Who is Francis Carmody?
Francis Carmody is a sculptor from Sydney, Gadigal Country.
What would you do differently from what you do now?
Nothing.
Who inspires you and why?
I am drawn to people who build frameworks for thinking and making sense of the world. Often stay with them over long periods of time. Artists like Matthew Barney, Mutlu Çerkez, Pierre Huyghe, Camille Henrot, Allan Sekula, are important to me because their work functions as a sustained system rather than a series of isolated works. Each project feels like another point added to an existing structure.
Outside of art, Carl Sagan is a major reference. Great at collapsing deep time, cosmology and human behaviour into a single narrative. I am drawn to ancient history, archaeology and myth for similar reasons. Myths and early cosmologies were attempts to explain the world using the tools available at the time. They are speculative systems, not that different from science or contemporary art.
I’m inspired also by polymaths and hybrid thinkers who move between disciplines, who do not separate science, storytelling, material knowledge and belief. That way of thinking feeds directly into how I approach sculpture, as something that can hold multiple timelines, belief systems and forms of knowledge at once, without resolving them.
What would you do to make a difference in the world?
Practice.
Favourite holiday destination and why?
Don’t do holidays.
When friends come to town, what attraction would you take them to, and why?
Mario’s, because it’s the best.
What are you currently reading?
Trickster Makes This World by Lewis Hyde. I also just bought the Jef Geys: Catalogue Raisonnable – so I’m excited to spend some time with that. Carl Sagan’s Cosmos is always something I come back to also.
What are you currently listening to?
Often podcasts: Radiolab, The Rest Is Science, and a range of music, I guess. GUM, King Gizzard, Daft Punk, Lighthouse Family, LCD, French 79, Tim Hecker, and Oneohtrix Point Never.
Happiness is?
Execution.
What does the future hold for you?
Short term, larger projects, longer timelines and deeper collaborations. I want to keep interrogating the work materially. Long term? Hard to know…
Francis’ new public artwork, Compressions, can be seen at the Test Garden – Fed Square, Melbourne, until 31 March 2026. For more information, visit: www.fedsquare.com for details.
Image: Francis Carmody – photo by Tim Herbertson