By Stephen Lacey
Copyright theage
In 2016, he was invited to Paris to show a collection of Indigenous Art Brut. His ability to get things done is just insane. He went to the outback and gathered all these paintings in next to no time. I speak French, so Adrian invited me along to interpret for the exhibition. We had the best time, hanging out in the cafes of the Marais.
Very little about him annoys me, but he does like to complain about his ailments. I just take it all on board. And he’s really bad at texting, especially if he’s travelling. I’ll write to him and won’t hear anything back for four or five days.
He’s got a temper. Last year, new management at the Bergs cafe introduced paper cups, which are bad for the environment and horrible to drink coffee out of. So Adrian brought down his stoneware Tiwi mug. This new manager told him, “You can’t use that because of OH&S.” Adrian said, “I’ve never heard anything so f—ing lame!” The incident got reported to the board and they banned him from the cafe, club and pool for a year. It was eventually commuted to the first day of winter swimming.
‘Adrian often wonders why we never see people in their 80s or beyond swimming here … We’ve vowed to go on for as long as we possibly can.’Russell Cheek
We don’t disagree about much. We talk about footy and cricket, and art. We exchange views on how beautiful and resourceful the women around us are, and we talk about politics. On election night, me, Adrian and Dave Faulkner from the Hoodoo Gurus got together for a meal and we got Labor over the line.
