Thirty Two Heavy

Sydney College of the Arts PhD candidate, Melissa Laing’s exhibition, Thirty Two Heavy, celebrates and critiques a form of movement, international air travel, that has become embedded in our social and political world.

The artworks in Thirty Two Heavy explore interactions between the nation-state, corporate and cultural constructions of the Transit Zone and the individual experiences, desires and obsessions occurring in response to the Transit Zone. The sites and roles of the Transit Zone are recreated and transformed through the hands, body and voice of the artist.

Laing is an artist and theorist. She has exhibited widely in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic and Germany working in video, installation and sound. During her PhD she presented papers at the 2008 32nd Congress of the International Committee of the History of Art (CIHA) at the University of Melbourne, the 2006 AAANZ conference at Monash University, and at the 2006 Trans : A visual culture conference at the University of Wisconsin.

Thirty Two Heavy opens at Sydney College of the Arts on Thursday 15 May, 5.30 - 8pm, and continues to Sunday 18 May.