Mandorla is the work of Marea Gazzard, the artist behind two other major public art commissions: Mingarri: The Little Olgas (1984-1988) for the Executive Court of Parliament House in Canberra and Bindu (2004) for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
The bronze sculpture was commissioned by the Adelaide Station and Environs Redevelopment (ASER) Property Trust in 1992 and installed in 1994. The two over-lapping bronze discs sit upon a granite rectangle.
In Gazzard’s words, the discs ‘represent infinity and the universe. No beginning and no end. The granite rectangle is a basic symbol of the sub-conscious.’
Mandorla sits in the thoroughfare between Adelaide Casino and the Intercontinental Hotel, where most people are passing by to get to the Railway Station, the Adelaide Festival Centre or Adelaide Oval. In order to avoid competing with the grand architecture of the Railway Station and the hotel, Gazzard made a conscious decision to keep the work to a ‘human scale’.
Gazzard studied ceramics at East Sydney Technical College and the London Central School of Arts and Crafts. She was recognised as one of the leading ceramicists in England in the 1950s but began to study sculpture upon her return to Australia in the 1960s. She began casting in bronze in 1969 and was invited to exhibit in the Mildura Sculpture Triennial the following year.
Her work drew inspiration from the Australian landscape, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, and archaeological sculpture (particularly Etruscan and Cycladic). As the first Chair of the Crafts Board of Australia Council and as President of the World Crafts Council between 1980 and 1984, Gazzard played a key role in revitalising crafts in Australia, where crafts had been isolated from the fine art context and received almost no public recognition.
