Shelley O’Meara is a multidisciplinary artist based in Melbourne working primarily with the manipulation of live action footage and 3D animation. Their work is concerned with issues of power, autonomy, queerness and the physical expression of such; regularly collaborating with dancers to turn conceptually fueled movement into new abstract forms. Since completing their Bachelors of Animation at the VCA in 2016, Shelley has been experimenting in live interactive projection integrated with improvisational dance and composition with collective Root Synthesis. Their work has been screened both locally and internationally, as well as performing with Root Synthesis in local Melbourne shows.

‘POWER THEORY’ is the first in a series of explorations of power and its relationship to individuals physicality. Collaborating with dancers Chelsea Byrne and Aziz Abu-Bakr, the work takes their physical expression and manipulates, dimorphs and reconstructs it into nearly unrecognisable forms. By asking the dancers to express their physical understanding of power in relation to the camera (the viewer) and then all but removing the figure entirely in favour of their movement the viewer is prompted to consider a more abstract theory of what power is, how it moves, how it dances.

Inspired by Indigenous Survival Day marches, Pride festivals and the Georgian Rave Revolution; the work seeks to honour instances of civil disobedience which cumulate in the peaceful mass expression of pride, power and indomitable spirit in the face of an oppressive force.

Credits: Dancers Chelsea Byrne and Aziz Abu-Bakr