Conflated #2: David Cross on inflatables, experiment and precarity

Art Guide Australia Podcast

“I think it is also about the fact that, in terms of power structures, artists want to—as much as they can—remove mechanisms that hinder their capacity for creative freedom,” says David Cross in the second episode of our latest podcast, Conflated.

Conflated looks at ideas of inflation and conflation, linking with a touring exhibition also titled, Conflated. Whether metaphorical or material, the show explores how ideas of inflation and deflation can be taken in creative, environmental, and political ways. And one of the 11 artists showing is David Cross.

New Zealand-born but living and working in Melbourne, Cross has a truly expansive practice—as well as being an artist he’s a curator, academic, art professor, writer and musician. For his art practice, he’s known for creating works that use inflatables in performative ways, looking at dualities such as protection and precarity, and the inter-relationships between people.

Cross talks about how he became interested in inflatables, what he’s showing for Conflated, and his aspiration to create works that are at once playful without being contrived. As an academic and professor in art schools, Cross also talks about art school models and the push and pull between experimentation and precarity, as well as the professionalism of the art world.

You can also listen back to the first episode of this series with artist Zoë Bastin on conflation, bodies and transformative politics.

With a current showing at ANU School of Art and Design Gallery, NETS Victoria are touring Conflated nationally throughout 2022 and 2023:

ANU School of Art and Design Gallery
(Canberra ACT)
29 September—4 November

Logan Art Gallery
(Logan QLD)
29 July 2023—3 September 2023

Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery
(Swan Hill VIC)
1 October 2023—3 December 2023

This series is kindly sponsored by NETS Victoria who are nationally touring Conflated, assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, engineering by Patrick Telfer, and music by Mino Peric.