The Black Swan: Suite - Sundari Carmody

Opening - 6:00 PM - Wednesday, 6th of August

Artist Talk - 5:30 PM

Running - 6 Aug 2014 - 23 Aug 2014

Sundari Carmody's 'The Black Swan: Suite' is inspired by a memoir written by her great, great aunt. Whilst in England in 1910 Elizabeth Grover describes marching with other women from Western Australia in the 'Monster march' of the suffragettes. Carmody recreates a flag bearing the emblem of a black swan based on a description in the memoir. Her project however is not about retelling the story of her great aunt. It is a conduit which connects her in the present to an imagined intellectual and emotional territory that fills the gaps between the words and pages. The black swan flag has a talismanic function and her enigmatic material re-enactment charts a different kind of territory, one that is inter-dimensional, that moves between the emotional and the intellectual, the material and ethereal. It charts the graceful movement of all conscious and inquisitive bodies and minds as they drift endlessly through space.

Sundari Carmody's sculptural and photographic works borrow much from the languages of art, fashion, literature and design, which she uses to construct complex psychological narratives that are at once both personal and universal. Carmody's practice is primarily concerned with the material appeal of an artwork which extends on the material or physical experience of being in the world. Her work skirts around literal interpretation by inviting the viewer to a sensual experience. Carmody (born 1988) spent her formative years in Indonesia; and in 2011 graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) at the South Australian School of Art. Carmody has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in public, commercial and artist-run spaces including Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Greenaway Art Gallery, Form/Midland Atelier (WA), SASA Gallery, Spectrum Project Space, (WA), Pingyao International Photography Festival (China), and Mint: The Impossible Project (Hong Kong).