Exhibition: The Mill Showcase

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Photo: The Mill resident artist Morgan Sette

January 17 - March 15, 2020

Peter Fong, Matea Gluscevic, Morgan Sette, Ozlem Yeni

Opening event:
Friday, January 17, 6-8pm

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*** Please note that due to the unfolding COVID-19 situation, The Mill’s galleries and studios are open by appointment only. If you wish to make a time to come and see our exhibitions, please email our Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas***

In 2020 The Mill will be launching a new gallery to sit alongside our remodelled Exhibition Space. Dedicated to artists who are working in our studio spaces, The Mill Showcase is a space to display some of the artworks and products that have been produced under our roof. The Mill Showcase will profile our artists, so that you can put a face to the name and get to know some of our dedicated makers.

The innaugural The Mill Showcase features work by Peter Fong, Matea Gluscevic, Morgan Sette, and Ozlem Yeni alongside The Mill’s limited edition prints by Small Room, Matthew Fortrose, and Naomi Murrell and Nadia Suartika.

Peter Fong is a process driven handcrafted custom furniture designer and maker with a love for all things handmade. He is an illustrator turned woodworker honing in on his skills and eye for detail in a 3d medium.

I specialise in considered one-off pieces that feature proud joinery and wood on wood construction, avoiding the use of nails and screws where possible. My aim is to impart a sense of permanence into our everyday objects through the use of well thought-out construction and materials paired with timeless clean designs that will live through generations.

Each piece is created with the intent of ageing beautifully and being passed down. Preferring to work carefully and slowly, I am a traditional hand-tool enthusiast and will use a hammer and chisel over a power tool when possible. Hand tools connect me to the process, of that I value and enjoy just as much as the final product which I hope permeates through each piece

Matea Gluscevic is an artist and qualified shoemaker. She has completed a Cert IV in Custom Made Footwear, and a Bachelor of Visual Art Specialising in Sculpture and Installation.

“DONE by Matea” is an ethical, slow, and sustainable handmade leather footwear and accessories label. I design and handmake all of my items in my studio at The Mill. I enjoy working with local, recycled, and low impact materials such as; cork, kangaroo leather, vegetable tanned leather and recycled rubber. 

Morgan Sette is an Adelaide based photographer, with the past few years spent shooting a mixture of news photojournalism, editorial, product and press shoots. Morgan has varied experience in all things photography, film, events, publicity and marketing that has ultimately come down to one thing; a desire to document and promote the good things. 

The images explain what happens when I raise a hunk of metal in between myself and the outside world. When I’m taking a picture, I’m not trying to impact what’s happening inside the frame - I’m trying to document it.

Ozlem Yeni is a Turkish born artist who now lives and works in Adelaide. She studied painting, completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Suleyman Demirel in Turkey. Before becoming a full-time artist, she enjoyed an 18-year academic career as a lecturer in Theatre Stage Design Department at the University of Dokuz Eylul in Turkey, where she attained a Master’s Degree and PhD. She has had a number of solo and group exhibitions in Turkey, Japan, Australia and Albania.

Earthpeople is an interpretation of our evolving relationship with nature that underlines the noteworthy attempt of humankind. The aim is to increase awareness of humankind situations and power in life on earth, relate them to common global goals, so we can make changes to improve the existence for all.

Exhibition: Lucas Croall, 'BEAST'

Lucas Croall, BEAST006, 2019, lino print, on 300gsm Somerset Satin White Paper, 33x35cm, edition of 23

February 12 – March 15, 2020

Exhibition opening:
Wednesday February 12, 6-8pm

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Please join us in The Exhibition Space for BEAST, a solo exhibition by Adelaide/London based artist Lucas Croall.  

The Mill is excited to present this new body of work by Adelaide ex-pat and former The Mill resident Lucas Croall. BEAST takes the form of a series of prints presented alongside the plates used for their creation. The content of the exhibition seeks not only to consider the themes of the artist’s work but also to offer insight into the medium of printmaking.

‘BEAST investigates notions surrounding the tension between civilisation and wildness. By putting particular focus on the impossible demands that civility places on the human animal, the work seeks to highlight the familiarity of life’s most troublesome beasts.’

Artists biography:

Lucas Croall is an artist who specialises in Printmaking, and has a background in Interior Mural works. Lucas graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts at The University of South Australia in 2015 and completed his Masters at the Royal College of Art in London in 2019. He is also a curator, and has curated a number of art shows in galleries in Adelaide, Melbourne and London. Lucas’ printmaking works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows. In 2018, his work was selected by Grayson Perry to be exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts 250th Summer Exhibition in London. 

He has designed and painted interior murals in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Barcelona and London.

Lucas Croall’s prints and installations investigate notions surrounding the tensions between civilisation and wildness. His images often depict mutated animals or humans and aim to realise states of the psyche. By putting particular focus on the relationship between public presentation and private life, his work examines these themes through social criticism and evaluations of modern psychology.

Artist statement:

BEAST

During the late stages of construction of London’s tallest building (the Shard), staff discovered an animal living on the 72nd floor of the tower. It was believed that a fox had entered the site through a central stairwell and was surviving off of food scraps left by construction workers.

Traditionally most foxes have lived in rural areas, in a series of underground tunnels referred to as dens. Recently numbers of urban foxes have increased, mimicking human migration from the country to the cities. One reason for this migratory pattern in foxes may be due to a lack of food in the countryside and an increasing tendency to scavenge. Generally, a fox’s territory in the countryside can range up to 40 miles, and with the exponential growth of cities and the large areas a rural fox would ordinarily cover, it is easy to see how the two have become enmeshed.

The fox in the Shard represents a humorous anomaly for the British media but underneath this example belies the fox’s characteristics for survival in precarious urban areas. In this case upon discovery of the fox, the animal was removed by Southwark Pest Control, fed and given a health check before being released onto the streets of Bermondsey (not far from the tower). To this date the Shard remains the tallest building in Western Europe.

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The tenuous nature of certain forms of wildlife in their encounter with the domestic world of human beings is connected to the elusive associations that surround our distinction between wildness and civilisation. The contemporary connotations of rudeness are impropriety and lacking manners. The Latin root of rude is rudis which means ‘unwrought’ (referring to handicraft), and figuratively ‘uncultivated’. Rudis is a cognate with rudus meaning broken stone, debris, or lump (especially that of bronze). Here the Latin root of the word rude becomes suggestive of the Bronze Age. In terms of civilisation then, ‘rudeness’ would become suggestive of something uncultivated and rough but also that of an early civilisation. 

Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson, in Essay on The History of Civil Society, argues that what withholds civility from falling back into ‘rudeness’, or in other places he calls that which is ‘savage’ and ‘bestial’, is the fact that civility is built up through progress. He generously states that early ‘inhabitants of Britain’ were akin to ‘the present natives of North America: They were ignorant of agriculture; they painted their bodies and used for clothing the skins of beasts.’ For Ferguson those who wear the skin of the beast has a clear demarcating role in showing who is and who is not civilised. 

Ferguson’s separation of civility and rudeness, arguably, is a false one. Looking at Ferguson’s example of a time when people in Britain ‘used for clothing the skin of the beast’ this is easily proved as inaccurate as we still today make use of material to wear from what Ferguson might call the ‘beast’. This can be seen in particular in the form of leather. 

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Jacques Derrida, in his series of seminars, The Beast & The Sovereign, insists not on the proposition of an opposed dichotomy between what is unwrought and what is civil, but on a grace found in the recognition of each existing within the other. The beast is the sovereign, and sovereignty is found in wildness. One distinctive feature of deconstructionism is its insistence on the maintenance of that awareness, and the interrogation of mental separations between animality and what is anthropocentric. Derrida says that the process of deconstructing the relation between animality and sovereignty is a key theme of the deconstructive process in that understanding this demarcation or threshold between the pair shows how structures of the state and nation-state operate and how logic, reason and progress are thought. Derrida states in the third seminar of Vol. I that deconstruction is a rationalism without debt, that is unconditional, and that requires it to be ongoing, therefore enlivening rather than taking stable meanings in dichotomies.

This may seem an interminable task, however, Derrida gives deconstruction a limit. This limit is found at the threshold. He states that the ‘threshold [is] at the origin of responsibility, the threshold from which one passes from reaction to response, and therefore to responsibility… the indivisible limit between animal and man.’ The question is of locating the threshold, the limit, the demarcation, between civility and rudeness, between the beast and the sovereign. 

PRINTMAKING

The confrontation of the beast and the sovereign within the tradition of printmaking is seen in the tension between the limited edition and unlimited reproduction. As a response to the privileging of authenticity in art history, printmaking employed the limited edition as a means of securing its status as a sovereign medium. This practice also seeks to rescue the medium from falling into the spectral practice of commoditization. Reproducibility and authenticity rise up in relation to each other and have a tendency to reify the other’s legitimacy.

Hito Steyerl, in her essay, In Defence of The Poor Image, elucidates the contemporary promise of new media, namely their ability to constitute dispersed audiences while it disseminates images. The beast of printmaking rears its head in the form of reproducibility, pushing at the threshold of authenticity and spilling over into accessibility.

Printmaking exists as an antagonism. It simultaneously makes a promise as a democratising agent and threatens to seal itself off as a limited edition. In the context of the BEAST exhibition, the image is dispersed in a myriad of iterations, but its numbers are fixed in edition numbers, positioning the BEAST on both sides of the antagonism.

Exhibition: Selina Wallace, 'Perfectly Imperfect'

Selina Wallace, Perfectly Imperfect (Lasso), 2018-19, C-type photograph on silver halide lustre paper, 76.2cm (w) x 50.8cm (h)

January 15 – February 7, 2020

Opening event:
Friday, January 17, 6-8pm

Artists talk:
Sunday, February 2, 2pm

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Please join us in The Exhibition Space for Perfectly Imperfect, a solo exhibition by Adelaide based photographer Selina Wallace.  

Perfectly Imperfect is a photographic series which seeks to document the tension between conventional cultural constructs and the lived experience of gender roles. Placing herself within the image, Selina performs her ‘femininity’ and ‘domesticity’ in unconventional ways. Against the backdrop of the Australian natural and urban landscape, Selina poses with discarded domestic objects that she has found on the side of the road. The cord from a vacuum cleaner becomes a lasso, an iron is transformed into a necklace (or maybe something more sinister).

‘Domestic implements connote housework, and in turn; women’s work. Subverting the viewer’s expectations via the use of performance and humour are critical elements of Perfectly Imperfect. The detritus of abandoned household objects discovered on suburban footpaths drives me to make images outside of accepted norms. Travelling to remote parts of Australia, I do not need the domestic items I carry, but they are a reminder of the societal expectations that weigh me down.

Cultural constructs can be escaped, and through my performance in Perfectly Imperfect I seek to do just that, with the aim of brief personal liberation from constraint.’ 

Artist biography

Selina Wallace is a female Australian photographic artist. Her photography explores the relationship between women and culture, and how we are influenced by the world around us. Wallace is studying a Bachelor of Photography through Open College of the Arts, University of Creative Arts, Yorkshire, UK.

Her work State of the Environment was exhibited in South Australian Living Artists in 2015. She was the inaugural winner of the Don Dunstan Foundation Award for artists whose work explores themes of equity, the environment, homelessness, mental health and unemployment. In 2019, Perfectly Imperfect was exhibited at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale Open Program.

Call Out: The Mill's Exhibition Space Program 2020

The Mill is a collaborative multidisciplinary organisation, placing emphasis on development, process and audience-focused creative direction. We invite artists, collectives and curators to apply to exhibit in 2020. Gallery Hire is $500 based on a four-week term including bump in and bump out time.

The selection will be made by a panel of The Mill staff based on the following criteria:

- professional and artistic merit
- accessibility for a diverse audience
- viability and suitability of the proposed exhibition
- focus on multidisciplinary practice, &/or focus on process
- exhibitions and proposals that engage existing and new audiences

Submitting a proposal is no guarantee of acceptance.

About The Exhibition Space

The Mill’s Exhibition Space is located on the Angas Street Window Frontage of 154 Angas Street. The Gallery’s L-shaped footprint is approximately 40 sq meters, with a gallery hanging system and professional lighting. A number of plinths are available for artists to use. The space sits relation to The Mill’s Creative Industry Offices, oriented prominently at the front of The Mill’s building.

Applications due: November 1, 5pm

Visual Artist in Residence: Carly Tarkari Dodd, ‘Shackled Excellence’

Photo: Carly Tarkari Dodd by Kayla Dodd

October 1 - December 10, 2019

Weaving Workshop:
Sunday, November 17, 11am-1pm, $15

Artist in Conversation and Exhibition Finissage:
November 24, 3-5pm

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The Mill welcomes Carly Tarkari Dodd, our new Artist in Residence in The Mill's Exhibition Space. Carly will be in residence from 1 October working on her project Shackled Excellence. With a focus on artistic process, this two-month residency allows audiences direct access to creative research and making. This residency is presented as part of Tarnanthi, Festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art.

Carly Tarkari Dodd is a proud Kaurna\Narungga and Ngarrindjeri artist who is passionate about expressing her Aboriginal heritage through art and storytelling. Through this project Carly will develop a body of work that uses sculptural practice to discuss topics of contemporary Aboriginality. Using weaving techniques, she will create a number of 3-dimensional works that celebrate the achievements of Aboriginal people alongside highlighting some of the injustices that Aboriginal people face. The process and materiality of the weaving process will be central to the development of these works, and will sit alongside the conceptual and cultural research that underpins Carly’s project. The Mill invites you to witness Carly’s creative practice and gain insight into her process as the residency unfolds across a 10 week period. During her residency Carly will be presenting a number of public programs!

‘I’ve started weaving a trophy, which is going well. I’ve never made a shape like that before. I’ve been talking to my dad about sports. I feel like there is a lot of political Aboriginal art about history, but there’s not much on sport. Dad was one of the top players in his footy team, but he didn’t get acknowledged for that really. My Brother as well, Travis Dodd, has achieved a lot in soccer in Australia. So, this exhibition is a way of showcasing their achievements.’

The Mill in Conversation Podcast

The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas sat down with Carly to talk about her practice for The Mill’s podcast. In our chat Carly talks us through the genisis of this project, and the way the works have evolved through her residency.

The Mill Adelaide · The Mill in Conversation: Carly Dodd

Public Programs

In the Studio with artist Carly Tarkari Dodd

Monday, October 21, Tuesday, October 22, and Friday, October 25, 12-2pm

Pop into the gallery-come-studio and have a chat with Carly as she develops work for her project Shackled Excellence. All welcome, free event!

Weaving Workshop with Carly Tarkari Dodd at The Mill

Join artist Carly Tarkari Dodd for a weaving workshop, exploring techniques used in her exhibition 'Shackled Excellence' at The Mill. Come for a short creative session where participants will make a weaving using raffia. Carly will talk about the process and materiality of weaving, and how she has used it to underpin the conceptual aspects of her exhibition.

Artist in Conversation and Exhibition Finissage

24 November 3-5pm

Join artist Carly Dodd and The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas for a chat about Carly’s residency, followed by drinks in the gallery.

Artist biography:

Carly Dodd is a Kaurna\Narungga and Ngarrindjeri artist. She has been mentored by Indigenous Tasmanian artist Max Mansell and was taught traditional weaving by Ngarrindjeri artist Ellen Trevorrow. In 2013 she took part in a cultural camp to Coober Pedy, learning traditional methods of painting. Within her practice Carly mixes traditional and contemporary techniques, to produce works that are conceptually and culturally driven. In 2018 she was the recipient of the Carclew Emerging Curator Residency. Her works were exhibited during SALA 2018 at Adelaide Town Hall. Carly won the South Australian NAIDOC Young Aboriginal of the Year in 2018. Carly has facilitated art workshops at WOMAD, Spirit Festival, The Art Gallery of South Australia and the Adelaide Fringe.  

About the program:

The Mill’s Exhibition Space Residency program positions artistic process to the fore, allowing audiences direct access to creative research and making. During this residency The Exhibition Space operates with a studio-like mentality where knowledge arises through participation and experimentation. The Exhibition Space opens the creative process to the public, connecting people to cultural experience, insights, understanding and meaning.

Carly Tarkari Dodd
Shackled Excellence
October 1 - December 10, 2019
The Exhibition Space Residency
The Mill Adelaide
154 Angas St, Adelaide SA 5000

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Carly Tarkari Dodd Shackled Excellence is presented as part of Tarnanthi Festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

Exhibition: Girl Space, 'GODDESS'

September 4 - 27, 2019

Bri Puckridge, Clare Macpherson, Georgia Ruehlemann and Sarah Burley

Opening Night: 
September 6, 2019, 7pm - 10pm 

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Girl Space presents GODDESS: a group exhibition at The Mill

The ancient goddesses of varying mythology are often regarded as the reason for existence of water, of crops and harvest and of the human race. From the ancient Greek goddess of spring and re-birth, Persephone, to the indigenous Australian mother goddess, Kunapipi, women in mythology are heralded as heroes – strong, wise and of eternal importance. Yet, often when depicted in art, we see these heroes from a male gaze and not as the strong, raw women they were. These goddesses were also often mistreated and subjected to heinous acts of abuse and violence.

This exhibition will show these goddesses in all of their human glory – as wmn with strength, weakness, power, determination and courage. It will also showcase our current goddesses – the wmn in modern times who have shown us the qualities of the goddesses of ancient times.

Come along to the opening night and share a drink with us, have a chat with the artists and enjoy the incredible art by these amazing local wmn artists. We will have a curator talk at 7:30 with Laura Gentgall and Hannah Southcombe - the Girl Space team, and the exhibition will be officially opened by Amber Cronin. $5 tickets available on the door, cash or card available.

Visual Artist in Residence : Grace Marlow, ‘Doors & Windows’

Grace Marlow, Let me carry that for you, Grace Marlow with audience participants, performed in Psychache co-curated by Adele Sliuzas and Ray Harris, Holy Rollers, 2018. Photographer: Sam Roberts.

July 1 - August 28, 2019

The Mill Exhibition Space
154 Angas St, Adelaide

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In July and August, 2019, Grace will be exploring collaboration and participation within her practice. Sitting somewhere between performance and social engagement, Grace’s residency will include research, writing and collaborative practice that investigates understandings of authorship and value.

Come check out the evolving work in The Exhibition Space at The Mill. Grace’s residency runs through to the end of August 2019.

Grace Marlow, WE ARE GATHERED HERE TODAY, black painted text and line on the gallery skirting boards, in Who speaks for a community? curated by Bella Hone-Saunders, Sister Gallery, 2017. Photography by Christopher Arblaster.

Grace Marlow, again back, remain through, performed with Virginia Barratt, in Into My Arms co-curated by Frances Barratt and Toby Chapman, Ace Open, 2018. Photography by Sam Roberts.

Exhibition: Robyn Wood, 'Natural Progression'

Robyn Wood, 2018, photo: James Knowler, courtesy of Brand SA

Robyn Wood, Reflect Desk, 2015, Victorian Ash, photo: Simon Vaughan

Robyn Wood, Wave Coffee table, 2019, American Oak, glass photo: Nick Clayton

Robyn Wood, Bud lamp, 2015, hand/ turned timber and bonded parchment, photo: Simon Vaughan

Robyn Wood, Daisy low stool, 2016, Hoop pine ply, wood wash and wax, photo: Simon Vaughan

Please join us in The Exhibition Space for Natural Progression, an exhibition by Adelaide based designer/maker Robyn Wood.  

Natural Progression is a solo exhibition of furniture and objects by Robyn Wood. The exhibition features new work and previously unexhibited pieces, alongside a visual exploration of Robyn’s prototyping development. The exhibition gives insight into artistic process, showing how raw materials are transformed into something useful and beautiful. For this exhibition Robyn has explored new materials and processes, extending from her previous work in timber. 

‘Maintaining a connection to nature is an important theme in my designing; simple sculptural forms, lines gently curved, the touch and feel of warmer materials. These are things I am drawn to. I am looking for ways to connect the end user to nature and provide warmth and character to spaces they inhabit. Designing furniture and objects with character, balance and restraint. The use of natural materials and a preference for organic forms are tools I use to express my ideas.’ 

Artist Biography

Robyn Wood (www.robynwood.com.au) is a Furniture designer and maker based at The Mill, Adelaide. Her practice is informed by traditional joinery and current manufacturing techniques. She is influenced by the everyday things she observes, gaining fresh insight from her travels. Maintaining a connection to nature is important in her designing. She expresses her ideas through the use of warmer natural materials and a preference for organic forms. Robyn studied and practiced as a teacher before following her passion for design and returning to study as a designer. She has a Bachelor of Design - Interior Design from the University of South Australia.

She has worked for Australian Joinery firm IJF, during which time she oversaw a 3-year interior project fit out in Paris on the Australian embassy residences. As an Interior designer she worked on a wide range of commercial and government projects, where she continued to develop her interest in joinery. In 2014 she pursued her love of furniture design and established her studio. Since then she has been designing and making. Being hands on in her joinery work has become important in developing new work. Robyn is undertaking mentorships with two traditional woodworkers, learning techniques in using hand tools and traditional joinery techniques.

In 2016 Robyn exhibited in Home in the Asia Pacific space design alliance conference and as part of the WOMADelaide Creative Industries Showcase. She was selected as an artist for Guildhouse’s Wellmade program in 2016 and is currently an ambassador for Brand SA craft industries. She has presented her work at Big Design Market Melbourne (2015-18) & Sydney (2016-18), The Mill Market (2018) and Bowerbird Market (2014-18). Her work has been featured in the Adelaide Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and City Messenger. 

She has worked on a range of commercial projects and private commissions. Her one off pieces and small production runs were launched at Bowerbird in Adelaide in 2014. She is currently working on a new collection of furniture and objects in collaboration with leading South Australian artisan makers and artists. 

EXHIBITION DETAILS
Robyn Wood
Natural Progression
June 3- 28 2019
The Exhibition Space, The Mill Adelaide
154 Angas Street, Adelaide SA 5000

Visual Artist in Residence: Louise Flaherty, 'Memorial for Forgotten Plants'

September 1 - November 10, 2018

Louise Flaherty presents Memorial for Forgotten Plants, an exhibition developed through her residency in The Mill's Exhibition Space. An evolving and participatory body of work, Louise has used her ten week residency to explore the native Flora of the city.

“I am currently working on a project titled Memorial for Forgotten Plants. From my initial research into the original flora of the Western Suburbs in the Adelaide Plains, I have been creating memorials for these plants that rarely exist in their natural environment; having been taken over by introduced species. These “memorials” have been in the form of ink drawings, which have been photocopied and pasted up into the local area. The work is about highlighting native plant conservation as well as mourning the loss of the landscape that is no longer there.”

Artist biography:

Louise is an artist and arts worker based in Adelaide. She studied Visual Arts at the South Australian School of Art, receiving first class Honours. She was a Founding Director of Downtown Arts Space, and has worked at the South Australian School of Art and as the Arts Program Manager at Barkly Regional Arts in the Northern Territory. She has exhibited at Light Square Gallery, Adelaide Central Gallery, Artroom5 and Murray Bridge Regional Gallery and ran community workshops at the Woodville library. Louise recently undertook a mentorship with artist Laura Wills, focussing on community engagement and participatory practice. She has an upcoming residency at Sauerbier House.

About the program:

The Mill’s Exhibition Space Residency program is presented in partnership with the City of Adelaide. The program positions artistic process to the fore, allowing audiences direct access to creative research and making. During this residency The Exhibition Space operates with a studio-like mentality where knowledge arises through participation and experimentation. The Mill believes that art positions itself within transitions and passages; it opens up opportunities for incursions through relation. The Exhibition Space opens the creative process to the public in a way that positions the city’s community as foundational to artistic research and the creative process, thereby connecting people to cultural experience, insights, understanding and meaning. This is our second Residency, following on from our innaugural Exhibition Space Residency John Blines, memorias exspirare.

Visual Artist in Residence: Sonja Porcaro, 'Small Moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps'

Sonja Porcaro, Work in progress, 2019, glitter netting, paperclip, approx. 11 x `15 x 14 cm

Photograph: Sonja Porcaro

Sonja Porcaro, Work in progress (detail), 2018, felt, masking tape, dimensions variable

Photograph: Sonja Porcaro

Sonja Porcaro, Work in progress (detail), 2019, felt, dowel, foldback clip, dimensions variable

Photograph: Sonja Porcaro

Artist Studio with Sonja

April 1 - May 29, 2019

The Mill welcomes Sonja Porcaro, our new Artist in Residence in The Mill's Exhibition Space. Sonja will be working on her project ‘Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps’.

Porcaro’s predominantly sculpture and installation work uses everyday objects- including found objects- and humble materials to create restrained and poetic assemblages, often investigating notions of memory, uncertainty and the fluidity of language and representation. In combining both intimate, hand crafted objects and materials with more robust structures and often employing repetition, Porcaro’s work also acknowledges and reworks minimalist traditions, often through gendered perspectives. The Mill invites you to witness Sonja’s creative practice and gain insight into her process as the residency unfolds across a two-month period. During her residency Porcaro will be presenting a number of public programs- watch this space!

‘The project for the residency at The Mill ‘Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps’ will explore the idea of daily rhythms and rituals within the city, with repetition (both as an investigative idea and formally through processes and materials employed) featuring throughout its duration. I will explore rituals/rhythms connected to the city of Adelaide (in particular to the Central Market, with reference to early childhood memories) and investigate the rhythms of those who inhabit, work in and visit the city also, with attention to the various languages spoken within the city and beyond.

The work will also respond to the nuances and particularities of the site of The Mill itself- both as a physical space and as a site of diverse social and cultural production and interaction- with ‘Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps’, ‘activating’ the space in quiet, contemplative and intimate ways: enacting attention and care.’ - Sonja Porcaro

Kids studio with Sonja Porcaro at The Mill

When: April 15, 10-11:30am, and April 16, 10-11:30am

Artist in Residence Sonja Porcaro invites kids to join her for a drop in studio session at The Mill this school holidays. Participate in Sonja’s project Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps, kids will be invited reflect on themes of sunset, sunrise and the rhythms and rituals of daily life.

Come with your parent/carer for a short creative session where kids will make an artwork looking at bright colour and bold form. Sonja will also be looking at some of the ideas explored in iconic children's book 'How the Sun got to Coco's house' by Bob Graham, and abstract painting by artists such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Melinda Harper and Wassily Kandinsky. At the end of the session kids will be able to take their artwork home.

Kids Studio details:

Age: 5 + (primary school age)

All materials provided

Children must be accompanied by parent/carer (the idea is to spend the session working alongside your big person), Please wear 'studio clothes' or bring a smock

Cost: $10 for a Kid + accompanying adult, $10 for additional children

Concession pricing available of request, please email Adele at visualarts@themilladelaide.com

Artist biography:

Sonja Porcaro is an Adelaide based artist working predominantly in sculpture and installation. Since graduating from the South Australian School of Art (SASA), University of South Australia in 1993 with First Class Honours, Porcaro has exhibited in spaces such as the Art Gallery of South Australia, the SASA Gallery, the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, the Experimental Art Foundation (SA), the Australian Centre for Photography (Vic), The Performance Space and Artspace (NSW) and at Viafarini (Milan, Italy). Porcaro has also exhibited in many independent and artist run spaces in both South Australia and New South Wales.

Porcaro has undertaken many residencies throughout her career- funded by both Arts SA and the Australia Council for the Arts- including at the College of Fine Art (COFA), NSW, at SASA and in Milan, Italy (the Australia Council Residential Studio) and at the Athens School of Art Studio (Delphi Annexe), Greece. Porcaro has also curated and co-curated several exhibitions, given guest lectures to undergraduate Visual Art students, written reviews and articles and has contributed digital image/writing pieces to on-line publications/sites including the Electronic Writing Research Ensemble. Porcaro’s work has been collected by the Art Gallery of South Australia, COFA, NSW and is in private collections.

About the program:

The Mill’s Exhibition Space Residency program is presented in partnership with the City of Adelaide. The program positions artistic process to the fore, allowing audiences direct access to creative research and making. During this residency The Exhibition Space operates with a studio-like mentality where knowledge arises through participation and experimentation. The Mill believes that art positions itself within transitions and passages; it opens up opportunities for incursions through relation. The Exhibition Space opens the creative process to the public in a way that positions the city’s community as foundational to artistic research and the creative process, thereby connecting people to cultural experience, insights, understanding and meaning. The Exhibition Space hosts four residencies across the year. Artists in Residence have included John Blines, memorias exspirare 2 June – 25 August 2018, Louise Flaherty, Memorial for Forgotten Plants, 1 September – 14 November 2018, Matthew Fortrose, Cityboi 1 December 2018 – 10 February 2019 and Sonja Poracro, ‘Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps’ 1 April – 31 May 2019.

RESIDENCY DETAILS
Sonja Porcaro
Small moments: the city wakes, the city sleeps
April 1 - May 29, 2019
The Exhibition Space Residency
The Mill Adelaide
154 Angas Street, Adelaide SA 5000

Exhibition: Matthew Fortrose, Naomi Murrell, Nadia Suartika and Small Room, 'The Mill's Limited Edition Print Series'

Nadia Suartika

Lachlan Stewart of Small Room

Rafal Liszewski of Small Room

Naomi Murrell

Matthew Fortrose

27 February – 23 March 2019

The Mill’s Limited Edition Print Series

Matthew Fortrose, Naomi Murrell, Nadia Suartika and Small Room

Opening:
Sunday, March 3, 3-5pm

Showcasing the work of four amazing artists associated with The Mill, The Mill has commissioned Matthew Fortrose, Naomi Murrell, Nadia Suartika, and designers Lachlan Stewart & Rafal Liszewski from Small Room to contribute an artwork. The Limited Edition Prints will present one work from each of the four artists, each with an edition of 15 prints.

This exclusive series of artworks by leading South Australian artists appeals to a crowd of young collectors as well as art aficionados. The series makes artworks affordable for a wide audience while at the same time supporting The Mill, a not-for-profit Arts organisation. The funds raised by Limited Edition Prints series will feed directly back into The Mill’s organisational programming, and help to support artists residencies, subsidised studios and other aspects of our Professional Pathways stream.  

Artists biographies:

Matthew Fortrose is a multi-disciplinary artist whose current practice spans studio paintings and sculptures, outdoor paintings, installation and photography. Working with synthetic materials, Fortrose's work creates tensions between natural and manufactured, intentional and incidental, digital representation and physical artefact. Drawing influence from colour field painting and early Bauhaus graphics, the use of rudimentary tools and industrialized processes assist in constructing a strong visual language towards his work. Using documentation of the built environment, interventions within urban space and explorations into materiality, Fortrose work seeks to engage an audience through a series of investigations around the use of public space, and how this communicates to a formal practice.

Naomi Murrell designs romantic street fashion, fine jewellery and home products for the thoughtful woman, to bring small moments of beauty, calm and confidence into her day to day life. Unlike the mass-market, she aims to inspire by using design as a graphic art form. Naomi’s visual language is minimal, on point - yet irrepressibly playful. Inspired by colour, and graphic shape her label turns out refined everyday pieces for the individual. The Naomi Murrell flagship store in Ebenezer Place is an oasis of awesome for the fun lover who delights in the details.

Nadia Suartika is an artist, designer and tattooist with XO L’Avant. She is the founder of Nadika, a range of jewellery and embroidery pieces.

Nadia is a self taught artist and has had a particularly strong interest in plants from an early age which led her to study horticulture. Now living on a native bush block in the Adelaide hills, Nadia continues her study of plants using a creative process of documenting local and South Australian natives through illustration and design.

Nadia draws inspiration from her Balinese-European heritage and her family of creatives. Built on a foundation of intuitive art, her work is simultaneously delicate and bold. Playful colours and shapes interact with each other, reminiscent of multicultural tapestries and the intricate patterns of the natural world.

Small Room is a graphic design and visual communication studio that focuses in creative fields with a strong process based work style. A love for experimental design, pushing the boundaries and breaking the rules fuels our passion for design. But the Small Room design sensibility itself is simpler with a priority for communication, timelessness, visual conquest and collaboration. Small Room work primarily in identity, print and graphics. And also work in broader areas of visual media like packaging, objects, experimental web design and exhibition (‘Death of a Designer’ (2017).

Shop The Mill’s Limited Edition Prints

Exhibition: Georgia Matthews, 'WALLS'

27 February – 23 March 2019

Opening:
Sunday, March 3, 3-5pm

Please join us in The Exhibition Space for WALLS, an exhibition by Adelaide based photographer Georgia Matthews, showing concurrently with launch of The Mill’s Limited Edition Print Series.

‘I like to express the 'self'- the cognitive apparatus to be self-aware and to think about ourselves consciously. I think we ought to abolish the word 'self' in psychology in order to communicate more clearly – perhaps, by representing 'self' through a visual portal, images, portrayals of external stimulus that may be more widely understood. My interest in psychotherapy has allowed me to concentrate on metaphorical 'walls' which have recently become a staple in my work.’

In this exhibition Georgia explores representations of the 'self' through photographing the construction and deconstruction of architecture. WALLS illustrates an interpretation of 'mental walls' or ‘mental blocks', via the use of Moghul symbolism. In this series she captures Indo-Islamic spaces, focusing on complexity, decoration, transportation, and isolation in order to push the boundaries of form and colour. Vivid and natural colours are combined with geometric shapes, creating a series of abstract landscapes that fall somewhere between painting and photography. WALLS attempts to open doorways into the psyche and aims to evoke a personal response to our surroundings.

Artists biography:

Georgia Matthews is a photographer, videographer and arts therapist from Adelaide, South Australia. Her work delves into topics of the human experience and photo-journalism. She graduated as a photographer from The University of South Australia in 2013, and completed an Advanced Diploma in Transpersonal Art Therapy in 2016. Her theatrical night photography touches on themes of psychoanalysis and the notion of the ‘self’, using layered textures in isolated environments. She has exhibited at Factory 9, Port Elliot, The Artisan Cafe, Peter Walker Fine Art Gallery and Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi.

Visual Artist in Residence: Matthew Fortrose, 'Cityboi - The Mill in conversation with Matthew Fortrose'

The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas sat down with Artist in Residence Matthew Fortrose to have a chat about his practice. This is the first in a series of podcasts ‘in conversation’ with artists for The Exhibition Space Residency Program.

In our chat Matthew talks us through the evolution of his practice, his processes and materiality and how the streets of Adelaide form the inspiration for his Cityboi project.

Follow this link to the Podcast on The Mill’s Soundcloud

More about Matthew Fortrose, Cityboi

Call out: Curatorial opportunity (visual arts)

The Mill is calling for Expressions of Interest for a curator/curatorial team to develop and present an exhibition to be held in The Mill’s Exhibition Space in September 2019.

The Mill is a collaborative multidisciplinary organisation, placing emphasis on development, process and audience-focused creative direction. The Exhibition Space hosts a program of exhibitions, including residencies and curated exhibitions.

Expressions of interest are now open curators to develop an exhibition to be presented in The Mill’s Exhibition Space in September 2019. We invite independent curators or curatorial teams to apply. A fee will be paid to the successful curator.

To be considered, please submit an application via the form below.

The selection will be made by a panel of The Mill staff based on the following criteria:

• Professional and artistic merit

• Accessibility for a diverse audience

• Viability and suitability of the proposed exhibition

• Focus on multidisciplinary practice, &/or focus on process

• Exhibitions and proposals that engage existing and new audiences

About the Exhibition Space:

The Mill’s Exhibition Space is located on the Angas Street Window Frontage of 154 Angas Street. The Gallery’s L-shaped footprint is approximately 40 sq meters, with a gallery hanging system and professional lighting. A number of plinths are available for artists to use. The space sits relation to The Mill’s Creative Industry Offices, oriented prominently at the front of The Mill’s building.

If you have any questions about this opportunity or want to find out more information about the gallery, please contact The Mill's Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas visualarts@themilladelaide.com

Submitting a proposal is no guarantee of acceptance.

Applications have closed

Louise Flaherty, Memorial for Forgotten Plants, 2018, installation view of exhibition Photo: Daniel Marks

Exhibition: Ahmed ElKhalidi with creative collaboration by Rua Hashlamoun, 'Swapped at Birth'

Ahmed ElKhalidi, Glenelg, 2018, digital print on 300gsm Museum rag, 60x42cm

Ahmed ElKhalidi, 1940, 2018, digital print on museum rag, 29 x 42 cm

Ahmed ElKhalidi, So Far from Home, 2018, Arabic Fix and Repair, digital print on museum rag, 21 x 29cm,

February 12 - 23, 2019

Please join us in The Exhibition Space for Swapped at Birth, an exhibition by Jordanian born, Adelaide based artist Ahmed ElKhalidi, with creative collaboration by Rua Hashlamoun.

Opening night:
February 12, 6-8pm

Artist talk:
Saturday, February 16, 3pm
Continues February 12-23, 2019

Adelaide artist Ahmed ElKhalidi documents the journey from Jordan to Australia. Ahmed uses symbolic patches of memory in digital collages to explore places where two familiar environments are interchangeable. The exhibition shows at The Mill during Adelaide Fringe Festival 2019.

ElKhalidi explores the crossover of life, perception and memories from his birth country and his adopted country. For ElKhalidi this was by choice, although he acknowledges that, for many others, this crossover is by circumstance.

ElKhalidi delves into memory, childhood experiences and family photographs from his Palestinian heritage.

Using a blend of recent and historical photography, words, symbols and photojournalism, ElKhalidi reveals a personal story of identity where each environment is swapped, overlaid and blended. Creative collaboration by Rua Hashlamoun records the works of two artists’ stories. They ask the viewer to question the memories the viewer might keep in the same situation. A visual storytelling, this exhibition both resonates with, and facilitates, connections for the many with similar experiences as migrants or refugees.

"I try to raise questions about what memories of 'home' we choose to recall. I high-light  issues such as identity, immigration, and social justice, and challenge/question the role of art in social change. The concept of home for me can be a physical or a psychological place. It changes according to our circumstances, as a place of belonging. It could also be a place of displacement and confusion.

Our memories may be filled with gaps, like our early childhood memories.  These memories can fade and become lost. So I like to play with photos and language to preserve them. I like to explore the importance of words and sentences, and to create visual short stories." - Ahmed Khalidi
 

Ahmed ElKhalidi

Jordanian artist Ahmed Khalidi studied graphic design at the Applied Science University in Amman Jordan, completing his studies in 1994. He is a photographer, graphic designer, illustrator and artist, and has worked on projects including online media, motion graphics, publications and illustrations in Sydney, Adelaide, Amman, London, Doha, Dubai  and Saudi Arabia. ElKhalidi draws his inspiration from urban landscapes, and includes graffiti, advertising imagery and typography in his work from his studio YADURA Design Studio, in Adelaide, Australia.

Presented by:
Jacaranda Images gallery is located in Amman, Jordan. Through principal, Australian Barbara Rowell, the gallery is dedicated to showcasing works on paper by a range of artists. Barbara works  particularly to develop cross cultural ties between Australia and Jordan. The gallery also conduct tours of Jordan for artists and art lovers through 'A Brush with Jordan'.

The exhibition was held in Amman in 2018 under the patronage of the Australian Ambassador. Its Adelaide iteration is made possible with the assistance of the Council of Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR), which supports projects that enhance  economic, cultural and social relations between Australia and the Arab world.

Visual Artist in Residence: Matthew Fortrose, 'Cityboi'

The Mill welcomes Matthew Fortrose, our new Artist in Residence in The Mill's Exhibition Space. Matthew will be in residence from 1 December 2018 - 10 February 2019 working on his project Cityboi. 

Matthew Fortrose’s Cityboi explores our subtle reactions in a built environment, ideas around the placement of objects in the city and how they could be reinterpreted as obstacles in our daily routine, and our unintentional contribution to the landscape. The Mill invites you to witness Matthew’s creative practice and to watch the exhibition unfold in the Exhibition Space across the 10 weeks of the residency. Matthew will be presenting a number of public outcomes as part of his residency, including a mural painting on December 15 as part of The Mill Market at Christmas! 

The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas sat down with Artist in Residence Matthew Fortrose to have a chat about his practice. This is the first in a series of podcasts ‘in conversation’ with artists for The Exhibition Space Residency Program. Listen HERE!
 

Matthew is looking to use the time at The Mill to investigate the local environments and develop and ongoing, process driven body of work. He says: 

‘The work I'm planning on making in my residency will be an exaggeration of the smaller details observed in a city setting. I plan to develop four sets of finished work throughout the residency, encouraging visitors to inspect the progress throughout the duration.

Works exploring our subtle reactions in a built environment, ideas around the placement of objects in the city and how they could be reinterpreted as obstacles in our daily routine, and pieces focusing on our unintentional contribution to the landscape.

From the start of the residency I'll use instagram as the main tool of interaction with audience. Many of the works will allow for involvement with participants, I will encourage people to come in and view the progress throughout the 2 months, and will also have 2 locked in dates with activities for community involvement.

The exhibition outcome will investigate our relationship and contribution to the city through subtle interventions. Using documentation and encouraging interaction through instagram, I’m hoping to make connections with an audience to further discuss navigation and deeper observations within human-made space.’

Artist Biography

Matthew Fortrose is a multi-disciplinary artist whose current practice spans studio paintings and sculptures, outdoor paintings, installation and photography. Working with synthetic materials, Fortrose's work explores and creates tensions between natural and manufactured, intentional and incidental, digital representation and physical artefact. Drawing influence from colour field painting and early Bauhaus graphics, the use of rudimentary tools and industrialized processes assist in constructing a strong visual language towards his work. Using documentation of the built environment, interventions within urban space and explorations into materiality, Fortrose work seeks to engage an audience through a series of investigations around the use of public space, and how this communicates to a formal practice.

About the program
The Mill’s Exhibition Space Residency program is presented in partnership with the City of Adelaide. The program positions artistic process to the fore, allowing audiences direct access to creative research and making. During this residency The Exhibition Space operates with a studio-like mentality where knowledge arises through participation and experimentation. The Mill believes that art positions itself within transitions and passages; it opens up opportunities for incursions through relation. The Exhibition Space opens the creative process to the public in a way that positions the city’s community as foundational to artistic research and the creative process, thereby connecting people to cultural experience, insights, understanding and meaning. The Exhibition Space hosts four residencies across the year. Artists in Residence have included John Blines, memorias exspirare 2 June – 25 August 2018, Louise Flaherty, Memorial for Forgotten Plants, 1 September – 14 November 2018 and Matthew Fortrose, 1 December 2018 – 10 February 2019.

RESIDENCY DETAILS
Matthew Fortrose
Cityboi
1 December 2018- 10 February 2019
The Exhibition Space Residency
The Mill Adelaide
154 Angas Street, Adelaide SA 5000

Exhibition: Taylor Parham, 'am/pm''

Taylor Parham, 9:29pm, 2018, pigment print

Please join us in The Exhibition Space for am/pm, an exhibition by photographer Taylor Parham.

Opening night Friday 16 November 6-8pm
Continues 16-30 November 2018

‘We understand our environment and relate to it through experiences. I aim to capture moments that are in both appearance and experience a contrast to what the vast majority of us are accustomed to seeing. Throughout the night, buildings and locales that are typically hosts to a range of commotion during the day, take on an entirely different aesthetic and feel when devoid of people, cars and general activity. This transition from an energetic experience throughout daytime hours to a silent, near abandoned one come night, is one that I aim to capture in this ongoing project.’  -Taylor Parham

Artist biography
Taylor Parham is South Australian photographer. He holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts having graduated from University of South Australia in 2018. His work examines the concepts of experience and context, capturing views of ordinary locations from a perspective which is both familiar yet unfamiliar. Taylor often spends his nights exploring the city and suburbs, enjoying the solitude that comes with it. He was the 2016 recipient of the University of South Australia’s Pro Vice Chancellor’s Acquisition Prize. He has exhibited at the Helpmann Academy Graduate exhibition in 2016 and 2017. 

Call Out: Exhibit At The Mill (visual arts)

The Mill is calling for Expressions of Interest for our gallery program for late 2018-early 2019.

Expressions of interest are now open for exhibitions to be held in The Mill’s Exhibition Space. We invite artists, collectives and curators to apply. A number of exhibition opportunities are available in late 2018 and the first half of 2019. Gallery Hire is $500 based on a four-week term including bump in and bump out time.

Work by Zoe Kirkwood in The Exhibition Space

John Blines: Memorias Exspirare

The Mill is excited to welcome John Blines as the debut artists in our new visual arts residency series. Blines' work, Memorias Exspirare, explores intrusive childhood memories and their effect on mental health. The intent is to process memories that impact Blines' adult psychological health, through making. It is  personal therapy and experimentation within the broader arts in health framework.

Over the course of three months Blines will establish a ‘studio’ within The Mill's Exhibition Space and create  small objects, evolving and growing the collection as he delves deeper into memory. The exhibition also included previous ‘memory’ works as research, inspiration and nostalgia.  

Blines will be present in The Exhibition Space on Sundays, Mondays and Thursday mornings. For more details watch this space and find The Mill's John Blines Face Book Event page.

This exhibition will also feature public engagement sessions, workshops, discussions and participatory making sessions. (Dates and times TBC.)

The Mill's Exhibition Space program presented in partnership with the City of Adelaide, highlights the practice of art-making and aims to make process more available to audiences.

Projects in The Exhibition Space aim to draw audiences deeper into the process of making, positioning them as central to artistic research. The Exhibition Space operates with a studio-like mentality where knowledge arises through participation and experimentation.

The Exhibition Space presents four 12-week residencies per year, alongside short feature exhibitions. Each resident artist will commit time to developing their practice through discussions, forums, workshops, research and artist talks - both with the artistic community and the general public. The Mill will expedite research by facilitating connections to community groups the artist may wish to engage with, to help broaden their practice.

The Mill believes art positions itself within transitions and passages; it opens opportunities for public incursions into the private and vice versa. Our residency program considers this as the potential performativity of practice.