Book Description

Air Supplied examines the work of Australian-based artist David Cross. Known for his practice with inflatable structures, the work often draws audiences into unexpected situations and dialogues. Working across performance/participatory art and object-based environments, Cross, has developed a unique body of work that focuses on relationships between pleasure, the grotesque and phobia. His curious architectural structures often resembling children's fun houses draw participants into physically and psychologically complex scenarios. While often large in scale, these structures at the same time create a framework around which ideas of intimacy and haptic experience can be negotiated and challenged. Since 2011 Cross has begun to work increasingly in the public sphere developing works that navigate the relationship between sport, collective decision making and sensory deprivation. Capturing work since 2005 produced in Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, and Australasia, the text features a survey essay by New Zealand-based academic Dr Martin Patrick, an interview with the artist and eleven commissioned essays on each of the artworks.