Dorothy Cross: Croquet - An installation

Dorothy Cross’ former studio was housed in a disused power station in Dublin. For her exhibition ‘Power House’ at the ICA in Philadelphia in 1991 Cross created an installation which incorporated objects she had found there with fabricated elements. Combining domestic and industrial environments, Cross explored and questioned notions of gender and power dynamics.

For the last two years Cross has been developing a series of works featuring cow skins and cows’ udders. Interested by the udder as both an exaggerated symbol of female fecundity and phallic protrusion, she began to combine it in absurd and surreal assemblages which confounded ideas of the masculine and the feminine.

In an installation made specifically for Frith Street Gallery, Cross continues to explore the themes of gender and power. Her installation is based around the game of croquet. Cross has transformed the traditional accoutrements of the game – the croquet balls are cloaked in cows skins with a protruding teat. The five smaller balls can be ‘played’ through the hoops; a larger one cannot fit through but resides and supervises nonetheless.