David Cross
Level Playing Field, 2013, performance, inflatable structure. All images by and courtesy the artist.
Level Playing Field is both an inflatable sport and temporary public artwork commissioned for Scape 7 Public Art, Christchurch, New Zealand in 2013. The work challenges teams of 6 players to compete against each other both on top of and inside of, a custom designed inflatable field. Players in the attacking team take turns running across the surface of the unstable inflated field and diving through a slot, rugby-style, to score a point. The defending team, meanwhile, is pulling on ropes underneath the playing surface to manipulate the field’s surface and, in effect, make it difficult for the opposition to dive and score a point. Importantly, the two teams cannot see each other, and are forced to rely on instinct and cunning in a game of physical and mental anticipation. The work references the unstable ground of Christchurch following the devastating earthquakes post-2010, and invites participants to attempt to negotiate and overcome adversity while displaying athletic prowess.
David Cross works across performance, installation, video and photography. His practice brings together performance art and object-based environments, focusing on relationships between pleasure, the grotesque and phobia. Cross’s works often involve inflatable objects and structures that draw audiences into unexpected situations and dialogues as he seeks to explore contemporary experiences and understandings of participation in art. Increasingly, he has begun to work in the public sphere creating works that navigate the relationship between sport, collective decision-making and sensory deprivation. Cross has exhibited extensively in New Zealand, Australia, Eastern Europe, Canada and the United Kingdom. He has performed at international live art festivals in Poland and Croatia, and was selected as a New Zealand representative at the Prague Quadrennial in 2011. In addition to developing his recent temporary public commission, Level Playing Field, Cross also writes on contemporary art, and his curatorial projects include the large art in public space projects ‘One Day Sculpture’ across New Zealand, 2008–09 (co-directed with Claire Doherty) and ‘Iteration: Again’ in Tasmania, 2011. He is Professor of Visual Arts at Deakin University. www.davidcrossartist.com