Nescience – Ellie Kammer
SA painter Ellie Kammer works predominantly in portraiture. Her latest series of oil paintings explores female suffering in graphic fashion. Focused around endometriosis (a painful condition affecting the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, and tissue around the uterus and ovaries), the work serves as a visual lecture, exposing audiences to the realities of the largely undiscussed affliction. For Nescience, Kammer has partnered with not-for-profit organisation Endometriosis Australia, weaponising her position as a public figure to develop awareness and provide information about the disease.
Nescience is at Light Square Gallery July 6-27.
A Shifting Stillness – Alice Blanch
Travelling by foot and favouring, for their eccentricity, old cameras over new, Blanch creates panoramic images of the land she traverses. A Shifting Stillness reflects on the evolving state of nature; sometimes obvious, sometimes invisible. Her work is a slow burn. The images convey the experience of being immersed in, and often dwarfed by, the grandeur of the natural world. Blanch will give an artist talk on Saturday July 8.
A Shifting Stillness is at Floating Goose until July 9.
Four Points – Bernadette Klavins, Michael Schaefer, Timmi Tsapaliaris and Luke Wilcox
Four artists present new video works motivated by an assigned compass point, and a basic human need: west + water; north + nutrients; east + energy; south + sleep. Each is projected onto one of the Adelaide Central Gallery’s corresponding four walls, encasing the audience in the shared exploration of our most elemental influences. Klavins, Schaefer, Tsapaliaris and Wilcox are all graduates of the Adelaide Central School of Art and received commissions to participate in this exhibition.
Four Points is at Adelaide Central Gallery until July 14.
The Summation of Force – Trent Parke and Narelle Autio
Acclaimed photographers Trent Parke and Narelle Autio think about Australia a lot. Parke’s work often centres on ideas of family and belonging, and Autio photographs natural landscapes with and without our presence. The Summation of Force was developed with assistance from the Adelaide Film Festival, and is the pair’s first collaborative exhibition and foray into moving image and sound installation. It took 144 nights to shoot, and hours of post-production. The stunning eight-channel video work uses familiar imagery of backyard cricket recut as a metaphor for life, parenthood and an exploration of sporting mythology.
The Summation of Force is at Samstag Museum until September 1.
Tammy and Jim – Min Wong
In Tammy and Jim artist Min Wong turns her attention to American spiritual movements of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. She’s fascinated by the “paradoxical search for spiritual collectivism as an ironic yet sincere testimonial of human failure”, using her art practice to explore the seductive world of evangelism. Wong also practices Bikram Yoga (her previous solo show at Fontanelle was called Namaste Bitches) and employs the infrastructure and symbology of self-care as the basis for her sculptural work.
Tammy and Jim is at FELTspace July 5-22.
NAIDOC Week at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute
Tandanya’s NAIDOC Week events are divided into three streams: learn, respect and celebrate. The program features short-film screenings, music, workshops and events. The national theme for NAIDOC Week 2017 (taking place July 2 to 9) is Our Languages Matter, and Tandanya is hosting workshops for those who want to learn basic Kaurna and Pitjantjara. Other classes include traditional techniques of jewellery making and weaving. The centre will also screen short films on Susan Betts, owner of clothing label Wanna-Munda, and Jock Zonfrillo’s native-food-focused Restaurant Orana.
Tandanya’s NAIDOC Week events run from July 3 to 6.
CHEW on This – various artists
Street culture hub Cold Krush is hosting around 30 local artists in an exhibition supporting SA Dog Rescue. The show is comprised of mainly 2D works (painting of pooches, drawings of doggos … ) and spans a myriad of styles. Curator Tayla Carlaw says, “I wanted the artists to naturally express themselves and create thought-provoking works for the audience’s eyes.” Carlaw, who has staged a number of shows in the shop’s Unley Road gallery, has a special affinity with SA Dog Rescue. “Six years ago I adopted my dogs Ellie and Alfie through SA Dog Rescue,” she says. The animals were “previously neglected and abused”. “One of the most amazing things about SA Dog Rescue is they not only give animals a second chance, they strive to connect the right pets with the right owner.”
CHEW On This is at Cold Krush July 7-28.
