Stobie pole project

In a public art project with a difference, multi-disciplinary artist Dave Court has been engaged to mentor a group of emerging artists to create designs for Stobie poles in the City of Port Adelaide Enfield Council area.

The opportunity is the result of a partnership between Helpmann Academy and SA Power Networks, with applications open to graduates who are up to five years from their final year of study at one of Helpmann’s partner institutions.

Selected emerging artists will undertake masterclasses and collaborate with Court to develop their ideas and their public artworks. The resulting series of designs are expected to remain on the Stobie poles for at least two years.

Applications are open until midnight on April 10, with full details available on the Helpmann Academy website. (The project is supported by City of Port Adelaide Enfield and Post Office Projects Gallery+Studios.)

Embedded at the Town Hall

Dave Court is also one of the artists featured in a new exhibition at Adelaide Town Hall highlighting the many potential applications of digital processes in contemporary art.

Embedded – curated by ART WORKS emerging curator 2021 Ann-Marie Green and delivered by Guildhouse in partnership with the City of Adelaide – features work by 10 different artists.

Some (Court, James Holdsworth, Jesse Price, and Catherine Hewitt) use technology to investigate natural and built environments, while others (Seiichi Kobayashi, Susan Bruce and Will Nolan) explore the relationship between digital and analogue techniques. Ali Gumilya Baker, Sue Kneebone and Min Wong have merged the two two techniques in works that explore culture, identity and place. The exhibition, in Mankurri-api Kuu (Reconciliation Room) and First Floor Gallery, runs until June 3.

An installation view of Will Nolan’s work in Embedded. Photo: Lana Adams

Meanwhile, Erin O’Donohue has been announced as the ART WORKS early career curator in residence for 2022, and will curate three exhibitions over 12 months across civic spaces including the Town Hall. Guildhouse has also selected writer Eleanor Scicchitano and artist Kate Kurucz as ART WORKS writer and artist in residence at the City of Adelaide ArtPOD from March to May 2022.

Talking art

The challenge of keeping your head above water as an independent artist in South Australia will be among topics discussed by prominent local creatives at a free talks event this Saturday celebrating the 20^th anniversary of Adelaide Festival Centre’s inSPACE Development Program.

Slingsby artistic director and inDiscussion panellist Andy Packer.

The inSPACE program supports local independent artists by offering them an opportunity to present works-in-progress at the Festival Centre’s Drama Centre Rehearsal Room, with this year’s program featuring eight works across a range of genres including theatre, dance, visual arts and music.

“Our inDiscussion panel series celebrates our 20-year history of the program and looks toward the future of the arts in South Australia, providing opportunities for artists to push boundaries and create new and exciting works,” Festival Centre artistic director and CEO Douglas Gautier says of Saturday’s talk event.

Speakers will include choreographer Leigh Warren, Slingsby Theatre artistic director Andy Packer, Restless Dance Theatre artistic director Michelle Ryan, theatre director Nescha Jelk, singer Libby O’Donovan, Brink Productions artistic director Chris Drummond, writer H Lawrence Sumner and performer Kidaan Zelleke.

In addition to a discussion about the history of inSPACE and an exploration of the practice of dramaturgy, there will be a panel session titled “Where I F*#cked Up”, led by Catherine Fitzgerald, in which O’Donovan, Warren and Packer will recount memories of “where it all went wrong”, exploring ideas such as resilience, overcoming defeats, dead ends and wrong turns.

The event will be held in the Festival Centre’s Banquet Room from 10.30am (details here), with no registration necessary. South Australian artists and creatives are also now invited to apply for the 2023 inSPACE Creative Development Program.

Rainbow Dreamz

After injecting some colour into our lives with her 2022 Adelaide Fringe poster design, young Arabana and Kokatha artist Mali Isabel is now set to present her debut solo exhibition at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute.

The 22-year-old, who creates contemporary dot paintings inspired by the land around her, will show more than 100 works in Rainbow Dreamz and says she has poured her heart and soul into the exhibition: “I want it to make everyone feel a sense of harmony and hopefulness when they walk into my rainbow dreamscape, which shows a true insight into my mind and my inner journey of self-discovery.”

Rainbow Dreamz will be at Tandanya from April 15 until June 18, with Indigenous musicians including Katie Aspel, Sonz of Serpent and DJ Phoenixx set to play on the official opening night. Mali will also transform the facade of Tandanya with a bright rainbow mural in the weeks leading up to the exhibition.

Performer Millicent Sarre. Photo: Verity Lo

Fringe in the Hills

Festival fans already mourning the end of this year’s Adelaide Fringe can head to the Hills next month for a line-up of shows including cabaret, dance, comedy and magic.

The inaugural Fringe in the Hills ­– presented by the team behind the former Stirling Fringe – will take place in Stirling from April 15-21 and then Lobethal from April 22-24.

Program highlights include Erin Fowler’s award-winning work EGG, which uses dance, clowning and an ’80s soundtrack to explore fertility and motherhood; singer Nancy Bates’ Still Talkin’ Bout A Revolution, cabaret-comedy show Millicent Sarre is Opinionated, and Hew Parham’s entertaining clowning/physical theatre work A Not So Trivial Pursuit.

“There were some question marks over COVID, which meant we delayed our season that usually runs adjacent to the Adelaide Fringe, but now we are so thrilled to showcase the Hills in autumn, which is such a beautiful time of the year, and to have an all-South Australian line-up,” says event organiser Louise Clarke.

Other artists performing at Fringe in the Hills include mentalist Matt Tarrant, hypnotist Isaac Lomman, and musicians Nathan May and Naomi Keyte. See the full program here.

Green Room is a regular column for InReview, providing quick news for people interested, or involved, in South Australian arts and culture. Get in touch by emailing us at [email protected]