To try to encapsulate Amrita Hepi’s fast-evolving, still relatively young career – which has dance at its core – with a neat label feels reductive. She’s performed as a dancer around the world, created performance art, taught empowering and joyous Beyoncé-inspired dance classes at Goodgod nightclub (RIP), given an insightful TED Talk about the politics of dance, and created a series of dance films for ASOS. She's also staged a unique series of collaborative one-on-one dance classes at Arts Centre Melbourne.
But Hepi was still shocked when the hugely influential American conceptual artist Adrian Piper (one of Hepi's art world heroes) agreed to have her work shown alongside Hepi's in this exhibition at Cement Fondu. Both artists use dance to explore politics and identity, and they do so in a series of engrossing video installations.