There are 108 pieces of public art in Adelaide’s inner-city, from behind the Zoo in the north to the south parklands near Greenhill Rd.

I didn’t personally count them, that’s just how many are tagged on the excellent (but slightly dated) walking guide to public art published by Adelaide City Council.

It’s dated because it doesn’t include the 11 additions on the Bike Art Trail, which Talking Adelaide has posted about previously here. Among the other 108, the oldest dates from 1923; it's in the Art Gallery’s northern courtyard, the bronze sculpture La Vierge a l’Offrande (Virgin of the Offering) by Emile Antoine Bourdelle (a prolific French sculptor).

Impressive is just how many women feature on this list of 108. My attention to the gender split was inspired by this year’s London Art Audit – which found that in east London, only 14 per cent of public works of art were created by women, while in the boroughs of Westminster and the City of London it's just 8 per cent (of 386 public art works). The Guardian’s story about the audit by East London Fawcett (ELF) is here.

Reading this prompted me to carry out my own unscientific audit by counting how many women appeared on the City of Adelaide public art walking guide.

Of the 51 pieces listed as being in the Riverbank, Adelaide Zoo, Festival Centre and North Tce precinct, there are 15 by or co-credited to women. That’s 29 per cent.

Of the 57 found across the rest of the inner-city and parklands, 20 are by women – that’s 35 per cent. A lot better than in London, but still under-represented when it comes to men.

The earliest piece of public art by a woman is the rather lovely modern looking sculpture in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens, by Ola Cohn for landscape designer Elsie Cornish.

Ola Cohn's sculpture in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens

It appears the next work by a woman didn’t appear until 1963 – Norma Redpath OBE only died in January this year. Her Immortal Warrior bronze is outside the former Reserve Bank building (now part of Flinders Uni) in Flinders St, near Victoria Square.

Then it was a gap of another decade, until 1973 when the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust acquired Ultimate Form, by legendary UK sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth. I’ve seen this piece dated 1970 and 1971 – either way it didn’t appear hear until the Festival Centre was opened (this year is its 40th anniversary). Bronwyn Watson writing in The Australian last year quite rightly says this piece “graces” the AFC’s lawns. It does.

Barbara Hepworth's Ultimate Form outside the Festival Theatre. Picture: The Australian — Barbara Hepworth's Ultimate Form outside the Festival Theatre. Picture: *The Australian*

Watson wrote: “The sculpture, Ultimate Form, is from Hepworth's Family of Man series, which was completed not long before the artist's death in a fire in her studio in 1975.”

Arguably the most popular piece of public art in Adelaide is by a woman – the four pigs in Rundle Mall. This work unveiled in 1999, is actually called A Day Out, by artist Marguerite Derricourt. Angela Valamanesh, partner to fellow artist and husband Hossein, has several credits as does Margie Patrick (in the Westpac House foyer); while just three indigenous women (Eileen Karpany, Pantjiti Tiyangu McKenzie and Chetana Andary) also make the list.

Two of my personal favourites are by the same artist: Catherine Truman. Slate Pool Walking – known as “the fish gates” in my family (and pictured at the top) are at the back of the Art Gallery and her Way of Seeing – those beautiful perpetually autumnal leaves that hang off the north face of the David Jones building.

Catherine Truman's autumn leaves or Way of Seeing on North Tce. — Catherine Truman's autumn leaves or *Way of Seeing* on North Tce.

Have you got a favourite piece of public art in Adelaide? Share.

City of Adelaide public art map - link here

In the early 1980s, my mother had a hot pink, silk, after-five dress from the Australian label Covers.

It was the pink of Marilyn Monroe’s evening dress in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but it had the sleeve-shape and tight skirt of Krystal Carrington in Dynasty.

It shared equal status with her pale blue Prue Acton maxi from the mid-1970s as my favourites in her wardrobe. She wore the pink Covers dress with multi-coloured carnival glass beads hat shimmered blue, green, purple or pink depending on the light.

I coveted that Covers dress. My sister got to wear once in the late ‘80s. Alas, it never fitted me.

Why am I thinking about ‘80s fashions? The Victoria & Albert Museum, in London, has just opened an exhibition called Club to Catwalk showcasing London's clubbing and fashion scene in the ‘80s.

A picture gallery from the exhibition by The Guardian got me reminiscing about what I wore here to the likes of Toucan Two and Limbo’s, in the West End, to Leon’s, on the Parade, and Doug Govan’s My Place, in Hyde St, Le Rox, in Light Square and later the Venue, in Hindley St.

Although I lived in London at the end of the ‘80s, and even went to some of the clubs captioned in The Guardian, it’s not the mainsteam ‘80s fashions I mostly remember wearing. It’s styling straight out of the era’s video clips.

When I think of ‘80s fashions, I think of high-waisted Corfu jeans, made right here in Adelaide. And Canterbury rugby tops.

Yes, I had leg warmers but never stirrup pants.

I loved my dusty pink thick cord jodhpurs – Stuart Membery from memory. Or were they Jag? A white lacey shirt worn with a grey-striped taffeta skirt from Cream, on Unley Rd; and shopping across the road at Naffine’s with my mother.

What about the giant Cherry Lane store in Rundle Mall that you had to ride an escalator down to? Most of my work clothes came from there during 1986-88. And the funny-shaped Sportsgirl store at Burnside – was it a hexagon or a pentagon? Oh, and Demasius.

K-K-Katies seemed so much more stylish back then, although it’s the reverse with Witchery. Did you follow the advertising call to action that jingled “this goes with that at Sussan’s”? Now that’s an excuse to watch this blast from the past.

This goes with that....relive the jingle here

I’d love to hear what were your favourite outfits and labels from the 1980s. Maybe this slideshow below with jog the memory (click to open full gallery with captions).

In the early 1980s, my mother had a hot pink, silk, after-five dress from the Australian label Covers.

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