Puffio

On the day that Puffio sat down to write this column it was bitterly cold, the streets awash with near freezing rain; the Cabaret Festival over and done, and the city appeared in hibernation. Not so, for in attics and rehearsal studios all over the city there were artistic types cracking their knuckles in the cold and stirring themselves for another burst of creative activity. It was as if the small green buttons of growth were even then trying to push through the frozen cover of winter...

If contemporary European techno-art avant-garde is your bag then the place to be is Ubermorgen.com at the Experimental Art Foundation, largely because anything you read here will seem like a bad explanation of something largely inexplicable. Be that as it may, Austrians Lizvlx and Hans Bernhard work their way through conceptual art, drawing, software art, pixelpainting, computer installations, net.art, sculpture and digital activism (media hacking) transforms their brand into a hybrid Gesamtkunstwerk. at the EAF, where their work from 1999 to 2007 is on display from Tues 12 July.

Coming up for Patch Theatre, and starring that man with the most mobile of faces - Paul Blackwell - is the charming and funny kids production of 'Mr McGee & The Biting Flea', just in time for school holidays. Based on the illustrated book by Pamela Allen, 'Mr McGee...' is currently on a Playing Australia national tour, and will thus be available for perusal from Mon 16 July, playing at The Forge at Marryatville High School. Entry is via Kensington Road, darlings.


Congratulations go out to Vitalstatistix Theatre for their nomination (along with Deckchair Theatre) for an Australian Writers Guild Award (an AWGIE) for the 2006 production of the musical 'Tough Girls'. Written by Melissa Reeves and Directed by Vitals AD Maude Davey, 'Tough Girls' has been nominated in the Best Music Theatre Production category. Onya!

French pianist, Jean-Paul Sevilla is visiting Adelaide as the official pianist in residence for the Accompanists' Guild's 2007 Festival of Accompanists. He's only here for five days, but Sevilla will perform a recital with the violinist Terence Tam, Concertmaster of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conduct two master-classes, lead the jury in the 2007 Geoffrey Parsons Award and perform a solo recital for Recitals Australia. Sevilla is in Adelaide from Mon 9 July.

Basing his view of the world on the 1950s, as he did for this particular work, choreographer Troy Mundy has come up with what he describes as "A dichotomy of dance styles..." in 'Housewives On Fire', performing at the Adelaide Centre for the ARTS in Light Square, Adelaide from Wed 27 to at 30 June.

Experimental electronic music will be presented in the Tyndall Assembly concert series for 2007, and with particular note for the first in their series, as it comes upon us quickly. The Tyndall Assembly perform on Thurs 28 June at the Gallery Delacatessen, in Anster Street, City (off Waymouth Street). This is an evening of collaborating artists and local composers.

Coming up at Nexus Cabaret from Thurs 28 June is an exhibition of works from Adelaide artists, who were charged with the task of creating a site specific work. Using mixed media the emerging artists Stuart Burns, Jeremy Piert, Laura Wills and Karin Woithe were challenged by curator Heather Young to create work for a site-specific exhibition in the Nexus cabaret windows. Excellent stuff!! This is a detail of Karin Woithe's Untitled 2.


The Firm's second concert for 2007 features internationally renowned violist Lila Brown, an invited guest of the International Viola Congress (Adelaide, June 29 - July 3) and a noted specialist in the music of Gyšrgy Kurt‡g, the Firm's featured composer. The place to be is Pilgrim Church, Flinders Street, from 8pm on Mon 2 July

The Mike Stewart Big Band bring all Readers "The Return Of The Great Saturday Night Out". Yep, they're a swinging big band, playing music from the past and present, and in a venue which was, until recently, a hallowed theatre performance space... The Promethean. Coming up in July.