Everything Under the Sun

Everything Under the Sun is a large-scale, participatory garden installation by artist Keg de Souza that considers the sun as a commons — something shared, yet experienced unequally. Through collective thinking towards climate justice, the work becomes a space to reflect on how we share, protect and value what sustains us.

At the heart of the work is a large human gnomon sundial, which invites you to stand and cast your shadow to become a timekeeper. This gesture — at once ancient and intimate — evokes the passage of time, connecting the past, present and future. Around the sundial’s centre sits a ring of sculptural forms, marking time as numbers on a clockface do — these double as playful stepping stones amongst the plants.

Radiating outward is an endemic learning garden, created in collaboration with Richard McDowell and Yabini Kickett. Featuring seasonally significant native plantings as timekeepers, the garden responds to the six Noongar seasons while also tracing the ecological impacts of colonialism. The reintroduction of local species tells stories of displacement and revival — revealing the enduring legacies of empire on the land.

De Souza, an artist of Goan ancestry living on Gadigal land, draws on her background in architecture, activism and radical pedagogy to explore place. Through a series of public programs, workshops and talks during the Biennale, Everything Under the Sun will become a living commons: a welcoming, discursive space for connection, repair and imagining shared futures. This is not just about telling time, but reimagining it — through the sun, through being present, together. A work shaped by knowledge-sharing, seasonal cycles, and care for land.

This is the beginning of the garden that will remain in place for a full year, cared for by the Biennale and the City of Fremantle.

Curator: Annika Kristensen
Garden Curators: Richard McDowell, Yabini Kickett