Dean CrossSometimes I Miss the Applause

Dean Cross was raised on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country and is an artist of Worimi descent, with a background in contemporary dance and choreography. His cross-disciplinary practice often confronts the legacies of modernism, rebalancing dominant cultural and social histories. With a particular focus on the life, work and persona of Sidney Nolan, for his Heide commission Cross has developed a dual channel moving image work that draws upon some of Nolan’s most recognisable imagery, including his stylised Ned Kelly helmet. 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, cultural collisions and slippages in time. With Sometimes I Miss the Applause, Cross explores Heide as simultaneously a site of Australian modernity and millennia of First Nations cultural practice.