Cork In 50 Artworks, No 38: Virgin Shroud, by Dorothy Cross, at Tate Gallery
Dorothy Cross and her dog Connie. Picture: Patrick Cross
Dorothy Cross’s Virgin Shroud is possibly one of the most disquieting artworks ever made. It embodies Sigmund Freud’s idea of the uncanny as ‘unheimlich’, whereby something can be both familiar and unsettling at once, and is a perfect example of what Marcel Duchamp defined as an ‘assisted readymade’, an artwork that combines two objects or articles, often to disturbing effect.
The sculpture comprises a six-and-one-half foot mannequin concealed by two layers of material, the first the train of a silk wedding-dress, the second a cow-hide whose erect teats form what appears to be a crown. On the artist’s instructions, it can only be shown facing away from the viewer, towards the wall.
