A one-off club night with live tattoos and tarot reading, an art exhibition that’s blurring the line between real and virtual worlds, Adelaide Cabaret Festival returns, and four new reasons to head east. Here’s what Broadsheet Adelaide editor Daniela Frangos will be checking out this month.
Let it go
Over the next two weeks two city art galleries are holding space for you to let go. Floating Goose Studios is the site of a 28-day durational performance by local artist Ida Sophia, who’s spending six hours each day observing an installation of flowers as they slowly decompose – an act of redemption for her absence during the last month of her father’s life. Audience members are invited to participate by writing their own regrets onto one of 1000 white plaster tablets and attaching it to Sophia’s clothes so she can bear the weight. Meanwhile, Ace Open is closing its current exhibition by artist Sidney McMahon with a “queer club night”, Release, which invites you to partake in a communal process of “letting go, processing and coming together” through dance, live tattoos and tarot reading. DJs Strictface, Lakota and Cortex are on music duties, while stick 'n' poke artist Poko Ono will ink five selected party guests – register here.
In the house
Adelaide artist Dave Court is blurring the line between real and virtual worlds with House Party, a new exhibition and sensory installation that takes an ageing Hills home and reimagines it through projections, sculptural pieces, graffiti-style painting, and virtual and augmented realities. The show can be experienced online and by gallery attendees at Praxis Art Space from June 24 to July 23.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum
Adelaide Cabaret Festival is back this month – with acclaimed actor and Broadway and cabaret icon Alan Cumming in the driver’s seat. The Scottish-born, New York-based star is the event’s first international artistic director in its 21-year history, and he’s closing it out with the world premiere of his new show Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age. Read our interview with the star here. He’s also brought his famous New York cabaret bar Club Cumming to Adelaide, with live performances and raucous DJ sets each weekend of the festival. Also on the program: ERN: Australia’s Greatest Hoax, created by Adelaide musician Max Savage in collaboration with composer Ross McHenry and artist Josh Baldwin, which reflects on Australia’s most famous literary hoax.
Something’s rising in the east
There’s a change brewing out east. The eastern suburbs and Adelaide Hills have welcomed a bunch of exciting new openings, including the return of Lebanese-inspired eatery Saha, a community-focused cafe and providore in a 19th-century general store, and a slick neighbourhood wine bar. Further east, a cosy little coffee shop and bakery has opened in the Hills, serving loaves of organic sourdough, porcini toasties and apple pie. Add them to your list this month.
Low & Slow fomo
Fifteen months after opening on Leigh Street, the Low & Slow crew is closing its CBD hole in the wall. Co-owner and operator Kevin Stockmann told Broadsheet last week, “It’s been a bit of a time.” There's some good news, though: the team’s launching a new range of bottled sauces and vac-sealed packs of smoked brisket, so we can get our barbeque fix at home. They're shutting up shop on July 2, so I’ll be stopping by for one last wood-grilled chicken sandwich with pickled green tomato and Alabama white sauce. Or smoked-brisket brioche with slaw and barbeque sauce. Or maybe both.
Stop. Hygge time
The cold has well and truly set in. And that means it’s time to dial up the hygge (the Danish word is said to have no direct translation, but the sentiment is cosy contentment, which is what I'm seeking most of the time). Here’s what we’ve got for you as winter takes hold: eight warming recipes to try, 12 snazzy coats to add to your wardrobe, 13 cosy Aussie sleepwear labels for ultimate bed and binge-watching comfort, and 13 delicious scents to buy for your home – in candle, incense, oil and spray form.
