This weekend marks the start of one of South Australia’s favourite visual arts events – the South Australian Living Artists’ Festival (SALA), with a feast of exhibitions to explore.

Other picks include the opening of the musical Grease is the Word, two new OzAsia exhibitions at the Samstag Museum of Art,  and three shows from The Yearlings, who are back home from their All the Wandering tour.

2014 SALA Festival

From today until August 24, this year’s SALA Festival celebrates South Australian visual artists with a record 547 exhibitions and a diverse range of events featuring 4627 participating artists. Download the full program here. A highlight will be Adelaide photographer Che Chorley’s debut solo exhibition The Sea and Me, which opens today at The Mill Gallery. His intimate series explores the ocean, with some portraits evoking a sense of awe and fear at its sheer power and enormority, while other images depict its serenity, fragility and ethereal beauty.  “Having the camera between me and the subject gives me the confidence to inch that little bit closer, go that little bit deeper, despite how hairy it might get,” Chorley says. The SALA Festival will include an open studio weekend on August 9-10 and a range of art tours and artists talks, including a new artist forum day titled The Artists’ Voice featuring panel discussions and debate on Sunday, August 17, at the Art Gallery of South Australia. The festival will culminate with SALA on Show on Sunday, August 24, at Unley Shopping Centre and Soldier’s Memorial Gardens on Unley Road, with visual art activities, art works for sale, artists in residence, family art workshops and entertainment throughout the day.

OzAsia at the Samstag

Opening today as part of the Adelaide Festival Centre’s 2014 OzAsia Festival are two new Samstag Museum exhibitions: Mooi Indie – Beautiful Indies, Indonesian Art Now and In-Habit: Project Another Country. Mooi Indie celebrates the culturally aware and socially engaged art that is the product of an energetic art scene which thrives in Indonesia, featuring works from established and emerging artists addressing themes such as human rights, the environment, gender, identity and culture, across all genres. In-Habit: Project Another Country is a contemporary art project by Filipino-born, Brisbane-based artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, which addresses themes of journey and diaspora; settlement and resettlement; home and land; plight and displacement. The exhibitions run until October 3 and more information can be found here. The OzAsia Festival runs from September 3-20.

 Seraphim Trio

In a second concert marking their 20th anniversary year, Seraphim Trio will be returning to Elder Hall on Sunday (August 3) with Fairy Tales, featuring a world premiere arrangement of Ravel’s Ma Mere l’oye (Mother Goose) by Melbourne composer Benjamin Martin, accompanied by a delightful narration of Playing Fast and Loose with Mother Goose by Peter Goldsworthy, leading Australian writer and father of Seraphim Trio pianist and writer Anna Goldsworthy. More information can be found here.

Richard Tognetti with the ASO

Described as one of the most characterful, incisive and impassioned violinists to be heard today, Richard Tognetti joins the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra tonight and tomorrow night at the Adelaide Town Hall in a rare appearance as both soloist and director to present a fascinatingly diverse program featuring Ives’s Three Places in New England, Tippett’s richly scored Corelli Fantasia and Beethoven’s evergreen Sixth Symphony – Pastoral. More information can be found here.

Grease is the Word

Starring Rob Mills as Danny and Gretel Scarlett as Sandy, alongside John Paul Young, Todd McKenney, Val Lehman and Bert Newton, Grease is a high-energy musical inspired by the film of the same name. The Adelaide season runs from August 3 to 31 and includes the unforgettable songs You’re the One that I Want, Grease is the Word, Summer Nights, Hopelessly Devoted to You, Sandy, Greased Lightnin’ and more. Read InDaily’s interview with Gretel Scarlett here.

Waterhouse Prize

Climate change, natural wonders, genetic links between animals and humans, and species loss are among the themes boldly explored by outstanding finalists in the South Australian Museum’s 2014 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize. See the exquisite works produced for this prestigious international art prize until November 9. More information can be found here.

Kate Miller-Heidke at Bird in Hand

Kate Miller-Heidke. Photo Jo Duck

Indie pop artist Kate Miller-Heidke, along with Keir Nutall on guitar and John Rodgers on violin and piano, will present songs from O Vertigo! at Bird in Hand winery on Saturday night. Food trucks and wine bars will be available on the night, but you will need to book for tickets and transport. More information can be found here.

Dorrit Black & Mortimer Menpes

Side-by-side retrospective exhibitions at the Art Gallery of South Australia shed light on these two influential SA-born artists. Black (1891-1951) is described as one of the most important Australian modernists, credited with bringing the cubism movement to Australia after her experiences in Europe. Menpes (1855-1938) was born in Port Adelaide but moved to London before he was 20, forging a successful career as a painter and printmaker. Dorrit Black: unseen forces and The World of Mortimer Menpes: painter, etcher, raconteur are both free and run until September 7, with daily tours at 11am and 2pm.

No Man’s Land

The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild will present Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land on Saturday night at the university’s Little Theatre. No Man’s Land is a comedy about the meeting of two elderly poets on Hampstead Heath and their conversation that is caught between the present and the past, a territory which Pinter explores with his characteristic mixture of biting wit, subtle verbal aggression and tragicomic linguistic gamesmanship.

The Yearlings at home

Back from their All the Wandering tour for some some final shows in Adelaide this weekend, The Yearlings will be joined by BJ Barker on drums, Harry Brus on bass and possible appearances by some horn guys and Blue Sky Girls. Tonight (Friday) they’re playing at The Song Room, Barossa Regional Gallery, Tanunda, at 7.30pm (tickets from Barossa Music Centre or call 0417 084 191); on Saturday night they’re at Rosemount Estate Winery, McLaren Vale, at 7.30pm (book tickets here); and on Sunday they are playing two shows at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Thebarton at 1pm and 4pm (book tickets here).

WWI Symposium – South Australia on the Eve of War

People gathered outside government offices, Victoria Square, Adelaide, following the announcement of war on the afternoon of 5 August 1914. Photo South Australian Photographic Collection

What was South Australia like in the years before August 1914? As the attention of the world moves towards marking the centenary of the start of World War I, a two-day symposium in Adelaide University’s Napier Building will give participants the opportunity to learn about South Australian society, politics and culture – before everything changed. Among the issues explored will be the cultural make-up of South Australia and questions of loyalty to the British Empire, country and city perspectives, and technology and everyday life. The symposium will feature a free public lecture at 2pm on Sunday (August 3), Warring Australians, Battles at Home and Abroad, 1914-19, delivered by Professor Joan Beaumont. More information can be found here.

Andy Bull at The Cloisters

The historic Adelaide University Cloisters is set to come alive today (Friday) from 3pm until 10pm with Sydney alternative pop artist Andy Bull, fresh from the release of his album Sea Of Approval. Other artists include Adelaide electronica maestro, Oisima, with further local flavour supplied by Pilot DJs. This one-night-only pop-up event will see the courtyard space transformed with installations and lighting, and will feature gourmet food and drinks. Tickets are $20/students $15 and are available from OzTix or the Union Office on 8313 5401.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde’s witty and much-loved comedy of love, manners and mistaken identity – The Importance of Being Earnest – brings the antics of bachelors Jack and Algernon in stifling Victorian England to the Dunstan Playhouse. Running until August 16, it sees theatre legend Nancye Hayes return to the State Theatre Company to play the formidable and acidic Lady Bracknell; she is joined by the hilarious Nathan O’Keefe as Algernon, a young aristocrat with a sharp wit. Read InDaily’s review here.

The Sound of Music

This weekend is your last chance to see the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of SA‘s production of The Sound of Music at Adelaide’s Arts Theatre. Finishing on August 2, the show sees Claire McEvoy in the lead role of the mischievous nun Maria, governess to the seven children of widowed Austrian naval Captain Georg Von Trapp (played by Kimberly Clark).

Willunga Almond Blossom Ball

The Willunga Almond Blossom Festival culminates on Saturday night with the Almond Blossom Ball. It will feature party band, Velvet and a silent auction; tickets are $30 and available from the Alma Hotel Willunga.

Man in a Bag – Holden Street Theatres

This new South Australian play written by Emily Steel is inspired by the true story of an MI6 officer found dead in a sports bag, and the subsequent court trial and media storm. It sets out to examine topics such as identity, information, perspective and truth. Presented by Polygraph Collective, it is running at Holden Street Theatres until August 2.

On screen

See InDaily’s reviews of the latest films screening in Adelaide:

Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie
Hercules
Sex Tape
Reaching for the Moon 
Charlie’s Country
Venus in Fur
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The Lunchbox
Belle & Sebastian