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Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country, in particular the Gadigal people on whose land the Biennale of Sydney is located. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters, and culture and pay our respect to Elders, past and present.

First Nations people are respectfully advised that this site includes works, names and images of deceased people. This includes cultural practices and artistic intellectual property of a sensitive nature.

Front to back: Dorothy Cross, Red Road, 2021. Presentation at the 25th Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous support from Culture Ireland. Courtesy of the artist © Dorothy Cross, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin and Frith Street Gallery, London. Lamia Joreige, Uncertain Times – War diaries, 2026. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and Rubaiya Qatar, Qatar Museums. Research & Design Assistant: Mayssa El Kho. Courtesy of the artist © Lamia Joreige and archival documents, sources, and copyrights courtesy of American University of Beirut/Library Archives; Auckland War Memorial Museum; Australian War Memorial; Başkanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, Istanbul; Imperial War Museum, U.K.; Institute of Palestinian Studies; Library of Congress; State Library of New South Wales; Victorian Collections/Melbourne Legacy; Wikimedia Commons. Installation view, 25th Biennale of Sydney, Rememory, 2026, Chau Chak Wing Museum. Photograph: David James.

Front to back: Dorothy Cross, Red Road, 2021. Presentation at the 25th Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous support from Culture Ireland. Courtesy of the artist © Dorothy Cross, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin and Frith Street Gallery, London. Lamia Joreige, Uncertain Times – War diaries, 2026. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and Rubaiya Qatar, Qatar Museums. Research & Design Assistant: Mayssa El Kho. Courtesy of the artist © Lamia Joreige and archival documents, sources, and copyrights courtesy of American University of Beirut/Library Archives; Auckland War Memorial Museum; Australian War Memorial; Başkanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, Istanbul; Imperial War Museum, U.K.; Institute of Palestinian Studies; Library of Congress; State Library of New South Wales; Victorian Collections/Melbourne Legacy; Wikimedia Commons. Installation view, 25th Biennale of Sydney, Rememory, 2026, Chau Chak Wing Museum. Photograph: David James.

Dorothy Cross 

Born 1956, Ireland 

Lives and works in Connemara, Ireland 

Red Road 2021 

hand-carved Damascus Rose 

Presentation at the 25th Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous support from Culture Ireland 

Courtesy of the artist, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin and Frith Street Gallery, London 

Carved from Damascus Rose marble from Syria, the slabs in Dorothy Cross’s Red Road appear remarkably flesh-like. Evoking the biblical story of the Road to Damascus and the miraculous restoration St Paul’s sight, the work addresses violent upheaval in Syria, the horror of forced human evacuation and the consequent attempts by thousands to migrate across desert, mountains and oceans, to – supposed – safety. 

Much like the sculptures of ancient Greece and Rome, Red Road exists on a geological timescale, fossilising its stories and likely outlasting both the artist and its contemporary context. Red Road will remain, a monument to the chaos of our time.