 |
| Dean Cross, Repose (reclining man with sandwich), 2015, image credit Kai Wasikowski |
Dean Cross is a descendant of the Worimi nation and currently based in Sydney studying a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts. Dean's visual arts practice builds on his extensive international career as a contemporary dance choreographer and performer. Now his work encompasses video, performance, painting, print-making, photography and sculpture in the expanded field. Dean’s work looks to investigate, comprehend and critique the world we live in, addressing socio-political and cultural norms while reinvigorating them with contemporary understanding. His work often draws on his Indigenous ancestry to interrogate our post–colonial epoch, with a burning desire to understand what it means to be a 21st Century Australian. Last year Dean was a finalist in the Konica Minolta Redlands Art Prize, and his work Right Lands was awarded the 2015 Macquarie Group Highly Commended Emerging Artist Prize judged by the eminent Australian artist Joan Ross. This year Dean has been selected as a finalist in The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize.
 |
| Dean Cross, The things I’ll never do, and Structures and Sadness, 2015
Gouache, felt tip pen and stickers on archival cotton paper, 51x35.5cm each
|
During my residency at Gunyah I intend to create a series of mono-prints and gouache paintings which investigate and embody tidal rhythms. I will use time and tide as meta-motifs for the continually changing cultural and socio-political environments both locally and globally. Also, I will begin preparatory and explorative research into new video work examining my ancestral roots within the Worimi Nation. This will include drawing on my background in contemporary dance to create video-portraits where the distinction between country and person is erased, as is common within Indigenous culture. This residency will provide a unique opportunity for me to create on country, and begin to undo the trauma of displacement and disconnect. I will be able to re-connect with my deepest roots and, through art, commune with ancestors long since past.
 |
| Dean Cross, 18 Stanger’s and a Long Lost Aunty, 2014, HD video still, 18:34, view the full video here |
See more of Dean's work on his website - deancross.com
