You Have All of This - Zine launch

YOU HAVE ALL OF THIS - Garden Observations From Inner City Naarm

Zine launch and sales
5-7pm @ East Melbourne Library

Adele Daniele is an East Melbourne resident, artist, musician, and a member of The Soft Meadow Collective, which has curated walking tours (Spontaneous Plants Dérive) in the City of Yarra. These tours explore the spontaneous plants that grow in the cracks of pavements and gutters throughout inner-city Melbourne.

Twenty years ago, Adele moved into one of the 1940s Art Deco apartments in East Melbourne. At the time, one of the residents, artist Gary James, had transformed the old lane way behind the apartment block into an Edna Walling-inspired garden. It was ramshackle—vines and ivy wove through fences, a tangled mess of violets covered the ground, a lone tamarillo tree stood tall, and an unpredictable wisteria drenched unsuspecting residents when it rained.

Adele’s mother-in-law, Dr. Rosemary Milne—a child psychologist who wrote the lyrics to the Play School theme song—also lived in the building and cherished the Walling-inspired space. Though Rosemary has passed away, Adele once had a dream of her standing in the garden with open arms, saying, “You have all of this.” Since then, Adele has embraced the space, confronting things that once scared her—spiders, insects,
bugs—all of which are now part of her exploration. Every new discovery is a cause for celebration: a bird-dropping spider, the sighting of a powerful owl, or the sting of nettles—each adds to the evolving story of this transient space.

Adele has produced a zine (booklet) that documents the changing nature of the garden. It is
an intimate dialogue between artist and environment. Through hand-drawn maps, photography, text, observations of biodiversity, and reflections on the shifting landscape, the zine captures the delicate relationship between human and non-human life. Once hesitant around insects and spiders, Adele now embraces them, becoming an active participant in the garden’s story—she even builds spider teepees and bug-snugs to encourage them! Adele’s zine is a celebration of this hidden world.

Written by Bruce Milne 

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