Dean Cross, The Stain, 2022. Pure pigement on Hahnmule Torchon, Edition 1 o f 3 + AP, 169 x 84.5cm. Courtesy: the artist and Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra.

Dean Cross works primarily across installation, sculpture and painting. Interested in the collisions of materials, ideas and histories, Cross is motivated by an understanding that his practice sits within a continuum of the oldest living culture on Earth – and enacts First Nations sovereignty through expanded contemporary art methodologies. His cross-disciplinary practice often confronts the legacies of modernism, rebalancing dominant cultural and social histories.

As a species, Humans have achieved many things – both great and terrible. We live within our legacies and their echoes reverberate around us, guiding and shaping our decisions. Sad State presents a trio of works concerned with storms, stains and silence. The origins of the exhibition can be found in Stanner’s Boyer lecture of 1968, and the shameful truth that his words of over 50 years ago still ring true today.

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