The work of Shelley Lasica reveals a sustained exploration of dance, movement and the varying contexts in which they can occur. WHEN I AM NOT THERE has been produced to accompany a performance exhibition reflecting on forty years of Lasica’s choreographic practice. Held at Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (15–27 August 2022), WHEN I AM NOT THERE is the first Australian survey of its kind. Centring on a new ensemble work that Melbourne-based Lasica has developed with a team of ten other artists – Lydia Connolly-Hiatt, Luke Fryer, Timothy Harvey, Rebecca Jensen, Megan Payne, Lisa Radford, Lana Šprajcer, Oliver Savariego, François Tétaz and Colby Vexler – it also presents components from Lasica’s archive of earlier works, including costuming, objects, soundscapes and text.
Consolidating ideas and experiments that Lasica has been developing throughout her career, WHEN I AM NOT THERE contributes to discussions around choreography in the gallery space and activates the tension between what it means ‘to perform’ and ‘to exhibit’. Edited by the project’s curator, Hannah Mathews, in conversation with Lasica, this substantial monograph is the first to be published on an Australian choreographer. It provides a comprehensive account of Lasica’s performance and exhibition history and uncovers extensive documentation from the artist’s archive, alongside contributions by writers Erin Brannigan, Justin Clemens, Claudia La Rocco, Robyn McKenzie and Zoe Theodore.
600 pages, 17 x 24 cm, paperback, MUMA (Melbourne).