Sundari Carmody's sculpture fronting Adelaide city's Lot Fourteen explores consciousness/cosmos

Sundari Carmody and her sculpture, One: all that we can see, outside the Australian Space Discovery Centre at Lot Fourteen innovation district on North Terrace, Adelaide city.
Image courtesy Lot Fourteen

South Australian artist Sundari Carmody’s sculpture, One: all that we can see, was installed in 2022 at Lot Fourteen, on North Terrace, Adelaide city, one of several public art commissions for the innovation district.

Carmody,  whose background includes 16 years living in Bali, Indonesia, studied visual arts (honours) at the University of South Australia, and had her work exhibited widely across Australia.

One: all that we can see was funded by the state government and commissioned under the Lot Fourteen arts and culture plan stage 1 (2020-24), with advice from the arts and culture advisory group, the Australian Space Discovery Centre and Guildhouse, a not-for-profit organisation developing and managing opportunities for artists.

Carmody also worked with Exhibition Studios on the sculpture that created a focal and meeting point for visitors to the Australian Space Discovery Centre. It tied in with her practice “based around ideas that explore relationships between consciousness and the cosmos. These fields are profoundly mysterious, and I am attempting to find useful frameworks to give form to aspects of both that are invisible or lie just beyond the limits of our perception."

One: all that we can see represents the ratio suggested by contemporary physicists between the visible and the invisible universe; the hypothesis that dark matter and dark energy made up 94% per cent of the universe, leaving only five per cent of “normal matter” visible. The striking four-metre diameter black steel tubular ring, also comprises a small but high intensity LED component set into the top of the ring, symbolising the five per cent of “normal matter’”.

Di Dixon, state project lead for Lot Fourteen said arts and culture were integral to Lot Fourteen, “generating a meaningful sense of place and an active destination, through extraordinary, stimulating and immersive experiences. We hope that providing space for innovators and entrepreneurs where art, culture and technology exist in harmony will provoke creativity and innovation while also providing something for the whole community to enjoy.”