It’s exciting to see an artist grow to navigate an exhibition space in ever more complex ways. Still, Hassabi’s practice remains faithful to its dilatory study of the aesthetics of bodies under stress. The notion of “resistance” within political organizing is, arguably, as old as democracy itself – and with her dancers, and their elegant, elongated revolutions, Hassabi makes a show of resistance as an elemental, physical force. Sometimes impeding the flow of the museum audience, her work holds the eye and prevents one from looking too quickly, a welcome therapeutic pause in an era of manic scanning. In its movement from solo to quartet, Staging moves beyond the body and towards collectivity, gesturing to a politics of assembly.

Harry Burke, SPIKE ART QUARTERLY #53 Against Time, Portrait, Autumn 2017

STAGING (2017) is the second part of a performative diptych, along with STAGED? (2016). The two works contain similar elements – choreographic material, color palette, light and sound installations, vivid pink carpet – and exist as separate entities, each reflecting the distinct frameworks of their presentation. STAGED?, created for theater spaces, considers the hierarchies of the theatrical apparatus, while STAGING, presented in exhibition contexts, destabilizes similar codes and relationships within institutions. While STAGED? has a set duration, a beginning and an end, STAGING is created in the form of a loop, with its duration determined by the venues’ opening hours.

STAGING unfolds as a progression of encounters, installed in multiple sites throughout the building. Apprehended in parts, the accumulation of bodies, colors, sound, light, and architecture, are reminders of multiple fractures of an event that is continually in progress, always STAGING, and which only finds completion in its STAGED? theatrical form.

*** Responding to exhibition contexts, various iterations of STAGING include all or combinations of parts. STAGING – undressed, is an adaptation for public spaces, represented solely by its performers.

Performers (STAGING: quartet): Jessie Gold, Hristoula Harakas, Maria Hassabi, Oisín Monaghan.
Performers (STAGING: solo): Kennis Hawkins, Niall Jones, Mickey Mahar, Paige Martin, Omagbitse Omagbemi, Nancy Stamatopoulou
Outfits: Victoria Bartlett
Composer: Marina Rosenfeld
Sound Design: Stavros Gasparatos
Lighting Supervisor: Zack Tinkelman
Production: Kate Scherer
Management: Alexandra Rosenberg