Dean Cross: Sometimes I Miss the Applause

Presented in dialogue with Sidney Nolan: Search for Paradise is a newly commissioned installation by Dean Cross. Cross is an artist of Worimi descent, born and raised on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country with a background in contemporary dance and choreography and studies in visual arts at ANU School of Art and Design. Cross’ cross-disciplinary practice often confronts the legacies of modernism, rebalancing dominant cultural and social histories. For this Heide Museum commission, Cross developed a dual-channel moving image work that draws upon some of Nolan’s most recognisable imagery, including his stylised Ned Kelly helmet. Cross is dancing in the local hall of Gundaroo, NSW to the famous score of Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’ with the jarring choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky. In 1961, Sidney Nolan was commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden to design new sets and costumes for Kenneth MacMillian’s radical version of the modernist ballet. Nolan’s design referenced the imagery of central Australia and Aboriginal people. Wearing Nolan’s likenesses as a mask, Cross creates a complex narrative in which autobiographical moments from both his and Nolan’s life become inextricably intertwined, suggesting a series of convergences, and cultural collisions and slippages in time. Curated by Melissa Keys.