s beauty and survival through deep time is an important touchstone in our world that’s largely forgotten the meaning of time.

Valamanesh’s Ginkgo Gate

At the end of the recent Shanghai Chenshan Botanic Gardens Symposium I joined a few local and international botanists on a pilgrimage to Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang Province, a few hours north of Shanghai to see the ancient remnant forests that one of these wild populations. The populations consists of a couple of hundred trees and a fabled specimen supposed to represent five generations that perches on the edge of a cliff at an altitude of 950 metres. The Chinese have described this tree as, “an old dragon trying to fly” and seeing half of the tree cascading over the precipice in the mist the allusion seems apt. The tree has 15 stems with the largest over a metre in diameter. As if the ginkgo isn’t reward enough the rest of the Mountain’s flora is breathtaking in it’s diversity and beauty (and deserves further attention in these pages).

The botany of ginkgo is as remarkable as the tree. Commonly planted trees are male as the small apricot-like fruits of the female

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endurance for 200 million years reminds us of the transitory history of humans. A number of ginkgo’s that survived within a mile of the centre of the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima remain and perhaps reinforce the qualities for endurance that ginkgo might have and that humans might not.

Sir Peter Crane, former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and currently Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale was in Shanghai for the Symposium. Peter has recently completed an evolutionary and cultural biography of ginkgo initially founded on his research into ginkgo’s fossil record (Ginkgo: the tree that time forgot published in March

by Yale University Press). Peter’s narrative incorporates his paleobotanical research, the ethnography of ginkgo’s cultivation and distribution and our relationship with this extraordinary tree. Peter’s conclusions are as much metaphysical as scientific - ginkgo’s

“... (humans) evolved to live in the present, so we’re very focused on the short-term. One of our biggest shortcomings is that we can’t see the long-term, and we see that in the way we respond to all kinds of environmental issues.” Ginkgo’s idea of the long-term makes an economist’s long-run a heartbeat.

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have a flesh that smells like vomit. However the fruits contain a nut that’s widely regarded in Asia and female trees might be prized if you don’t have to walk over the fruits each morning. The fertilisation process is quite primitive and involves the development of motile sperm - perhaps a riskier strategy than that of flowering plants but one that’s been effective for 200 million years.

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20 The Adelaide Review June 2013

montefiore MONTEFIORE

BY MONTEFIORE SCUTTLEBUTT

Letter plea to the big boys You have to admire the stamina of our Lord Mayor, Stephen Yarwood. With his team facing a continually expanding budget for the $75-million-but-now-rising total Victoria Square refurbishment, he recently posted a plea to Canberra, begging for Gillard Government largesse of $2.5 million to top up a $4.5 million kitty needed to build Mullabakka, a proposed building appearing in the concept drawings. To one day be “the showpiece of the square”, if it ever gets erected it would be used, in his words, for “social and cultural functions, indigenous dining, a cultural information centre, an art gallery and gift shop”. There was no mention of an irony as big as the site – the square was the focal centre of the creation and implementation of the city’s dry zone regulations which were originally adopted years ago to block mainly Aboriginal visitors from daytime picnics in the square opposite the Hilton Hotel and accosting tourists as they ambled towards the city centre.

Every couple of years the regs are rubberstamped by the government, but always acting on recommendations from the council. There

also was no mention of the politically risky business of Town Hall proposing erection of prominent new commercial buildings in the parklands, of which the square dirt forms a part. It’s always been a very touchy subject.

Moving ever forward, however... To help spread his plea as widely as possible in the ACT corridors of power, Mr Yarwood copied the letter sent to Jenny Macklin (minister, indigenous affairs) to ministers Peter Garrett, Martin Ferguson, Simon Crean and Anthony Albanese. (This was all before several of these people, following a later abortive Canberra coup, delisted their names from the Cabinet list.) Interestingly, last on the cc list was Federal Member for Adelaide, Kate Ellis.

Is Monty reading something into this, or was this deliberate? Perhaps the Federal Member for Adelaide should have been First Advocate – surely if you have an insider’s ear who walks the same corridors as the big boys, shouldn’t she be leading the charge?

Especially as Canberra faces up to the mother of all election contests and South Australian pork barrelling opportunities mount. “It’s a national disgrace,” Mr Yarwood intoned recently. He was talking about the unkempt

square and 40 years of dithering. There was no mention of a recent $4 million blowout on the initial $24 million budget – and all this within a few months of the work commencing.

An ominous sign already.

Jobs training leg-up The $28 million partial refurbishment of the northern end of Victoria Square was powered-up by March 19 committee room closed-door formalities of the awarding of the contract. Documentation ran to 75 pages. It signals the end of an old Adelaide era. You can’t get building work done on a handshake anymore. Details of how the successful tenderer must get the job done are secret. Months earlier, however, minutes of Town Hall’s Reconciliation Committee Meeting of Wednesday, November 21, 2012 revealed how the tender paperwork was being written. Musings focused on the need for local indigenous Australian training opportunities, calling for wording in the tender document to “identify any value-add opportunities that the

tenderer is able to offer the Council including...

Evidence of an Indigenous Training, Employment & Supplier Plan...” Under the heading ‘Construction Preliminaries’ a Power Point presentation proposed: “Council is working to ensure economic development opportunities are realised through its works contracts. Tenderers will be required to employ 10 people from a pre-selected list of applicants for the duration of the project. ... The contractor will be required to liaise with the Job Service Provider to select and employ 10 people from the list of applicants.

The Contractor will be required to take reasonable endeavours to assist applicants with their employment needs including but not necessarily limited to engaging with the Job Service Provider to understand and provide for the specific needs of the applicants.”

Fair enough, too! But if the tender docs did include this feature, it’s a pity that they didn’t create a similarly explicit criterion for skilling and supporting a selection of Centrelinkdependent, untrained white kids, given that

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THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 21

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

MONTEFIORE the Anglo unemployment rate for under-19s in the suburbs north and south of the city is pretty high, too, officially at 26.1 percent but almost certainly much higher on the street.

Only a small change to the tender wording would have been necessary. Attempts to check the documentation were blocked because the tender response assessments and hiring of contractors occurred under Town Hall confidentiality orders.

STORMING THE RAMPARTS Our city’s green parkland rim has been subject of more than a century of political stoushes, fed by commercial appetites of plumbless depth. But one administrative feature has remained unacknowledged – that only the ratepayers of the city and North Adelaide pay for its high-cost upkeep, and therefore only the city’s elected members run the show. However, in mid-April came a Local Government Association General Meeting bid, fomented mainly by Unley councillors, to include up to three innercity-rim councils on the Adelaide Park Lands Authority Board of Management.

A last minute attempt to defuse it by City Area Councillor, and Deputy Lord Mayor, Dr Michael Llewellyn-Smith AM failed, so the bid edges forward. It would be a revolutionary development – allowing nonpaying council representatives a seat at a

table traditionally funded only by citycentric tribes and having the potential to affect the outcome of million-dollar motions – but not having to cough up one cent from their councils’ budgets.

There’s another small elephant in the room lurking behind all this that no-one ever mentions: the Caucasian monopoly.

Why doesn’t the APLA Board feature a mandatory Kaurna representative – for whom the 700 parklands remnant hectares represent the last vestiges of traditional country? No mention of this idea in the statutory principles and functions penned by the Rann government in 2005. Perhaps the LGA proponents could field non-councilelected-member Kaurna representatives from each of the aspiring inner city council areas? Somehow one thinks that this is not what the LGA had in mind.

Win

CLARIFICATION RE: FLY AGARIC In the May edition of The Adelaide Review, on page 44, columnist Jock Zonfrillo wrote about foraging and eating various fungi including fly agaric, Amanti muscaria.

Zonfrillo stated that he was “eating... pappardelle with fly agaric (amanita muscaria)… That is indeed poisonous when eaten raw or dried, however, as I have recently learned, the poisons within are readily soluble in water.” He goes on to say that he has “tried it and it is delicious”.

The Adelaide Review does not endorse

THE A HOLIDAY TON OF IO AT N TI ES D E YOUR CHOIC Courtesy of Singapore Airlines

the above comments in any way. We do not endorse eating fly agaric, as it is poisonous.

Zonfrillo wrote earlier in the piece that the “first rule of foraging is more prevalent this season that ever – get the relevant information; read it, read it again” and “go out and observe, where possible, with someone who knows what they’re doing. Ask many questions and then go out and pick yourself some species that you are 100 percent comfortable with identifying.”

We agree that when foraging to be 100 percent comfortable and safe with the species you are identifying. However The Adelaide Review strongly opposes our readers experimenting with fly agaric, Amanti muscaria.

Hot 100 Wines

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN

Calling All SA Wine Makers SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2013/14 ADELAIDE REVIEW HOT 100 SA WINES WILL BE OPEN ON TUESDAY, JUNE 18 The annual Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines is an innovative showcase of SA wines. Our panel of respected judges will blind taste submissions to select the most outstanding examples.

Each successful wine will be individually featured in The Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines magazine. Top 10 wines receive special recognition and a feature story in The Adelaide Review.

The Wine Of The Year takes home the Hot 100 Award and two return tickets to Europe courtesy of Singapore Airlines.

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE 4.30PM FRIDAY AUGUST 16, 2013 For online submissions and payment visit adelaidereview.com.au For PDF versions of entry forms and conditions, email hot100@adelaidereview.com.au or phone Kate or Maria on (08) 7129 1060 ENTER ONLINE ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

ADELAIDE

22 The Adelaide Review June 2013

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Spanish Film Festival: Don’t Fall in Love with Me

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist

AdYO Maestro Series 2: Britannia

Selected cinemas

Elder Hall, North Terrace Saturday, June 29, 6.30pm

Still Mine Selected cinemas from Thursday, June 6 An elderly couple fights against local authorities in rural New Brunswick to build their final home. Directed and written by Michael McGowan. Stars James Cromwell, Geneviève Bujold and Campbell Scott.

16th Spanish Film Festival Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas Thursday, June 13 to Sunday, June 23 Every year Spanish film lovers come together for the largest film festival of its kind in Australia. The 16th Spanish Film Festival will delight audiences with the best Spanish and Spanish-speaking Latin American cinema.

Satellite Boy Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas From Thursday, June 20 Pete lives with his grandfather in an old abandoned outdoor cinema in the desert.

When the old drive-in is threatened with demolition, 10-year-old Pete takes off to the city, with his best mate Kalmain, to save his home. But the boys get lost in the Australian outback. Directed by Catriona McKenzie. Stars David Gulpilil, Cameron Wallaby and Joseph Pedley.

Who doesn’t love a bit of Pomp and Circumstance? Celebrate the best of British with acclaimed guest conductor, Nicholas Braithwaite, and a program that truly celebrates the oeuvre including Elgar’s masterpiece, Sea Pictures, with acclaimed mezzo Elizabeth Campbell.

The Rhythm of Life Capri Theatre, Goodwood Road Sunday, June 30, 2pm Music from movie themes, classics, Gershwin and The Rhythm of Life. Chris McPhee at the Capri Wurlitzer, along with the husband and wife team Rosemary Boyle (soprano) and Malcolm Ross (organ and piano), will perform the music of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Ivor Novello and Jerome Kern, to name a few.

Musica Viva Presents Jian Wang & Bernadette Harvey Adelaide Town Hall, 128 King William Street Tuesday, July 9, 7.30pm

P

ioneering journalist and Adelaide Review columnist Shirley Stott Despoja was inducted into the South Australian Media Awards Hall of Fame on Saturday, May 18.

Stott Despoja, who writes the awardwinning Third Age column, was inducted for being a “respected journalist and trailblazer who paved the way for women in the industry” and joins names such as Des Colquhoun, Don Riddell, Kevin Crease and Max Fatchen in the Hall of Fame.

Stott Despoja, who was the first woman to join The Advertiser’s newsroom and the paper’s first arts editor, was “thrilled to bits” with the honour but said there were trailblazing women in journalism before her.

“I did my bit during years when it was risky to write about subjects such as incest, all forms of violence against women and children, and, especially, criminal assault in the home, and the silencing of women,” Stott Despoja explained. “As literary editor (when I had a whole broadsheet page for reviews each Saturday) I saw that books on feminism were reviewed (the very young Anne Summers was my first reviewer of this genre) and that important fiction and non-fiction by women got their fair share of review space. I used reviewers who knew their stuff, including fiction reviewer Katharine England, and academics who wrote well for a wide readership. Being the first newspaper arts editor was a great

honour (which I owe to Don Riddell) and was among the most exciting and turbulent times of my career.”

A series of stories she wrote in the early 70s called ‘Experience What It’s Like...’ remains a career highlight. With that series, Stott Despoja conveyed to the reader what it’s like to be a homosexual, to have an abortion, to want to die etc.

“This was Adelaide’s venture into the new journalism. I was grateful to those who (for those days!) took the risk of speaking out.

Huge reaction.”

Other fond memories include her column Saturday Serve and writing about dance. “[It is] one of the hardest arts (David Bowman, a distinguished Fairfax editor once told me) to critique in a way people want to read and then go to see for themselves. I was happiest writing my column Saturday Serve, which seemed to connect with a lot of women and men in country areas as well as city. It’s amazing how subversive you can be if you chose innocent metaphors such as gardens.

I love Third Age and the chance to show old people as strong, up with everything, wanting a better deal – and growing in numbers. Don’t underestimate your granny. And remember, only the old know what it’s like to be old. So they are the first to be consulted on matters affecting their well-being.”

The Adelaide Review congratulates Shirley Stott Despoja on this well-deserved honour.

Jian Wang first came to international attention as a child cellist in the 1970s documentary From Mao to Mozart. Since then his career has taken off. In this concert he partners with virtuosic Australian pianist Bernadette Harvey in a program that includes Brahms’ Cello Sonata no 2 and Bach’s Cello Suite no 6.

Salisbury Writers’ Festival - Writers’ Forum John Harvey Gallery, 12 James Street, Salisbury Saturday, August 24, 9am The Salisbury Writers Festival Writers’ Forum offers a series of lively talks for writers of all genres and abilities. Time permitting, sessions will allow questions from the floor.

Winner will receive a ticket to the writers’ forum and a bottle of Langmeil wine.

Photo: Stories Well Told

Set in the years following 9/11, The Reluctant Fundamentalist follows a young Pakistani man, Changez, chasing corporate success on Wall Street. Living in the suspicious, terrorism-altered Western world, he ultimately finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family’s homeland. Directed by Mira Nair. Stars Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson and Liev Schreiber.

Shirley Stott Despoja honoured

Natasha Stott Despoja, Shirley Stott Despoja and Premier Jay Weatherill

The Adelaide Review June 2013 23

adelaidereview.com.au

fashion survive through the testing times is the niche style and service that we provide. Having designers in-store designing and producing garments creates a bond with the customers.

It shows we’re not messing around when it comes to trying to bring something new to the scene. We care about our product and build consumer awareness about Mai Loui’s background.”

All of Mai Loui’s designs are manufactured in Adelaide and the cutting is completed in-store.

Keeping it local is important.

Mai Loui Boutique

Loui Loui Local fashion label and boutique Mai Loui recently moved from its Hutt St home of six years to a district better known for outlet stores. But Mai Loui’s new Glen Osmond Rd locale is part of a resurgence for both the boutique and the street.

by Christopher Sanders

M

ai Loui owner and designer Anna Williamson (who runs the shop with fellow designer Georgia Guy) says Glen Osmond Rd is now a vibrant precinct despite the attached stigma.

“There is not one [clearance shop] left on the street,” Williamson explains. “The precinct is definitely forming its own little vibe. Retailers on the strip are all offering something different: amazing cafes, boutiques of all different calibres, boutique hairdressers and graphic design studios.

It’s growing rapidly in the right direction.

“There was a small hesitation about whether people would or wouldn’t come to the area due to it previously being a clearance area. After conversing with fellow shop owners, even before the move was set in stone, all signs showed that people were very well aware that the strip has changed completely. But after a few months of being on Glen Osmond Rd, people still ask about the clearance stores. With many consumers, you will never be able to shake what it was previously. Focusing on the resurgence of this area is in all of the retailers’ best interests.”

After six years on Hutt St, Williamson said she needed to reinvigorate Mai Loui as a business and label.

“As one of two boutiques on the strip, there was not a huge retail focus [on Hutt St]. We had to reconsider where Mai Loui was heading in the near future. After seeing the developments happening around the Glen Osmond Rd area, an opening arose for us to take on a lease.”

Times are tough in the fashion world and Williamson admits Mai Loui has experienced its fair share of trial and tribulations.

“The one thing that has made this label

“It’s vital for us. Quality control is essential.

The only way to really have our finger on the pulse is by having the manufacturing completed right under our nose ... We endeavor to keep it that way for a long time to come, hopefully no GFC hurdles will hit again. Georgia Guy, who is now part of the Mai Loui team, is a designer who creates her own gear. We utilise the skills we’ve been taught for good.”

Aside from the in-house labels, Mai Loui and Georgia Guy, the boutique stocks other labels including Mesop, Martini and POL. “We source labels that our clientele won’t be able to find in many other places. All the labels pretty much go hand-in-hand.

The other labels we stock here are purely garments that we might not be able to get produced ourselves (such as knits, certain fabric garments, accessories etc). We also like to try and keep the labels sold through Mai Loui to be Australian based/produced.

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

gillesstreetmarket.com.au

groups, so catering towards these women is our mission. Another trend that is bringing joy into the bleak winter is colour. A lot of it too!”

Williamson says coats and colour are the winter trends that are exciting her.

“Get a few essential coats in the wardrobe and you’re sorted – the rest of the wardrobe will follow! This year we’re focusing on unique cuts for different body shapes. One thing that we get at Mai Loui is a variety of size and age

»»Mai Loui 90a Glen Osmond Rd facebook.com/MaiLouiBoutique

24 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013

PERFORMING ARTS The decision came after the last founding member, violist Kazuhide Isomura, announced his intention to retire last November. In turn, the quartet’s only other Japanese member, Kikuei Ikeda, also chose to bow out, following 39 years’ service as the group’s second violinist.

That left the remaining members, Canadian violinist Martin Beaver and English cellist Clive Greensmith, with the difficult choice of whether to recruit two new players – Japanese if the group was to retain its national heritage – or disband.

Tokyo String Quartet

SWANSONG FOR A JAPANESE GREAT After 44 years on the concert stage, the Tokyo String Quartet has decided to call it a day.

BY GRAHAM STRAHLE

T

he much admired ensemble, which became one of Deutsche Grammophon’s staple recording artists through the 70s and won particular acclaim for their

performances of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, will give its final international concerts in Australia and New Zealand in the coming weeks before disbanding on its return to the US in early July.

State Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare and Envestra present

Shakespeare’s riotous comedy of mistaken identity

They chose the latter, and thus closes another chapter in the history of great string quartets of the modern era. With the exit of the Alban Berg and Guarneri quartets in 2008 and 2009, that just leaves the Borodins as the last senior post-war quartet still operating.

Beaver says it was “definitely a shock” when his Japanese colleagues announced their intention to leave during one of the group’s rehearsals. He and Greensmith immediately went about auditioning new players of Asian background, even performing with some in informal concerts. He relates what happened: “Clive and myself received the blessing of our retiring colleagues to try out a number of replacements, and a number turned out to be great players. Certainly it could have worked.

“But through the process, Clive and I thought that with the group’s name being what it is,

there were some nationalistic if not ethnic prerequisites for the group, and we felt it increasingly hard to continue on its tradition.

Should we invite two Japanese players? Or is one enough? Should we change the name?

All the questions we were thinking of seemed insurmountable, and ultimately all four of us felt that the best way to honour what the group has done is to bring it to a graceful close, when we are all playing well together.”

Surprisingly, the Tokyo String Quartet has never based itself in Tokyo, but has instead called New York its home ever since it formed at the Juilliard School in 1969, while its four original members were students there. Nevertheless, the quartet continues to visit Japan twice a year, and Beaver believes it has made a profound contribution to Japanese culture over the years.

“The group has notched up many milestones,” he says, “but first and foremost, here was a musically strong ensemble founded by four Japanese players that became internationally respected for their performances of chamber music. This was a huge achievement for Japanese culture.”

The group’s musical highpoints, says Beaver, were its two recordings of the complete quartets of Beethoven, one in the mid-90s for RCA and a new one for Harmonia Mundi, the last volume of which came out in 2010. He is personally proudest of the second cycle, having been first violinist when it was recorded, but he says both sets were a pinnacle for the group for which he would like it to be remembered.

He says its “technical precision and strong musical unanimity” are what the Tokyo String Quartet has contributed to quartet playing.

“The group has always been striving to project as one instrument while trying to preserve each player’s individual character to an extent,” he explains. “We are either a leaderless group or a quartet of four leaders. All of us have very strong opinions, which at moments makes it an exercise in international diplomacy, but when one of us comes up with the right idea at the right time, it can change in a heartbeat.”

Beaver adds: “We’ve had our ups and downs just like any ensemble. Generally however, we’ve been a smooth running group. There have been no knockdown punches. We have always shown a Japanese politeness and respect toward each other.”

by william shakespeare Directed by Imara Savage

All four have Japanese wives, which may help explain it. Other than that, Beaver says the Tokyo String Quartet is tied to no particular culture. “We definitely consider ourselves a cosmopolitan group. With our mix of nationality and exposure to many countries, we are truly an ensemble of the world.”

28 june — 14 july dunstan playhouse BASS 131 246

» Tokyo String Quartet Adelaide Town Hall Wednesday, June 12, 7.30pm musicaviva.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 25

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PERFORMING ARTS

Creative Hothouse Artists from around the country will meet at Vitalstatistix in Port Adelaide for Adhocracy, a hothouse for the creative development of new artistic work on the June long weekend.

BY JANE HOWARD

T

he landscape of the arts in Australia is changing. Increasingly, artists aren’t making works that can be easily defined as theatre or visual arts, etcetera, but instead work across art forms and disciplines. It in this spirit many of the works at Adhocracy will be developed.

Emma Webb, Vitalstatistix’s Creative Producer, says programs like Adhocracy are part of a “growing movement to engage with how we make art, and art’s position in the world”.

“It’s an opportunity to really see a whole lot of new work at the beginning of a creative development process, and that’s a really exciting experience for audiences,” she says.

The program is diverse: Use your Illusion involves collaboration with a clinical hypnotist, while Love and Boat works with a human rights lawyer. Webb says Adhocracy is a great example of “how artists draw from living in this world”.

“Art is reflecting on the world and I think that experimental and interdisciplinary process brings a real rigor to the way we make work that is contemporary and is in tune with commenting on and changing the world that we live in.”

This year’s major project is Forever Now, a response to the Voyager Golden Records: NASA’s record of culture and science that was sent into space in 1977. Whilloh S. Weiland, Artistic Director of Melbourne company Aphids, is one of the curators behind the project that will see people from around the globe contributing to a new record that they, too, will send into space.

“The Voyager was created in a very closed, elitist context by a group of Western minds,” says Weiland, “so we’re democratising the process. Anyone will be able to contribute.”

At Adhocracy, they will be joined by 10 South Australian artists, which Weiland describes as an “opportunity to test how people we don’t know will respond to the brief”.

“What are people’s natural reactions, and how can we as curators deal with that or encourage a variety of responses and engagement with the idea?” she asks.

After Adelaide, the project will launch online, and the curatorial team will travel to

the International Symposium of Electronic Art in Sydney, and in January to Hobart for the launch into space at MONA FOMA. Being in Adelaide gives the team a chance to find voices to be involved in the process they may not have otherwise. “Vitals is just as important to us as ISEA,” says Weiland.

“They’re a really different mix of artists and experiences, and that’s really important for the project.”

Sydney artist Malcolm Whittaker will use the weekend to work on Jumping the Shark Fantastic – a joking attempt to create the “best show ever”.

The work comes from his thoughts about patrons wanting “something for their time and money”.

“I’m thinking about all the individuals that make up the collective audience, and this idea of some sort of democracy where you can’t please everyone, but everyone wants to feel like they’re having some sort of say,” he says. “Ultimately, it would be a real mess if you tried to please everyone simultaneously.”

Adhocracy

“It’s a fantastic environment where you can be developing a project in its earliest stages, and there is this really informal and fantastic conversation you can have with the audience.

“I think it’s nice to know that there are going

DANCE TA N G O

In all his work, says Whittaker, “I involve the public to varying degrees in the making and executing of it. And that process is more one of just ‘hanging out’, really … I think that will match well with this idea of the all-in attitude at Adhocracy.”

One of the local works-in-development in this year’s program is a collaboration between Closer Productions, currently in post-production on their film 52 Tuesdays, and Sandpit, a company that creates participatory art works. Over the weekend, they’ll be working on the “alternate reality gaming experience” Run Into Yourself, a response to 52 Tuesdays.

Adhocracy will give Run Into Yourself a chance to test itself on an audience, says Sandpit’s Sam Haren: “Seeing what’s working for [the audience] and what’s not, where someone gets lost or where something isn’t connecting for the person.”

Having previously attended Adhocracy as an audience member, Haren says it’s “really exciting to see how diverse and eclectic the program is”.

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to be people from all over the country coming into that conversation,” he says. “Not only is it connecting in South Australia, but it’s nice to have that national conversation there, too.”

vitalstatistixtheatrecompany.blogspot.com.au

26 The Adelaide Review June 2013

performing arts

All aboard the Mothership

“So everyone in the Mothership gets to shine, although we tend to feature just one soloist in each tune. So, rather than short solos, everyone gets to do an extended solo.”

Argue is associated with a musical genre known as ‘steampunk’, a form of jazz in which pretty much anything goes and one that Tom Waits is sometimes associated.

by Robert Dunstan

J

azzgroove Mothership Orchestra is a 16-piece collective featuring many of Sydney’s finest young jazz musicians.

They are currently celebrating their 10th anniversary with a national tour that will include a concert in Adelaide. The orchestra usually tours with some guest artists and for their 10th anniversary they will be joined by Sydney-born, New York-based pianist Sean Wayland as well as Canadian jazz composer and bandleader, Darcy James Argue.

The orchestra began in 2003 when Sydney jazz organisation Jazzgroove asked saxophonist David Theak to assemble a group to perform at their Christmas party.

“Jazzgroove is a bit like COMA in Adelaide because it’s an association for jazz players,” Theak says. “And we’d been thinking of forming a big band for a while so we decided to put together something a bit special for our

“It’s a really interesting form of music, although it’s still jazz,” Theak suggests. “Steampunk has lots of improvised solos with featured soloists and has a great rhythmic feel. It’s a contemporary take on big band music and it’s quite interesting how Darcy puts it all together.

Christmas concert. So we cobbled together a set using old big band charts that the musicians pulled out from under their beds, but it ended up being a great night. And it’s gone from there.

“While it can be complicated keeping a big band together – it’s really hard getting 16 people in the same room at one time – we’re really onto it now and everyone in the orchestra makes it their first priority. Especially over the last few years when we’ve had the opportunity to work with some really good international artists.”

Over the last few years, the orchestra, who boast an average age of just 29, has collaborated with such overseas artists as New York’s Chris Potter and Jim McNeely as well as American jazz trumpet legend Charles Tolliver.

JMO will be joined on their anniversary tour by New York-based pianist Sean Wayland as well as noted Canadian composer Darcy James Argue.

“We are looking forward to playing at The Promethean again in Adelaide as it’s one of our favourite venues,” Theak concludes. “We played there in 2009 with Belgian trumpet player Bert Joris and had a fantastic time. It’s a lovely space with great acoustics.”

“Sean was the Mothership’s original pianist before he moved to New York and Darcy is a Grammy-nominated composer who now lives in Brooklyn,” Theak explains. “So we are rearranging some of Sean’s original music for a jazz orchestra for our first set and then Darcy will be conducting the orchestra for the second half of the program.

»»Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra The Promethean Monday, June 3 mothershiporchestra.com

International Concert Season 2013 In the soulfulness of a Bach cello suite or the fingerbusting virtuosity of a contemporary piano work, Jian Wang and Bernadette Harvey prove their greatness as soloists; the magic is doubled when their talents combine in sonatas

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TueSday 9 July, 7:30pm adelaide Town Hall, 128 King William St To book tickets call 131 246 or visit bass.net.au | musicaviva.com.au/Wang

The Adelaide Review June 2013 27

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performing arts

Barb Jungr

The Wonderful Radical

by Robert Dunstan

B

ritish singer Barb Jungr, known for her wonderful and often quite radical interpretations of the songs of Bob Dylan, has been invited to perform at this year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival, which follows her debut appearance at the festival in 2006.

Accompanied by musical director and pianist Simon Wallace, Jungr will be highlighting songs from her latest release, Stockport to Memphis, which features five original compositions alongside her renditions of songs by Sam Cooke, Mike Scott, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Dylan, Neil Young and Rod Argent.

The Mike Scott song covered on Jungr’s new offering is Fisherman’s Blues and it’s a wonderfully slow version.

“Even Mike Scott likes it,” Jungr says of the often hard to please leader of UK band, The Waterboys. “And when my album was released, Mike tweeted about it and said how good it was.

And I think it’s important if you are covering a song that you bring something new to it. What’s the point otherwise? Don’t go near a song if you are not going to bring anything to it. That’s my feelings anyway.”

Jungr was once signed to Utility, a record label owned by English singer, songwriter and activist Billy Bragg who remains a fan of her work.

“Bill once said the nicest thing about my Dylan work that anybody has ever said,” Jungr reveals.

“Bill said that I was the finest interpreter of Dylan that England had. He’s been extremely supportive in many ways. And while it’s not on my new album, I have recently been singing one of Bill’s songs, Rumours of War.” The singer has released two albums of Bob Dylan covers – Every Grain of Sand in 2002 and Man in the Long Black Coat in 2011 – so is a cover album of Billy Bragg songs likely?

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Jungr, who played harmonica on Bragg’s Worker’s Playtime release of 1988, laughs. “But I do think Bill is a wonderful writer. It’s just that because he is so in the present, I’m not sure what I could do to his songs to make them work for me.”

She is looking forward to returning to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

“It just has such a wonderful and very lovely vibe,” Jungr enthuses. “It’s awash with wonderful people – and I mean the punters and performers – and so I’m really, really thrilled to be invited back.”

»»Barb Jungr Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre Sunday, June 9 and Monday, June 10 adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au

28 The Adelaide Review June 2013

performing arts

Review: 2 One Another and Opal Vapour Dance critic Alan Brissenden was impressed by the Sydney Dance Company’s latest work 2 One Another and the Vitalstatistix-hosted Opal Vapour when the dance productions were in Adelaide last month.

by Alan Brissenden

R

afael Bonachela, the artistic director of Sydney Dance Company (SDC), could hardly have been happier.

His company had had just given his latest work, 2 One Another, a commanding performance to open its first Adelaide season in four years, and some 24 hours earlier, in Melbourne, the company had won the Green Room Award for best ensemble, and dancer Natalie Allen (who didn’t appear in Adelaide) had won the award for best female dancer. To these accolades he can add his naming as an outstanding choreographer

and the piece itself as a best new work in the 2012 Critics’ Survey in Dance Australia, the country’s leading dance magazine.

And it is indeed often exceedingly fine and exciting, beautifully crafted to integrate sound, design and choreography. Nick Wales’ soundtrack incorporates a wide range of music including his own compositions, Renaissance music from Jordi Savall and others, and a ravishing piece performed by violinist Gidon Kremer, cellist Marta Sudraba and two choirs. Poetry by Samuel

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 29

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PERFORMING ARTS Webster is mostly inaudible, and so does not, unfortunately, add to the richness of the mix as presumably intended. Benjamin Cisterne’s lighting caresses the dancers, and Tony Assness’ backdrop of digitally controlled LED lights is a wondrous creation, occasionally throwing the dancers into silhouette, but mostly becoming part of the choreographic patterning. In the first section, his skintight costumes of dark mesh over trunks or leotards, some of the men barechested, emphasize the dancers’ lithe bodies; the brief red draped tunics of the last part are less successful, particularly on the men.

2 One Another

Bonachela is a master at building choreographic movement from quiet containment through acceleration to explosiveness. 2 One Another begins in crepuscular gloom, a man and a woman sitting in Yoga cross-legged pose downstage left, the rest of the cast facing them in a widely spaced phalanx reaching back to stage right. Unison arm movements by the main cast begin, but as the lights brighten, movement becomes individual, the phalanx breaks, and the two are left for a duet. The dancing throughout is constantly fluent, duos, trios, and groups form, dissolve and interchange. Leaps or aerial turns are few – movement is all very grounded, but often has a buoyant lightness. Ingenious lifts add to this impression, especially in a duet between the very tall Andrew Crawford and

the diminutive Janessa Dufty – their pairing reminiscent of that of Josef Brown and Tracy Carrodus in Graeme Murphy’s 1998 SDC spectacular Salome.

The group is smoothly athletic, a true ensemble, with nevertheless standout performances by the charismatic Chen Wen, glorious Charmene Yap, glamorous Juliette Barton, and the athletic Crawford. But as the work progressed on opening night, though the eye was continually engaged there was a strange lack of emotional engagement, even a certain mechanistic air. The beginning captured the attention, raising expectations not always fulfilled – until the end; here, through their interaction with one another, the dancers drew the audience to them, and the final duet, Crawford again, this time with Barton, had not only moments of tenderness, but an enigmatic conclusion, Crawford sitting on the kneeling Barton’s back: is she showing how the female supports the male – without her he’d be on the ground – or is he dominant, subduing the female? Take your pick.

Out at Port Adelaide’s Waterside, Vitalstatistix hosted Opal Vapour, a collaboration between Melbourne-based artists (dancer Jade Dewi Tunggal, musician Ria Soemardjo and lighting designer Paula van Beek) blending elements of Javanese dance and music with other indigenous movement

and imaginative staging. Tunggal never leaves the long glass-topped table, covered in sand, which is really a large lightbox, At first she is lying covered in three layers of cloth, and then a mesh stole; these are ritualistically removed

by Soemardjo, who sings as she moves.

The sequences that follow are not all easily comprehensible – in one, for instance, Tunggal kicks and throw sand in great showers on to the floor. But then, she also traces patterns in the sand, and thanks to an unseen overhead camera, these are projected onto the backdrop.

In a particularly beautiful section, while Soemardjo plays a viola, Tunggal’s silhouette is projected against a blue ground on the backdrop as she moves as if swimming and turning slowly, slowly in water. The lighting throughout is usually low, the music quiet, but there are moments of strong emotion, expressed vividly by Tunggal’s flowing movement. Opal Vapour is something out of the ordinary, and, while not flawless, was worth making the trip out to the Port.

» Aland Brissenden reviewed the 2 One Another performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Wednesday, May 8 and Opal Vapour at Waterside on Friday, May 10.

Celebrating 40 years

Adelaide Festival Centre anniversary events

Cabaret variety gala

House ligHts

Walk the red carpet and toast the 40th Anniversary with a special Variety Gala Performance dedicated to the Adelaide Festival Centre’s 40th Anniversary.

For the month of June watch as the iconic sails of the Adelaide Festival Centre become the canvas for a constantly changing palate of projections reflecting the spirit and essence of 40 fabulous years.

From 6pm daily

ThursdAy 6 June

book at

By The eleCTriC CAnVAs

.net.au

30 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

ALL IN THE FAMILY Adelaide jazz stalwart Mark Ferguson is exploring his Scottish heritage for a challenging commission for Nexus’ World Music Series, which allows the composer/pianist to delve into his family history for a musical version of Who Do You Think You Are?

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

“ Master Class

BY NINA BERTOK

Renowned as the greatest operatic soprano of the 20th century, Maria Callas reinvigorated opera and brought dramatic performance to the forefront of the art form.

Directed by Rob Croser and portrayed by actress Kathryn Fisher, Terence McNally’s Master Class explores the art and life of this extraordinary singer and woman.

“She burned out very quickly because she was so powerful and passionate,” Croser explains. “She was invited to conduct master classes at New York’s Juilliard School of Music. That’s how we’ve approached this story – we see her teaching three young singers about operatic performance, she then talks about the artist life and it turns into massive monologues at the end of each act where she talks about her life and career. Maria Callas became notoriously

famous in the latter part of her life because of her affair with Aristotle Onassis. She gave up opera for him but he ended up marrying Jacqueline Kennedy instead of her. So it’s also a tragedy.”

Portrayed by Fisher, the story of Maria Callas comes together with minimum rehearsal thanks to the play-reading approach taken by the director and cast.

“Kathryn has played Callas before, she’s very experienced and versatile,” says Croser. “She has great dramatic range and great understanding of musical history as her daughter Jessica is an opera singer. Jessica will also be coming back to Adelaide to perform as one of the young ‘Master Class’ students in the piece.”

» Master Class Elder Hall Sunday, June 16 music.adelaide.edu.au/elderhall/masterclass

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The initial idea was to explore music of a different heritage, which is something that you don’t normally do, and work with an artist that you maybe haven’t really worked with before,” Ferguson explains about the commission, which will be performed at Nexus on Friday, June 14. “I love Celtic music – I don’t play it very often but I thought, ‘Well my name is Scottish and my family heritage goes back to Scotland’ but the more I’ve gotten into it the less Scottish I’ve found is actually there.”

Working with famed local violinist Julian Ferraretto, Ferguson presents a series of modern Scottish folk inspired works that will also contain some jazz elements. By exploring his lineage, the Marmalade Circus member (who has also worked with The Borderers, Mark Murphy, Ray Vega and Tito Puente Jnr) discovered his grandfather was musical.

concert and writing new pieces for the show.

“I was originally thinking that one half might be more traditional and one half might be more of the jazz influence but I’m now thinking that it might actually work better if the different materials are integrated.”

» Mark Ferguson Whit dae ye cry thon yin Nexus Multicultural Arts Centre Friday, June 14 nexus.asn.au/worldmusicseries

“I didn’t know he was a singer and his whole family played the mandolin and banjo and I didn’t know that. Then they [his family] said that they had his old homemade banjo in the shed and I was like, ‘I’ve been playing music my whole life, and I knew the other side of my family was incredibly musical and my grandmother was very musical, but I didn’t know my grandfather was’. It was actually a quite interesting voyage to discover the roots of all of my family and their musical backgrounds because I didn’t know that the Ferguson line was musical too.

Ferguson says he is still structuring the

Mark Ferguson

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The Adelaide Review June 2013 31

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32 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013

CINEMA THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

Based on Mohsin Hamid’s book of the same name, The Reluctant Fundamentalist thrusts 9/11 back into the spotlight with a personal story that has global implications. A kidnapping of an American academic in Lahore leads journalist and author Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) to interview Changez (Riz Ahmed), a hothead professor who may be more radical and dangerous than he first appears. Before answering Bobby’s questions, Changez wants the journalist to hear

his story, which takes us back to pre 9/11, where Changez is a Princeton student who falls in love with the land of Starbucks and McDonald’s. The blue-blood son of a poet secures a job as an analyst on Wall St (you can’t get more capitalist than that!) and is mentored by his hard boiled boss Jim Cross (Kiefer Sutherland) who admires Changez’ intelligence and merciless drive. Changez’ appreciation for the West deepens when he falls for photographer Erica (Kate Hudson). Then 9/11 happens and the Pakistani’s view of his adopted country changes after experiencing his civil rights horrendously abused after the collapse of the Twin Towers. Back in Lahore, the now-lecturer has stimulated the attention of the CIA, which leads to his meeting with Bobby Lincoln.

This could have been a great film but unfortunately

SINISTER

BY D.M. BRADLEY

The term ‘mockumentary’, or indeed the more recent idea of ‘found footage’ (as in a ‘real’ film, usually horrific, that couldn’t, or shouldn’t, be completed), has recently been run into the ground well and truly, and yet co-writer/director/ executive producer Scott Derrickson’s latest finds a compelling and rather unsettling way to combine such oft-cheapjack tricks into a proper narrative. And, pretty surprisingly, longtime indie star Ethan Hawke (caught before he completed director Richard Linklater’s Before… trilogy with the capper Before Midnight) was cast here, and portrays a hero who’s daringly anti-. A scratchy filmstrip catches the moment where four people are hanged before the scant opening credits and, therefore, we know we’re in dire trouble when true-crime author/hack Ellison Oswalt (Hawke) moves into the house where these deaths took place with wife Tracy (Juliet Rylance), uneasy teen son Trevor (Michael Hall D’Addario) and little daughter Ashley (Clare Foley). His family

Spanish Film Festival Variety is the spice that adds global flavours to this year’s Spanish Film Festival.

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

7.5pt Univers 57 Condensed

“Variation is the beauty of the program this year,” says Festival Director Genevieve Kelly. “Not only variation of genre, but also of origin.

While films from Spain dominate the selection, we could not deny the quality of film that is coming out

are oblivious to the place’s dark history, and don’t know that Ellison hopes to cobble together some kind of book on what happened, but he’s unprepared for the discovery of a box of old film cans in the attic and what, in effect, are a mysterious collection of ‘snuff movies’ depicting families in several residences and timeframes being slain via burnings, drownings and even a lawnmower (and with the added uncanny edge that ‘real’ footage brings). Not mentioning the find to the family or the police, who deeply dislike him due to a previous book that embarrassed law enforcement officials, Ellison becomes increasingly obsessed

of Latin America and Mexico. Overall, audiences are spoiled for choice with a selection of outrageous comedies, stylish dramas, gripping thrillers and enthralling documentaries.”

Two films set in South America, Clandestine Childhood and Operation E, are standout films of this year’s program.

“The quality of films that are coming out of South America is undeniable. Along with Clandestine Childhood and Operation E (which, although set in Colombia, is actually a Spanish/French production), the films making up the South American representation include the Peruvian film Dark Heaven, an Argentinean film with a gorgeous cast called Don’t Fall in Love with Me, the sensitive drama Gone Fishing, and the fun road-trip film The Farewell. Films from this part of the world are an essential addition to the festival,

it fails to reach the heights its electrifying premise promises. Helmed by Vanity Fair and Monsoon Wedding director Mira Nair, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is weakened by generic plot and character developments as well as focusing too much on the relationship between Changez and Erica. Surprisingly, given the subject matter, it’s too nice a film, which lacks some nastiness and shades of grey. Ahmed is great in the lead, however, and Sutherland has fun as a Gordon Gecko-like (albeit more intelligent) analyst of the noughties.

» Rated M.

with solving the mystery of whose seemingly mesmeric influence is behind the killings, which appear to go back to the 60s, as goings-on in the house get suitably weird: Trevor’s ‘night terrors’ lead to nighttime wanderings and a jack-in-thebox shock sequence; the film projector turns itself on in tried and true style; and a malevolent entity stares at Ellison (and us) from his computer screen when he’s conveniently not looking. Director Derrickson’s previous paranormal effort, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, was an overly earnest ‘true story’ run-through of demonic clichés, but this is a different, more honestly creepy affair, with a tense and eerie build-up, effectively frightening atmosphere and an unsettling, even ruthless aspect. However, as is all too often the case in scarers, ‘mockumentary’ or otherwise, the carefully constructed fearful mood tends to go out the window into the final act, especially when we stop caring about Hawke’s seriously bad-parent Ellison altogether and start hoping that he’ll get the lawnmower treatment himself.

» Rated MA.

and will surely be for years to come.”

Other films that are worth mentioning include Cesc Gay’s opening night film A Gun in Each Hand starring Ricardo Darin (The Secret in Their Eyes, Chinese Take-Away), the documentary The Girl from the South, Fernando Trueba’s The Artist and the Model and the closing night classic Tristana.

» The Spanish Film Festival Palace Nova Eastend Thursday, June 13 to Sunday, June 23 spanishfilmfestival.com

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 33

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CINEMA

HAPPINESS NEVER COMES ALONE

BY NIGEL RANDALL

A romantic comedy nearly always has at its comic core an obstacle the unlikely couple must overcome. It’s usually a difference in age (Harold and Maude), social status (Pretty Woman), culture (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) or personality (When Harry Met Sally). In the curiously titled French film Happiness Never Comes Alone the obstacle presents itself by way of three children. Sacha (Gad Elmaleh) is a carefree pianist who spends his night playing and partying. He brings home beautiful younger women in a never-ending string of one-nightstands because, well, he’s French, and dreams of staging some modern type performance piece on Broadway. And he hates children.

Charlotte (Sophie Marceau) is a twice-divorced professional woman and single mum with no time for love. The film’s marketing states it clearly: ‘They are poles apart and have nothing in common... but they are made for one another’.

Must be a rom com. If you are still not convinced, then the ‘meet-cute’ leaves no doubt. As the pair exit separately from the same building it begins to rain hard (of course), but the moment their eyes connect the rain magically stops, shadows lift and glowing sunshine falls as Etta James’ Sunday Kind of Love starts up. What ensues from here fairly predictably follows the formula.

Charlotte’s angry ex husbands do their best to complicate things, as does Sacha’s ambitious friend and business partner Laurent (Francois Berleand). Despite his openly voiced dislike for children, Charlotte’s brood never really seem to pose too much of a problem for Sacha. In fact, to the contrary, he instantly endears himself to them in all the typically endearing ways (magic tricks, pillow fights, shoulder rides). Whilst it does allow for some genuine comic moments (a brilliant piece of physical comedy to do with moving a sleeping toddler worthy of Keaton or Chaplin), writer-director James Huth seems to completely miss the whole point of his premise.

It doesn’t matter too much though, as Happiness Never Comes Alone suffers from other problems too – namely the superficiality of gloss and cliché that renders Sacha, Charlotte and their fellow cast as stock characters at best. It makes Charlotte’s constant accident-prone tendency to slip, trip or fall down stairs seem a substitute for character development rather than the straightout slapstick it’s intended to be. It’s a shame, because there’s certainly charm and energy to be enjoyed here, but those too fleeting moments of happiness… don’t come often enough.

BROKEN

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

Theatre director Rufus Norris impresses with his debut film Broken. An eerie film, which features a brilliant performance by newcomer Eloise Laurence, begins with a seemingly random act of violence, which sets in motion a series of disturbing and violent events in a North London neighbourhood.

Laurence plays Skunk, an innocent tomboy who witnesses her mentally disabled neighbour (Rick) violently attacked by fellow street resident Bob (Rory Kinnear). The neighbourhood is in disarray after the attack, as allegations of rape damage the quiet street and innocence is destroyed. Also starring a brilliantly restrained Tim Roth as Skunk’s father Archie, Broken is almost like a modern update of To Kill a Mockingbird but the grim tale doesn’t reach the heights of Robert Mulligan’s classic (not many films can) but nonetheless this is a grim yet engrossing piece of British cinema which features one of the performances of the year by the young Eloise Laurence.

» Rated MA.

SATELLITE BOY

BY JESS LERIDA

Writer/director Catriona McKenzie brings us this simply told yet affecting tale that follows two young innocents abroad (Aboriginal boys Pete and Kalmain, played by Cameron Wallaby and Joseph Pedley) and their coming of age via the journey to experience and the outside world. Leaving his grandfather’s (David Gulpilil) home in an abandoned outback outdoor cinema, Pete joins forces with close friend Kalmain and off they go, each with their own dreams, in search of the city and on a quest to save their home from immanent destruction by mining interests. They are thwarted however not by the evils of the big smoke but the mazy ways of the Australian outback – here the spectacular Kimberley country – and they soon need to fall back upon the navigational and survival skills of Pete’s grandfather – earlier so readily dismissed as arcane and irrelevant – in order to survive.

The boys eventually reach town and after a series of perambulations, return to the outback and the outdoor cinema, now saved. Gently filmed and with a beguiling David Bridie soundtrack, this likeable film is about the power of country, and the identity drawn from the deep sense of home.

» Rated M. » Rated PG.

34 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

THIS MONTH THE ADELAIDE REVIEW’S GUIDE TO JUNE’S HIGHLIGHT PERFORMING ARTS EVENTS

CABARET FRINGE FESTIVAL Various venues Saturday, June 1 to Saturday, June 29 cabaretfringefestival.com The sixth annual Cabaret Fringe Festival will feature 40 local shows across 14 Adelaide venues featuring musicals, variety shows and comedy.

ADELAIDE CHAMBER SINGERS Tales of Two Cities St Peter’s Cathedral Saturday, June 8 adelaidechambersingers.com The ACS begins their 2013 season with Tales of Two Cities, conducted by Carl Crossin and Paul Stanhope, which will see the ACS join the Sydney Chamber Choir to perform a program of wonderful chamber music.

James Cromwell in Still Mine

The Leading Man Veteran character actor James Cromwell finally gets to be a leading man at 73 in the beautiful Still Mine, a Canadian film about an elderly man who fights the bureaucrats to build a dream house for him and his wife.

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

B

ased on a true story, Still Mine (written and directed by Michael McGowan) is the latest in a wave of films starring older people about older people, such as Amour, The Exotic Marigold Hotel and Dustin Hoffman’s Quartet. Still Mine has more in common with Amour than the others. Like Michael Haneke’s Cannes-winning film, Still Mine is about an elderly couple – Craig and Irene Morrison (played by James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold) - that explores what happens when the wife’s health deteriorates. Still Mine isn’t as dark as Amour, but it’s no less powerful. While Cromwell thinks there will be more independent and foreign films featuring and starring older people, he doesn’t think this wave of elderly cinema will catch on in Hollywood.

“You will notice these films are not made in America. It takes a certain amount of courage to [make] and these are independent films but they are made by people, artists, that are looking at the world and saying what we are seeing coming out of Hollywood is a very jaundiced and limited view about life,” Cromwell explains. “You’ve got all of these people going through all of these extraordinary things and they are not 14 years old. So, I’m very heartened because there always were great stories and there are still great stories to be told but the fact is there is now an older audience that wants to see their lives mirrored back to them, which is why we do the work in the first place. So, I am very hopeful.”

The six-foot-seven actor is known for a variety of classic roles such as the good-hearted Farmer Hoggett in Babe, the menacing Dudley Smith in LA Confidential and his recurring role as Ruth’s husband George in Six Feet Under. Cromwell says the Still Mine role means more to him than most.

“I would say it does and not because it’s the leading role but I happen to be very fond of Canadians and I think it is a quintessentially Canadian story. It’s a gentle picture with no violence, no car chases, no guns, no sex… well

that’s not true, we do have a little sex but of the best kind. I’m really thrilled that people respond to it the way that they have and that they’re touched by it and moved by it. At this point, when there’s very little to pick from because our industry is not directed towards people of my age, to have this opportunity is a gift from god.”

A remarkable feature of both Still Mine and Amour is that you can see and feel the 60 years of love and partnership between the two couples on screen. Is this created via a connection between the actors, or backstories we don’t see on screen, or is it just part of the actors’ craft?

“You have to go deeper than that. I can’t describe to you what you see in art. But I know that what I saw in Amour, the relationship between those two was first of all very Gaelic and very French, and yet it’s sort of the dark side whereas our film is the light side of the same issue. The advantage that I had was that I had a crush on Genevieve from the time I was in college. She was already a big movie star and I saw her first film, she was 19, and I thought she was one of the hottest things I ever saw and just listen to the name Genevieve Bujold… it’s just the most incredible fucking name. She showed up in front of me and she looked the same, it was the same person and yet she was acting all old and I was like, ‘I’m not 73, I’m 22 again and look what’s right in front of me!’

So, I tried to bring as much of that youthful ignorance as I possibly could.”

Did Cromwell tell Bujold that he had a crush on her?

“Oh sure, I told her but she sort of flipped them off, she didn’t want to hear it!”

» Still Mine opens on Thursday, June 6

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 35

VISUAL ARTS

36 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013

Photo: Matthew Stanton

VISUAL ARTS

Kim Buck, Lithology, 2013, charcoal on paper, 5 panels; © courtesy the artist and Peter Walker Fine Art

HEARTLAND The Art Gallery’s new exhibition will focus on local contemporary art.

BY JANE LLEWELLYN

T

he successful Turner blockbuster is a hard act to follow but Heartland - a celebration of South Australian contemporary art - is on track to be an impressive follow up for the Art Gallery of South Australia and an exhibition which is well overdue.Curator Lisa Slade contextualises it: “Turner transports you to 19th century Europe, Heartland is about

tapping you on the shoulder and reminding you that you are here.”

The title of the exhibition, Heartland, initially conjures up ideas of Australian outback landscapes but the artworks featured are far from it. Slade explains, “Our cultural identity is tethered by those traditional concepts of landscape. Walk through the

Elder wing and you’ll see it. We wanted to shake that up a little bit.”

Slade and co-curator Nici Cumpston have scoured the state, from the APY Lands down to the South East, visiting artists’ studios and commercial galleries searching for the best contemporary art on offer. They wanted to combine established artists like Hossein and Angela Valamanesh with emerging artists like Amy Joy Watson and incorporate Aboriginal artists. The curators felt a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists was really important. “How can you look at the idea of place and identity without looking at both stories and the stories between?” asks Slade.

Thanks to funding from the State Government they were able to offer artists a small fee to create new work. “While

these artists might exhibit regularly in commercial galleries - and Hossein had his survey exhibition here 12 years ago - it doesn’t mean they get a lot of opportunities to make new work for public exhibition free from commercial restraints,” explains Slade.

Heartland mainly includes new work, except for the work of Kate Breakey and Ian North. These artists are presenting photographs that were taken up to 30 years ago but have been printed for the first time in the last one to two years. Slade says: “We love the idea that these old images have been brought to light for the first time.”

The exhibition includes around 30 artists from Amata (Tjala Arts). “Initially we thought the project would involve maybe half a dozen senior artists but it has really expanded to incorporate the whole

Flinders University City Gallery State Library of South Australia, North Tce, Adelaide Tuesday - Friday 11 - 4, Saturday & Sunday 12 - 4 T (08) 8207 7055 E city.gallery@flinders.edu.au

w w w. f l i n d e r s . e d u . a u / a r t m u s e u m

NOT DEAD YET T he r e s e R i t ch i e an d C h i p s M ac k i n o l ty a r e t r os pe ct i v e ex h i b i ti o n

4 May - 14 July 2013

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 37

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VISUAL ARTS

At the centre of Heartland are themes revolving around identity. It’s particularly prevalent in Hossein’s work, which reflects his Iranian heritage, and Chris De Rosa’s work which draws on her Italian background (she is the niece of Lucia of Lucia’s in the Central Market). De Rosa references her heritage through the traditional art of lace-making.

Other artists, like Paul Sloan and Yhonnie Scarce, explore the impact and some of the vestiges of colonialism in their work. Slade explains: “Paul was born in Belfast but came here as a young boy and Scarce was born in Woomera. You can’t compare those stories but in many ways their interests, their idea of looking at colonisation and its impact is a really strong point of connection.”

Heartland is a great reminder of the incredible talent right here in our own backyard and a fitting follow on from the international Turner exhibition. Cumpston says: “We hope that the audience feels inspired and hope it shows a different side to the artist that they already know.” Slade adds: “I am hoping everyone who came to see the Turner exhibition comes back to see the art of their own state. I hope people invest in the time and take an interest in work that comes from here.”

Photo: Grant Hancock

community. Everyone in the town would know about Heartland,” says Slade. The idea to focus on one art centre has been really effective. “We could have just cherry picked or hand picked works across the APY lands because there is a flourishing art scene. Instead we decided to invest our energy in one community which they say has been quite profound.”

Selecting which artists to include in Heartland was no easy task with so much talent across the state. Other artists included in the exhibition are Kim Buck, James Darling and Lesley Forwood, Wendy Fairclough, Stewart MacFarlane, Annalise Rees and Tjanpi Desert Weavers.

» Heartland Art Gallery of South Australia Friday, June 21 to Sunday, September 8 Chris De Rosa, detail: Artificial Kingdom, 2013, inkjet print, etching,

artgallery.sa.gov.au

pigment stain on perforated Magnani paper; © courtesy the artist

ROYAL SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY OF ARTS INC.

TANDANYA – NACI presents

FANTASY 4 Ravens dragon, Emerson Ward, Drawing/Digital

The title of the exhibition, Heartland, initially conjures up ideas of Australian outback landscapes but the artworks featured are far from it.”

to place. Place is pivotal. They grow in the ground. You absolutely come from place.”

26 May – 16 June 2013 An exhibition by local Adelaide Fantasy Artists: Paintings, drawing, digital, mixed media Dragon & Fantasy Art workshop for all ages, 2 days 1 & 2 June, Cost $130 Bookings rsasarts@bigpond.net.au

2013 Inaugural RSASA Portrait Prize $5,000 in Prizes to be awarded 23 June – 14 July – Opens 23 June, 2.00pm by Nick Mitzevich, Director AGSA Entry Cost: $8.00

The inclusion of artists like Breakey who doesn’t live in South Australia - in fact she has been living in the US for a number of decades - begs the question: ‘What is the heart of place and where do you have to be to be reflecting on that sense of place?’ This is in contrast to the artists from Amata, who Slade says, are “absolutely, indelibly tied

Portrait Demonstrations: Thursdays 27 June, 4 & 11 July & Sundays 7 & 14 July, 8 sessions, 8 sitters, 32 artists demonstrating a mix of mediums.

Bookings & enquiries rsasarts@bigpond.net.au or 8232 0450 www.rsasarats@bigond.net.au & find us on facebook Amy Pfitzner, Family Culture – Father, giclée print on Metallic paper, ed. 6 + AP, 100 x 100 cm

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.

CONCLUDING SUNDAY 30 JUNE

MY TIME DREAMING Mankitya Shane Cook

FROM HOME Fah Fah Walsh

IDENTIFYING CULTURE Amy Pfitzner

Tandanya is proud to present three new exhibitions by three talented local emerging artists, comprising aerosol art, photography and acrylics.

MEGAN ROODENRYS 14 June – 6 July 2013 www.bmgart.com.au

Darren Doye

Steve Graham

Peter Harley Jensen

unReal Men artimagesgallery.com.au Mon-Fri 9-5.30 Sat 10-5 Sun 2-5

Mark Judd

Jerzy Michalski

Ross Wilsmore

until 30 June 2013 with sculpture by Phillip Piperides

32 The Parade Norwood t. 8363 0806

Tandanya - National Aboriginal Cultural Institute 253 Grenfell St (cnr East Tce) Adelaide 5000 (08) 8224 3234. Free entry. Open daily 10am - 5pm www.tandanya.com.au

38 The Adelaide Review June 2013

visual arts

Forget nice

by John Neylon

I

hate nice art. Nice art doesn’t irritate, amuse, confront, intrigue or seduce. It just confirms. Maybe it’s not really art after all, just wears the right makeup and fashion coordinates. Jacqueline Hick, for most of her work, is not a nice artist. She remained a contrarian who always felt that making art was about engaging with the realities of life.

of exhibitions and publications (in association with Wakefield Press) showcasing artists with links with Ursula and Bill Hayward or to Carrick Hill this project ticks all the boxes. Hick was actively encouraged and supported by the Haywards and it seems likely that their private collection of modern French and British art influenced the artist’s formative development.

As a young artist, in Adelaide at the outbreak of World War II, this meant using her talents to comment on hardship experienced by less advantaged members of society. By exhibiting in Anti-Fascism exhibitions in Melbourne and Adelaide (1942 and 1943) she declared her affiliations to social realist art. Her art at this time embodied gritty values that could also be found in the work of fellow exhibitors Noel Counihan, Vic O’Connor and Vladimir (Josl) Bergner.

For the many fans of Jacqueline Hick there is in this exhibition (and book) multiple reassurances of the passion, compassion, creativity and mordant wit, which would have attracted them to her art in the first place. Having said that, ‘rusted on’ affections can dull the eye. So I very much recommend seeing the show to refresh appreciation and take away some insights into this remarkable artist’s achievements and contribution to Australian art. Prominent among these is Hick’s reflections on Aboriginal Australia.

Remarkably, Hick, along with her husband Frank and their young family travelled into the outback in the mid 1950s. Her first series of paintings incorporating Aboriginal figures such as Darker people(c. 1962) use a trademark style

The curator behind the current exhibition at Carrick Hill, Born Wise: the art of Jacqueline Hick is Gloria Strzelecki, who also wrote the accompanying book (Wakefield Press). Given Carrick Hill’s long-term (since 2000) programme

Lincoln College & Friends of the South Australian School of Art

the 2nd

art exhibition Lincoln College Annual Art Exhibition

Call for All Artists

Emerging and established artists Deadline: 2pm, Friday, 26 August Circus ring (detail), c. 1946, oil on cardboard, 63.3 x 42.3 cm; Elder Bequest Fund 1946; Art Gallery of South Australia

“Camellia” by Tsering Hannaford

of articulation based on earth colours and wiped areas of oil pigment on board to convey a sense of an epic tragedy unfolding. Early still lifes, such as bush flowers squashed into a tin can or roughly wrapped in newspaper speak with irreverent authority and remind of the artist’s capacity to invest the most everyday of things with life.

STILL LIFE

New works from outstanding still life oil painter now showing until 15th June.

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

Amongst the Crab Apples (detail) by Ronald Gibbings-Johns

by Ronald Gibbings-Johns

So, a handsome exhibition and solidly researched, well-written book. But it left me wanting more. More about the formative influences on Hick, particularly that fascinating nexus between her generation of Australian/ Anglo artists who ingested the mid war/post war aesthetic of British neo-Romanticism (see John Minton, Edward Bawden and early Graham Sutherland) with its crepuscular charms and wrap-around landscape vortex compositions. Hick’s frieze-like figures of the mid 1960s exhibit the flayed flesh qualities of early

Bacons, the muscular contortions of a Michael Ayrton Daedalus and the classicism of a Keith Vaughan. Also sliding into the field of vision (or narrative) is a bit of kitchen-sink and hints of a kind of folk art style identified by Bernard Smith as characterizing the work of Hick and others which sits somewhere between Antipodeanstyle painting and abstract expressionism. This is Hick in context territory – perhaps beyond the scope of the publication - but one, which if later explored, may recast Hick’s work as Antipodean imagination haunted by European shadows.

»»Jacqueline Hick Carrick Hill Continues until Sunday, June 30

The Adelaide Review June 2013 39

adelaidereview.com.au

visual arts

Blue Vs Brown

by John Neylon

T

he idea of reclaiming history has been and remains a focus strategy for postcolonial cultures across the world. Reclaiming may not be the best term because this process is essentially about introducing into national histories the stories of people who were swept under the carpet or had their stories told by the victors. Consider to this day the exclusions of numerous local histories, which before launching into lengthy accounts of the glorious pioneering era dispense with prior Aboriginal occupation in a few sentences. Against such odds many contemporary Aboriginal artists have devised way to subvert this enduring colonial legacy.

Darren Siwes, Jingli Kwin, 2013 (from ‘Mulaga Gudjerie’ series), Giclee Print on Kodak Lustre, 120 x 100cm, courtesy the artist and Greenaway Art Gallery

In one exhibition currently presented in Adelaide (unDisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial, Samstag Art Museum) provides examples. Danie Mellor’s map-like images critique 17th century European utopian visions of exotic countries settled. Michael Cook‘s photographic twists on conventional tales of British ‘ discoverVy’ of Australia, position Aboriginal people in active roles which ask the viewer to wind the clock back and think could it be possible that Cook and all that followed could start over and see Aboriginality as the norm and the all-discoverin’ Europeans as the weird ones, ill-equipped for what lay ahead.

Darren Siwes at Greenaway works from such a position. He expresses the hope that this current series of work, Mulaga Gudjerie (Man, Woman) ‘opens the possibility to erase, ignore or transform

familiar cultural delineations and hierarchical norms prevalent in Australian culture, in particular the idea of exploring sovereign reign and status’. Siwes has for some time fixed on the ideology and values of class as a rich vein of exploration. Informed by Plato’s social orders of gold, silver and bronze. Siwes’ The Just and the Unjust series of photographs (2007) explored this idea of society divided along hereditary lines of power, privilege and other ranks using ‘mug shots’ of identifiable Aboriginal individuals (in place of a British monarch) on gold/silver/bronze coinage dated 2014. This stick poking the royals continues in Mulaga Gudjerie in which the artist has engaged a Dalabon (Arnhem Land) man and woman to dress and pose as the King and Queen of somewhere but looking very much like Betty

and Phil in full ceremonial drag. That both have their brown skins painted white is a satirical masterstroke particularly when Siwes allows glimpses of natural dark skin to peep through the subterfuge. Posing as imperious, flirty or naughty, these actors have clearly embraced the moment and the artist’s intentions to get viewers to play the ‘what if’ game.

Siwes has playfully described this as a kind of Blue Bloods versus Brown Bloods with traditional ideas about Noble Birth pitched against Aboriginal systems of Matrimoieties and Patrimoieties. That many Australians consider the monarchy to be an anachronism sets this series up as risky business. But Siwes, ever conscious

of royalty’s ability to charm its way back into our little neo-colonial hearts, is in no mood to take prisoners.

Cheap laughs for hard line republicans perhaps but spare a thought for what these powerful images are really saying.

»»Darren Siwes Mulaga Gudjerie Greenaway Art Gallery Continues until Sunday, June 23 greenaway.com.au

Your creative journey starts here...

Associate Degree of Visual Art | Bachelor of Visual Art | Bachelor of Visual Art (Hons) Enrol and commence mid-year in our accredited tertiary degree programs. Part-time and full-time study options, day and evening classes, single subject enrolments, deferral of tuition fees through FEE-HELP, small classes and one-on-one mentoring by lecturers who are all leading practitioners in the field in which they teach. Semester 2 commences on 15 July 2013.

Applications due by 11 June 2013. Call (08) 8299 7300 for a mid-year entry application package.

Masterclass with Anna Platten

Semester 2 Short Courses

Anna Platten’s distinctive tonal realist style has earned her the reputation as one of Australia’s most highly regarded artists. This Masterclass brings the exciting opportunity for participants to actualise dreamed or imagined ideas.

An exciting new range of short courses starting in July.

Contact the School for a brochure. All classes will be held in the School’s new superior teaching studios.

Introductory session Fri 13 Sept 2013 3 day Masterclass Sat - Mon 28 - 30 Sept 2013 (incl)

Visit our new facilities Register for the next tour on 1 June 2013.

Call Andrew on (08) 8299 7300 to make a booking.

In the Gallery In the Beginning...30 Years of Adelaide Central School of Art: the first six years, Bloor Court: 1982 - 1988 20 May - 15 June 2013 - contact school for dates and times of artist talks and gallery hours.

Image Hossein Valamanesh, Walking Sticks, 1982 wood, earth, steel 48 x 238 x 11cm. Collection of the artist Image courtesy of the artist and Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide

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

40 The Adelaide Review June 2013

visual arts

Designing The End The refurbished Mile End Hotel, called simply The End, is a hotel-cum-eccentric art space with its maze of rooms featuring diverse art ranging from pop art to murals to graffiti

by Christopher Sanders

“What I’ve noticed the most, and it has just been lovely, is that people walk into the pub and their eyes light up and their jaws drop,” Anderson explains. “It has just been amazing seeing people doing that because when people walk into pubs you don’t normally get that and all of my friends have said, ‘Wow, I’ve never been to a pub like this before’. I love how you can just choose your little area with all these little rooms off of other rooms.”

Anderson worked in conjunction with Mark Folland, from Folland Panozzo Architects.

“It was a spring board of ideas and then they would either give me a piece of artwork that they wanted me to do or they’d ask me,

‘What other artwork can you come up with?’

It was a real sort of mixture of bouncing ideas off of each other and brainstorming really.”

Anderson painted murals, including a Lindsay-esque mural for the dining room, which looks like wallpaper but it’s not, as well as Andy Warhol inspired pop art pieces of iconic Australian products such as Rosella’s tomato soup, Vegemite and the Hills Hoist while pop art paintings of VW campervans and Elvis Presley appear alongside street art in the undercover beer garden.

Anderson said she based The End’s art on work she completed for The Colonist where her paintings complement the age and character of the pub, as The End uses some of its original features including stained glass windows.

“It’s exposing the old identity of the building and letting it reveal its character,” she said. “It has been an amazing journey just seeing the pub reveal itself and to have the original décor back in. There are a few photos showing the original bar and that’s just wonderful. It used to be the longest bar in South Australia at one point.”

mileendhotel.com.au

Sandra Anderson’s work at The End

T’Arts Collective Gays Arcade (off Adelaide Arcade)

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

Rust dyed Silk Chiffon (detail)

by Maude Bath

T

he transformed hotel by the Saturno Group (The Colonist, Boho, The Oxford and more) used artist Sandra Anderson (who worked on The Colonist) to paint pop art pieces as well as Norman Lindsay-esque murals on its walls. The Saturno Group contacted Anderson, who is also the State Theatre Company’s scenic artist, in October to start working on the hotel. Walking through the hotel, which is massive, is like an eccentric art adventure, as you view the diverse art and design that greets you in each room. As Anderson explains, The End has a “room for everyone”.

Building Materials interpreted by Textile Artists Maude Bath & Sandra Tredwell Window runs from May 26th until June 29th

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

www.tartscollective.com.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 41

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VISUAL ARTS

Hidden Gem Tucked away in the midst of a lush garden setting in the suburb of Brompton is one of the Adelaide art community’s most treasured gems, BAPëA

BY NINA BERTOK

A

unique art school and studio offering professional training and a workshops program presented by international practitioners, BAPëA has gained a reputation for being Adelaide’s leading independent art school. Established by artist Peter Bok in 2000, the school/gallery also features an art cafe during the period of the SALA Festival, and is about to expand into two brand new offshoots – a scholarship for young artists as well as a concert program.

“Last year I started an art cafe called Kunst Cafe – to use the German word – but I’ll take it back to be just an art cafe this year,” Bok announces. “This program will run for the whole length of SALA, so every Sunday there will be jazz musicians at the art cafe and artist talks. SALA has become a huge festival of visual arts, so it’s also a way of attracting people to the gallery and having them stay a bit longer by providing the cafe and live music. I really want to move into the area of music because my own interest has always been in both visual arts as well as music. The journey of creating and performing music is not that dissimilar to visual arts. Another dimension of the school is the introduction of foreign language through art.

Rather than simply acquiring a foreign language through abstract and theoretically-based vocabulary, I think we can develop language skills through the arts. I like the notion of having different disciplines supporting one another and sharing them with the broader community.”

Peter Bok

Bok reveals that he is also about to launch a brand new scholarship program for artists 26 and younger. Following the school’s establishment 13 years ago, the original concept was to serve as a bridging tool between secondary and tertiary training. After lecturing at an art school in North Adelaide for a decade, he says he noticed school leavers lacked the dedication and commitment required to maintain an art career.

just focused on passing exams but didn’t understand that art is a lifestyle rather than a profession. It’s not like law, teaching or plumbing where you’re finished at the end of the day and you leave it behind. The dimension that I try to teach students is that visual art is there all the time, it’s an obsession, it’s a passion. By bringing them into this environment, that’s what I want to convey to the younger students.”

“I learned that school-leavers weren’t equipped to take on tertiary studies because they didn’t know what it meant to be committed to it,” Bok says. “They

Bok says he would ideally like to offer two scholarships for the under-26s, full-time or part-time, with courses on offer at any level of involvement the students may choose.

shannon smiley across from the path 15 June – 6 July 2013 www.hillsmithgallery.com.au

Adelaide College of the Arts

“The feedback I get from students is that there is nothing like it in Adelaide, ‘Wow! I didn’t know a place like this existed!’ We have a broad range of students from young kids to retired professionals.

The main thing is that I don’t structure my courses into painting levels one, two or three – once you start painting you join those who have been doing it for years, so there is no intimidation and you can learn from people at high levels of experience.

It’s extremely important to provide a platform for discussion and discourse, to have the total immersion in the art environment.”

people.aapt.net.au/~bapea

42 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013

VISUAL ARTS

OUT OF THE PANTRY

She plays with dark and light. ‘It’s about looking at the dark textures and deep shadows but also letting the dark speak, having a sense of form and body in a dark surface’.”

BY JANE LLEWELLYN

I

“I’m now trying to scrape back some time to get back into my own work – not that the cafes aren’t my own work. They are another sense of aesthetic, of exploring what’s going to talk to people and appeal to people and what’s not,” explains Roodenrys. “It’s interesting to see what crystallises out of the last couple of years. There are ideas that have been going around in the back of my head. There are

dark surface. Then contrasting that with the light and creating a very luminous quality. Technically that has been quite a challenge,” she says.

Megan Roodenrys, A Hard Place, graphite on paper 105x155cm

recurrent themes that keep revisiting and coming back in different forms.”

The works in the upcoming exhibition will be both drawings and paintings, and vary in size.

Roodenrys’ artworks continue to have a potentially dark message. “Is this person in a relaxing environment or are they in a shallow grave?”

Also recurring is her interest in Renaissance and Pre-Raphaelite art particularly evident in the theatricality of her work and the ethereal

quality of her subjects. “The compositions have a theatricality to them without being overt,” says Roodenrys. “I prefer my works to be something you come into rather than something that jumps up and makes you see it.”

The technical aspect of Roodenrys’ work is also influenced by this period, as she plays with dark and light. “It’s about looking at the dark textures and deep shadows but also letting the dark speak, having a sense of form and body in a

QUIRKY, WEIRD AND WONDERFUL An exhibition of paintings by Tutti Arts Visual Arts Program (artists with disabilities)

Roodenrys is inspired by a very primal desire to make things on both a physical and intellectual level. She says, “I think if I wasn’t an artist I would be a chef or baker – something with my hands.”

» Megan Roodenrys BMG Gallery Friday, June 14 until Saturday, July 6

exhibitions gallery shop

7 - 30 June 2013 TWO EXHIBITIONS

THEN, NOW & YET TO COME

7 - 28 June 2013

paintings & drawings by Mike McMeekan

Tessa Crathern, Patterns

t’s been a couple of years since Megan Roodenrys’ last solo exhibition (held at the now defunct Kensington Gallery in 2011) but she’s hardly been resting on her laurels setting up two very successful cafes in Adelaide’s inner southern suburbs – The Pantry and Ginger’s. Now that the cafes are established she has found time, amongst major home renovations, to put together a body of work, which will be on display at BMG Gallery this month.

Opens: Friday 7 June at 6pm Opening Speaker: Dr Paul Hoban and local artist Jungle Phillips

Live performance by solo artist Aimee Crathern, a member of Tutti’s acclaimed all girl pop group, Hot Tutti.

Come along to the launch to celebrate and feel free to dress up in anything a little quirky, weird or wonderful!

Free Painting Demonstration by Tutti Artist, Scott Pyle on Saturday 22 June 2pm – 4pm

Free entry - all welcome!

Meet the Artists

Sunday 16 June from 2pm

SALTWATER SERIES 2 recent paintings of the sea: from beach, balcony and studio by Philippa Robert

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

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

www.gallerym.net.au

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 43

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VISUAL ARTS shopfronts. Under the guise of a business, these interventions cleverly revealed information to the cause and effect of Adelaide’s plight of high vacancy. It was intended to be both information and action, but in reality everybody just walked right past them! I can’t say I was surprised really. In the end the work was all taken down after a few days, but the photos online have reached a much wider audiences at least.

Ankles, Sippin and Flippin

Quality Street Local street artist and graphic designer Ankles blends graffiti with gallery work and design commissions... to stunning results.

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

E

xplain your introduction to street art? Was it via hip hop, an artistic group of peers, or something else?

I remember the first few other street artists I met, Konsumterra and Bunkwaa, who weren’t exactly NWA. There was this definite DIY punk ethos to the kind of street art that was appearing in Adelaide in the mid-2000s. It was this new form of public sabotage, fuelled with a smart-arse attitude that initially got me so keen. Back then the scene felt more associated with obscure zines and weird art projects, compared to the rock star graffiti heroes we have today. As the culture has become more accepted and public, I’ve always tried to retain a certain level of subversiveness that first influenced me to start vandalising property.

At university you studied architecture and later graphic design. I guess a project where these streams combined was the brilliant We Never Open! project, where you established faux business in vacant shopfronts. Can you tell me how this project came together, your intentions for it, as well as the response?

I love hiding my work right underneath the publics’ nose, and it’s not hard when most people walk through life with blinkers on. At the time I was really pissed off about the lack of ownership that people express in public space, and how that ultimately leads to dead streets and vacant properties. I turned my frustration into a series of uncommissioned designs applied to the windows of Adelaide’s vacant

Your first major gallery show was last year’s Frontier. Was there any trepidation in moving from the street to the gallery?

Frontier was set up to bridge that gap between our graffiti and our art practice.

The Rawhide crew was initially our ‘all-roller graffiti’ fraction, obviously playing on the lyrics of the ol’-timey song. To avoid repeating ourselves though, our gallery work extended beyond both the joke and the attachment to paint rollers. Frontier aimed to tell a larger story by building on the myths of the Old West, hobo freight-hopping culture, and celebrated outlaw figures of both past and present.

We are a time where city councils, corporations and the general public have a growing acceptance of street art. I read even Adelaide’s Mayor calls you Ankles.

Does this take the edge away from the work at all, even when it is an illegal act, or does this just mean the world has finally caught up to embrace street art?

It’s a double-edged sword. The exposure has brought a lot of great opportunities that many artists wouldn’t otherwise have had. On the other hand, the sudden popularity of an underground culture will always have a limited shelf life.

Once it becomes passé it’s bound to lose a lot of its strength, and I think especially so in an environment like Adelaide. Thankfully though, graffiti will always remain publicly offensive,

design + craftsmanship

Can you explain how you came to design the clever KWP! website and how they were open to your ideas for it?

The good creative folks at KWP! had seen my illustration style, both as paste-ups and in editorials, so they gave me a buzz and we teamed up on this epic project. Honestly they get all the credit for giving me the opportunity to take that illustration style to the next level.

It was a long journey and after night and day, hand rendering the entire agency in pen and ink, we’ve got this fully detailed, parallax site that we’re both pretty stoked about.

As an artist, do you see yourself evolving or moving into different areas with new work? Where is this taking you at the moment?

Admittedly I’m a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. Ankles keeps me experimenting and reinventing myself. I can never even tell what the next project might be, and I hope that keeps everyone else uncertain too.

ohankles.com

TAKE IT AT ART FEAST TIME.

robin eley idolatry 15 June - 6 July 2013 www.hillsmithgallery.com.au

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

You are to open a new graphic design studio. Can you tell me about that? What will be its focus?

Part of making that distinction between my different pursuits involves establishing a separate studio for my design practise. It’s to be the alter ego to my alter ego. I don’t wanna give too much away at this point, but recently I’ve been chained to my desk really pushing my craft in typography.

THINKING OF A HOLIDAY ON KANGAROO ISLAND?

JAMJAR Storage Jar $250 made using traditional glass blowing and wood turning techniques

illegal, and ephemeral. I suspect its value will remain as one of the endless and uncontrollable chaoses necessary in any actual vibrant city.

44 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013

VISUAL ARTS

PROFILE: MATT BURGESS

BY JANE LLEWELLYN

T

here seems so be a new breed of visual artists emerging who are undertaking a career as an artist but also holding down a full time job. So it was no surprise that Adelaide-based artist Matt Burgess ducked out of his architecture class to tell me all about his upcoming exhibition at Peter Walker Fine Art. Burgess is coming off the back of a successful exhibition last year at Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney) where he sold six of the seven works in the first 24 hours. This month’s exhibition at Peter Walker Fine Art promises another selection of delicately crafted human figures. Through their fragility Burgess’ glass figures evoke emotion and revolve around a redefinition of self.

Burgess describes his latest work: “I am keeping a few pieces really pared back and

there will be some works with components as well. The components are extra things I make for the pieces. We have a human heart, a jetty and a wood carved ladder. I am still toying with things. I like to play to the last minute.”

Burgess uses the lost wax technique to create these incredible glass works. He describes the process: “It’s like bronze casting. I start off with the wax. I make a wax figure, then I make a plaster/silica mould around the wax. Then I melt the wax out of the mould, put the mould in the kiln with a flowerpot full of lead crystal glass that melts in there for about eight hours and then it cools down for about four to five days depending on the size of the work.”

The technique Burgess uses in creating these works is just as important as the subject itself in conveying his ideas. “I like the risk,” he explains. “It’s like the world. Sometimes you

Matt Burgess, These Maps don’t cover the Atlas, 12 x 26 x 12cm, Lead Crystal Glass, Mixed media

Josephine (detail) Plastic coat hanger, bath mat, utensils, toys. 90x42x10cms Photo S.Elms

don’t know how it’s going to turn out. Once it breaks it’s gone, most of the time you can’t fix it. It’s kind of like life. You make a decision to go down a road and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Plastic Fantastic Annabelle Collett 5 May - 23 June 2013 1 Thomas Street (cnr Main North Road) Nailsworth Tel 8342 8175 prospect.sa.gov.au

MANIFEST2 In conjunction with the Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Australian Art Award

Sue KNEEBONE dark manners 7 June–14 July Contemporary Art Centre SA 14 Porter Street Parkside www.cacsa.org.au

Adelaide Review June.indd 1

28/05/13 11:16 AM

The wax process is what Burgess really enjoys as “it’s really meditative”.

“It is also when you’re most with the work.

It’s when everything happens. Then you make the mould and lose it,” he says. Again he draws parallels between his work and the journey of life: “It’s like your child that has grown up and gone off. When it comes out in glass you get to make changes – but they aren’t huge changes. I guess I relate it to being an adult. When you’re an adult it’s hard to change.”

Burgess lists Antony Gromley and the Chapman Brothers as artists who inspire him.

Even though their work is totally different to each other – The Chapman Brothers are more violent whereas Gormley is more peaceful – elements of both appear in Burgess’ work. He adds, “My work is also inspired by watching people. I like watching how people interact.

That spurs things along for me.”

» Matt Burgess Peter Walker Fine Art Thursday, June 13 to Saturday, June 29 peterwalker.com.au

The Adelaide Review June 2013 45

adelaidereview.com.au

visual arts

THIS MONTH The Adelaide Review’s guide to june’s highlight visual arts events

Marijana Tadic There is a Place

Robin Eley Idolatry Hill Smith Gallery Saturday, June 15 to Saturday, July 6 hillsmithgallery.com.au

BMG Art Continues until Saturday, June 8 bmgart.com.au

Robin Eley’s Idolatry is a suite of 12 paintings that explore the quasi-spiritual adoration of the material in modern life. A series within a series, each work references a religious theme as well as the other works.

This exhibition explores the meaning of philopatry (remaining in, or returning to, an individual’s birthplace) and the notion of coincidence of where we began, or if we do have the luxury of choice in where we live. The works combine steel, acupuncture needles and cast bronze.

Marijana Tadic, Seismic Encounter

unDisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial

Latest Works Better World Arts Permanent exhibition betterworldarts.com.au

Samstag Museum of Art Continues until Friday, July 5 unisa.edu.au/samstagmuseum unDisclosed features contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, whose exploration and artistic vision, inform and redefine contemporary Indigenous art as we presently know it. Artists include Nici Cumpston, Naata Nungurrayi, Julie Gough and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu.

Robin Eley, Veneration

Anangu artists at Port Adelaide’s Better World Arts are producing works that celebrate the rich history and diversity of the country’s landscape, traditions and wildlife. Features new artwork daily.

Christian Thompson, Bidjara people HEAT (detail) 2010

there is a place exhibition Marijana Tadic’s There is a Place exhibition was opened by Libby Raupach at BMG ART, on Friday, May 17.

Photos jonathan van der knaap

Karen Manatji Kulyuru, Tjukula – Rockholes

46 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013

BOOKS

BLACK ROSES Jane Thynne / Simon & Schuster

BY ROGER HAINSWORTH

The setting is dramatic, indeed melodramatic: Berlin 1933, only months after Hitler comes to power. Fleeing a dysfunctional family and an acting career in the doldrums, Clara Vine arrives seeking

work at the famous Ufa Studios. She is a novice to film, but that rare bird, an actress who is fluent in English and German. Her father is a baronet MP who seeks better relations between England and Germany.

It is typical of Clara’s remoteness from her father that she has to come to Germany to discover he is not only a Nazi sympathiser, but also the founder of a fascist party in Britain. He has even sought funding from the new German regime - and obtained it.

(The character is presumably modelled on Sir Oswald Mosley.) Clara also discovers that her much loved German mother, who died of cancer when she was 16, was a Jew. Because of her father she finds herself reluctantly drawn into he social world of Magda Goebbels, which mainly consists of other Nazi wives like Anneliese von Ribbentrop and Goering’s mistress and future wife, the actress Emmy Sonnemann. Since the Fuhrer has decreed that German women should reject foreign fashions in favour of gowns inspired by traditional German costumes (alas, Jane Thynne is not making this up!)

Magda even enlists Clara as a model for the new fashions.

The novel has a very different strand.

Leo Quinn at the British Embassy is an agent of British intelligence. Seeing Clara’s remarkable social contacts he enlists her to spy on them, not in search of state secrets but more to acquire a picture of the dynamics of the German leadership through studying he relationships between their wives. Being Leon’s eyes and ears seems innocent enough. However, Magda Goebbels, a remarkably lonely figure, decides Clara is the only woman she can trust to carry a letter to a former lover who is not only a Jew but a prominent Zionist. Now Clara’s secret life becomes much more perilous. This novel is a vivid evocation of life in Berlin during the first year of the Third Reich. There are some anachronisms. Somebody casually refers to the Luftwaffe, which does not even exist in 1933, and when later it does remains a deep secret until 1935. These are minor quibbles. This unusual novel should not be missed.

WE ARE NOT THE SAME ANYMORE

DECEPTION Edward Lucas / Bloomsbury

Chris Somerville / UQP

BY WILLIAM CHARLES

BY HELEN DINMORE

The stories in Somerville’s debut collection are the sort of contemporary short fictions – familiar now – that deal, superficially and deceptively, with the ordinary, but that seek, by increments, to work up to moments of unexpected, obscure or absurd profundity. These are narratives without clear signposts, in which characters often lose their way, both figuratively and literally; in some cases the way has already been lost. Most of the protagonists suffer from a prosaic kind of joylessness, passing over opportunity and glimmers of their own and others’ interiority in order to drift instead into the swamp of their own passivity or indifference. The best stories come late in the book: ‘Hinterland’, with its nuanced portrayal of a difficult father; the riskier ‘Room’ and intriguing ‘Sleeping With the Light On’. And there are times, such as in ‘The Chinese Student’ when Somerville’s sudden, unresolved endings create artful impact. Where the stories are less successful, it’s because the prose style itself errs too much towards the ordinary, offering less than this kind of fiction needs to make it sing.

This 2012 book, now re-issued, is a troubling account of how much more desperate and clever the Russian state has been, and continues to be, in its parallel, covert struggle with the West for information and geopolitical influence. Lucas, a former bureau chief with The Economist in Moscow and a long-time critic of the corrupt Putin regime, outlines a counterintelligence modus operandi that comes in a direct historical line from the KGB and Lenin’s NKVD. From the ‘redhead under the bed’ Anna Chapman in the US, to the brutal murder in prison of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, to sleeper cells, cyber war on Baltic States, pay-offs, bought judges, lawyers and police, money laundering through London and countless tax havens; through all this a grindingly slow and venal state apparatus continues the grand Russian tradition of robbing its people blind while battling the West. In the end, it seems, the Russians play harder. They want it more.

Meanwhile a self-satisfied West pats itself on the back, still basking in the glow of having “won” the Cold War even while our own systems of governance creak under financial and moral mismanagement.

Don’t say we weren’t warned.

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 47

ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

TRAVEL once you step into the restaurant, it’s like a highlight scene from the Steve Coogan vehicle The Trip minus the pretentiousness. The food is stunning. We ate from the bistro’s menu and went out on a limb to select the mutton tartare ($24) as an entree, because why wouldn’t you? It was beautiful and only topped by the extensive wine list (the War and Peace of wine lists) and the main (Milawa organic chicken, cauliflower and parsnip, wild rice and bread pudding: $36).

Unfortunately we didn’t stay in one of the Royal Mail’s rooms but the Grampians View B&B was a comfortable alternative. Bed and breakfasts can be risky options (especially when the owners are overly eccentric when you just want to relax). But Grampians View is a safe bet. The success of the Royal Mail has paved the way for smaller Dunkeld food boutiques, such as The Old Bakery, to open (or re-open in this case). Featuring an old wood fire oven, The Old Bakery delivers traditional baked goods, including the biggest sausage roll you will ever see.

Royal Mail Hotel

A Grape Escape

It’s worth heading to the Grampians when its food and wine festival, the Grampians Grape Escape, is on (early May). This year Poh Ling Yeow was the face of the festival (hey, why’s Our Poh hosting a Victorian food and wine event?). The annual two-day festival, held in Halls Gap, is surrounded by

the picturesque Grampians National Park.

We couldn’t get into Poh’s demonstration.

Security told us it was full (that’s why the Vics nabbed her) but sitting on the lawn drinking the region’s finest drops (check out Best’s Wines) is a mighty fine way to spend an afternoon.

I don’t go much for guided tours, no matter how short or picturesque, but the Great Western Seppelt tour though the winery’s tunnels is recommended. As is a visit to Ararat’s Vines Cafe – a beautiful regional lunch spot. If you want to be at one with nature, a stay at the Grampians Pioneer Cottages is worth it. A five-minute drive out of Halls Gap, the rustic cottages are surrounded by kangaroos and the early morning views are spectacular.

Luckily we followed the signs, instead of an app, for the drive back, which was a stress free journey to Adelaide – perfect after a weekend of food, wine and a small amount of trekking.

» The writer was a guest of Tourism Victoria visitvictoria.com/Regions/Grampians

RETURN TO THE GRAND DAYS OF TRAVEL whatever your choice of luggage

Italy

Italy

The drive from Adelaide to The Grampians is a simple one, right?

Not if your navigator isn’t handy with apps and decides to use an iPhone app to guide the car to the Victorian destination.

WANTED

10 adventurous women

BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

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BIL

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Italy

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The Grampians is famous for its terrain, walking trails and wineries. You can add food to that list. The Royal Mail looks like a refurbished classy hotel when you enter via the front bar and walk past the locals playing pool while the footy’s on the TV. But

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

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he Grampians drive is admittedly an easy one straight down the Dukes and National Highway. Instead the app (which shows you the quickest distance not the easiest journey) led us down small roads on a dark and stormy night. After missing many turns, all was saved when we finally reached the lovey town of Dunkeld (albeit a few hours late) to dine at the spectacular Royal Mail Hotel.

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ours for independent thinking women.

People who want to experience a lifestyle that exists in Italy after the bus tours have gone.

Walk with us to secret places in Rome; visit private Palazzos and Italianate gardens.

Take an Italian lesson over dinner, dine and shop with the locals.

Come with us to the opera!

We will stay in the heart of Florence. Visit a renowned perfume maker, lunch in a Medici Villa, relax over a quiet drink on our rooftop garden, or shop in the leather markets.

Avoid the queues with our private entrances to galleries and museums. Learn about Renaissance art and Italian cooking. Stay in a Tuscan Villa.

Coast. Glide through the Venetian Canals in our private boat!

48 The Adelaide Review June 2013

food.wine.coffee (senior) have wrought their familiar miracles, the End is a very different and shiny fish-kettle. Eclectic hardly begins to cover it – the wall panels are studded with bric-a-brac that spans the last century, from a blinged-up stag’s head to pop-art panels of soup tins and Vegemite jars to a sepia portrait of a West Adelaide champion, the magnificently monikered Richard Head.

The front bar, fully restored to a massive palisade of brooding timber with overhead baggage compartments, is my favourite bit.

Parked there, you can see through glass to the ballistics in the stainless-steel kitchen; it’s like looking from Gormenghast into Fiat’s assembly line.

Entering the dining room, disconcerting flights of bare-breasted nymphs drift up the walls and onto the ceiling without apparent benefit of air traffic control, but once the food hits the laminex, all distraction fades.

The waitress, who was inked, sassy and about to start work on a movie – my favourite kind – made some useful suggestions.

The Mile End Hotel (The End)

Howard’s End So, as Mr Morrison once observed, this is The End.

T

he first hostelry out of town to the West, the Mile End Hotel used to be loved (by a few at least) for its sticky carpet (spilt portergaff?), a

signature fug and the percussive sound of the front bar regulars toppling off their stools.

Now that the double-headed Saturnos

I have been known (not infrequently) to mutter darkly on the topic of pubs adopting restaurant prices just because they can, but there are no quibbles when the quality is so evident. It starts with the small things.

There is evidence of a light hand in the deepfried arancini while the smallgoods in the antipasto are impeccable, and the citrus on the slivered raw octopus is inspired. All smartly turned out on wooden boards.

For mains, we had the blue swimmer crab linguini at $26.90, which was savoury, subtly fishy and would have got the nod in Positano. The Kangaroo Island lamb ($27.50) cut in pink, smoky chunks and lined up on a long strip of superior, crisp tabouli and warm, cheerful, cherry tomatoes is, I’m told, a treat too.

Being lunchtime, we devote our attention to the lighter, Mediterranean end of a worthy and well-priced wine list, and both the Italian-style white (Pizzini Arneis $42)

and Spanish red (Valdemoreda Tempranillo $34) fronted up with crisp elan.

No time for dessert? The End demands you leave room for something at the, er, end. The deconstructed cheesecake, which comes with wings like The Flying Nun’s Sister Bertrille, took off in the mouth and really is a steal at $10. The special cheese board ($24) presented like a pop-up book in espaliered 2-D, and with acid backing from sliced pear and a string of muscatels, the trio of Tasmanian Heidi Gruyere, a Piccante Gorgonzola and a pearly Brique D’Affinois managed to taste even better than it looked.

It seemed churlish to resist seduction by Longview’s excellent Epitome sticky, and at $30, we surrendered.

This is very good and very handsome food by anybody’s standards, and all credit to David White, who comes to run the kitchen from The Colonist. The quality spills over into an all-day menu and a range of tapas, so you can take the trip without even having to pick up the cutlery or brave the barebreasted nymphs.

With a changing class mix in Mile End and Torrensville that began 20 years ago, a gastro-pub (I still think that’s an unfortunate term) on the western edge of the city is overdue. I’d hazard that this is more beginning than End. I just hope someone remembers to turn the antlers off.

»»Howard Twelftree (known in these pages by his nom de bouche, John McGrath), died before he could write this review. With some appropriate nods (we hope) to his inimitable style, this review was cobbled together by some of his friends, including long-time dinner companions Duck Woman and Lambchop.

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THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 49

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FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Join us for our “wild” degustation dinner 20th June @ 7pm with Chef Jared Ingersoll (Cotton Duck, Dank st Depot) and forager and local wild man Tim Webber at Bistro Dom Produce sourced only within

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

BY ANNABELLE BAKER

P

reserving can be a somewhat labour of love, but a pantry full of homemade preserves will provide all the reward one needs to get bottling in the kitchen.

An abundance of a particular fruit or vegetable is the perfect opportunity to create family favourites.

Jams, jellies, chutneys and relishes all have different origins and with them have provided endless cultural influences. When chutney infiltrated the Empire, preserves would never be the same again; English fruit was met with the warmth of chilli and spice. Many cultures also preserve their meat in order to enjoy it all year round. The Italians salt, cure and flavour the less desired cuts for perfect salumi and the French famously confit rabbit, duck and pork for delicious pots of rillettes. However, for me, it has to be the classic recipe of bittersweet marmalade. This perfect combination spread liberally over hot toast with copious amounts of butter is the perfect reward for a days preserving.

Chutney first popped up in history as early as the 5th century in India and was then adopted by the British. It was these two influences that has given chutneys and relishes their identity in today’s world. The fruit and vegetables of the Empire where spiked with the flavours of their time in India. Possibly the most famous of all is Piccalilli, sometimes referred to as Indian pickle. Cauliflower, zucchini, baby onions and even gherkins are preserved in liquor of ground mustard seeds and turmeric. This preserve would soon become a quintessential accompaniment to the traditional English ploughman’s lunch.

Preserving is not just exclusive to fruit and

vegetables, many types of meat can be preserved as well. Duck legs are cured in salt overnight and then submerged in fat to cook slowly for several hours. The meat falls of the bone, infused with the rich flavour provided by the fat making it extremely succulent and juicy. Confit duck legs are a speciality of southern France, commonly sold in jars full of cooked haricot beans. This simple preserve is full of flavour and is exported all around the world so others can also enjoy the magic of true French duck confit.

Jams, jellies and marmalades are the perfect way to encapsulate the seasonal essence of any fruit. This old tradition calls for different combinations of fruit set in a sugar based liquid.

The setting of jams and jellies itself is an art form and true artisanal jam uses natural pectin. The more mass-produced products call for setting agents and additives to enhance their colour, thickness and taste. The addition of thin strips of rind turns a jam into marmalade, infusing it with its iconic bittersweet profile. Blood orange marmalade folded through a sponge cake batter results in a moist cake with the perfect balance between bitter and sweet.

Preserving fruit, vegetables and meat is a long-standing tradition in many cultures and is something that is readily available on a large scale.

Being able to master the basic skills of preserving at home will put excess produce to use, and not to mention, create fantastic homemade gifts.

Red onion pickle is the quickest preserve you can make at home. Once you have tried it, you will never go without a jar in the fridge again.

the Adelaide Hills and matched natural and biodynamic wines by our sommelier

Red Onion Pickle Ingredients • 500ml good quality red wine vinegar • 300ml water • 1 cinnamon stick • 10 peppercorns • 2 bay leaves • 150g sugar • 8 large red onions sliced approximately 2mm thick

Matthew Mcnamara $120 pp Very limited space available so book early to avoid disappointment

Method 1. Bring the vinegar, water, cinnamon, peppercorns, bay leaves and sugar to a simmer for five minutes.

2. Gently add the sliced onions, trying to retain the full slice as much as possible.

3. Allow the liquid to come back up to the boil and turn the heat off.

4. Decant to sterile jam jars (I just use them hot from the dishwasher) and fill to the very top. Use any left over liquidto top up the jar, if necessary. The jars will keep for a couple of months in the fridge.

5. Serve with cold meats and in your favourite sandwich. I love pickled pork, hot English mustard and bitter greens on a crunchy baguette.

twitter.com/annabelleats

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50 The Adelaide Review June 2013

food.wine.coffee

chewin’ the fat BY jock zonfrillo

I

n light of all the recent interest in foraging I wanted to write about a new store that’s popped up in the Adelaide Central Market. I’m particularly excited about this new shop because, in my opinion, it’s what’s been missing from our beloved market, which is known, loved and regarded as the ‘heart of Adelaide’.

I was super excited when Richard Gunner told me his plan to open a stall called Something Wild almost two years ago but I have to say his original plan is nothing compared to the reality of its existence today!

The purpose of this stall, as you would guess by the name, is simply to bring ‘wild’ product to the public in a safe and convenient manner. On any typical day you can expect to find kangaroo, crocodile, emu, rabbit, hare and venison in a variety of ways. Like all of Mr Gunner’s other businesses, you can ask for specific preparations, or cuts, to the game meat for a specific recipe.

They also have hundreds of recipe cards to give you some inspiration if it’s your first time using these ingredients. Sausages too take a seasonal form; yesterday, for example, on offer was thick

venison and pine mushroom; kangaroo and bush tomato; crocodile and lemon myrtle – all looked delicious.

As if that isn’t enough, Something Wild has also started stocking native and introduced foraged ingredients. I’m the first person to bang on about the joys of foraging because that’s what I grew up with. During my childhood and chef apprenticeship I was taught what was edible in the wild and, equally so, inedible.

You can now buy these natural ingredients in the Central Market: Slippery jack mushrooms, saffron milk cap mushrooms (aka pine mushrooms), wood sorrel, wild garlic, wild rocket... the list goes on and it’s all natural and picked by experts. For the general public, and foodies alike, this takes away the ‘risk’. It also dismisses the quandary of knowing intimately foraged ingredients in regards to what to look for, the season, responsible harvest etc.

The next stage for Something Wild is Australian native ingredients. Many of the ingredients I have sourced from regional Aboriginal communities will be available soon and they will only be available fresh and when

in season. Selected preserved lines will be available year-round such as wild crab apple jelly which, just quietly, is the perfect cheese accompaniment; dried local mushrooms (think winter casseroles), pickled and fermented native tubers, just to name a few. Richard Gunner looks at this store as the obvious natural progression in food, like his well-established Feast! Fine Foods stores, as he stocks produce used by chefs that is available in a retail store. And in this case there could be no more convenient location.

Finally here is a business truly moving with the times that not only identifies with its surroundings here in South Australia but also has a very strong connection with chefs, foragers and current trends to bring you restaurant quality ingredients.

Bravo... #thatisall

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nook nosh Nook Nosh, a small bar lovingly created as a place to enjoy sips and nibbles officially opened at 111 Unley Road on Tuesday, May 28.

Photos john kruger

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Feast! Fine Foods Readers’ Event The Adelaide Review and Feast! Fine Foods are hosting a special event for our readers, An Introduction to Sausage Making.

T

o be held in the Central Market Kitchen (Level 1, Adelaide Central Market) on Wednesday, July 3, the class, hosted

by Feast!’s Richard Gunner will be the perfect introduction to the art of making delicious sausages.

This special class is limited to a maximum of 40 attendees and runs for three-and-a-half hours from 5.30pm to 9pm. Tickets are $70 and includes the creation of a special ‘The Adelaide Review Sausage’, which will be developed at the class and may even appear at Feast! Fine Foods as a new sausage for sale in the months after the event.

The sausage making class includes: •

Entry to the sausage making class

•

Instructions on general knife safety and

the products that will be used •

Watching the breakdown of a whole pig carcass with information on selecting the best cuts for sausage making

•

Instructions on creating a traditional sausage

•

Instructions on creating a gourmet sausage

•

Involvement in creating ‘The Adelaide Review Sausage’

Each participant will also receive approximately two kilograms (worth $30) of sausages to take home: about one kilogram of ‘The Adelaide Review Sausage’, as well as approximately 500 grams of traditional English pork sausages and 500 grams of gourmet pork & fennel sausages.

» Feast! Fine Foods & The Adelaide Review Readers’ Event An Introduction to Sausage Making Central Market Kitchen Wednesday, July 3, 5.30pm feastfinefoods.com.au

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52 The Adelaide Review June 2013

Hot 100 Wines

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For the Kalleskes, it’s a Vine Thing

by Charles Gent

W

ith seven generations of farming at Greenock behind them, you could say without fear of contradiction that the Kalleske family didn’t rush headlong into making their first wine.

But for all his professional patina, Troy believes that the quality of the Kalleske range – from the sub-$20 Clarry’s Grenache-ShirazMataro to the super-premium Johann Georg Old Vine Single Vineyard Shiraz – rests more on what happens in the vineyard than in the vats.

With their winemaking facilities finally set up in 2002, and a first commercial release in 2004, winemaker Troy and his vigneron brother Tony now run one of the most highly regarded young wineries in the Barossa’s top end.

The Kalleske vineyards have had organic certification for the past 15 years, but the principles were introduced decades earlier

by Troy’s parents, John and Lorraine, whom he describes as local pioneers in organic and biodynamic grape-growing and farming.

Kalleske says that as well as “doing the right thing” by the environment and the workers, avoiding chemicals “makes a more natural, genuine, authentic wine”.

In winemaking terms, Troy Kalleske certainly did his prep; after finishing oenology in the 1990s, he went to Penfolds and Seppeltsfield as part of the Southcorp graduate winemakers program, with a stint over the border at Seppelt Great Western. He squeezed in a vintage in Sonoma, California, and also worked for Lindeman’s at Karadoc (Mildura), and for Rolf Binder at Veritas and Miranda Rovalley in the Barossa.

Natural fruit flavours are front and centre in the Clarry’s GSM, a wine whose very raison d’etre, Kalleske says, is drinkability. Certainly it was this character that earned it a top 10

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN

spot in The Adelaide Review’s Hot 100 South Australian Wines.

“It’s easy drinking, medium to full in body and in terms of weight; being Grenache, it is has soft tannins and it’s only been in old barrels, and for a limited time,” Kalleske says.

“It’s all about the fruit: round, lush, rich, enjoyable fruit.”

If a 160-year history at Greenock furnished the brothers with a swag of Prussian forebears after whom to name their wines, the tradition of grape-growing that flourished alongside stock and crops also left them a precious legacy in the vineyard. While the oldest vines contributing to the Clarry’s date back to the Second World War, a few rows of vines among the 120 hectares at Kalleske’s were planted in the century before last.

“We’re lucky to have some very old vines on the property which give us quality fruit, so that makes the winemaking very straightforward – I just try not to stuff it up, really, in the winery.”

And although the grapes now dominate the landscape and the balance sheet, the mixed farming continues.

The critical acclaim afforded the 2011 Clarry’s

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– it also picked up two trophies, one for Best Australian Red and one for Best GSM, at the London International Wine Challenge last year – is all the more remarkable in view of the nature of the vintage.

The Adelaide Review Hot 100 South Australian Wines publication held its sponsors event at the InterContinental on Thursday, May 7.

2011 brought the wettest and coldest growing season in memory, and with it vicious cycles of mildew and mould. Things looked especially grim for exponents of organic viticulture, whose philosophy doesn’t permit resort to the prophylaxis of sulphur sprays.

PHOTOS JONATHAN VAN DER KNAAP

“There were plenty of people around who thought we were going to be screwed,” Kalleske says.

But nemesis did not materialise: the Kalleske vines remained virtually disease-free, an outcome Kalleske believes is testament to the way the grapes are grown. ”For us to be able to pick all of our grapes in 2011, and for them to be of good quality as well, shows that the health of the soil and the health of the vines were of a really high calibre.”

“In terms of the natural biological side of things, I think it really proves and shows itself in tough years.”

kalleske.com

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CHEESE MATTERS The history of ash in cheesemaking dates back hundreds of years.

BY KRIS LLOYD

F

armhouse cheesemakers in France used it to help preserve cheeses that they produced in autumn through the winter months when milk supply was lean. The ash referred to as sel noir was generally mixed with salt then dusted on the surface of the cheese. As years passed cheesemakers realised that this coating improved the growth of surface moulds responsible for ripening cheeses.

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First records of cheese ash were from burning grapevine clippings in the Loire Valley of France, famous for its production of fresh goat milk cheese. When the ash was used on these cheeses it was found to draw moisture from the wet surface. By doing this it produced a cheese that was better-preserved, easier to handle and reduced the incidence of rancidity. Along with these revelations was a greater acceptance of a rind that seemed less feral than what the au naturale rinds offered. The greyish rind also had the ability to deter insects from settling on the cheese and given the dryer surface it tended to be much less habitable.

Generally you will find most ash-coated cheeses are fresh, lactic goat milk cheeses.

Unlike other firmer cheese styles that have natural rinds, the delicate nature of fresh goat milk cheese does not lend itself to being rubbed, washed or over handled in any way. The high moisture content also means that unwanted bacteria from over handling can easily occur.

The ash protects the rind in so many ways and the application of dusting means that you barely need to touch the cheese.

love these slightly vague stories!

The Italian cheese Sottocennere (meaning under the ash), which is buried in a grey ash inside large terra cotta clay pots and aged for months, is another traditional cheese made using ash, again, in a slightly different form.

At Woodside we have been producing Edith, a lactic goat milk cheese, for over 16 years. I can attest to some of the hypothesis made in much earlier times. Edith is a high moisture cheese, which is reliant on the ash to suck away moisture from the surface and allow the fluffy white mould to bloom. The same cheese made without the ash, not only behaves differently through its maturation cycle, the flavour is vastly different. The ash accelerates the rate at which the cheese ripens and imparts a distinct savoury note to the rind. This is largely because the surface acidity is neutralised by the ash.

This creates a more attractive surface for moulds such as P. candidum (found on Brie and Camembert) to develop more quickly. This also dries the surface, which keeps the rate of mould activity from becoming excessive resulting in unpalatable thick rinds.

Aesthetically ashed cheeses have appeal and the finish is widely used in modern cheesemaking. They add dimension, and given the mottled greyish rind, look interesting and classy on a cheese plate. The origins may remain a little mysterious, however, the use of ash in cheesemaking clearly lives on.

As time went by, other variations of using ash in cheese appeared. One of the most famous is the French Morbier, a semi hard washed rind cow milk cheese. Morbier originally was produced for personal consumption by the cheesemakers of Franche - Comte is rather a different application of ash. Traditionally this cheese was made with milk from two milkings.

Beginning with the evening milk, it was said there was not enough milk to make an entire cheese and the curds were left in their hoop overnight. To protect the curd from drying and insects the cheesemakers would smear ash on the top of the curd and leave it overnight.

The following morning more curd was made to top up the hoop and complete the cheese.

When cut, Morbier has a distinctive layer of ash through the middle and two different shades of curd due to the morning and evening milk fat content.

One story about the origin of this ash layer is that a cheese was accidentally dropped on the floor between milking landing in the ash from the fire used for heating the milk. I just

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

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013 55

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Drink Outside the Square

Do you believe Adelaide is entering an age of professional baristas?

I think Adelaide is a long way off entering an age of professional baristas. Other industries relating to flavour, such as wine making, cooking or brewing require years of studying or apprenticeships, whereas just about anyone can get a job serving specialty coffee in Adelaide.

BY DEREK CROZIER

A

skim soy, half-strength, decaffeinated cappuccino, extra hot, extra froth but with no chocolate on top. I once read that you can tell a lot about someone by the coffee they order, this particular order would be telling me they have a very interesting personality.

Personally I think it’s all a load of beans.

If you’re like most people you order the same coffee every time and have customised it to your liking, but have you ever wanted to know what some of those other mysterious names on the menu are? A basic coffee menu will usually consist of a cappuccino, latte, flat white, mocha, long black, short black, macchiato and ristretto. Other orders have fancy names but are just slight variations of existing coffees, where others have simple names but are actually quite complex.

A coffee shot is commonly 25 to 30 millilitres but can vary in size depending on the coffee being used. A coffee pour starts with flavoursome dark brown oils being extracted at the beginning, which forms the crema and within seconds the shot will get lighter until it finishes with a weaker blonde colour. This is one of the visual aspects that helps the barista know how the coffee will taste.

A short black (espresso) is one shot of coffee served in a small cup but a ristretto (meaning restricted in Italian) is only half a shot of espresso.

The first 15 millilitres of a shot has the flavour intensity of a full shot but is more concentrated.

A common choice for an ‘on the go’ order is a macchiato (it means stained in Italian). It’s a single shot of espresso with a small amount of foam over the top but sometimes a touch of stretched and textured milk is added to present it as a layered drink.

Now, a long macchiato is tricky because there are a few different ways to make it. It seems to be open for interpretation depending on where you go and the barista you come across.

For example, if you order a long macchiato in Melbourne you’ll receive a long black with a dash of hot milk. To make a macchiato longer you can either add a dash of hot water to the small glass before adding the coffee shot or you can add more stretched and textured milk to make it longer. Sometimes a customer may ask for a long macchiato but actually is expecting a double macchiato, which is simply double the amount of both the coffee shot and the milk.

If you feel like a latte but don’t want a full cup, there’s a ‘piccolo latte’ (piccolo meaning

Hadrian

Coffee Break with Hadrian Paddy’s Lantern is an unassuming looking specialty coffee bar that serves magnificent coffee. Barista Hadrian, or ‘H’, explains Paddy’s Lantern’s coffee secrets.

Specialty coffee houses have been popping up all over Adelaide recently.

Why do you think this is?

People are starting to realise coffee can be full of flavour and character.

Adelaide tends to go through fads and

food trends (Mexican food, burgers, popup stores, food trucks etc) but I think specialty coffee is more sustainable, so hopefully there will be more quality focused coffee shops opening in Adelaide and staying open.

Can you explain how you became a barista?

I always liked going to cafes with my parents when I was little. My first job was in an ice cream shop in Melbourne and there was a coffee machine in there. It was fun making coffee, so after I finished high school I worked full time in cafes, but it wasn’t until I moved to the UK that I learnt how to make good coffee.

Your first cup of the day - what is it?

I usually drink black coffee in the morning to assess flavour or defects.

Can you describe the blend or different blends you offer at Paddy’s Lantern?

Paddy’s Lantern uses mostly Central American coffees but we have used some African coffee in our blend in the past. We buy the most recently harvested coffees from the roaster and blend ourselves at the shop. We generally change blends every three months, or when we get bored.

» Paddy’s Lantern 219 Gilbert Street paddyslantern.com.au

small in Italian). It’s a half-serving of a latte, which after adding the coffee, ends up being half-espresso and half-milk.

If you like something strong but sweet then a ‘black Vienna’ might float your gondola. It’s traditionally served in a glass made with a double shot of espresso over the top of hot water, a layer of cream on top and finished off with shaved chocolate. You could alternatively order a ‘white Vienna’, which is basically a latte with a layer of cream on top.

So, when you are waiting in line and hear someone in front of you ordering something you’ve never heard of, before saying, “I’ll have what they’re having” I recommend asking the barista what it is or you might end up disappointed just like the time you ordered a decaf and thought it would taste as good as a caffeinated one.

I know that first thing in the morning a menu saying black or white would be easier to choose from but if you’re feeling adventurous or you just want to sound educated in front of your friends, then I recommend ordering something a little different and have a drink outside the square.

» Derek Crozier is the Managing Director of Freshly Ground Studio freshlygroundstudio.com.au

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56 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013

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That Something Extra

BY ANDREA FROST

GAELIC CEMETERY RIESLING 2012 Clare Valley RRP $35 gaelic-cemeterywines.com There are many reasons this wine is so brilliant.

In essence it is a mix of winemaking pedigree, outstanding site, minimal winemaking and a region rightly lauded for its ability to produce world class Riesling. Made by Neil Pike of Pikes Wines, the brief was to craft “small volumes of a super premium, single vineyard, single varietal Clare Valley wine that best reflects the vintage, varietal and uniqueness of place”. The wine has aromas of talc, citrus, flint and blossom with an enlivening crisp, dry palate with citrus, minerality and excellent length. At a recent dinner, a glass of this did what a glass of Champagne would normally do – give a kick and announce the night as something special. One sip and it was though every single point of taste, flavour and sensation were being brushed with fine gold braid. Like sipping a wine with a minute current that shimmered all the way down. If that’s not enough to make you smile and make you wonder what else is involved, I’m not sure I can help.

DOMAINE BELLEGARDE JURANÇON SEC “LA PIERRE BLANCHE” 2009

S.C. PANNELL TEMPRANILLO TOURIGA 2011

TAPANAPPA WHALEBONE VINEYARD MERLOT CABERNET FRANC 2008

Jurançon, France RRP $36 domainebellegarde-jurancon.com

McLaren Vale RRP $26 pannell.com.au

Wrattonbully RRP $80 tapanappawines.com.au

I enjoyed this wine on one of those lovely autumn afternoons when the temperature was still warm and the trees dripping with golden leaves.

Jurançon Sec is a dry white wine style from South West France that sits somewhere between the excited shrill of a Sauvignon Blanc and the luscious complexity of a worked Chardonnay. This La Pierre Blanche is a lovely wine with a complex nose of honey, wet stone, chalk and stonefruit continuing on the palate. Excellent acidity gives the wine pace and race all the way down. It made me smile, but so the lore and legend goes, not nearly as much as this style of wine made the French poet Colette smile. A fan of the white wine varieties of Manseng she was once quoted as saying, “I was a girl when I met this prince; aroused, impervious, treacherous as all great seducers are.” Don’t take my word there’s something else going on here; lift the lid and take a turn with the Prince yourself.

Tempranillo: the Spanish grape variety famed for making the great red wines of Rioja, and Australia; the sometimes drought-affected, winegrowing country in the Southern Hemisphere, have quite a thing going on right now. Tempranillo is one of those varieties able to endure warm dry conditions, making it well suited to some of Australia’s top wine regions. Steve Pannell of S.C. Pannell Wines is all about finding these ideal regional and varietal pairings. “I try to create wines that suit our climate and way of life – wines to drink with the food we grow, make and eat in Australia.” A bright and lifted bouquet of dark berries and spice, the ride continues on the palate with spice, berries and an earthy richness.

It’s a luscious and lovely savoury wine. Oh and that something else? That’s the dollop of Touriga, the red variety from Portugal that also does well in Australia, added to this wine to give the wine a little bit of well, something extra.

There are many reasons this wine could add something to your meal. Tapanappa is winemaker Brian Croser’s venture in which he aims to make very special wines by matching all the component parts exceptionally well – climate, soil, geology, varieties with impeccable winemaking and viticulture. The Whalebone vineyard was planted in 1974 and is so named because of the whale skeleton found in a limestone cave on the property, a reminder of the scale and age of Australia’s geological history. After three decades of struggling on the site, the vines have finally penetrated the deeper limestone layers to extract the nutrients and moisture that help to make such a significant wine. It’s a rich, heady, complex wine brimming with aromas of blackcurrant, spice, violets, earth and minerality, all woven together with acidity and freshness.

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Sean Humphries was one of five Oz architects selected for the Dulux Study Tour

Genesin Studio is flying high with national recognition for a number of projects

Showcasing South Australia’s best interior ideas for your home

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WONDER WORLD The Dulux Study Tour offers five of the country’s emerging architectural talents the opportunity to travel the globe for 11 unforgettable days. Adelaide-based Sean Humphries was one of this year’s lucky recipients.

BY LEANNE AMODEO

W

hen I ring Sean Humphries it’s 7am in Barcelona and he is by his own admission positively frazzled.

This comes as no surprise, after all, the Dulux Study Tour, of which he was one of five Australian recipients, only came to an end the day before and it’s a safe bet to say no-one got much sleep. Humphries may be tired and jetlagged, but he is also still buzzing with excitement from the whirlwind 11-day architecture tour of Shanghai, London and Barcelona.

“One thing the study tour afforded us is access to places and people that you just don’t get under normal circumstances,” he reflects.

That the group got to don hard hats and visit the construction site inside the very top of Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia is impressive enough. But when Humphries lets me know that Herzog and de Meuron personally showed them through the newly completed Tate Modern II and its underground Tanks gallery I’m just as amazed as he is.

Being taken on a tour through the project’s first phase development by the architects themselves was a highlight for Humphries. “There’s an absolute art in knowing what to keep and what to take away when you’re dealing with an existing building’s fabric,” he explains. “And Herzog and de Meuron executed the work with such skill and

craft; the spaces are just mind-blowing.”

The renowned Swiss architects aren’t the only big names to whom the recipients were introduced. The group’s studio visits reads like a wish list that any emerging architect couldn’t begin to compile quickly enough: Zaha Hadid Architects, Carmody Groake, Foster + Partners, Studio Octopi, Neri & Hu to name a few. For Humphries, though, it was the meeting with Shanghai-based architects and designers Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu that he found particularly inspirational because as he explains it, “They have managed to grow their practice while still producing really beautiful work.”

What all of these studio visits did though was reassure Humphries that architects face similar issues the world over. “What I’ll take back to my own practice is a different way of approaching familiar tasks,” he lets me know. “And a different way of engaging with a project that I think will offer a greater sophistication to my work.”

Humphries was also surprised to discover that the predominant design process across Shanghai, London and Barcelona is incredibly iterative.

“The use of physical models as opposed to digital models is rife,” he explains. “I was amazed to see the work that goes into the multiple iterations of a design and how you have to bear with that to

Sean Humphries

get the client to understand the design process.”

Humphries had hoped to expand his own personal understanding of architectural practice at the tour’s commencement, and by tour’s end it would seem that this has been accomplished.

But it was also refreshing to hear him speak of how his experiences could benefit the profession locally. “There’s a conversation that happens between architects over in Europe that doesn’t really happen in Australia,” he reflects. “But the

five of us take back an understanding of these professional relationships and how we’re not out there to best each other; we’re actually there to support each other.” When Humphries returns to Adelaide in June he may very well need to sleep for two weeks straight, but following that I’m sure we will hear much more from him.

dulux.com.au/studytour

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Riding the Design Wave Ryan Genesin continues to receive recognition at a national level for a number of projects that have come to define Adelaide’s thriving interior architecture landscape.

by Leanne Amodeo

T

he design awards season is once again upon us. And the big name programs have either announced their shortlists or are gearing up to reveal the winners. In recent years there’s been one South Australian architecture practice that has been shortlisted enough times it’s made people stand up and take notice.

Genesin Studio was one of the contenders for Emerging Designer at last year’s Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) and this year the twoperson practice has two residences shortlisted in the Australian Interior Design Awards (AIDA).

Not to mention the shortlisting of LAX, which has received abundant coverage in both print and online, in the AIDA’s Retail Design category.

Founder and principal Ryan Genesin is understandably excited at the announcement.

“We’re riding a nice wave on those jobs at the moment,” he says. “LAX has especially turned heads.” But it is the shortlisting of TMK Residence of which he is most proud.

“That project’s been my baby for quite a while,” Genesin laughs. “It was my first big residential job and I actually designed it in late 2008.”

Like many of his peers Genesin is aware of the importance in entering awards programs.

As a small firm they are limited in what they can do in terms of marketing. And although the entry process is sometimes a costly one (once photographer fees and the actual entry fees are taken into consideration) the outcome can be extremely beneficial. “It’s about trying to give the practice more exposure,” Genesin explains. And with awards’ websites often being the first port of call for design editors and potential clients alike, it’s a strategy that will most certainly pay off.

TMK Residence’s shortlisting some five years after it was first conceptualised also reassures Genesin that his approach is as he had hoped.

“TMK’s aesthetic isn’t of a particular time,” he reflects. “What I was trying to do was make it timeless and so it’s quite minimal.”

The Auldana home of a young married couple it is strikingly elegant in its simplicity. Genesin’s black and white colour scheme is effective, and

Genesin Studio – Hazelwood Park living room

his introduction of marble benchtops, carefully detailed cabinetry and timber stairs adds an element of warmth to the modest sized interior.

It’s also possible to see the emerging architect’s influences. Joseph Dirand and Vincent Van Duysen are two architects Genesin looks to for their spare composition and sophisticated use of materials.

If TMK Residence has a timeless sensibility then Genesin’s second AIDA Residential Design shortlisting is completely of another time. “Hazelwood Park Residence definitely references the 1950s,” he says. “Together with the client we tried to create a nostalgic aesthetic geared towards that period.” The result is an inviting interior that perfectly balances blonde timbers against white walls and marble accents.

Genesin Studio was one of the contenders for Emerging Designer at last year’s Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) and this year the twoperson practice has two residences shortlisted in the Australian Interior Design Awards (AIDA).”

As the AIDA winners are announced in the beginning of June, Genesin begins work on the redevelopment of the Myer Centre Adelaide’s food court and a new burger bar on The Parade. He also continues to build his residential portfolio with a new house in North Adelaide and a renovation in Port Elliot. It’s an exciting time for the studio and one in which they may very well be sending a number of trophies straight to their pool room.

australianinteriordesignawards.com genesin.com.au

60 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW JUNE 2013

ADVERTISING FEATURE

HOMEWARES IN ADELAIDE Brighten your home with a selection of original homewares featured in South Australian stores

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AMJAR Storage Jar Designed by Deb Jones, Tom Mirams and Brian Parkes, handmade in the Glass and Furniture Design Studioslots, available in clear, amber, and smoke.

KINK Oil Bottle Designed by Deb Jones, handmade by the Glass Studio.

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STRETCH Jug Designed by Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa, hand-made in the Glass and Metal Design Studios.

Lime Collection

By Eva Solo Eva Solo imparts exclusive Danish design to everyday objects into the home.

Simplicity, distinct lines and a high degree of functionality characterise the products in the collection. Consisting of (left to right): Chopping Boards (three piece set with holder), My Brunch and Dinner Plate, Colander, AquaStar Watering Can, Drinking Bottle, Vacuum Jug, Fridge Carafe with neoprene cover and Bowl with Salad Set.

Stacked Shelving System

By Jds Architects For Muuto A set of shelving units based on the generic measurements of things to store and display. Designed to be combined according to specific needs and desires.

Made from dark ash or white painted MDF, with or without a backboard that is now available in a range of colours.

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Copenhagen Colours For Stelton 2013 Inspired by the colours of old Copenhagen facades along the harbour, the iconic vacuum jug is now available in warm yellow (ochre), coral (cinnabar) and turquoise (malachite). Accompanied by the versatile Bread Bag and brand new Circle Mug.

The Adelaide Review June 2013 61

adelaidereview.com.au

advertising feature

Brocante in the Barossa

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Brocante in the Barossa is delighted to be an Annie Sloan retailer, serving South Australia customers with the Annie Sloan product range, newly arrived in Australia. The premier product in the range is Chalk PaintTM decorative paint by Annie Sloan, a unique decorative paint developed in 30 decorative and historical colours made specifically for painting furniture, painting floors and for giving walls a completely matt, velvety finish. Chalk PaintTM sticks to just about any surface... wood, concrete, metal, matt plastic, earthenware and much more, inside and outside the home. It dries fast too, so you can add second or third coats quickly, and start enjoying your revitalised walls, floors and furniture sooner. Gorgeous results have never been so simple and straightforward.

We offer interior styling and colour consultation services. We accept furniture items for custom painting and waxing service and can also do in situ painting and decorative finishes as a bespoke service. New products coming this winter include Chalk PaintTM decorative paint in sample size jars, bespoke lampshades and make-it-yourself lampshade kits. We will carry decorator fabrics from the Annie Sloan range later this year.

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62 The Adelaide Review June 2013

form

Milan 2013

This year’s Milan Furniture Fair again proved why it is one of the biggest events on the design calendar. From the hundreds of products launched we’ve selected some of the best in show.

by Leanne Amodeo

T

he importance of the annual Milan Furniture Fair has been questioned in recent times. But the Salone Internazionale Del Mobile and its Fuori Salone satellite events still manage to draw the big crowds, even with New York Design Week and the London Design Festival giving them a run for their money. The Milanese are well versed in putting on a spectacle, after all, and in this the 52nd year of the Salone they continued a fine tradition.

Big name suppliers, manufacturers and designers descended on the Italian city and for five days in April it was a blur of parties, product launches, exhibitions and installations. Tom Dixon’s MOST was again this year a popular design destination and his Rough and Smooth furniture collection was a highlight. But the real crowd pleaser was Moooi’s Unexpected Welcome exhibition in the Tortona district. Featuring large-scale photographs by Erwin Olaf the furniture brand’s showcase was moody, opulent and deliciously immersive.

But, of course, the Salone’s most significant influence is as a trend-forecasting platform, and this year saw a number of new key trends emerge. Colour dominated across the board and textured fabrics were popular in furniture upholstery. Many designers revisited their classic designs and reworked them to develop new pieces, while lighting design showed a strong movement towards LED. This is just a taste of the many hundreds of products on show.

Tobi Ishi by Barber Osgerby for B&B Italia The London-based design powerhouse of Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby are always names to watch. They presented a new coloured lacquer version of their Tobi Ishi table, which was originally shown at the London Design Festival 2012. Inspired by the pebbles found in Japanese gardens this table’s bold form is now equally matched by its fire engine hue.

New Antiques by Marcel Wanders for Moooi This new product from the Moooi stable reinforces Wanders mantle as a masterful designer with quirky appeal. His New Antiques barstool mixes Pop, Classical and Baroque sensibilities to resemble a playfully oversized chess piece. The barstool’s multiple colour offerings also reinforce its fun aesthetic.

Clap Armchair by Patricia Urquiola

Oasis by Atelier Oi for Moroso This Swiss architecture and design studio created quite the buzz in Milan this year. It debuted a range of inventive designs that included chair and sofa collection Oasis. Each piece can be customised using any type of fabric, which is then locked in place with framework that works in much the same way as an embroidery hoop does.

Corallo by Campana Brothers for Edra Renowned Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana showcased five different bed designs at Milan this year and each one was more fantastic than the next.

Corallo is based on their 2004 chair of the same name and features a jumbled frame of golden-coated wire. True to the Campana spirit the bed is an opulent celebration of what can be done with the most ordinary of materials.

Clap by Patricia Urquiola for kartell Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola is a long-time Milan favourite and this year she introduced her Clap armchair. This neat and compact addition to the Moroso stable is a reassuringly practical design that is also comfortable. It would work well in either a home or office environment.

Chest of Suitcases by Maarten de Ceulaer This storage system by the Belgian designer is custom made and able to be installed in a number of different configurations. This flexibility lends it playful appeal while its leather upholstery gives the Chest of Suitcases a refined, elegant appearance.

New Antiques Barstool by Maarten de Ceulaer

Wireflow by Arik Levy for VIBIA Resembling line drawings suspended in mid air these strikingly elegant pendant lights by the Paris-based designer received a lot of attention.

Made from thin black rods and LED lamps Wireflow’s geometric forms are eye-catching for their unembellished simplicity.

»»2013 Milan Furniture Fair Tuesday, April 9 to Sunday, April 14 cosmit.it

Chest of Suitcases by Maarten de Ceulaer

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF HÄFELE

Furniture has to suit the people who use it. Its role should be to simplify daily life and add greater convenience, not only in the office but within our own homes.

Among experts in the field, Häfele has become synonymous with greater convenience and pioneering ideas for living, working and leisure, and underpins the company’s hardware technology credentials in the fields of furniture construction, in intelligent application of the electronic locking and access control Dialock, in optimum office organization and in innovative storage space management.

The latest product news and information is available at the Adelaide Design Center. We invite you to come and experience Häfele functionality for yourself.

(08) 8232 9933

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Flights out of Australia are operated by Singapore Airlines, as well as its regional wing, SilkAir.